What is a "Top Truck" and how does someone go about building one anyway? To each owner of their personal "Top Truck" (TT), it is a combination of a vehicle that goes where that owner wants it to go and has the looks that owner wants.

For many people, a nearly stock truck with just a few personal touches is ideal and it would be silly for anyone else to expect them to add expensive mods. Their truck looks and drives just right for their intended use.

However, for some of us, that just isn't enough. I wanted a vehicle that would take on the toughest trails of Moab, maneuver through the tightly forested trails near my Washington State home (a Hummer was out), have enough room for friends and my dog, Happy, be "user friendly" enough for my wife to jump in and take it to work on a snowy day and be dependable enough so that I wasn't holding up my friends who drive excellent trail vehicles themselves. By the way, it would be OK if it looked nice, too, but first things first!

Since my friends all had Jeeps, that was the starting platform. This meant we could share parts, technology and ideas. If they had all owned Toyotas, I probably would have started with one of those. The CJ-7 was picked for the riding comfort and because they were just long enough to add a lift and an automatic tranny without having a short rear drive shaft at a severe angle. When I started, Wranglers, which are the same length, were not served as well by the aftermarket as they are now.

Attention to lots of little details is what makes a good business grow and is what makes a good Jeep go. Following are descriptions of some of the "tricks" I've done and my advice on doing them yourself.

Special tricks are identified by a star . These are things I have done and found to be especially neat. They sometimes have made a difference between being the vehicle who drives over an obstacle or the one who has to dragged over it (the winchee). Or, if you do them, they may allow you to spend time after an outing working on improvements to your rig instead of fixing damage you did to it.

Heavy-duty drive shafts from Tom Woods. Why doesn't everybody use these in their Jeep? They are not expensive, compared to having some local guy build one for you. Tom Woods is a decent guy to talk to who seems sincere about your having the absolute best product possible in your four wheeler. He talks about drive shafts like an artist talks about his favorite creation. He will walk you through how to measure so Tom can send you just the right unit. These are truly stout units that shouldn't break unless you hit them with something, like a rock or way too much power at the wrong time. You should inspect your drive shafts often, especially after a rock run, to see if you have dented or scored the tubes. Deforming the tube will take much of its strength away and you'll be a candidate for the tow strap.

NEW! Tom has made some special fronts for me that have a very strong inner tube with a larger, equally strong outer tube placed over the inner one. This double-tube setup lets you rock-ding the outer tube (which weakens the integrity of any driveshaft) and the super-strong inner tube still maintains more than enough strength to get you through the toughest obstacles. I have never bent one of these "Piatt Specials", even when resting on it while augering over rocks. The combination of the ultra-strong double tube setup is a real winner. I installed it with the spline up at the transfer-case end to keep the strongest part nearest the rocks. For more info, call Tom at 877-497-4238 or visit his website at www.4xshaft.com.

* Get your spring shackle bolts out of the way. If you have leaf springs and don't have spring-over suspension, your shackle bolts probably hang down below your springs so rocks can get them. You may have them protected by skid plates and that's better. However that decreases your clearance by about 1 1/2 inches, so you are a winchee candidate if you encounter a rock or stump that's just a wee bit too high. You can build these simple saddle-type spring hanger plates that allow you to use shorter shackle u-bolts and move the nuts up beside the springs instead of below them. Now your springs will just slide over the same obstructions that would have stopped you dead or made a big, ugly noise when you hit them. I double-nut the shackle bolts and check them often for looseness. They take a lot of abuse from the twisting and thrashing they get on the trails we go on.

Recess your taillights on CJ's. The CJ taillight looks as if it was an afterthought stuck on the outside of the vehicle. There is just enough room to recess them directly into the rear tub if you are very careful about measuring where to cut. Be especially careful on the gas filler side. It's an easy job if you measure well and make a template out of cardboard that just fits the light. You have to put them sideways so you'll have to decide for yourself which side you want the backup light on. You can get aftermarket lights from your local auto parts store that may work just as well and are smaller and easier to install. I recessed the original lights after backing into a stump with my taillight and denting in the tub as well as breaking the light. Now you can do it first and improve, not repair.

