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I'll post pictures and videos I took this weekend, went out to a friends ranch out towards Big Bear near Lake Arrowhead, ran through, desert, mud then snow. I don't have many good action pictures since I didn't have a co-pilot and I can't shoot video when I got both hands on the wheel  .
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Jan 29, 2008 03:15
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Heres a trip I took last weekend out in the mountains towards big bear, it was a fun trip, full of desert, mud, and snow. After 3 months, I figured it was time to bolt my skidguards back onto the truck. This trip was last minute for me, so I would up putting 150 lbs of this crap on at 2 am Friday morning in a middle of a rainstorm. Fun fun.  My truck was totally brown at one point but all the rain at the lower elevations washed most of it off. At least both sides of my truck have matching pinstripes now.  My friends tricked out 2006 Duramax, we were waiting for additional trucks to show up.  There was horizontal sleet and hail, then it cleared for 2 hours.  Once we got past 5700 ft we put on chains. I didn't have any so I aired down, I did ok with the stock MT Hmmwv tires. I'll be picking up a set of chains for myself soon.  The next morning we took off towards big bear on the back trails. Towards the end the snow was 2-3 feet deep and we were the first ones there, we put the heavy humvees in the front to plow the way for the rest of us, which caused a problem later on...   None of the paths were cleared, after we rolled through near a parking lot we started seeing lots of traffic following us, not realizing that we were the ones clearing the path with our trucks. An impatient jerk in a powerstroke ford blew past us, almost ran over one of the kids in the group, only to get to the front of the lineup to realize there was no path cleared. He sheepishly waited for us to pass and followed us for a bit then turned around and went back home. Also saw a stuck volkswagon thing try to make it with street tires. Didn't get a picture though.  We bumped into this guy with his tricked out Jeep. It was a rubicon unlimited, with 37" wheels, double beadlocks with a air bag suspension system. We came across him in the morning while was helping out two teenagers.  Two teenagers who thought it would be a good idea to go through BLM trails in a 2wd stock S10 pickup at 2am in the morning. The jeep pulled them out and they were waiting for more trucks to roll through the area [us] to pack down the path a bit so they could get back.  We got so far, stopped had lunch then headed back to a friends ranch for a bbq. Half of our group split off halfway down the mountain to help with vehicle extractions. A Jeep group was coming the other way, didn't want to wait for us to pass and decided to cut their own path to pass us.  Tread Lightly indeed.One of them blew their planetary and 4 of us helped them out. We managed to get the jeep in Neutral and tow it back to the highway. It took 6 hours because we kept encountering disabled vehicles. I'll post some video later on, I don't have many pictures of some of the more interesting hills and switchbacks because I can't take pictures and drive at the same time. Next time I'll bring a cameraman along. Big K of Justice fucked around with this message at 21:08 on Jan 30, 2008 |
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Jan 30, 2008 21:05
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IOwnCalculus posted:A civillian Hummer actually getting to do what it's supposed to do. Beautiful. drat right. As time passes the value on most of the trucks will drop to the point where normal people who will use these trucks as intended rather then people buying them for a status symbol. A few friends on another forum picked up some cheaper early 90 Hummers for less then 20k, including a 2 door pickup model [rare, only 700-800 made total] for 16,000$. It's got the old 6.2 but its more reliable then the mid 90's 6.5 Turbos. One of my friends just posted some better pictures of us out in the snow.  This is where we eventually wound up if you can find it on a map. I don't have the BLM data nearby.  Our group leader, making a trail for us through 2-3 feet of snow. Uphill.  The snow got up to 2-3 feet, I got stuck in a spot where it was a 4 foot dip of soft snow, I slid sideways and I had too much friction on my side and bottom of the rig to get out in LL and using brake modulation on my limited slip diffs. I got strapped out by a guy behind me and took a higher line.  My friends rig, similar to my truck except he has better paint. He's got his truck tricked out with some nice features, it's running on airbags, with a second compressor. The CTI compressor for the tires is still stock, but the secondary compressor keeps the bags up as well as provide enough cfm and pressure to run his air tools from a chuck at the back of his rig.  A better rainbow picture then mine. IOwnCalculus posted:I think it would have been comical, however, to have an H2 and an H3 tagging along and/or getting dragged along by the real Hummers H3 is a neat truck, it did well in Baja, H2 has very good slope and approach ability, its just people buy those things as urban people movers then off road trucks. That and the H2 should have been a diesel since day one. I mean hell, any h1 or hmmwv will get better fuel economy then an H2. GM
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Jan 31, 2008 06:21
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-luke- posted:I'd have a real hard time keeping a straight face if I had to talk to a hummer owner that flew giant twin American flags on the trail. Didn't Bigfoot run that gimmick into the ground back in the 80's? The guys who run the big US / POW/MIA flags in our group are military or vets. Doesn't bother me either way, makes it easier to spot where they are.
