Mall Crawling Racer...... #4410

[95yjjeep]

Why are you re-doing all the front suspension? Looks like it was just done recently?! Just curious. Carry on.

 

[Mulishajoe]

Oh but its never done perfection is always the goal and good enough will never do for this caliber rig gotta impress even the most high...THE MALL PEOPLE... Love this thread and all the ideas I wish I could afford to do to my lil tj. Keep it real Jay.

 

[Will Carter]

Sometimes you make me wonder, Jay...

 

[REDLYNER]

Oh but its never done.....

Pretty much this. My competition is running full blown 4400 cars with 37"s and hydro-assist, so anytime we find an area on mine that can be tweaked for juuuuust a little more travel, clearance, etc, I'm going to try and do it.

Sometimes you make me wonder, Jay...

Just sometimes?

 

[95yjjeep]

Pretty much this. My competition is running full blown 4400 cars with 37"s and hydro-assist, so anytime we find an area on mine that can be tweaked for juuuuust a little more travel, clearance, etc, I'm going to try and do it.

Just sometimes?

Good answer. So are you 4-linking the front this go around?

 

[REDLYNER]

Alright, I feel slightly obligated to post this up after a failed brah handshake incident last weekend. I was leaning up against my rig in front of The Cheesecake Factory trying to out mall crawl this JK on 22"s parked like 3 spots down, when suddenly a dude came strutting up and gave me one of those half hand shake/pull in/chest bump/back pat type things.....

And I was like "YO. "

And he was like "sup?"

And I was totally "not mall etiquette brah. Fist pump hombre, don't wrinkle the polo."

So we got it straightened out, but for future encounters I thought I would post this up:

So Mike (MO2500) has been shifting the axle around at full bump to squeeze out maximum clearance. My wife reported some metal clanging when she was curb hopping down town- so that in addition to the banging I felt coming off of a few jumps last race led to some repositioning.
Shout out to Ruff Stuff Specialties, I ordered on Thursday and the parts were here (cross country) on Monday. Always top level service from those guys.

The axle is going another inch or so forward, so the track bar mount had to come off-

Here is the new 3 link mount tacked up-

Steering clearing everything nice-

Track bar frame side re-mounted- everything drops properly-

Passenger side frame is going to need a notch for the new up-

Next up is addressing the air bump pads. With the added travel, Mike cut down pads about an 1.5" and repositioned them to go with the axle being moved forward:

A small notch had to be cut into the brace for a little more clearance. Again, number one priority with this latest evolution is absolute maximum clearance with out tubing out the car-

 

[Judge]

Any special consideration for the Day-After-XMAS sales?
I think people underestimate the difficulty and attrition rate of this event and focus too much on the higher profile ones.
Maybe a co-driver and stiffer sway bars for basket dodging?

 

[REDLYNER]

This down time is killing me. I swear if I spend one more minute in the tanning salon I'm going to hit my pre-summer peak bronze like 2 months too early. It's kill'in me brah! Since I am without the rig- it's been kind of a pain telling people how important I am without a visual. I've tried as much as wearing my race suit to the local Sonic, but without a fo- race car and having my wife dropping me off, it just doesn't have the same impact.




In the mean time, Mike keeps operating on the 4550-

Frame notched with some new steel going back in:

3-link being burned in:

Coilover mount getting beefed up for maximum speed bump landings:

Swaybar mount re-positioned for better angle:

Mocked up for final clearance test. Improved angles on the coilovers, extra clearance for the springs, and with the front stretched forward a litte, no more tire rubbing on the inner fenders:

Axle removed for final paint:

Front all buttoned up. 6" of up travel and 6" of down travel achieved:

 

[Kamel]

Lookin' good Brah!

 

[dkrajcovic]

nice !!!!!

 

[ABadJeeper]

Looking good. Is there not enough room up front to have a separate coil over mount. Having them tied into the lower control arm mount creates a lot of forces working in different directions on one bracket. I wouldn't even mention it if I didn't know you were going to be jumping some big speed bumps at hyper speed.

 

[REDLYNER]

Good question. It came down to room and if I wanted to incorporate the inner C's. The mount we went with is similar to some of the Jeepspeed setups I've seen, so hopefully it will hold up.

 

[ABadJeeper]

It probably will. I would just keep an eye on it over time.

 

[REDLYNER]

I saw a few old school shots of the rig that got me motivated to put a little evolution timeline together-

Racing the TJ through the last 3 years:

2011 ECORS Auburn:

2011 Rally Cross Raleigh:

2012 ECORS The Flats:

2012 UORTC Enduro:

2013 King of the Hammers EMC:

2013 Dirt Riot Durhamtown:

I'm just not sure how you can have more fun in a daily driven mall crawling jeep.

