4X4NOW Buildups - Sam Houston's '98 Jeep TJ

For 18+ years I've been driving four bys, constantly in search of the ultimate all purpose vehicle:comfortable for daily use on the street and capable on tight trails typical of the southeastern U.S. Until my trip to Moab in July of 1997, I did not think that such a vehicle could/would exist for me. Over the years I have owned and wheeled in an early Bronco, 2 Toyota trucks, FJ60, FJ40, CJ5, Chevy K10, and a Sammy and none of them fit my definition of all-round use. Having resigned myself to this fact, I owned (until September 30th, 1997) a GMC truck for everyday use and as a tow vehicle and a Samurai for a trail vehicle. Now, I'm not as big a rock hound as the Flatlander or Glenn W. (or any of a few hundred other folks), but the Sammy was a great all round trail vehicle, but not much for day-to-day commuting (at least not for me).

But back to Moab in July of 1997. Since my company cut my vacation to one week, I decided not to tow the Sammy from Atlanta, but instead rent a stock TJ from Farrabees rentals in Moab. A week with the TJ proved to me that, at least for me, an all purpose vehicle could and in fact did exist for me in the form of a TJ. In the stock rental, I traversed Rose Garden Hill, Hell's Revenge, Fins and Things, Kane Creek Canyon, and explored the back roads in Arches National Park without any trouble. With my upcoming move, timing couldn't have been better or worse. No money and no room for three vehicles in the driveway at my new location.

So on August 23, 1997, I signed the paperwork ordering my '98 TJ and I took delivery on September 30th. Five weeks and two days from order to delivery with three weeks of delays due to restrictions wasn't bad considering that other folks were reportedly being quoted 8 week minimums at ordering. The dealer I order through (Tom Herrigan CPJE in Centerville, Ohio) would not quote me a delivery date at order placement due to the combination of options chosen.

On October 5, 1997, I sold my Sammy, thus creating a fund with which I could build the TJ.

Now I guess I ought to tell you how the vehicle was ordered. Remember that I work as a mid-level manager for a Fortune 500 company, so I have to maintain some semblance of civility so that I can play chauffeur to VIPs on occasion. So, I ordered a '98 TJ with the following options: 5 Speed, Sport Package (4.0 liter, console, tilt wheel, 19 gallon tank), hard top, rear window defroster, air conditioning, heavy duty electrical package, dark tinted windows, block heater (hey I may never need it, but it's cheap), Dana 44, AM/FM Cassette, 30 inch tire and wheel package (really all I wanted was the wheels), cruise, cloth seats, and tow hooks. As you can see, there was not much I left off. This left me with a reasonably comfortable and relatively capable vehicle straight from the factory. But that wasn't good enough for me. I wanted to gain more off road performance without sacrificing too much of the good road manners inherent in the TJ platform. So the buildup begins.

I have a plan for modifications that I will more or less follow. The governing issues for me are fourfold:

Also realize that my fabrication skills are next to nothing and I don't have the equipment, even if I had the skills, so please understand my "name dropping."

With these issues in mind, I laid out a three stage process to follow during the build up. The stages can be characterized as:

The first two of these steps I will cover for 4X4NOW before the end of 1997. The last of these will wait until the warranty on the transfer case is gone. Other, miscellaneous items (soft top, etc.) will come naturally as things progress.

Many people would question placing this stage before the elevation and traction stage, but I wanted to have the chance to get a few miles on the TJ before I did suspension and differential work, plus the shop I had chosen to do the work could not schedule me until November 15th. Besides, I was impatient as hell .... chomping at the bit to turn a wrench or two. So, in this stage, the additions will be a Cross Enterprises rear bumper and tire carrier (thinking ahead to bigger meats), off your rockers panels (not covered in this section as I have not received them yet), Tuffy rear storage trunk, a hood lock, winch, CB, and a CD changer. That just about covers the armor and security products. Now for installation.