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Jan 31, 2008 11:20
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What kind of GPS's do you guys run? I'm trying to narrow down a selection, I'm looking at Garmin and Lowrance. The street pilot stuff and the chart ploter/commercial versions of the units with topographical maps. Trying to figure out what to get for the truck next, besides a light bar ( I can't safely do night runs with stock lights ) and a HAM/UHF/VHF radio unit. I need something that can do both streets and topographical data.
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Jan 31, 2008 22:20
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Ferremit posted:Ive never heard the words "IFS" and "Strong" used in the same sentance before! That's generally true to an extent. I think the only stock IFS's that are very strong from the factory are the Humvee/Hummer H1 and some of the other heavy duty/military trucks like some of the OSHKOSH rigs. Otherwise you'll have to beef up the stock rigs, unless some of the trucks you see in rally racing [ie. trophy trucks in baja] are using stock OE a-arms but I doubt it.
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Feb 5, 2008 03:12
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For anyone in the southwest, there is a big Calico [A ghost town near Barstow, CA] cleanup event. http://www.calicocleanup.com/ I'm planning on showing up with a few of my buddies, just passing the word for keeping our trails clean. This event is in conjunction with the BLM, for garbage pickup and wreck removal.
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Feb 6, 2008 01:41
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Anyone in Socal go to the Calico Cleanup event this weekend? Picked up lots of trash/junk and target practice leftovers in the high desert, inadvertently took a different route back and according to the BLM and local clubs we were the first H1's and HMMWV's to navigate Odessa Canyon [ ] , we had a big crowd watching and I'm trying to find additional pictures and video, since I was more occupied driving through the washed out trail and cliff faces then documenting things.Time for new rock sliders and rocker panel guards while I'm at it  . I'll see if I can post some youtube/photos later.
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Feb 19, 2008 17:07
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Go figure, as soon as I dump my old 16.5" HMMWV wheels due to a shortage of good quality new tires, and getting sick of running old rear end surplus Goodyear M/T's, BF Goodrich rolls out their BAJA AT tire for the HMMWV. 4,540 lb weight capacity per tire plus 10-20% better performance over the goodyear mt's. At 500$ a pop it isn't cheap, it'll be leaps and bounds a better tire over the crap goodyear has been making for hummer/humvee over the last 2 decades. I guess this was in responsible to the government banning the use of IROK/Super swampers for Iraq/Afghanistan and that good year couldn't keep up with demand for new rubber. Should be an interesting tire if they expand it to more standard size wheels although at that weight capacity it'll be only good for hummers and big pickups and utility vehicles. I've seen pictures of a 20 bolt, 8 lug split wheel that will come in a 17" size, but I'm guessing the military would rather keep using 16.5" wheels for now due to cost of retrofitting the entire fleet with larger wheel. Another option for the jeep crowd who are running hmmwv wheels with the beadlocks and run flats. Considering the lack of tire options for 16.5" wheels at least. I'm guessing it's based on the BAJA competition carcass they sell for score.
