 9. The back of the Teal-J...  9. The back of the Teal-J benefited from a new pair of TeraFlex 5-inch coil springs and new rear bumpstops. Here you can see the new VSS gas shock's triple-chromed rod and upper mount. Thanks to Jeep-specific bar pins, these new shocks utilize the OE upper mounting locations. Though not intended for high-speed Baja trips, these shocks are huge improvements over the wimpy OE shocks and will probably hold up much better in terms of longevity. |  10. This shot shows the guys...  10. This shot shows the guys from TeraFlex bolting on the new Belly-Up skidplate. This plate offers improvements in ground clearance by up to 2 3/8 inches over stock and features laser-cut holes for easy mounting. |  11. Because Teal-J had already...  11. Because Teal-J had already been set up with front remote-reservoir coilover shocks, the factory spring buckets were long gone. This made things easy for TeraFlex, who in cooperation with Fox Racing Shox developed a new mounting kit designed to mount a 2.5-inch Fox coilover shock with remote reservoirs on each side. Additionally, the brackets provided mounting cans built by Poly Performance for one Fox pneumatic bumpstop on each side, an option we've been asking suspension companies about for a long time now. Though these particular brackets were only prototypes at the time of installation, TeraFlex assured us that this bracket combination would be available very soon for interested buyers. |
 12. Here you can see the new...  12. Here you can see the new Fox unit installed on the driver-side front wheelwell. The remote reservoir was secured with two stainless hose clamps and two isolation bushings to the shock hoop shortly after this shot was taken. |  13. This picture shows how...  13. This picture shows how TeraFlex mounted the lower end of the Fox coilover shocks. Though not completely finished in this picture, you get the idea of where the mount was located on the front axle. |  14. After the installation...  14. After the installation was complete, it was necessary to modify the exhaust system to clear the new suspension. Dynomax provided a new catalytic converter and high-flow muffler to suit our needs. After installation was complete, an alignment was performed by TeraFlex PLUS to ensure proper highway driveability. |
We decided to take advantage of Teal's ongoing metamorphosis and update the 37-inch Mickey Thompson ATZ tires with a set of 36-inch (36x15.50R18LT) MTZs instead. We made this change right before Easter Jeep Safari 2006, and just prior to dropping the rig off with TeraFlex. This allowed us to get a good feel for each suspension system on the same set of new tires. (We wouldn't want our before-and-after testing to be affected by different tread designs.) The new overall stance was a bit lower than before, and this new tire was exactly what we needed to prevent rubbing issues with the new kit. We did have to run a pair of 2-inch wheel spacers in the rear, however (due to overall width of this new tire), but felt we could live with that for the short term.
Immediately after picking up Teal from TeraFlex, we headed straight out to the Rubicon Trail for a shakedown session. Our initial impression on pavement was pure joy as all of the wheel lifting associated with the previous kit went away. On the trail, the PRO LCG kit was a delight to drive largely because of the added softness provided by the Fox coilover shocks and pneumatic bumpstops. The rear of the kit seemed a little too soft for us once it was overloaded with camping gear and coolers. We addressed this by updating the rear springs with a 6-inch spring instead. We figure with the weight of the factory hardtop and all the other aftermarket equipment we've bolted on over the years, Teal's caboose was a lot heaver than TeraFlex originally thought. The beauty of this change is that we can always adjust the front coilover shocks up or down depending on load conditions. We love adjustability! After the Rubicon trip, we racked up a few hundred miles on pavement and found that Teal's new suspension was exactly what we were looking for.