I had planned to take most of a Saturday to install all of these items at once, but there's this saying about the best laid plans of mice and men. Well, it ended up taking me most of a Saturday and about half of a Sunday to complete the work. All of it was done by myself using basic hand tools, a good cordless drill, a cheap corded drill, and a Dremel tool.

For the winch, I chose Warn's venerable XD9000i with its roller fairlead and 125 feet of cable. For installation, I used Warn's mounting plate, added a stronger set of tow hooks, and Warn's grill guard. I also added a grill screen and a hood lock. Installation was straightforward and took about an hour and 45 minutes from start to finish.

In order to mount the winch, you first have to remove the plastic frame cover, the two bolts holding each tow hook, and the forward bolts on the sway bar mounts. The winch plate uses these 6 bolts. I had to remove the bumper as well, since the factory bumperettes on 98 models would interfere with the Warn grill guard and there is no way to remove the bumperettes without first removing the bumper. This only entails two more bolts. So now you can see what the front frame of a TJ really looks like. I did reuse the factory bumper.

The next step is mounting the winch. Because of the design of the mounting plate, you first have to mount the winch to the plate, then attach the winch and mount to the frame. Luckily the frame is flat, since the winch and mount are heavy (about 120 pounds) and awkward to handle. The only tricky thing in a standard installation is adding the 3 washers between the plate and the sway bar mount to "space" the mounting plate correctly. I added new 10,000 pound tow hooks which required the purchase of 4 grade 5 bolts, 1/2-13 x 2 ½. Then it is simply a matter of torquing down the mounting bolts and making the electrical connections. There is enough power cable provided that you can route them under the radiator and up around the airbox to the battery, thus avoiding going through the grill. By the way, if you are going to install a grill screen, take my advice and do it BEFORE you mount a winch.

I finished up the front end by installing Warn's grill guard and a No Drill grill screen and hood lock. All of these items are simple with the grill guard being the most complex .... 4 bolts through the winch mount. Above are two shots of the completed front end. I think it is a marked improvement over stock.

To add some beef to the rear end of the TJ, provide secure spare tire storage (for future 33s), and a tow point, I decided to use Cross Enterprises rear bumper system. To provide lockable storage, I utilized a Tuffy rear storage trunk (I am including the installation of the Tuffy product here since I took pictures of it and the bumper together).

To install the Tuffy rear storage trunk, you have to mark and drill four 3/8 inch holes in the floor of the area behind the seat. You then Permanently install four 5/16 grade 8 bolts into the floor from under the vehicle using locknuts to secure them. The trunk is then placed over these bolts (acting like studs) and using 4 more lock nuts and flat washers, you bolt the truck down. The only difficult part of this operation is that the driver's side bolts are above the fuel tank. Tuffy's instructions mention the possibility of removing the tank for installation, but I didn't have to. I didn't take any pictures of the install since it was quite easy, but you can see the finished job in a few other pictures.

I chose a Cross Enterprises rear bumper system for the strength, design features, and modularity of their system. Mike Cross, the owner was also quite helpful in answering questions. His system is based upon the rear bumper, a strong piece formed from 2x4 tubing with a 3/16 wall thickness. A tire carrier and an "outback" rack (rubicon rack) bolt to the bumper, so no weight is carried by the body of the Jeep. Everything is heavy duty: the tire carrier pivots on two sealed bearings and rides on Teflon pads on the latch end ... no squeaks or rattles. Plus, the tire mounting point is adjustable for tire width. This is a really neat system and affordable too. It is possible to buy a complete bumper, tire carrier, rack system from Cross for less than the bumper and tire carrier from another company with CE as initials.

The bumper mounts to the rear frame cross member and frame rails using no fewer than 14 bolts. Many of the holes already exist, but a few must be drilled. The tire carrier mounts to the bumper using 8 self tapping bolts. Since the pivot bracket for the tire carrier mounts between bolting locations on the bumper, I started with mounting this bracket to the bumper (see photos above). After laying out the location, I used the bracket to make the location of bolt holes on the bottom (shown in the photo) and top of the bumper. I then drilled the holes and attached the bracket (see photo above). The hole in the bottom of the bumper and the hole plug in the top of the bumper mark one of two mounting locations for the "Outback Rack" potion of the system.