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Apr 6, 2008 00:47
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Advent Horizon posted:While that's a drat fine looking tire for heavy rigs that see mostly hard pack duty, it looks like total crap for a light vehicle. I had a choice of going with the Cepeks, Iroks, Dirt Grips, or Interco Traxxas/Swampers, all great dedicated trail tires, but since I daily drive my rig, I needed something that offered a decent on road performance as well. There's not much in the way of A/T/street radials anymore in that size, especially for D/E load range. I was looking at BFG's but until this Military BAJA tire was available, most of their offerings were in any size but 16.5". I wanted to keep a set of 16.5" wheels with very aggressive tires for my big multi day off road trips, and keep a set of a/t or touring tires on alloys for street use, but I don't have the storage anymore. So I split the difference with the BFG A/T KO's. when those wear out I'll probably move to the M/T KM2's. So in that sense there really wasn't that big of a lack of tires, just that the OEM specified gsa/mt tires for the civilian humvee are only available in 17" now. I'm guessing there's going to be a metric shitload of Goodyear MT's hitting the surplus scene. There;s a guy in Arizona on ebay who picked up thousands off them, most of them with only 10-20% wear and is selling them for 400-500$ for a set of 4 with ups ground shipping included. Thats a decent price for 37" trail tires if you got 16.5" wheels.
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Apr 6, 2008 03:19
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Anyone got any examples of radio and storage setups on their trucks? I'm planning to mount a commercial vhf/ham radio unit plus a cb in my truck [I'm using a vector hand held unit for the moment]. The issue I got is security since I got a rag top. I'm planing on replacing my glove box with a tuffy truck vault for some stuff, and I'm thinking of retrofitting the jeep center roof-rollbar console on the humvee between the A and B pillars. It's a neat unit with 2 drop down radio panels that can be locked and secured when not in use. The problem it drops down towards the rear of the truck and I'd rather have something that drops down and faces the driver. I can either modify it so it drops down at a different angle or just start designing and fabricate my own unit.  Anyone know of any other vendors that sell products similar to this?
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Apr 15, 2008 19:57
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FUUUUCK. I just had one of those right place at the wrong time moments. I had to pass on a HMMWV/M998 project truck for $8500 in Los Angeles. Complete 6.2L diesel drive train, 4 seater rag top with rolling chassis and full body work. Needs new fuel and electrical setup. Los Angeles cost of living. No place to store and build the project. Would have been an awesome dedicated trail truck.I think one of my buddies snapped it up I'll have to go check. If it's not gone I'll post the contact info of the guy here if any socal goon wants a hmmwv project truck for cheap. [Worse case, I figure it'll need about 4-5 grand worth of work for a whole new wholesale fuel system and electrical harness, and to deal with any surprises]. The engine is hauled out, if I brought it I'd probably drop in a Cummins BP4 for shits and giggles and throw in a rubber duck suspension lift, add upgraded half shafts and toss on some serious rubber on the thing. Big K of Justice fucked around with this message at 16:10 on Apr 16, 2008 |
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Apr 16, 2008 16:08
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Peer pressure can be a dangerous and expensive thing. A friend of mine dug up these pictures from Glamis/Imperial Dunes from a few months back. The going story is the guy recently brought the truck, and decided to launch it off a multi-story high sand dune going about 40+ mph. In a 7000 lb truck. With the aerodynamics of a brick. With only a few inches of suspension travel. In a sand rail or a unlimited trophy truck, you may be able to get away with it, an stock h1? Not so much. A shot out of a Micheal Bay film.    No one was hurt, and the owner drove the truck back to camp afterwards. It was still drivable. Just beat up with the ugly stick. I can't remember if there was frame damage or not, but to replace all the aluminum damaged bodywork would run about 10 grand in parts alone.
