Sequels typically aren’t very good, from Speed II to Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2. You know what else isn’t very good? Jeep Wrangler YJs. Hear us out. Produced from 1987 to 1995, the lowly YJ had a terrible drivetrain, suspension that barely flexed off-road, and topped it all off with square head lights that are the Jeep equivalent of a scarlet letter. You can make lemonade out of those lemons though by using a YJ as a platform for a custom Jeep build and starting with a vehicle that costs a fraction of a TJ, JK, or JL Wrangler. Like Jason Roche’s 1994 YJ. Jason used to have a YJ (dubbed the Roach Coach), but unfortunately a few years ago some dirty thief felt that they needed the Jeep more than Jason, and it was never seen again. So, he coopted his mother’s one-owner YJ and took it to Dr. Smash in Carson City, Nevada for an extreme makeover. This is one sequel that is even better than the original.

“If you plan to replace the axles and the entire suspension, why start with a more expensive Jeep?” Jason opined. The Jeep is a mix of off-the-shelf parts from Dynatrac and GenRight with custom touches from Dr. Smash to make it unique. The factory low pinion, vacuum disconnect Dana 30 front axle and c-clip Dana 35 rear axle would never live with 40-inch Nitto Trail Grapplers, so they were replaced with Dynatrac Pro Rock 60 axles with 5.38 gears, ARB Air Lockers, and 35-spline axle shafts. The original 200,000 mile 4.0L engine and AX-15 manual transmission feed power to the axles through an Advance Adapters Atlas II transfer case that offers a 4.3:1 low range for better control on the trail.

The suspension consists of a GenRight Legend kit that uses 14-inch travel King coilovers front and rear with four inches of uptravel and ten inches of downtravel to keep the center of gravity low. Dr. Smash massaged the kit to get the ride height even lower by moving the steering box forward three inches and notching the frame to prevent the front track bar from contacting it at full compression. The front suspension uses a three link with a track bar that matches the drag link angle to prevent bump steer, while the rear suspension is a triangulated four-link that eliminates the need for a track bar altogether. Did you know that YJs came from the factory with track bars and leaf springs? That was a worse idea that Teen Wolf Two, what were people thinking back in the 80s???

So, is the YJ the best Jeep platform ever or the worst? Drop a comment and let us know what you want to see next from Harry and Mike!

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