South Africa Tour
The writers of this article are most grateful to the many kind people, who have helped Ronny in the compilation and information given from the Rock Crawler Jeep web site in America and to all his friends, of all the modifications that were carried out on this vehicle.
The Jeep finally arrived in Queenstown at Ronnies Motors, this happened in the year 2000. A friend of mine, Simon Morris who also has his own Datsun Tracker 4x4 1800cc welcomed the opportunity to be able to help me with the many modifications that I would be doing to my dream Jeep. We first removed the front and rear plastic looking bumpers, in their place we fitted a set of rock bumpers and a front bull bar, side rock bumpers were also fitted. We then fitted special rated tow hooks to the front and rear of the vehicle. The Jeep looked great with those rock bumpers, but I had been looking at some of those American Magazines JP and Jeep and thus ordered a few other items from Currie Enterprises in America.
The 1" body lift kit arrived and was fitted, which also included heavy duty engine mounts, so that the fan blades would not foul with the radiator cowling. The next modification was a 1& 3/4" coil spacer lift kit. Currie in America sells many different types of spares, modification kits for different Jeep vehicles. Off came the Goodyear Wranglers tires which were 225/75x 15", we fitted some 265 / 75 R15 second hand tires which were still in excellent condition, which also gave us a little extra ground clearance. Special under belly plates were fitted to help give more protection against protruding obstacles that you do not see when driving through long grass sometimes or at night time.
We thought that the Jeep was now ready for the ultimate 4x4 trail, thus we visited a trail near Sterkstroom called Bamboeshoek, which is owned by Chris Bartlett with some fellow Club members, this trail was rated as one of the top ten roughest 4x4 trails in South Africa, however the TJ was proven wrong, on one of the difficult cross axle sections, which consisted of a small incline, which veered to the right as you drove over the lip, the rear output shaft on the NP 321 transfer case snapped, causing the Jeep to be stranded. It would not move forward or even backward, even after removing the rear drive shaft, she was a sitting duck we left the Jeep up on the mountain side that night and returned the next morning to tow the Jeep off the mountain using Simon�s trusty old 1983 Datsun Tracker 4x4, as the tow vehicle. (This would have made a great advert for Nissan South Africa). To tow this broken Jeep was rather tricky due to the steep declines, narrow trail tracks and using only a tow strap, but with the use of a set of those Companion type Radios we managed to communicate to each other to get us safely down off the mountain, one guy in a Mazda double cab 2.5 tdi 4x4 Rob Walton, asked us the dumb question,( how, are you going to get your Jeep off the mountain?) we told him that we were waiting for a helicopter, he then just drove past us and then carried on his way, with out offering us any help. With this problem with the Jeep, we found it rather distressing when the other club members were not willing to help us. They were only interested in getting down off the mountain for the braai and booze up.
However after phoning The Dealer Services, for Daimler Chrysler. The Jeep Agents in East London, Ronnies Motors sent up a flatbed truck on the Sunday to load the Jeep, to take it back to East London to carry out the repairs. New automatic gearbox and transfer case were fitted at no cost to us. Their willingness to sort out the problems were excellent and their service great. Thanks a lot Ronnies Motors.
After much research and sleepless nights, it was decided that if Ronny wanted to use his Jeep Wrangler TJ off-road, as it was built for, like The American do on The famous Rubicon Trail then more modifications would have to be carried out. Thus during this past December 2002, we fitted a Rancho Rock crawler 2. .5" chassis lift kit, now remember this Jeep is a right hand drive model and that the kits that a person orders from www4wd.com or other dealers in America are for left hand drive models, they do not make these kits for our right hand drive model Jeeps thus certain items had to be modified. Later we were able to source parts from Australia and England.
The modifications that a person has to do are;
Change the pitman arm with an extended one that comes with the kit. Make sure that you have the correct type of puller to be able to remove it. Other wise you will have to cut the old pitman arm off, like we had to do, which was not a problem as we had decided to use the existing pitman arm for a modification. ( We now have a puller )
Then we changed the front and rear coil springs, make sure you have a set of coil clamps and be careful, just makes it easier to remove and replace the coil springs. We were lucky enough to use the two post vehicle lift, which made things so much easier. We also added an extra set of front coil spring pads to compensate for the extra weight of the Milemarker winch and bigger tires.
Then you have to remove and fit new flex brake lines that are also in the kit. Use a small container or tray to catch the brake fluid that will run out when you change these pipes, if you get brake fluid on your vehicles paintwork, use water to wash it off straight away.
The Rancho RS 9000 shocks do not come with this kit, you have to order them separate, we fitted this type of shock due to the fact you can change their settings by turning a switch on each shock while on the trail. On the front we fitted two disconnects made by JKS, which can be disconnected in a few seconds while on the trail, this allows your vehicle to have more articulation down and upward travel, they are very easy to reconnect, but remember you must also drill a small hole, the instruction booklet shows you where, under the wheel arch on the left and right side of the Jeep, to be able to attach the loose rod to the underneath of the wheel arch so that it does not dangle loose, but please wear a pair of gloves when you do this, or end up with bloody knuckles.
Now the front track bar that they supply for the front will not work, it is for the left hand model, we later sourced one from Australia, what we did was make a (dropped bracket) on the right hand side of the existing standard track bar, where it connects onto the chassis, giving it a 2 .5" drop, we used a piece of 50x50- 5mm thick angle iron, welded a piece of 10mm thick flat bar on the one end. Then drilled a 12 mm off set hole through the flat plate. Now remember with this bracket being so short, you must first fit a HT bolt through the hole then you can weld the other end, we welded the one end of the steering pitman arm that we had cut off originally to the other end of the angle iron, the reason being the hole for the steering rod is tapered and it is the same size as the drag link ball joint. Once you have finished welding the pitman arm section to the angle iron, you can then cut off the extra part that you will not need, this worked out beautifully add a bit of black paint this did not take much time to do. Some of you might say that steering parts should not be welded, well you are correct, but due to the problem that we have, we only did this to see if it would work. But it did not.
Then came the problem with the rear drag link, the bracket that was supplied also did not fit, thus with a little cutting with the plasma cutter, we again used a piece of 50x50 -5mm angle iron and two 10mm flat bars which we welded on to each end, remembering this bracket also had to give the chassis a 2.5" drop, we then bolted it in place, again using HT 12mm bolts, spring washes and lock nuts, this modification was also a great success. See photos of the front and rear drag link modifications.
We then fitted the new Mickey Thompson 31" 11-50x15" Baja Claw tires and new Classic 2 alloy rims, the black plastic front and rear wheel arch fender flares were removed and new extended 7" new fender flares fitted.