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Apr 21, 2008 16:49
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SFH1989 posted:I love how three different generations of Jeep were used to turn him over. It's like 3 cousins helping up their  sibling. It's kind of odd how close the whole HMMWV/Hummer line came becoming a Jeep product again. AM General was split off from AMC when Renault brought out AMC [US government wasn't keen on a defense contractor being sold to the French]. After it was sold back to Chrysler, they had the option of picking up the General Products division of AMC [AM General] but they had no interest so it was spun off to another Defense contractor, LTV. I guess Chrysler saw no point in picking up a company that made Deuces, Mail Jeeps, city buses and this new fangled HMMWV thing.This is why Jeep lost the 7 slot grill lawsuit a few years back with GM/Hummer. That being said, hmmwv jumping made it into a military training video on what not to do: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9U56TRKeZE It's always painful to go to pismo or some other OVA and see first timer do some really dumb boneheaded poo poo or show off. Always ends in tragedy or comedy depending on your outlook.
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Apr 23, 2008 06:12
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Jabs posted:Been doing some reading on that very subject, and have learned (and let me know if I'm on the right track) As for skidplates it would probably depend on the drivetrain geometry of your vehicle. I'd work my way from the front to the rear of the vehicle depending how crazy you get. I'd protect, differentials, engine, transmission, transfercase then fuel tanks/misc in that order. If you plan ahead when you pick a line when rockcrawling you can factor in the limitations of your vehicle. On my truck I get steel bar cages on the front and rear differential, and a big rear end cage covering the engine and transmission. The Skidplate and fuel tank got metal sheets to deflect things but I'll be replacing that and extending the main steer bars setup right across to the back of the truck. I've seen trucks high center on boulders and stall the truck when the boulders press against the drive train and shafts. It's kinda odd. You'd think if things are pressing against the drive shaft, you can shift the whole system into Neutral and still idle the engine. I guess it was bending the motor mounts/flywheel a certain way when the starter was trying to engage. The gearing sounds right, although I usually plot ahead to know what range I need. Going downhill on rocks I'm usually 4Lo, Lockers are on if I know I'm going to have wheels in the air. I'd absolutely recommend these books for technique and tips: http://www.amazon.com/Four-Wheelers-Bible-Jim-Allen/dp/0760310564/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209090426&sr=8-1 http://www.amazon.com/4-Wheel-Freedom-Art-Off-Road-Driving/dp/0873648919/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b
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Apr 25, 2008 03:35
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I'll probably be posting a project thread on this eventually, our race truck: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StDgD8bfR0c First Unlimited H1 in competition [Hummers usually run stock/oem classes like 8]. First race is in August, Vegas to Reno, eventually doing the Baja 1000, I'll be part of the crew and will be running my truck as a chase/equipment truck if things go well. We pulled the truck up to Stoddard Valley to adjust suspension and check for loose hoses and any other issues, the truck has much higher suspension travel then a stock H1, so much so, the halfshafts were being knocked off the truck when you hit the whoopdie doos going 60+ mph. We're going to adjust that and bring the truck back out again soon. We couldn't really take it up to full speed, there was too much long weekend traffic on the trails, so we went to an isolated section and had spotters along a few miles to make sure no kids on quads or any rhinos were in the way. Big K of Justice fucked around with this message at 19:33 on Jun 1, 2008 |
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May 25, 2008 10:39
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Fpenguin posted:i have 1956 gm bus with a 140 gal tank I got 2 tanks on the hummer, 42 gallons total, I'm thinking of adding a transfer flow 40 gallon transfer tank/tool box combo to bring me up to 82 gallons. Mainly so I can fill up at a friends biodiesel setup every few months for super cheap [2$ a gallon vs 5$ a gallon]. Every off road trip typically runs me about 100$ in fuel for a weekend run, otherwise I go through about 40$ a week. I think the next big trip is the vegas to reno desert race in August, but fortunately the team lead is paying for food/fuel and lodging for us, otherwise that'd be about 700$ in diesel fuel to run there and back.
