JK Stage II Payoff - Mud Racing: Young Guns vs. Old Timers

Today from stock to mild to wild. Our Jeep JK makes its final transformation into a Rubicon on steroids,

plus milk and vegetables

or donuts and beer. It's the difference between old school and new school mud racing.

Jeeps, Jeeps, Jeeps, you know, it doesn't matter where we go in this great off road world we live in. There's one constant and it's gonna be Jeeps, whether it's a classic CJ, like our cheap Jeep basically semi restored, its original style, but set up for some great trail duty or maybe it's a full on tube chassis built for fun or competition, but has the styling of a Jeep because they're designed around the hood and the grill shell or maybe it's 100% aftermarket. Jeep all out of a catalog with those classic lines, but the modern day technology underneath, there's not an original Jeep part in our AJ and yet at its heart, it's still a Jeep.

And just when you think you're gonna get away from all these Jeeps head out into the desert and watch some great off road racing, you're gonna find a bunch of these Cherokee xjs competing in the Great American Jeep. Speed challenge. Now, why are Jeeps everywhere? Well, for good reason, they work really well off road. They've always been offered with

fairly stout running gear for some mild fun out in the woods. Now, when Jeep decided to redesign the classic Wrangler and come out with the JK, they kind of had a tall order in hand, but they pulled it off supplying this vehicle to the consumer with basically some mild duty trail stuff right out of the box.

Now, we got our JK from the guys at Quad

Tech brand new OSE

four door model with less than 1000 miles. And that didn't stop us from tearing into this truck for some slight modifications.

We started pretty mild with a 2.5 inch lift, 33 inch DX CPAC

tires and a bunch of goodies, some purely for looks,

others to improve this Jeep's off road ability.

Then we hit the trail and the truck did pretty good.

But we knew somewhere under this Jeep Skin was a hardcore trail truck just dying to get out.

So we brought the truck back into the shop. We swapped out our 2.5 inch lift for a six inch and we treated our 30 threes for some 30 sevens. And today we're here to finish this truck up and get it back out onto that trail all in an effort to make this badge mean something.

Obviously, the first thing we're going to take care of today is gonna be our front axle. Now, if you remember our Jeep showed up here with a data 30 under the front end, ok, for stock and probably could have handled those 33 inch tires we had on here previously without any major issues. But now that we've got 30 sevens, we have to upgrade this. The problem we came up against is that Jeep now uses speed sensors at all four wheels, not just for a BS and vehicle speed sensing, but also for something called electronic stability control. Now, if you don't have those hooked up, the Jeep goes into fail safe mode and you can't drive it the problem there. No one has a crate axle that reuses these outer knuckles and speed sensors. The guys at Quadra

tech helped us out, they got a brand new Rubicon 44 housing out of a brand new Jeep.

It'll be able to handle our 37 inch tires thanks to the 30 spine axle shafts and we'll be able to reuse the stock knuckles and speed sensors so we can have our electronic stability control. But more importantly, it's shipped here from the factory electric locker already installed.

Now with our front axle installed with a locker, it's ready to go, but the rear axle still has an open carrier. So we're gonna replace it with this aux cable shifted locker. It's gonna replace the entire carrier in the rear axle just like all the lockers we install. But instead of using a 12 volt power source or a compressed air, it uses a cable and a lever that will mount inside the driver's compartment to control the locking of that rear axle

with the stock carrier removed from the jeep,

we pull off the side bearings,

then swap the ring gear onto a new locker.

One bonus to installing the

locker is that the locker itself is integrated into the heavy duty dis cover

that will help protect their gear set. When we're off road,

the cable is routed to the passenger compartment

and the lever is placed within easy reach of the driver.

Now, if you remember the last time we pulled out this transfer case and sent it off to be prototyped into a new bolt in transfer case for the JK when the guys advanced adapters were able to pull it off and they now offer a complete replacement Atlas two specifically for this Jeep model. Now to really appreciate how cool the Atlas two is, you gotta be able to get inside it and see all the gears in action. And since you can't fit through that hole right there, we got this for you.

