FJ40 SHORTIES (2 Viewers)

[neilhernandez92]

Question for all you 4 wheelers out there, I love to watch "The Story Till Now & TrailRecon" videos on YouTube. From watching those guys travel, rock crawl, trail runs etc., they and their friends all drive 4 door and long wheel base Jeeps, I never see 2 door or short wheel Jeeps hit the trails they do. I can see some difficulties our shorties could potentially have, but are our FJ's too susceptible to roll-overs much easier than a long wheel base vehicle? I'd love to take my FJ out to some of those awesome adventures but no too confident mine can do what the long wheel base vehicles can. Also, mine is a 4 spd manual tranny, is this a benefit or a drawback?

 

[ferg]

I wheeled a '66 FJ40 (not a 'FJ') through Rubicon, Fordyce, all over the SoCal desert for years. Never rolled once. '40s are brute tough. In my opinion it's always the driver, not the ride. As for manual vs auto trans, that's really a personal choice. I prefer to stir, not slush.

 

[rkymtnflyfisher]

I guess I was thinking about different shorties, thought you were dropping some chat OnlyFans type of content.


I’ll exit stage left now.

 

[charliemeyer007]

I think the real serious rock crawler's all use automatics - too hard to work 3 pedals at the same time with only two feet.

 

[neilhernandez92]

I think the real serious rock crawler's all use automatics - too hard to work 3 pedals at the same time with only two feet.

I'm not really into rock crawling, trails, river crossings are more my thing...

 

[Tigerstripe40]

Auto vs manual it's personal preferance.

I drove a 76 FJ40 with an SM420 conversion (has a 7:1 first gear, but it was effectively a 3 speed on the street, not really that big of an issue, though). Countless trips around Utah, Nevada, California, and Arizona. Drove that until the tub rusted off.

With that, I will say, that I prefer to a manual for everything BUT offroading. -With an auto, you roll up to an obstacle, press the gas pedal and the automatic figures it out. You can focus on your line. The Torque converter acts as a 2:1 gear reduction so GRBs or lower t-case gears aren't as necessary as they are in a manual.

That said, to get an automatic into an FJ40 will require some doing.

A very nice upgrade for an FJ40 with a 4 speed manual would be a new H55F ( OD 5 speed manual) w/ split t-case. You can get 3:1, 3.3:1, and 4:1 low range gears, though some of those gearsets negate the overdrive of 5th gear.

 

[igotta40]

Question for all you 4 wheelers out there, I love to watch "The Story Till Now & TrailRecon" videos on YouTube. From watching those guys travel, rock crawl, trail runs etc., they and their friends all drive 4 door and long wheel base Jeeps, I never see 2 door or short wheel Jeeps hit the trails they do. I can see some difficulties our shorties could potentially have, but are our FJ's too susceptible to roll-overs much easier than a long wheel base vehicle? I'd love to take my FJ out to some of those awesome adventures but no too confident mine can do what the long wheel base vehicles can. Also, mine is a 4 spd manual tranny, is this a benefit or a drawback?

View attachment 3554273

That looks like Stewart beach.

 

[Firemedic831]

Trail Recon. LOL. They and there Friends Can only dream of the Trails I take my 40 on .

 

[neilhernandez92]

That looks like Stewart beach.

It sure is!