* Move your antennas. If you have CB and radio antennas on the side, move them to the back or up on the cowl. Sooner or later you will encounter that tree or rock that sticks out just far enough to rip off your nice antenna with the resulting body damage. Most of us have had to learn this the hard way, thinking it wouldn't ever happen to us. Right. What's so special about someone who just lost CB communications because they thought they would always miss those close obstacles?

Put on a dependable air supply system. This one isn't starred because just about anyone should do it if you plan to do any serious four-wheeling. Lowering tire pressure often prevents winchee status and provides a much more comfortable ride. (If you like having your wife or other good-smelling companion come with you, you have to make their ride as comfortable as you can.) My Ready-air system runs air tools and inflates my big tires right quickly. Many of my friends have home-made systems using expatriated auto air conditioner pumps. Some pumps last longer than others, so do some investigation before just bolting on something because it fits easily. For instance, the big round "A4" A/C pumps that come on most Chev engines depend on the refrigerant to lube the front bearing and other internals. They have no oil sump like the pump Ready-Air uses. They will work like gangbusters for awhile, then "screech" and you're borrowing air from a smirking friend. One of my friends has rigged up an oiling system for his and, so far, so good. ARB and others also make good electric pumps if you are running out of room for an engine-driven pump.

* Lengthen your steering shaft and tack-weld it in place. One of the nasty tricks your Jeep can play on you is having your steering shaft pull out of the box, rendering you without steering! This only seems to happen on the nastiest trail in the worst part with the most people watching and waiting for you to get it fixed so you can all proceed. I've seen this happen to two of my friends. Both of them with 2" body lifts. Why does it happen?

Well, the body lift combined with rough four-wheeling is the culprit. The steering box is on the frame and the other end of the shaft is attached to the body. Lifting the body makes the shaft try to pull out of the box, slightly. The "slightly" part is due to the angle, so a 1" lift won't move the shaft a full 1" out of the box. Maybe 3/8". A 2" body lift would move it about 3/4" out.

Fortunatley, Jeep has made a steering shaft with a sliding sleeve that can be lengthened. The shaft is normally prevented from sliding in the sleeve by two nylon pins designed to shear in the event of a front-end collision. They are located about half-way down the shaft near the junction of the sleeve and the solid rod that goes in the sleeve.

If you have lifted your body and are as uncomfortable with the prospect of losing your steering as I am, you may want to forgo the safety feature of having a collapsing steering shaft. Or, you may choose to continue to enjoy the knowledge that your steering shaft will collapse if you strike something with suffecient force.

I melted the nylon pins, slid the shaft out of the sleeve about 3/4 of an inch and tack-welded it. You may want to redrill the holes and find some nylon pins to put back in there, but, if you do, you should mark the shaft well enough to check it every so often to assure it hasn't sheared the new pins and is slipping back in.

Front or back winch. I saw some of the winch mounts that the Oregon Jolly Jeepers jeep club uses and immediately built a saddle-type demountable winch mount. Now the Warn 9500i can be easily moved from the front to the back for those times when you or someone else needs it there. The extra 12 volt takeoff in the back has worked well for Plug-in jumper cables. These are made from a regular pair of jumper cables by cutting them near one end and installing a quick-release heavy-duty 12v connectors sold by Warn industries. Now, when a vehicle behind me needs a jump, I just plug in the long end to the back of the Jeep and hook up to the the stalled vehicle. Very handy on those really tight, nasty trails where avoiding extra manuvering is desireable.

The jumper cables can also be used to power the winch if I need to install it on the rear hitch of another vehicle. It's a heavy sucker, so we have found other ways to recover stuck rigs, so far.

Warn makes a great little 3500# winch that I mounted on a hitch insert and sometimes carry in a small suitcase found at the Salvation Army. This handy gadget got me unstuck on a snow run where I installed it in the rear hitch and pulled myslef back out of a snowdrift. Meanwhile my buddies were busy wiching themselves back up a hill they found to be a dead end.

Dana 44 front and rear. Special axles on the rear. The Dana 44 has the strong housing to withstand the rigors of bouncing up and down Moab's Double Whammy with slight chance of bending the housing. I can't say the same for the Corporate AMC 20 housing however. Rather than install a truss and reduce ground clearance or slip extra tubes in the AMC 20, I installed the 44. Now I had a 30 spline axle which is 30% stronger than the 27 spline corporate, due to its larger diameter. Next I installed a full-floater rear, using a hub assembly from a Jeep front end. This means, if I break an axle, I just have to engage the ARB air locker and drive home in three-wheel drive. The wheel doesn't fall off.

