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That'll be pretty cool to have a dash cam in your Jeep, no one will be expecting that! Looking forward to see what your Jeep looks like with the upcountry lift installed!
That'll be pretty cool to have a dash cam in your Jeep, no one will be expecting that! Looking forward to see what your Jeep looks like with the upcountry lift installed!
Thanks! The stuff stopped happening in our garage (for now), so I haven't installed the dash cam yet. I'll probably install it tomorrow if I have time.
I'm booked in next weekend to have the lift installed - stoked!
I was sick since Sunday, so didn't get to install the dash cam. I should have done it Saturday. Shenanigans happened in our garage throughout Sunday (as well as today) and it would have been nice to have on film.
I'm feeling a bit better so I just got it installed (temporarily). I haven't routed any wires nicely (so no photos of the install yet) but I got it slapped in there, and set up, so I can start recording in case something happens. I'll keep tweaking the settings over the next couple days. At this rate, I might be able to get the wires routed nicely on Sunday. Our appointment for suspension install is on Saturday so I can't work on the XJ while it's at the shop. Right now I just have the battery sitting on the floor in the back seat area. I'll probably mount the battery under the rear seat. For now it's connected to the aux power (which I installed on the back of the centre console, where the ashtray used to be) but eventually I'll tap into a fuse or wire permanently. There are fuse taps that come with the kit.
The video quality is quite good. And the parking mode sensitivity is surprisingly sensitive (it picked up a car driving 50 feet away). I might need to turn the sensitivity down. The dashcam also has wifi, so you can connect to the dashcam on your phone and view and download videos remotely. This is super convenient. I'm really impressed. I'm thinking every day on my way to work I'll pop down there, check the videos on my phone, download anything to my phone that's relevant and continue on. Every couple days I'll need to bring the battery to the apartment to charge since we are not driving the XJ daily.
Anyways.. baby steps. I wish I could make more progress faster but have to remind myelf that the suspension install will be a big step.
Dropped the XJ into the shop for suspension install on Saturday.
If all went well, it was supposed to be done by end of day, but of course there was some rust that slowed things down so we have to leave it there a little longer.
Leaf spring bolt/ nut seized and spun in framerail. As expected. The shop needed to hack the leafs out, weld in a new nut and needs to get new hardware. I was expecting this but hoping it wouldn't happen. When I swapped the rear shocks the rust was manageable - so I was hoping the same would hold up on the rest of the suspension.
Front shock bolts sheared. Hardware to be replaced.
Found out the old main leaf springs were broken in half before they took the suspension apart.
So yea, nothing too unusual but it means the XJ is still at the shop. I think we're just waiting on some replacement hardware now then it'll be good to go. It's a good thing I brought it in though - if the main leaf spring was broken in half that would explain a lot of issues. I can't believe I didn't notice that when inspecting the suspension myself!
I should have it back, and photos posted, sometime next weekend
If you were to dig into my previous posts, you'll notice there was no clearance between the top of the rear tires and the rear fender flares. There is so much more clearance now! This is perfect for taking us up to hiking trail heads.
I was also concerned that making it too tall would make it hard for my wife and I to sit on the rear bumper when gearing up for hiking, but I sat on the rear bumper and the height is just about perfect!
I just love the stance now. This is what we wanted when we first bought it, I'm just so dang happy.
Not only does it look much better, but it rides much better too. Much tighter and stiffer. Front no longer clunks when cranking the steering. No more rubbing over tight corners. It rides so smooth on highways and isn't too stiff. The bushings squeak a bit but I hope those will quiet down.
There is a little more noise now around the rear wheels; they seem to be scooping more air. But the front is a lot quieter. I've needed to put sound damping in the rear cargo area for a while, so this might push me to do it sooner.
Work done:
Upcountry suspension replica installed. Parts listed in previous post. Used both front 3/4" coil spacers and IRO adjustable 3/4" shackles.
Found one of the main leafs in the rear was broken in half. That's why it was sagging so bad!
Leaf spring mounting bolts rusted / seized to the bushings. Those were cut out, and thankfully the threads/ nuts in the frame were in-tact. The shop put in all new leaf spring mounting hardware / bolts.
Rear bumpstops were completely gone. Only the metal part was left. Bolts seized into the frame. Those were drilled out, holes re-tapped and new bump stops (with new hardware) installed.
Front sway bar links were rusted to nuts and broke when being removed. Bushings were bad too. I think this is why the steering was clunking. Sway bar links were replaced with new ones and new bushings.
Refreshed some of the lugnuts with new ones (I've been sitting on this for a while. The previous owner had mismatched lugnuts. I think the PO removed locknuts and replaced with random lugnuts he had on hand).
Yet another post.. see the previous post for more photos and details on the work done this past week.
I put together a quick comparison to Malcom on the day we bought it.