The Atlas two from advanced adapters is a hell

multiple ratio gear set that is also fully synchronized, all housed in a one piece aluminum alloy

356 T six housing.

Although it works like a typical transfer case splitting the power coming from the transmission to both the rear and front axles with a high range of 1 to 1 and different low ranges from 3 to 1 hall. The way to

5 to 1, the Atlas two is more than just a power splitter.

The massive gears are supported by needle bearings riding on beefy 8620 steel shafts with sink rows to allow for shift on the fly capabilities. The output shaft assemblies are designed with large taper bearings with 32 flying shafts available for both the front and rear output. Aside from the Atlas's brute strength, what really makes it the

ultimate off road case are the separate shift rails for the front and rear axles by placing the rear output in neutral and the front and low power from the engine is diverted from the rear, sending 100% to the front axle. This allows maneuvers known as front or rear digs to occur. Once facing the direction you want, you can simply shift the rear output lever into low range and you're back on your way.

One of the nice things about this Atlas that's specifically designed for the JK are the shifters themselves. Now, they're a cable operated system

and that way we'll be able to mount this underneath our center console with no cutting, we'll be able to get that true Atlas Twins Stick design and operate it from inside the truck without having to cut up the interior of our brand New Jeep to make it all work

later. Our JK is in for some severe punishment, extreme style, but up next mud racing, stay tuned,

you know, no matter what kind of racing we bring you here each week, the drivers have their own special way of getting ready. Well, the mud racers in smoke run, Pennsylvania are no different

four times a year. The masochistic mud racers of middle Pennsylvania

lay it on the line,

buddy, run raceway. If you love to play in the mud, this is the place to come. You better hang

a

on

once that light turns green. It's nothing you don't think of anything. It just falls the walls. Everything the truck has, have to listen to your white bitch to spend so much money, but there's nothing for that. Two minutes of running out on the track. It's an adrenaline rush like no other. That track out here isn't easy on any truck, but the trucks aren't the only thing. Taking a beating.

These men in the mud. Don't have to run jumpers wig. They do have to be tough enough to withstand the pummeling punishment

known as mud racing.

And when you're out on a track, it's,

it's like being in a football game, you take a brutal beat

after a race, you are sore, your back hurts the next day, your shoulders hurt the next day, your neck hurts the next day after the mud race. I don't want to get out of bed for work. I just want to lay in bed all day to have an edge. Requires more than a beefy truck.

You're not in good shape. You've never worked out or nothing. You come out here and you get jerked around like that.

You're gonna pull a muscle real quick. Sometimes with being four wheel drive, the tires pull you and you will goes which way it wants to. You gotta fight it a lot. You gotta keep it straight and turn it when you need to. Not when it wants to turn. Once considered a sport of backwoods beer bashers.

These modern day mud runners race on pre M

fuel a week before the race. I do kind of watch what I eat. I don't like, I don't eat nothing spicy. I mostly eat like salads, eat my wheaties.

Keep me strong. Old timers of this series aren't buying this fitness food. That's my conditioning, working on the truck, driving it around the yard and making my neighbors mad. The younger guys are coming in. It's good to see them. They're, they're a little bit more fit than we are

and if they're working out or whatever, but I'm not gonna work out. Let the young guys do it.

Looking to clinch titles in the open and super mod classes. Dick Walmer runs it old school style. We're gonna whip some ass with 11 years in the trenches. His senior status allows him to spout strategy. Like a modern

day Svengali.

I wanna be out front and that's what it's all about being out front. You wanna pass him?

You wanna treat him nice. You better be hammered down

and hanging on. It's not a piece of cake. Walmer whoops them with a 418 horsepower blazer,

but it's his tire set up. That's the icing on this cake. Are you on the same size tire front there? No,

no, they're different now. 32 is on the front. 30 one's on the back. Oh, everyone's going tall, skinny on the front. Taller, fatter on the back.

Think about it. Fat tire is gonna hold you up.

It's not gonna slide.

Yeah,

that's smart. I like it. Walmer showed the younger generation how it's done by clinching titles in two classes, not getting any younger.

There's no question where Dick will be next season. I come around her and that crowd is full of people going like guesses screaming.

I don't know how to describe it. It,

it does something inside you when you lose that. There's no use coming.

