2012 Ultimate Adventure
OJ: The Ultimate Orange Jeep Part 3
New Jeep Chopfest
By Fred Williams, Photography by Fred Williams
Every year Editor-in-Chief Rick Péwé leads us on a weeklong on- and off-road adventure through the craziest trails he can find in a random portion of the U.S., and every year we build something new and outrageous to lead the group with. A year ago we built a very cool fullsize 4x4 pickup to lead the Ultimate Adventure (“Ultimate F-150,” July ’11–Jan. ’12). It worked great, but if there was one thing that we would have changed it would have been the size. It had a huge wheelbase, and though capable, it wasn’t the best vehicle for weaving through tight trail obstacles. This year we decided a small two-door Jeep Wrangler would be our lead machine wherever Péwé decides to take us, and we’d build it to be nimble to twist around obstacles.
You saw the two-door ’12 Wrangler Rubicon being built in Toledo in the Aug. ’12 issue (“OJ the Ultimate Orange Jeep,” part 1) and then fixed up in Sept. ’12 with a Zone 4-inch suspension and 35-inch Nittos. This worked great for trail wheeling in Moab (“Moab Mecca,” Aug. ’12). It has lockers, GenRight aluminum fenders, and a Warn winch in a Synergy front bumper and easily could have passed tech inspection for the UA. The problem is it would look like every other Jeep on the trail, and we wanted something that would be twice as capable as a standard Jeep JK and somehow stand out from the crowd—a tall order indeed.
Our next step was hauling OJ to the Hazzard Fabworx shop near Spokane. Proprietor Luke Shuman and Employee of the Month (every month) Rocky Dorame listened to our most harebrained idea ever for an Ultimate Adventure build and signed on wholeheartedly. These guys make a living building everything from street-driven diesel trucks to desert-bombing, rock-racing buggies. They aren’t afraid of a challenge and were more than willing to help chop our Jeep in half with just 3,000 miles on the odometer.
Our little OJ is getting stretched, a fair bit of body modification too (as you’ll see), and most importantly the ability to steer front and rear. Our goal is a Jeep that can weave through trees and boulders like a snake while still cruising down the road like a Jeep just off the showroom floor.
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 The orange cat out of the bag. Call it whatever you want—pushme-pullme, clown car, wrong w
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 The first step in building our new Off-Roadster was finding the rear section (what most wo
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 Adding rear steer for optimal maneuverability meant we would need a rear frame section nar
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 By pushing the seats back as far as possible and reclining them slightly we could mark a t
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 This was where Shuman started with the removal of unnecessary rear Jeep bodywork. With the
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 The rear portion of tub was lifted out of the way along with part of the rollcage. Then ca
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 Finally, after careful consideration of the fuel tank, suspension, and how to adapt the fr
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 The rear frame section required extensive clearing off of old brackets, mounts, and tabs,
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 Using a sleeve inside the framerail sections and cutting both ends square we were able to
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 The front body of the Jeep Wrangler uses a complex structure underneath that the hood, gri
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 Eventually we lined up the structure, fenders, and frame to get an idea of all the parts t
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 While preparing the rear body section the Hazzard crew finished welding the frame section
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 To protect the vital stuff we carry on the Ultimate Adventure, like photography gear, we o
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 Below the bulkhead a tubular crossmember was built to support the frame splice and offer a
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 Our next step is assembling a pair of Spidertrax Spider9 axles, something different from o
By Fred Williams
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