I started summarizing all the work done, but the list is too long...but I'm just beside myself. I'm really happy with the progress. The suspension was the last thing on my original build plan so I'm really happy its done.
Still planning on some more work before winter:
Permanently wire the dash cam in
Winter tires
Adjust the headlights now the suspension has been changed
I've still got a lot I'm planning on doing, but I don't think I'll get much else done before and during the winter.
We're getting ready for a possible trip next summer; I'm hoping we can drive out to the Alberta badlands and go camping and backpacking for a couple weeks out there. I'm also hoping to volunteer to help with trail maintenance on the trail we through hiked this past summer. Malcom will be our basecamp and support system for that trip.
So last weekend, while driving out of the building parking garage to go for a hike I realized the new ride height brings the XJ roof quite close to maxing out the clearance to the garage door.
There used to be so much clearance that I didn't even notice it before, but now Malcom has..taller suspension..the roof looks quite close to the bottom of the garage door. When driving through the garage door, the XJ is still partly angled downhill (driveway goes down hill to go under ground to the parking garage) so I assumed the angled position is taking up some clearance too. I still need to get out of the Jeep the next time we drive it to measure how much clearance we have above the roof but I'm not expecting lots of clearance.
Sooo...this might be a problem for the goal of getting a roof top tent.
So not sure yet if I can get a tent to fit, but I'd still like a usable roof rack at least so I want to explore my options.
Anyone know of any low profile roof racks that are..more beefy than the stock one? I was planning on having one made but I'm also interested in bought-in options if I can find alternatives that are cheap enough. Certainly looking for some inspiration.
If I can't go with a roof top tent, any ideas for how / what to store on the roof rack? I won't be able to fit the spare tire up there either, and I don't want to anyways. But what about fuel/ water containers? Any options for quickly strapping down/connecting them?
Any other ideas for how to get around this? I mean, I could install a tent in the alley before/after trips but this seems like a lot of work.
I guess it's not all bad - roof top storage will kill the fuel economy but we're looking at getting a dog and maybe children..so we need a little bit of room inside and can't cram too much stuff inside. The rear seats need to be functional.
Fantastic looking truck. You've done a heck of a job with it. I saw that you mentioned getting winter tires. If I may suggest, I would give the Grabber AT2's a chance. They are a good AT tire and are actually rated for winter driving (3PMSF). I have them on my pickup and they haven't let me down in the snow. That would free up money for other things.
Fantastic looking truck. You've done a heck of a job with it. I saw that you mentioned getting winter tires. If I may suggest, I would give the Grabber AT2's a chance. They are a good AT tire and are actually rated for winter driving (3PMSF). I have them on my pickup and they haven't let me down in the snow. That would free up money for other things.
Dang; I haven't logged in for a while. We've already gone ahead and gotten winter tires. Our finances are much better than we expected earlier in the year, so this isn't a burden to us and I feel it lets us get out more often in the snow (which we really, really need this year!). We had run up the mountain a few weeks ago with the Grabbers on the XJ with a skiff of snow on the road and they performed much better than our previous AT tires, but we still opted to go with dedicated winter tires. I've been told before "even the best AT or all season tires aren't as good as the worst winter tires". Well, maybe that statement is an exaggeration but I definitely realize that a good set of winter tires should outperform the Grabbers in the snow (even though the Grabbers were pretty dang good).
After much research, and much struggle to figure out what tires are any good, we got Toyo Observe GSi-5. 225/75/R15. I got the size to be a little minus sized relative to the Grabber AT2s. They are a little expensive; certainly more than the Grabbers were. But there was a rebate (that I barely was able to qualify for...) that makes the cost a lot more attractive.
We mounted them to a dedicated set of wheels that I bought for cheap on Craigslist locally last year. Just a simple black set of stock Jeep wheels (I like the centrecaps on them!).
We took Malcom out today and went up the mountain to go backcountry snowshoeing and hiking. This is the first time all year we have seen that much snow (it was really coming down this morning) and I'm glad we had the tires. They performed well going up the mountain in a small flurry. I don't have many photos of us in the Jeep out there, as the drive was pretty boring, but we had a lot of fun on the mountain.
The Grabber AT2s are in our storage unit in our apartment building, on a shelf I made specifically to store them. The grabbers are a little heavy to lift onto the rack, but manageable. This keeps our storage unit really organized (mostly Jeep parts). The extra set of wheels and the cost of the shelf pay for themselves after not paying for tire storage for 1-2 years so it evens out. Now that the tires are mounted to rims, I will probably swap the wheels over myself in the spring rather than bring it into a shop. So generally I should be able to avoid the rush in the winter/ spring to change out tires...and save a bit of money by changing them over myself every year.