You know, when I hear somebody spreading it on pretty thick, I'm gonna call him out. And those kids who are talking about eating healthy before the race, I saw him scarfing down chili dogs. So I think they may be stretching the truth

time. Now for an Xtreme 4x4 tech tip,

now we all know a compression test is a great way to determine the shape of your engine,

but it's hard to tell what exactly is wrong without taking the motor apart. Well, here's a little tip for you.

If you put a little bit of oil down the spark plug hole itself, it'll help fill in any imperfections in the cylinder wall. When you test the compression again, if it goes up, it means you need a ring job. If the compression stays the same, it means you probably have a bad valve.

Welcome back to Xtreme 4x4 where we're putting the finishing touches on our brand new JK and I mean, brand new, there's less than 1000 miles on this truck.

We're going to add a couple more goodies like an air, a cold air intake

and a Gibson cat back exhaust.

Then we'll powder coat our new rock sliders

and brought them to the truck.

Now, one of the real issues with the newer model Jeep, as well as a couple of other new vehicles is the manufacturers have changed the drive shaft design and replaced the U joints with this CV joint style flange. Now this is obviously not strong enough for serious trail use.

Well, the guys at Je Real Drive Line realize that

and they put together a package that replaces both your drive shafts, front and rear with heavy duty units and we opted for the 1350. You join option, all you have to do is replace your stock

fangs with three of these fangs including the kit. Now, we don't have to put New Flans on our transfer case because we've got an Atlas.

I

could have lost that one.

Now, so far today, everything we put on our Jeep has turned our one stock JK into a great trail truck. And once we get these suspension seats in there, it'll be a comfortable trail truck. Now, suspension seats are great when you're running off road because they have the interior steel structure and the webbing that's strung in between, it basically absorbs all the shock. When you're driving over obstacles, you don't feel it in your back. The downfall has always

in that. They came with a fixed back. Well, not the new Baha

Rs seats for Mastercraft.

They are a fully reclining suspension seat

and the best thing is is they flip forward so you can actually have better access in your back seat if you have a two door truck. Now, our back seat, we basically created up and shipped it off to the guys at Mastercraft and they made this custom cover. So the fabric matches our front seats and the interior won't be all mismatched.

Our new suspension seats will just reuse our stock seat risers.

Now that the JK is stouter than a Rubicon, how will it do on some extreme trails? Find out next.

We're back on extreme where our stage two JK Wrangler is on the trail. Ready to rock.

Remember we started with a stock Jeep Unlimited X

did a mile two inch lift with bigger wheels, tires and some cosmetic goodies

and from mild to wild. Here's our stage two extreme version Rubicon 44 with 30 flying axles up front cable locker in the rear big tube fenders for clearance rock sliders

and of course a twin stick Atlas tube transfer case.

The first trail we'll hit is the same one we took the Jeep on last time.

but now we've got increased articulation. Thanks to the Skyjacker. Next generation rod ends on our new control arm.

Next

we'll step it up a bit. Try a more hardcore trail.

Ok. Here we go.

What?

Oh, that's the windshield tree. I recognize it.

The hardest thing to get used to in the new JK is the width

just over six inches wider than the previous Jeep models making tight trails even tighter.

The locker's front rear virtually eliminate the wheel spin on steep approaches.

Yeah,

I always love how there's

big old mud puddle right before I climb the rocks.

Now, here's a situation where having an Atlas S really pays off.

There's no way that bumper is gonna climb over that rock.

I know you're really high on this side.

I need a better line,

but when I back up,

I'm against the tree, there's a tree back there

with the rear output neutral. Leave the front and low. Pull up on the emergency brake, turn the wheels in the direction you wanna go and mash the gas.

That's what a front digs all about my friend.

Even though this truck is built as the extreme Jeep,

there are limitations when you go wheeling in a vehicle, you're still making payments on.

And the key to being able to drive it home at the end of the day

is knowing when the easy way out is your best bet.

Well, there you have it. Our stage two JK or Extreme Stage has really proven itself today out on the trail. And I gotta give props to the guys at Quadra

Tech for handing the keys over to this brand new Jeep and letting us modify it any way we want. I think it really paid off and this Jeep really is a trail rated four by four.

Now it is.