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Jul 14, 2008 21:58
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Stupid should hurt Our off road group adopted a few trails in the San Bernardino county region, where we maintain the trails, block off new illegal access and try to reduce erosion. Since we have a few h1's, tractors, and a deuce crane, we'll get called on by the local ranger for vehicle recovery work. So a guy buys a new H3, and decides to go off road. By himself, with no extra equipment or provisions and winds up having to get a helicopter ride out of the mountains after dropping his truck 300 ft into a ravine by driving on a path that he shouldn't have been on in the first place. Once he slid off, he used Onstar and a air unit was dispatched to recover him. He could have hiked 3 miles back to the road, but I don't know the whole situation there. He didn't get charged for the ride, but he did get fined by the Forest Service for going off trail. He started to post for help on a few local forums so we went to check it out after another guy in a diesel dually didn't have enough line to reach him. So on to the pictures: I get the feeling this trail is for hiking and bikes only.  We weren't going down into the bush to hook the thing up, the owner is somewhere in the middle of the picture.  Pulling him up:   Damage:  Other then a few scratches, the only real damage he had was a busted half shaft. Which is still drivable if he locked his drive train. An expensive lesson, but in the end no one was hurt, the driver learned an important tread lightly lesson. That and it's a reason you shouldn't really be out in the sticks alone. If there were a few other guys with him, properly equipped, they could have gotten themselves extracted, or more importantly not go on foot paths like that in the first place .We directed him to a few local off road clubs so he can properly learn the ropes next time.
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Jul 16, 2008 16:30
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ethanol posted:Excuse my poor ethics but man that sound like a lot of fun having to go off trial and rescue some poor rule breaking schmuck. The best times I've had off roading is usually on big trail cleanups or maintenance runs where we get a few area clubs involved along with the BLM or FS and we wind up having a big bbq afterwards and get shirts and stuff. Recovery is important, and its good practice to help others out and to understand grade and how it relates to load and traction and the physics behind it. Now when you have multiple vehicles to recover due to snow or general retardation and it takes you 12 hours to get back to civilization because 2 or 3 vehicles are blocking the trail and the owners are not being cooperative then it really starts to suck. It's also a great way to meet others, and hook up with the larger clubs in the area that are active with the local parks service people. It also shows some responsibility to the authorities, so we have some ammunition to use against the hippie crowd that wants to shut everything down. Try to clean up our own messes and all of that. Even if it means that we have to clean up poo poo that we didn't cause. Big K of Justice fucked around with this message at 21:16 on Jul 16, 2008 |
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Jul 16, 2008 21:12
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The King of Swag posted:BigK, can you shed some insight into exactly what these cleanups entail? If it was that easy. You wouldn't need any vehicles actually. Anyone can participate, and the main driving force is to keep these areas open for vehicle use. Once an area is shut down for access its impossible to get it opened up again. This is from Calico: http://www.dirtopia.com/wiki/Calico http://www.calicocleanup.com/  There was so much trash from one year there was about 4-5 semi truck loads to be hauled away after the day was done. In our group we found about 6 trash bags full of glass shards[target shooting], and few axles and differentials kicking around here and there. No whole vehicles this time. I think we even found an old traffic light, or what was left of it. The only thing we weren't allowed to touch was any of the historic trash on tin can alley, which had can's that's been sitting there, riddled with bullet holes from the old west era. About 700 volunteers descended on the desert on that run. Dishpan trail in San Bernardino National Forest, the trail was closed for a long while due to forest fires that ran through the region last year. The forest service didn't have a budget to reopen it so our hummer group and the victor valley jeep group showed up and we cleared the bush, picked up any trash and moved dead and fallen trees out of harms way. Anything that was in danger of falling on the trail was removed. We groomed other areas to prevent future fires or any type of erosion. http://www.dirtopia.com/wiki/Dishpan_Springs_Trail   Moving 5-7,000 lb logs is a bit quicker with the diesels.  