* (Un)locking rear hubs. Before I got the Jeep trailer, I was flat-towing the Jeep with a special folding tow bar that pins into the custom front bumber with 30,000 Lb. breaking strength aircraft pins. Since the Dana 300 transfer case doesn't lube while towing without some mods, I knew that a tow over 200 miles was supposed to fry a bearing in there. Moab is 1102 miles from my place, so unless I wanted to dive into the transfer case and weld some paddles in there or be the one crawling under the Jeep upon arrival to reinstall the drive shaft, unlocking hubs were in order.

Enter Warn's full-floater rear axles. Super strong and they come with hubs that unlock, just like the front ones, for towing. For really severe wheeling, you can replace the unlocking hubs with solid drive flanges. See the review here.

* Studs use studs on their hubs. Before I got the great Warn full-floater hubs and the similar front ones, mine were bolt-on. Those bolts often came loose after a hard day of 'wheeling. To mitigate this, I replaced the bolts with studs. I made them from grade 8 bolts to minimize stretch and installed them with lock-tite. I carry a 1/2" combination open end and socket head wrench that works especailly well for checking them every morning when four-wheeling!. Believe it or not, I usually find one or more nuts coming loose. I believe that loose mounting bolts are the biggest cause of locking hub failure, rather than some inherent weakness in the hubs themselves. I bought a gross of nylock nuts just so I wouldn't have to worry about this, however with the constant maintenence of repacking the wheel bearings, etc. from 'wheeling in the mud and muck, the nylocks are long gone and I just depend upon keeping them tight. Warn Industries now offers the stud kit, complete with nuts and washers for their hubs.

* Later note: As said previously, I took off the full-floater kit and hubs described above and installed Warn's full-floater kit and front hubs. These are said to be stronger and certainly do have a much cleaner look. See the full-floater story on the web page, as well as the story I wrote about it on page 84 of the February 1998 issue of Four Wheeler Magazine.

Warn's kit uses o-rings for sealing and internal mounting nuts for securing them to the spindle. This should keep contaminants out and have less fasteners to come loose.

Link-arc underhood welder. For the small amount of room it takes up, this handy gadget more than makes up for it. Here's a little-known but really handy use for it: Have you ever had to take the differential apart on yours or theirs to get that little piece of broken axle out that stays in there when it breaks on the inner splines? Messy, time consuming and everything is usually hot. If you had the Link-Arc, you would just slip a piece of hose around the rod (you do carry extra fuel or heater hose, don't you?) carefully place the rod into the end of the axle housing and, with the welder running, jam it up against the broken axle stub. Then disconnect the ground and you probably will have the rod stuck to the axle stub. Just pull it out and voila! (Whatever that means) You have the broken axle stub out and haven't had to spill SAE 90 all over you, the ground and a little in the pan you tried to catch it in.

I've done this several times and it always brings cheers from those contemplating having to dissemble the differential under field conditions. I think it could be the main reason my friends invite me to come four wheeling with them.

Besides the cheers, the welder has been good for extra beverages (non alcoholic, of course), a buck or two and getting in more four wheeling after welding up a rig we would have to otherwise tow back. HINT: When someone else breaks and it's going to be your welder that gets them going again, always say, very loudly, "Is there a qualified welder in the crowd?" Someone usually volunteers to be the one who crawls under the hot rig in the dust or mud and get holes burned in their clothes. Meanwhile, you get to stand beside your vehicle and "adjust the heat" while drinking the beverages provided by the grateful owner. After lying under one guy's rig and welding for about a half hour once, getting the holes in the shirt and the dirt and grease all over me, I asked him at the next lunch stop what he did for a living. He said he was a QUALIFIED PIPE WELDER!! Said he thought I'd want to be the one to use my system.

* Rhino Lining. My entire tub inside is lined with it. This stuff is practically indestructible! I carry my Hi-lift jack pinned to the back roll-bar with an aircraft quick-release pin, riding right on the Rhino Lining. It's hard to see just where it rode when I take it out. My metal toolbox also rides right on it with no apparent effect. Meanwhile, the noise is kept down, we are insulated from under-tub heat and no rust, ever! The rhino-lining does add weight, so you might want to consider that if you want to stay really light.

