Took my Jeep for a test flight the other day...

[PowerTrike]

The landing kinda hurt. LOL so heres the story:

The roads were extremely icy on Sunday here in MN. I was running a little late for work but didn't realize how bad the roads were until I lost control at about 60mph trying to slow down going around a sharp turn on the highway. Tapped the brakes and turned the wheel but the ol' cherokee flew straight into a hard packed snowbank, went over the snowbank, got a good 5+" of airtime and flew a distance of about 20 feet or so. Landed hard on the front drivers side wheel going down into a very deep ditch and almost rolled it but it came back down on all 4s. Seatbelt kept me from hitting the steering wheel and I made it out fine. Damage was suprisingly less than I expected to see at first, probably due to a stiff 5" lift that I installed, and I was slowly able to limp home after switching out a wheel. I bent the crap out of my cragar rim, blew the tire off, bent the lower front shock mounts when it completly bottomed out on the Lower control arms, bent one axle control arm mount, broke an axle seal and lost most of the fluid (almost sure that I bent the housing) Damn. Just had to share my fun experience and vent a little! Feel free to share yours.

I was roughly quoted $200-500 to get the front axle replaced with another wimpy D30 and good parts swapped in from my old axle (brake, shafts, etc.)for labor (pretty much all I need to do I think) I think I found a complete axle for about $100 and will probaly buy it. Anybody know anything about doing an axle swap? (front Solid)

[03 ORANGE SHEE]

glad you didnt get hurt, and luckly the jeep didnt roll or hit a tree and total

[MTS]

damn that sucks, what year of cherokee? my dad had a '98 full load leather with the 360....damn that thing was fun to drive

[ScottZJ]

You need to build that correctly and it will go anywhere! LOL

[PowerTrike]

Mines a '87 that looks somewhat similar to ScottZJ's but evidently not built as good as his with the 4.0L, and no 360s were available in a standard XJ. Grands only.

Yeah yeah Scott. I've seen your heep. Quit braggin LOL
Just wait till i get Trussed Dana 60s front a rear, 5.13s and 44" TSLs, My xj will eat your xj for dinner....uh maybe in a couple years down the road :P

What axles are you running?

[ScottZJ]

I have the early Bronco axles under my XJ. I picked them since they were the same width. Alot of the TN trails are tight and hard to make it thru with wider axles. Up front I have D44 with a detriot locker and the rear is a 9" with a full spool. They all have 4.56 gears and running 35" MT's. I put 38's under it before but I like to flex so no need to go bigger than 35's. Yeah yours sounds like a monster if you build it like that, but the trails I go to its alittle impractical to have such huge tires. Keep us updated on your rig.........peace