Afterwards we had a bbq and drove around for a bit.  No damage there, the jeep was just flipped back over and the guy drove down the waterfall. The guy after him lost his bead, and was reseated about 15 minutes later. 2N17X near Cleghorn http://www.dirtopia.com/wiki/2N17X  My favorite Jeep Willy's on 37's if I'm not mistaken. We reinforce the saddle portions of the trail to reduce/prevent erosion. This was put in to place by hand with a ton of manual labor and with a duece with a few hummers and jeeps with trailers hauling up stone. Honestly you can do much of the work with a decent diesel pickup, but the hummer can fit in more places and is a more stable platform for some work. We run on BLM controlled land quite a bit, and it's an interesting environment since theres many rarely traveled trails. Out there you have homesteaders. I'm not 100% familiar with the policy, but apparently if you reside on BLM land for 7 years within a fenced in portion of land, you will own the land after that point. So we'll find people camping/living out in the middle of no where, but many usually give up after a few months or a year or two. Theres some issues with drugs out there as well, we came across a meth lab in a cave once, that was something we didn't clean up and we left to the feds to take care off. Fun times. Big K of Justice fucked around with this message at 07:47 on Jul 17, 2008 |
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Jul 17, 2008 07:39
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Baby Hitler posted:BigK, what team car/number are you chasing the Vegas to Reno for? The US Army team truck number #52. I won't be at the pre run since I'll be out of the country that week. We were having issues getting enough hotel space booked, but when they changed the course we managed to get a few more beds. Should be good fun, never rolled across Nevada before, hopefully I'll have enough time to pictures of the race.
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Jul 17, 2008 16:22
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 Rise from your grave thread.....Well on New years, I went to install my new rocker panel protection and sliders. What should have taken about an hour, took 6. My OEM rocker guards, large 7/16" Aluminum alloy pans that wrap around the edges of the truck. Counter sunk holes on the bottom for bolts and drainage, and bolts in the front and rear of the pan to secure it to the body.  Click here for the full 1024x768 image. Mine were.. erm.. well used. But they did their job, I slammed one corner of my truck on some slickrock and it bent the heck out of one corner, but it didn't touch the body.  Click here for the full 1024x768 image. The new rocker guards with sliders. Made from 7/16" Steel, same dimensions as OEM but now has reinforced sides which come out on an angle to allow for the truck to sit on it at really odd angles. This was a based on a design my friend did up for his truck, I saw a picture of it leaning on it's side and it kept the rocks from smashing into the doors and the mirror [mostly]. He was going to fabricate another set, but fell into dispute with his fabricator who tripled the price. What made things complicated was that his original cad files weren't the latest, the fabricator made some tweaks to make it work, but didn't want to release the plans, at least without getting paid. Fair enough, my friend gave a set of older unfinished guards with the old plans to another friend who reversed engineered the setup and made a few tweaks. A year later we finally got a batch done up.  Click here for the full 1024x768 image. A few months ago, I redid one of the seat mounting brackets which required me removing the right hand side rocker panels. When I replaced them, I replaced most of the socket bolts with standard grade 8 bolts with anti-seize. The bolts along the bottom still needed to be socket bolts, so I cleaned them up with a wire brush and put anti-seize on them as well. It paid off since it took about 5 minutes to remove the panel with very little effort. The left side however had one bolt which had a snapped off nutsert with no access and a seized bolt. After stripping one, and not having a torch on hand, we tried easy outs and drills but that started to become a real pain in the rear [the bolts were very hard steel].  Click here for the full 1024x768 image.  We turned the stripped bolt into a screw and used a large screwdriver to twist it out. The other bolt?  