 

[ABadJeeper]

I saw a few old school shots of the rig that got me motivated to put a little evolution timeline together-

Racing the TJ through the last 3 years:

I'm just not sure how you can have more fun in a daily driven mall crawling jeep.

I'm with you. I can't wait until we have our shop TJ done. It's going to be a lot of fun.

 

[REDLYNER]

With several new top shelf 4500 cars coming out, the bar for trying to look legit is being set like sky high. Stickers and some blue coilovers may have worked last year, but if I am going to continue to play the part of pretend race car driver, I'm going to have to turn up the poser volume. But that's where I'm stuck- I'm all like "what do I have to do to have a next level totally amaze-balls rig?" But I was wicked brain freezing on my BCAA NO2 protein berry smoothie and couldn't think clearly, so I went out in search for some motivation and ideas. I took off on my multi-brah-transporter for a little cruise-

With no new ideas after my ride, I figured I would take my pups Redbull and Monster out on a jog for some mental motivation-

Still drawing a blank, I stopped by my neighbor's on the way home to check out his new Ferrari.

We exchanged compliments on each others gold chains, and as I headed back to the crib the idea came to me!!! It was so simple, how could I have missed ity?! I mean bad ass stretched scooter, stretched out weiner dogs, stupid stretched Ferrari........ I needed to be stretched too!






So Mike (MO2500) fired up the cutting wheel and went to work on the back of the jeep. First up was cutting off the old the current mounts-

Reached out to one of the best support companies in Ultra4 to get some new brackets-

Getting tacked up much higher than before. This should help with clearance and the AS numbers too-

Moving the axle back 5 to 6 inches from the previous stretch-

At full bump, just clears the frame-

Even closer on the uppers, but still clears the tub. It hit here before, so this should big a big clearance improvement-

 

[dkrajcovic]

nice !!!!!!!!!!!

 

[REDLYNER]

While doing a little market research- you know, Google imaging key terms about myself, I discovered some results that may be as entertaining to the board as they were to me.

For instance,
#1: I absolutely own "mall crawling race jeep". 32 of the first 35 picture results are of my build. That is a level of stardom in the poser world that is nearly unheard of. The odds of that are nearly as small as actually getting to ride back in Robby Gordon's helicopter instead of being left stranded alone in the desert with a blown motor......

#2: Any search with "mall crawler", "mall crawling", or "jeep" and "mall"- there I am. But, in good company squished mostly between pictures of:

This one really caught my eye though- When I searched "pretend race jeep", all kinds of stupid crap showed up. However, scroll down far enough and there was the white 4550 freshly waxed! Followed by about two dozen shots of this:

So at the end of the day, I would say from a coolness perspective, I'm where I targeted to be: right in between a Barbie jeep and a bad ass JK.


Getting the rear end buttoned up-
New B to C bars added for internal coilover mount:

Mount and brace:

Airbumps and C pillar cage to frames re-done:

Rear coilovers mounted, rear sway bar mounted (late night cell phone pic):

Now comes the cycle of clearance checks at full bump:

All clear and for the first time in 10 years of owning this rig- no rubbing, bumping, or grinding. 7" of up travel should make that curb jump from Tommy Hilfiger to Baby Gap like butter.

 

[JK_Byron]

Looks good. What will be the new wheel base?

 

[REDLYNER]

Looks good. What will be the new wheel base?

So next up is a new rear driveshaft, but I went ahead and rolled out the rig, threw it in 4WD (front wheel drive), and took off for some last minute Christmas shopping at the mall (seriously). The new wheelbase came out to 105" and it is certainly a noticable difference. This thing is going to fly through the parking decks.

 

[REDLYNER]

ATTENTION CITIZENS OF HAMMERTOWN................





GET READY TO BE MALL CRAWLED






REDLYNER Racing and the 4550 car is back to prove that hair products, cherry scented car wax, and an amazing sense of fashion is really what it takes to be competitive in Ultra4 racing. Registered and ready to pose-

 

[ABadJeeper]

ATTENTION CITIZENS OF HAMMERTOWN................





GET READY TO BE MALL CRAWLED






REDLYNER Racing and the 4550 car is back to prove that hair products, cherry scented car wax, and an amazing sense of fashion is really what it takes to be competitive in Ultra4 racing. Registered and ready to pose-

Sweet!!!! Man I hope I can make it out this year. We'll see it's going to be a last minute decision.

 

[REDLYNER]

Sweet!!!! Man I hope I can make it out this year. We'll see it's going to be a last minute decision.

That's basically the story of this whole race for me. I am flying from KOH straight to Orlando for a week long event (the bosses are mildly stressed).

 

[ABadJeeper]

So I'm guessing you aren't towing out.

 

[REDLYNER]

So I'm guessing you aren't towing out.

Nope, the jeep is riding out with Chris May's 4400 team. Everyone is scheduled to arrive on the Saturday before the race.