Cherokee Upgrades

[91AzXJ]

I had a older Escort cut me off and hit the brakes. I moved as far left as possible and nailed her left rear with my right front doing about 15 mph. The stock gum wrapper bumper crumbled beyond repair and the fender buckled a bit above the wheel opening. Her car was pretty much folded up. I built a front bumper out of 3/16" 2x6" rectangular tube and a rear using 1/8" 2x6" rectangular tube. I made them with built in recovery points and with the intention of surviving a front or rear impact. If it saves my life and the life of my passengers, I am willing to sacrafice the XJ. The only way that will occur is if I hit or am hit at a higher speed. The same 15 mph impact will leave little to no damage to my bumpers or unibody.

 

[96XJ11C]

I have the JCR basic bumper with hoop and tie in brackets. Last Thursday i rear ended a mitsubishi lancer at about 10-12 mph. The roads were wet and it so turns out that lancers stop way faster than cherokees! His trunk was pushed in about 8", his plastic bumper destroyed and both tail lights busted. The JCR bumper suffered no damage, and my hella 500s and grille were kept safe by the hoop. The bumper just came out of adjustment a little. When i got home i just loosened the mounting bolts and tightened it back down. 3/16" bumper is the way to go.

 

[shogun]

And, as usual, the very first item on my list doesnt even show up; Brakes.

The OEM brakes are junk, junk. junk, even with OEM wheels/ride height/weight. And if you think adding more boost will fix the junk, well, I wont go into my rant.

Vanco PBS.

No jeep factory junk, no salvage yard conversions.

 

[96XJ11C]

Big brakes would be nice but they are irrelevant if your tires cant hold the road. I have a disk 8.8 in the rear, one of the best things i have ever done. I like the big brake idea but its pretty expensive. Best most can do is get rear disks while doing a axle swap.

 

[88Xj]

1988 xj 4 door. 8.8 swap w/ disks and a wj conversion for brakes & true crossover & a 96+ brake booster swap. Yet to drive it but im sure itll stop on a dim & ill love it. o figured with all the extra weight in bumpers, tires & wheels, axles, gear ect ect it was woh while to do the mod.
I'm normally stabbing pedal to stop, the brake booster helped quite a bit & was the first brake mod. then came new calipers & brakes all around, including dba rotors & black magic pads. I still felt they lacked, wouldn't lock up 33s and just felt unsafe for emergency stopping. Hoping the new 8.8 w/ disks & wj swap make it a different rig to drive

 

[shogun]

1988 xj 4 door. 8.8 swap w/ disks and a wj conversion for brakes & true crossover & a 96+ brake booster swap. Yet to drive it but im sure itll stop on a dim & ill love it. o figured with all the extra weight in bumpers, tires & wheels, axles, gear ect ect it was woh while to do the mod.
I'm normally stabbing pedal to stop, the brake booster helped quite a bit & was the first brake mod. then came new calipers & brakes all around, including dba rotors & black magic pads. I still felt they lacked, wouldn't lock up 33s and just felt unsafe for emergency stopping. Hoping the new 8.8 w/ disks & wj swap make it a different rig to drive

I did the fronts before doing the 8.8/disc rear. Maybe if the rear was done first I might have noticed an improvement (because the oem fronts are such junk). But after the vanco fronts the 8.8 rear was a non-event. No noticeable difference, at all, period.

 

[yossarian19]

I don't understand the derision for the WJ swap, Shogun, but to each their own. To me it seems like the best Dana 30 setup running. Vanco's 16 or 17" wheel kits may stop better but you don't get the steering advantages. Neither are cheap - but at least part of the WJ swap is fresh unit bearings and ball joints. Anyway, I agree with any and all who say the XJ needs a lot more brake if you want to go above a 30" tire. On 31x10.50x15 LTs, my brakes made me nervous whenever I got cut off - I felt I needed all the room I could get. Not scary-bad, until somebody else hit the brakes hard in front of me.

 

[VanIsle_Greg]

Agreed on the brake upgrades... with 31" tires on mine I have plowed through a set of pads in record time! You also might want to consider a smaller long arm lift too? Not sure if the budget is there or not, I wish I had gone that route last time.

Sounds like an interesting build, will follow along.