I know this isn't too exciting..but heck with it I'll show the design of the tire shelf. I thought hard about buying a premade tire shelf and I couldn't find anything that would work with my storage space. Instead I made the shelf out of 2x4s. This was done in the hallway of my apartment unit between our kitchen and bathroom. Since I made it inside a 435 square foot apartment, I used a hand saw and corded drill to keep the dust and noise down. I designed it in CAD to figure out exactly how much material to get and figure out the dimensions. It took a lot of work to configure it. I had to figure out how to actually make the shelf fit and work in the storage unit. There's not a lot of space, so what worked was a shelf that is elevated about 5' off the ground. This gives enough clearance for the tires to sit on top. This is WAY different than how I originally wanted to make this all work.
The width of this shelf is the entire width of my storage unit. The length is also the entire depth of the storage unit. So the void in the bottom right - this is where I can physically walk into the unit to access my stuff. Below the tire shelf is a steel wire shelf that I store tools and parts on. The way the space is configured, I can step in and on my left are some tools and bike parts. In front of me is Jeep parts and tools. Then above is the tires. I don't have to remove anything from the storage unit to access it - it's just really well organized.
A view through the door at the tires. Below you will see a steel wire shelf with lots of Jeep parts and tools on it.
That's awesome! The winter tires will help you if you live in an area that gets frequent snows, especially icy roads and stuff. Living in NJ we don't get that many snow storms, and usually within 24 hours the road are totally blacktop. They also use more salt than you would believe, so the need for winter tires is pretty much non-existent for a 4WD vehicle.
Having a good spot to store the tires and even being able to change them yourself, you will do great. The storage area you have set up is fantastic.
That's awesome! The winter tires will help you if you live in an area that gets frequent snows, especially icy roads and stuff. Living in NJ we don't get that many snow storms, and usually within 24 hours the road are totally blacktop. They also use more salt than you would believe, so the need for winter tires is pretty much non-existent for a 4WD vehicle.
Having a good spot to store the tires and even being able to change them yourself, you will do great. The storage area you have set up is fantastic.
I'm in Vancouver, BC, Canada - so the weather here is very mild in the city. The roads are bare. I mean, it's raining but the weather is above freezing. So it's a little out of place driving within the city with snow tires on, but it's not far to the mountains the the snow really picks up there! We only drive the Jeep out of town, so we don't drive much on dry pavement in the winter before we hit the mountains and start needing the tires. It's just such a weird transition to go from a rainy city to lots of snow in a short period of time, but that's why I live here!
Originally Posted by RockinRonnie
Nice job on tire rack!
Depending on the amount of driving you do you should get several years out of the winter tires not running them in the summer.
I think so! It's not a daily driver so we don't drive the Jeep much at all. I think we'll get quite a few seasons out of these tires.
Thanks!
We've been spending our holidays using the Jeep to enjoy the outside.
I managed to adjust the headlights finally. Not only did I replace the headlights but we got the suspension replaced so I really should have adjusted them sooner. Oddly enough - they were pretty much spot on already but I'm glad I checked and tweaked them a bit. They work quite a bit better in the dark than the old ones - so I'm super happy to have done the H4 and harness conversion. I used the bulbs that came with the H4 housings, and I think they could be a bit brighter so I'll look for a better bulb later next year.
We still haven't gotten any snow in town but the rain has been intense. We headed out to Elfin Lakes in Garabaldi Provincial Park for an overnight trip. The drive out of Vancouver was dark, and very wet. We left in the dark and planned on arriving at around sunrise to maximize daylight. The roads were covered in rain and the Jeep was hydroplaning a bit on the road (we've noticed this happens a lot on a new stretch of highway that doesn't seem to have good drainage). My wife is a really good driver and managed to deal with the weather with no issues, but this was a huge contrast to the weather about an hour later once we got to the park.
The road up to the trailhead is a dirt road; a bit bumpy but not too bad. There was a nice layer of snow on the ground, and thankfully it was light out at that point and our snow tires are proving to be pretty good. After a while there is a dirt road that's a little narrower, with more snow, and much steeper that is tire chain mandatory (with a park ranger there to make sure you chain up). My wife bought a cheap set of chains a couple days before so we put those on and made it to the trailhead with no problems. On our way in we saw one abandoned vehicle. On our way out we saw another abandoned Subaru, as well as Jeep Patriot in the ditch. The drive wasn't very intense, but I'm glad we have something that drives well and handles well in the snow. Below photo is of a good stretch of the road.
The hike was great. Low visibility on the way in, but it cleared up the next day. The cabin is super nice and it got BUSY that night. It's only a 11km hike each way, so it's not too difficult but a really nice way to spend the days leading up to Christmas.
The sunrise the next morning.
And Malcom at the trailhead when we got back the next day. It's been driving so well, we've been using it much more lately than we had when we first bought it. Didn't take too much to start it up after spending the night below freezing either.
10-29-2018, 05:58 PM
