WANT!

 

Nice pictures and awesome work you have done to your XJ! Sorry to hear about the ARB failing on ya, especially on the trail.. Big Dogs is an awesome place to wheel for sure. I went last year for the Spring Fling and had a blast. Rolled in Thursday morning and wheeled all day Friday and Saturday. I will say once we were done Saturday, I was never so happy to step out of my XJ! It was HOT and my body was beat all to ****! With no carpet or headliner, I was wanting to jump out on the trail and sit my **** in the creek! Having the lake to cool off in was super nice at the end of Saturdays run!

I wanted to go again this year but, decided to take this year off from working on the XJ. I am starting to get burned out wrenching on it just about every weekend to make a run with a group somewhere...My friends are all PO'd at me for not going this year but, they will get over it!! Keep up the awesome work and maybe I'll see ya at Big Dogs next year!!

 

OK, Alpha 1-4 - Thank you for the wanting and WOW that's a creepy picture! ;-)

Punisher - Thank you too. A bunch of us do a January camping trip out your way at Hone Quarry campground every year and usually a run up to Flag Pole and down Union Springs. Beautiful country.

This was our first trip to Big Dogs. I actually won a pass to get into it this year at the VA4WDA annual meeting and since we're a business member I figured I would make an appearance. Not having the rear locker took a lot of the fun out of it. Honestly I was starting to question my switch from the TJ before we figured out it was broke. I drove it through worse terrain than that with just a rear locker and smaller tires so I was sad that I was struggling so much in the XJ.

I think I'd make the extra couple hour drive and go to Rausch Creek in the future. Looks like we're doing that again in August. Then I'll have two lockers and trails I already know to do a real comparison.

 

I haven't been to Rausch Creek before but, I hear it's pretty awesome. I have definitely been on the local trails around here several times and the scenery never gets old!

Look me up sometime when you and the group are out this way..If something goes wrong and you need a place to work on anything, I have a trailer and a tow rig. You are more than welcome to wrench at my place or hang out, whatever!!

 

It is. The trails are similar but there's a lot of them. I like that it's not a guided structured thing too. You can just get your crew together and go. And my wife really likes the cabins at the KOA down the road. Oh, OK. After a long hot day on the trail I prefer a hot shower and a nice cabin over a tent too.

Thank you! We don't make it out to the GW as much as we used to. Just the winter trip usually. We do run Shoe Creek here and there though since it's good day trip for us. I'll let you know if we're heading out that way and we can meet up.

 

Finally got the ambition up to get the locker fixed. Of course I ended up finding out that the case spreader I had built for the Dana 30 is 2" too narrow for a Dana 44 so I had to stop everything and run around collecting parts to rebuild that before I could actually pull the carrier out. Then after getting the last fine thread bolt at one TSC I promptly welded it to the sleeve that it's supposed to spin inside of by accident and had to go to another TSC 14 miles the other direction. I bought two this time. Always something.

Anyhow I got the new seal housing in and routed the air line up over the ring out of harms way instead of under like the original installer had done. And now I have a functioning locker.

Since I spent all the time running around and fabricating tools I didn't get to straightening out the tie rod or tending to my other trail damage underneath. Another day. Tearing the axle down was what I was dreading anyway.

How they routed it originally.


After the ring gear ate the air line.


New housing rerouted airline.

 

Well i finally picked up a trailer to haul the rig to those far off trail beatings so I can stop worrying about getting home. Now I'm debating on selling or keeping the camping trailer since it'll be sitting idle 99% of the trips now. Got a nice 16' 7,000# wood decked low boy.



Also picked up a set of XRC suspension seats. Unfortunately we're out of all black so I had to go with black and gray. Not the best fit with my tan and dark gray interior but oh well.

Just got the driver side mocked up on Monday. I need to build some adapter brackets to get them mounted in the XJ but they look like they'll be a huge improvement over the worn out stock seats.







Unfortunately on Tuesday I went out to help out a former boss for a couple days (gotta pay for that trailer!) and fell off a set of scaffolding. Dislocated my shoulder and jammed up my back and hip pretty bad so the Jeep is on hold. Over ten years as a carpenter/contractor and never had a serious accident. Go back out for a couple days and made it an hour and down I go. Looking like I have a couple months of rehab ahead of me now.

So now I'm learning to type with my right hand (always used my left). Trying to work on a website with one arm is harder than it sounds. But I can still process orders so keep 'em coming!

 

5 weeks down after the shoulder dislocation and I finally got back in the shop over the weekend. Still next to useless with the left arm but at least I can hold things while I cut and drill them.

Finally got the driver seat adapter brackets built. The stock seats located the inner mounting bolts closer to the center of the seat to allow for the transmission hump but the suspension seats have a solid frame on the outer edge. Had to raise it up a half inch to gain some clearance. Now hopefully they'll break in a bit because my head is a little too close to the roof for my liking. Hope to get the passenger side in soon.







When I built the adapters I didn't have the handle in to activate the seat slider and since it's been over a month since I tore it out I didn't remember where the seat was positioned. You can see the handle sticks way out in front of the seat. I think if I flip the adapters around to the passenger side it will move the seat forward 2-1/2". That should be enough to get the handle tucked back up under and I can just build a reverse set for the driver side then.

Still have a leaking axle seal to tend to and the steering box was starting to sound bad last time I was able to drive it so I've got some work to do. Heading to Rausch Creek in August so I need to get to it.

Just really happy to be back in the shop even if only for a few hours.

 

Glad to hear you're back at it. It's been almost 2 years since I busted up my shoulder in a motorcycle mishap, and there's still things that I can't do properly. Hopefully your recovery continues to go well and you can keep making that Jeep more and more beautiful.

 

Thanks. I hear the same from buddy that had his shattered in a motorcycle accident. At least I didn't have anything broken but it was pulled out a couple inches so I'm sure it's torn up pretty bad in there.

Had a lot of plans for the Jeep and a bunch of work lined up on other people's Jeeps this summer, maybe even opening up a shop, but I guess that will have to wait. Just thankful I didn't break my neck and that I was only 5 feet off the ground with a nice shrub to slow me down after I bounced off the scaffold. Things can always be worse.

Starting physical therapy this morning. Time for the pain!

 

I hope the shoulder continues to get better man! Your seats look awesome I like the color with the interior.

 

Thanks. They don't look as bad as I thought they would. I guess there's enough gray in there to match it up.

Just need to get motivated to the other side. Not being allowed to do anything for five weeks makes you lazy.

 

Awesome build!

 

Thank you!

 

Yeah it looks like it matches the steering wheel nicely and all the other darker pieces in there. Hey man slow and steady wins the race haha!