If you've been reading 4-Wheel & Off-Road for even a little while, you've probably become familiar with our Ultimate Adventure and the vehicles that we build for the trip each summer. This year,tech editor Fred Williams worked feverishly to finish our four-door JK Wrangler just in time for the trip, but it would only carry our illustrious leader Rick Pw and Fred on our adventure. And though the Wrangler is the highlight of our coverage, it takes quite a crew to make this trip happen. Cameramen (or women), our publisher, and the rest of the staff have to be jumping around on the rocks behind the U.A. group to make sure the filming runs as smoothly as possible. With the help of Jeep, we had decided on building two Commanders, which probably has a few of you scratching your heads right now. Why the heck build Commanders? Well, though they are IFS, they are excellent off-road vehicles right out of the box and share the same platform, drivetrain, and suspension that comes under the 2005 4x4 of the Year winner Grand Cherokee. Plus they are the biggest 4x4s with the most cargo capacity in Jeep's lineup. As long as we could wrangle up some parts to build them with, we knew that we'd have no problem making some very capable support vehicles.
We didn't want both Commanders turning out exactly the same, and we really only needed one (Biggie) to be extreme enough for recovery and extraction purposes. The other Commander (Shortie) would only need to get itself around intermediate trails and carry crew members and equipment. Therefore we had two very different, but similar, builds in mind.
With the help of Jeeps R Us in Laguna Beach, California, we'd start with the suspensions, get on the tires, and work from there. This month, we'll be covering the suspension options you have with a Commander (or Grand Cherokee) and see how our tires fit. Next month we'll be adding all the little doodads we can find like rock rails, GPS, racks, and the like.
"Biggie," as we've affectionately named one Commander (Commander No. 1 and Commander No. 2 just sound so boring), was getting a Superlift height augmentation. With the 4-inch Commander/Grand Cherokee suspension lift, we hoped to fit on a set of brand-new 33-inch BFGoodrich Mud-Terrain KM2s under our ride without too much trimming. We had to be careful with tire size because of the high-pressure climate control lines that run down the upper part of the passenger-side front fenderwell. If our tires hit that, it'd make air conditioning a thing of the past for Biggie, something we wanted to avoid considering the 110+ degree heat in our destination state of Texas.
 Biggie went under the knife...  Biggie went under the knife first, as Jeeps R Us ripped the factory suspension off in order to hang our new Superlift kit under the truck. IFS kits always seem daunting when in pieces laid out on a table, but this one seemed worse than most. Luckily, most people who have the money to buy a new IFS vehicle will likely hire a shop to put the kit on. |  After the differential is...  After the differential is dropped, the front driveshaft needs to be removed as well. Notch a big section of the crossmember to make room for the driveshaft to fit once the differential is dropped. Superlift included a weld-in reinforcement in their kit, but even after Larry Garcia welded it in, we still had to grind a portion of it away to get the driveshaft from rubbing after the kit was finished and we went for a testdrive. You'll also have to remove a heat shield for clearance on the exhaust tube that runs right behind this crossmember. |  A bracket is supplied by Superlift...  A bracket is supplied by Superlift to allow you to move the front support ear a few inches higher on the differential cover in order to bolt to the subframe of the Jeep. The rest of the mounting points of the differential will attach to the Superlift kit. |
 Before adding the drop cradle...  Before adding the drop cradle for the lower A-arms, the lips on the factory subframe around the A-arm pivot points will need to be cut off. This will allow the cradle to be slid up into the subframe to hang the lower A-arms from. |  After the cutting was done,...  After the cutting was done, Garcia placed the cradle and tightened the bolts. The lower A-arms will attach to the cradle, while an included skidplate will box in the front arm set and protect the differential. |  To mount the rear portion...  To mount the rear portion of the lower A-arms, the bushing's bracket is simply flipped from sitting on top of the subframe crossmember to beneath it. The A-arm's bushing is very tight, so Garcia used a vise to lock onto the bushing's housing and turned the A-arm 180 degrees. |