The next step in mounting the bumper on some '98s is to drill 4 half inch holes in the rear cross member. The photo above shows these holes after I drilled them (as well as the installed trunk). Apparently, the early production TJs had all 8 holes in the frame as this is where the bumperettes attached on YJs. However, later TJs do not have these holes and you must carefully take measurements from the bumper and transfer these to the cross member. Take your time with this as it can save headaches later. I ended up using a Dremel tool to slightly open the left side holes since I drilled them about 1/16th off.

Now that you've got 8 holes in the cross member, install the bumper using eight 7/16s grade 8 bolts provided and the backing plates. Gee that sounds easy doesn't it? IT AINT! This part took me 3 ½ hours. The trouble is the inner set of holes on the driver's side. You cannot access them with your hand to start the bolts due to the fuel tank. After 3 ½ hours of cussing, bitching, and moaning, I finally was finished. Don't ask me how I got these bolts started, 'cause I do not know. I'm stubborn (if you couldn't tell) and refused to drop the fuel tank since it had 18.9 gallons or so of gasoline in it. If it had been close to empty, I would have dropped it as this would make the installation much easier.

Once bumper is mounted, place the tire carrier in mounting bracket using the pivot bolt through the two bearings. Tighten the pivot bolt, then locate the position for the latch bracket. Mount the latch bracket using 4 self tapping screws in holes you drill. Adjust the mount and bolt your tire into place. Finally, bolt the tie plates to the bottom of the bumper and frame rail using 1 factory bolt on the frame rail and 2 self tapping bolts in the bumper on each side. Enjoy.

Detail of the latch location showing 2 of the 4 bolts for the latch plate. Note the Teflon pad and the hair pin for safety. Also the tie plate on the left	Detail of the passenger side bumper / tire carrier mounting. In this view, the two outer mounting bolts are visible (by body mount) as well as the detail of the tie plate mounting. The cable is my CB antenna cable
View of the completed rear end. Note the CB antenna mount and the height of the spare tire	View of the rear with everything latched up. Stock, the rear tire was level with the bottom of the body. The stock tire snubber is visible behind the upright of the rack

To go with the CB antenna you saw above, I mounted a Cobra 19 Ultra under the dash. Finding a location for a CB in the TJ is a challenge, but the tiny Cobra unit fit nicely to the left of the transmission shifter and above the transfer case shifter. It is mounted to the dash, just below the cigar lighter / power outlet. I mounted the microphone to the forward passenger side of the floor console for storage. On the trail, it hangs from a bungee cord attached to the windshield footman loop.

Interior shot showing CB, microphone, and CD changer controls

A not so good shot of the CD changer hiding in the Tuffy storage trunk

For tunes on the trail, I mounted an Alpine FM modulated 6 disk CD changed in the Tuffy storage trunk. The control was mounted to the top of the dash. For both the CD and CB, I used factory supplied switched and unswitsched wires. If you look above and to the right of the fuse box, you will find two labeled wires, in 98 TJs at least.

That's it for this installment. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at:

This is not an endorsement of any particular product or vendor, just a listing of manufacturers and/or retailers I bought products from.

Kerstners 4wd Center, 2300 W Leonard St, Appleton, WI 54914 (920)734-5826: winch, mount, grill guard.

Cross Enterprises, 3833 Old Conejo Rd, Newbury Park, CA 91320 (805)499-8169: rear bumper, tire carrier

Quadratec, 5125 W Chester Pike, Newton Square, PA 19073 (800)745-5337: Tuffy security trunk, hood lock

4WD Hardware, P.O. Box 57, Columbiana, OH 44408 (800)333-5535: Grill screen, door opening guards

Cobra Electronics, 6500 W. Courtland St., Chicago, IL 60707 (773) 889-3087 http://www.cobraelec.com/ : CB, antenna


Here's the TJ in stock form, prior to any modifications. Ok, OK, I did remove the front bumper extensions immediately upon delivery.