hey I was at gulches last weekend. I love that place.

Yeah it was my first time there. I heard the President's Day run was pretty gnarly. Its five hours away from me so its just barely close enough to consider doing more than once this year.

it was, there were tons of people there. Lots too see, lot of wheeling, and lots of cool rigs. It was a good time.

Short clip of our Gulches trip. I'm currently editing a highlight video of the weekend.

As mention here's the Gulches video I was working on. Good times.

I hate that I haven't posted much lately. Been so busy with video work I haven't taken the liberty of documenting my build.

I did a tune up of sorts and quickly realized how much of an idiot I am for not being on top of basic maintenance. New oil, transmission fluid/filter, and spark plugs made a night and day difference. Feels like a new jeep...sorta

Did a compression test because I was curious as to my 4.0 is lacking some power.

Turns out cylinders 3 and 4 have worn rings. Weak sauce. Oh well.

Good excuse to pick up a motor too rebuild this summer

In other news, we made a new episode. Nothing ground breaking here, but informational.

what head do you have? Isn't 3 and 4 common crack place on the 0331 and where head gaskets usually go?

The motor has been swapped out. Previous owner had to deal with that issue. I haven't confirmed what head I have now. I haven't had an signs of a crack. No coolant in oil, no mysterious loss of coolant. Yes between 3 and 4 to my knowledge is the common spot. I've read into it heavily, I think I'm in the clear.

I need new headers so whenever I get around to that ill definitely take note of my head casting.

My head gasket is a little leaky. Thats why I did my compression test to investigate that theory of low compression from the gasket.

If it turns out I have a cracked head, all the more reason to rebuild... which means stroke because to hell with it.

Hmmm been too long.

I'm no longer in the Navy.

I work for Ironman4x4fab.com as the Marketing Manager now.

I put an 06 TJ 4.0 in my 00 XJ.

I have a lot of ironman4x4 things.

Now that we're caught up. I did this over the weekend.

Put this winch tray from a custom mobile winch mount for a tree job that never got used. So I cut it out and started scratching my head on how to slide this into my bumper. I have always wanted a very low profile winch setup.



With the handy dandy plasma cutter and holding my tongue just right I notched out my bumper.



Im not a welder by any means but I had some guidance and I think I did just fine. Definitely improved with this project if anything.





Please note that those top welds in the center I got rid of and retried after some coaching. You can see there was no penetration.



Now after some paint! Viola! Couldn't be happier. Of course I had to powder coat the fairlead blue.









I did some cage work too, tied the footplates to the frame. Made a hell of a difference. Should of done that a long time ago lol.

More things to come!

looks good. Congrats on the DD214.

Off-topic. But does Ironman make roof racks? Looked real quick and didn't see anything. Never had heard of them but seem like some quality products!

Welcome back and Congrats on the new job

Thanks, the past 6 months has been by far the craziest most life changing phase.

Nope, we just make suspension/drivetrain components. Everybody and their mother makes them, there's currently no desire to compete with that market.

Andy's, the owner, mindset is to make products that work well and will last. Many companies just want to sell sell sell and to do that they just meet the bare minimum standard of quality with some of their products. He believes in taking your time and building/engineering things right. I think thats why the Ironman name becoming increasingly popular.

Thanks, perfect example of knowing the right person and maintaining a good relationship. This is one awesome opportunity I was awarded.

Went snow wheeling over the weekend. North Carolina got a lot of snow as many may know. Which made this trip a lot more interesting. First legitmate snow wheeling experience. Snow doesn't bother me, Im from the midwest lol.

Naturally we were the only XJ. Always have been with this group.

On top of that, two friends go married on the trail! Can you believe that? Congratulations to Kylee and Edgar.






















Now its time to finally swap in my D44 with WJ steering and say goodbye to my Dirty 30. She's never let me down, but its time.

Just finshed my video on swapping an 06 TJ 4.0 into my cherokee.

She's a long episode so buckle in or skim through. Let me know what you guys think.