** A stock Chev 350 TBI engine with all the sensors, pollution controls and stock computer installed. The engineers at General Motors have had lots of time to get it right. Do you know of anyone who owns an '89 or later Chev pickup who wonders if it's going to start or get them where they want to go? I got lucky and found a motor at a wrecking yard from a '91 with only 16,500 miles on it and I was able to strip all the wiring from the engine compartment and under the dash. Then I got the wonderful book by Mike Knell titled "Chevrolet TPI & TBI Engine Swapping that led me through the engine swap procedure. Installed now, it runs like a dream on the steepest hills and side hills, gets good mileage so I don't have to carry extra gas and has enough power to break just about any drive train part if I get stupid and try to hammer it at the wrong time. I replaced a nearly new Chev 350 Targetmaster engine that I tried to make work right with all the aftermarket stuff, but got tired of driving an experiment that often failed. Two stars because the stock engine is the best thing I did on the entire project!

Tow Hooks. Most of you serious four wheelers already have at least one tow hook. or tow shackle on each end of your rigs. If you don't, please, please install them. These save having to crawl under your stuck rig to try to find someplace to attach a winch cable or tow strap.

If you are not careful, some well-meaning goof might just put a hook on one of your steering rods, screwing up your steering geometry trying to get you out. I carry a short chain with hooks on each end so I can wrap it around the axle of a no-hook equipped stuck rig. Keeps the cable or strap from chafing on the underside of the stuck vehicle.

Reinforced Gas Tank. Jeep makes a nice poly gas tank protected by thin sheet metal which dents in the first time you slam a big rock. This can push up into the tank, deforming it and reducing the volume, as well as messing up the fuel intake and sending unit.

Taking the lead from my friend, Steve Royce, I welded a reinforcing plate to the bottom of the sheet metal and welded on additional angle iron reinforcements, V side down to the bottom. No more denting problems.

If you do this, please remove everything from the vehicle first and don't weld in the same area as the gas tank. If you don't take this precaution, your widow might have a big mess to clean up.

Design your lift system, don't just bolt on something that sounds nice. Some people just order what they think they need and bolt it on. Depending on how close their rig is the to one the manufacturer designed the springs for, they get a comfortable, safe ride or they ride too soft or too hard. You have to decide just why you are lifting in the first place. Tire clearance? Obstacle clearance? Looks?

Too high a lift or one not properly thought out and you will find out what a rollover feels like. Not my thing. So I decided I needed wheel clearance, comfortable ride, lowest center of gravity possible and reasonable obstacle clearance.

Body lift. First, a 1" body lift. That gets the fenders and other body elements part way out of the way and leaves lots of heavy stuff lower for a lower center of gravity. You have to lower the radiator the same distance you raise the body because your engine fan isn't going up but your radiator mount is. If you have a clutch, you will have to adjust the clutch linkage to compensate for the changed positioning. The body lift gives you extra room between the frame and body that allows you to run wires, air hoses, etc. where you couldn't get them before.

After the 1" body lift, a spring lift is next. I didn't want to be too top-heavy for the up to 40 degree angle sidehills of our Northwest trails, so a 2 1/2" spring lift was chosen. Skyjacker supplied the springs with their "softride" suspension. "Softride" is more than a name, it really does ride just about as well as my Jeep Grand Cherokee (which weighs the same.) After adding the V8 motor, the turbo 400 automatic transmission and all my accesories and tools, I thought the springs were sagging, so called up Lonnie, the owner of Skyjacker. He said he had only had two springs fail since he started the company, so suggested an add-a-leaf. He had me weigh both ends, then, using his computer, designed and made add-a-leafs that exactly matched the weight and type of driving I do. Needless to say, the Jeep still drives as comfortably as the Grand Cherokee and sits just right. This kind of engineered approach results in a good ride, safe handling and the ground clearance we all are looking for.

Later: We took off the leaf springs and installed the Black Diamond XCL kit. Then modified that by installing an air suspension. See more on this here.

Well, that's it for now. More to come later.

Jim Piatt