| A Little Tweak Here and There |
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| Tuesday, 10 June 2008 16:08 |
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One of the most impressive Jeeps I've had the privilege to drive was Red October. Chris, who runs Surrey Off-Road, stripped out the YJ Wrangler's leaf springs and replaced the suspension with Warn's Black Diamond coil-over setup, giving the Jeep a huge amount of axle articulation, not to mention allowing space for the big 35-inch mud-terrains. To make it entirely unstoppable he also fitted ARB locking differentials front and rear, and fitted a snorkel. Note the massive but stylish winch bumper, an item of his own design. Chris let me co-drive on a Trophee Cevenol event in the Cevennes National Park area of southern France - considered by many the most all-round technically demanding non-competitive organised off-roading available in Europe - and the car simply trundled round as if on a Sunday afternoon drive. What struck me most about the car when Chris did let me take the wheel - only for a short while, because he was quite protective of "his baby" - was that there really as no need to worry about picking a line over any rough stuff - you just had to drive through it. The car did have one minor mishap. While testing the snorkel Chris ventured into deeper water in a fast-flowing river, whereupon the car floated away and eventually sank - hence its "Red October" monicker. We winched it out, dried it and drove on as if nothing had happened. What a car!
The British importers of Jeeps are the only official distributors I know of who take the time, trouble and expense to modify examples of their products to enhance their off-road ability, and then allow journalists to drive them on demanding off-road events. One such car is Ruby II, originally modified by Chris at Surrey Off-Road who gave the car a four-inch suspension lift and a two-inch body lift, installed ARB lockers and variable-rate air shocks, Warn winches front and rear - on winch bumpers of his own design - and of course a snorkel. I got the car all to myself to do a Trophee Cevenol event (more about this in the "events" section of this site) and found it a dream to drive, because it handled any situation in its stride. The only problem was the failure of a fuse at a critical moment - at the foot of a steep and horribly rutted climb, which the car would have managed on tickover with the diffs locked up - the compressor fuse blew leaving me with open axles. The only alternative was to boot it and let momentum do the business. I believe there's a bit of video somewhere showing how Ruby II lurched, bounced, rocked and swayed its way to the top. I'd sure like to see that, if it's still around, because that was one hell of a high-speed roller-coaster ride.
RubyII is going on 10 years old, and although it's still a superb off-roader maintained in top condition, the team at Jeep felt they needed a newer model to show off to Journalists - hence the creation of RubyIII. Because the car was going to be driven by inexperienced pilots the Jeep lads selected an automatic Wrangler and handed it over to Essex-based Steve at FTE to perform the required off-road modifications. He fitted a Rubicon Express lift, ARB lockers front and rear and installed 4:1 Tera-low gears in the transfer box to give the auto the engine braking and rock-crawling ability it needs (click the FTE link below for full details of the work on RubyIII). I got to drive RubyIII on this year's Croisiere Blanche (see the report in the NEWS section) and found it incredibly easy to handle both in the heavy snow on the higher reaches and on the mud-splattered rocky trails in the valleys. With so much torque available from the big six RubyIII made light work of the steepest, slipperiest climbs in high range, and needed only to be flicked into low for controlled descents.
Steve has his own modified funster (full details on the FTE site, accessible via the link below), a bright yellow TJ also running Rubicon Express suspension components with a 3.5-inch lift, and not only does the transfer case have the Tera-low 4:1 gearing, but a natty Teraflex tweak that allows him to run low range in two-wheel drive. Naturally the diffs are ARB lockers and the winch is a hefty Warn. Since steve had prepared the press Wranglers - RubyII and RubyIII - it was natural for him to join us on last year's Croisiere as a back-up man in case anything went wrong. Nothing did go wrong, so he was able to enjoy the performance of his own project car, the competence of which surprised even Steve himself when it came to tackling some of the tougher stages.
Mark Gasser is passionate about upgrading Jeeps, as I saw when I visited his Portsmouth workshop and spied a couple of examples of his work. The blue Wrangler belonged to Andy, who wanted the power to do some serious off-roading. Mark has Jeep grease running through his veins as well as under his fingernails. He understands the brand and he understands what the cars can take in the way of modification. Mark's answer for Andy was a blower - a supercharger developed specifically for Jeeps by Avenger of Colorado Springs in the USA. Boosting at over 5psi the supercharger blasts 350 horsepower out of the four-litre straight six. The supercharger boosts from tickover, delivering so much torque that nothing stands in the Wrangler's way. With all that power on tap the handling had to be sorted, since Mark also fitted a Rubicon Express four-inch lift kit so the car could run 35-inch tyres, chunky-treaded Procomp Xterrains on American Eagle alloys. The axles were upgraded with a high-strength ARB kit complete with locking differentials, free-wheeling hubs up front and the Warn fully-floating axle conversion at the rear. Skyjacker Nitro 9000S shocks ensure that the car rides well at speed while still allowing so much articulation that Andy hardly ever needs to lock the differentials. Off-roading kit includes a Warn HS9500 high-speed winch. Less extreme is the mod to Lance's black Wrangler. It was the big wheels that caught Lance's attention when he saw other seriously prepared Jeeps, so Mark installed the Rubicon Express long-arm conversion giving a four-inch lift, with Edelbrock shocks featuring the unique inertia-active valving which works to firm up the ride on smooth roads, reducing body roll in fast tarmac driving, yet softening the ride on rough roads, allowing good axle articulation in off-road conditions. The car runs 35-inch Procomp Xterrain tyres on 15-inch beadlocked rims, with extra articulation available thanks to a demountable sway bar. With extreme off-roading in mind Mark also fitted the Advance Adapters gear-driven transfer case with associated double-jointed prop shafts designed to work at extreme angles, the whole backed by ARB lockers front and rear.
At the other extreme is the relatively mild modification performed by Devon 4x4 on one of my favourite Wranglers, fondly called XUH on account of its registration plate, which I knocked off several times in the course of my off-roading adventures - the plate is now being proudly worn by the silver streak RubyIII. The original XUH was owned by Chrysler UK but lent to 4x4 Magazine on long-term appraisal, who organised the enhancements. These consisted simply of a two-inch body lift to overcome the standard Wrangler's ground clearance problem and allowing room for 33-inch BF Goodrich Mud Terrains, plus a ARB diff locks. That was enough for XUH to cope with just about everything our extreme off-roading outings could throw at it, partly because the Jeep Wrangler is basically a pretty good off-roader in its unmodified form. The relative simplicity of the modifications meant less to go wrong and XUH never let me down. Oh - there was the one instance when, momentarily losing sight of the massive torque available in low range, I dabbed the accelerator a bit too hard and "flew" XUH over a boulder, bellying down on it with all four wheels spinning uselessly above the ground. Fortunately the car's kit included a demountable winch...
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| Last Updated on Monday, 16 June 2008 08:22 |