Big K of Justice fucked around with this message at 20:17 on Jan 2, 2009 |
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Jan 2, 2009 20:10
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dharma bum posted:Where is that, exactly? I take my Jeep into the Big Bear area all the time. 2N17X http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=34.302789,-117.303444&spn=0.11,0.18&t=h&z=15&q=34.302789,-117.303444(2N17X) http://www.dirtopia.com/wiki/2N17X We split that with the Victor Valley 4x4 club, which is a really well run Jeep club. Theres a few other trails but most of the sponors are already taken by other clubs, I think Toyota or a Bronco club has sponsorship of John Bull. Not sure if Dish Pan is up for grabs, we did a cleanup there last spring. Probably should organize a AI southern California off road run sometime... I'm heading up to Big Bear / National Forest tomorrow morning for a snow run. I just redid a whole bunch of electrical stuff on my truck via flashlight tonight [turbo air pressure sensor, wastegate solenoid, a bunch of relays] so hopefully nothing blows up tomorrow. Big K of Justice fucked around with this message at 07:00 on Jan 3, 2009 |
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Jan 3, 2009 06:58
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Well, time for my last minute trip preparation checklist and service. Ordered some parts in for my turbo charger and lift pump. Popped off the air intake horn to gain access to the electrical bits.  Click here for the full 1280x960 image. Hmm probably need a new CDR valve next service. I'll put that on my shopping list. I wipe it down and get to work.  Click here for the full 1280x960 image. Top of the right valve cover of the 6.5 diesel with the Turbo Air pressure sensor removed. Stupid steel on aluminum bolts, one snapped when removing it, but one bolt will be enough [along with the orange "boot"] to hold it in place. I place anti-seize on the one good bolt.  Click here for the full 1280x960 image. Old vs New sensor. I had my turbo cut out at high elevations. After testing the linkage, and that restarting the truck after the event causes it to work again, I narrowed it down to either the sensor or vacuum solenoid. Speaking of which...  Click here for the full 1280x960 image. Power connector where my thumb is and the vacuum line hook up on the right. I cleaned off the ends of the vacuum connection with q-tips. After that I button everything up. Just have to exchange the fuel pump relay...  Click here for the full 1280x960 image. .. which has 2 bolts hidden behind all sorts of poo poo [air line, windshield washer line, hood release mechanism and bracket, etc. Oh well, that's all done, I crawl under the truck to grease the ball joints and get ready to go to bed.... .. and I see a funny shadow with the flash light.     well I didn't need that cross member anyways. Forward Rear crossmember cracked right along the rust around a weld point for one of the lower a-arm pockets. I could weld it and just leave it but... I'd figure I'd just replace them all with new ones for a few hundred dollars. They're all dinged and rusted a bit because the previous owner played u-boat commander too many times at Pismo, and without any of the skid plates [skid plates would have protected the guards from dings and deformation, some on the front are pinched]. On the upside, I'm already taking apart the front and rear ends of my truck to install new Eaton e-locking differentials, and that on a hmmwv/h1 it's possible to replace the frame cross members without pulling the body off the truck.  Fortunately the frame cross members aren't crazy expensive, about 120-150$ each. I think the weekend of the major frame rebuild I'll probably start up a project thread. should have purchased a street queen H1 and then popped it's cherry. No big bear snow pictures or adventures this weekend.
Big K of Justice fucked around with this message at 10:02 on Jan 3, 2009 |
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Jan 3, 2009 09:58
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Kill-9 posted:
I think that's the easiest removal method of bull steps/running boards. Seized bolts? No problem. Just sheer it off over there. I missed out on my snow run , wouldn't be prudent to go out with a 3" crack in one cross member. I'll order new crossmembers tomorrow with new bolts, and get a friend to reinforce the suspension pockets like they do on the race h1's.My friends just sent me a still from a video they took:  Ah well, in a few weeks I'l have my frame redone and lockers front and rear.
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Jan 4, 2009 20:04
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Ferremit posted:*cough* Heh. If I had a wife, I'd be divorced. In my living room I have 4 new cross members stacked up with welded gussets and boxed in sections to beef up the new frame work. Next to that pile I got a pile of all new control arms from a A2 HMMWV,brand new surplus with new bushings. Next to that, a set of fairly new front and rear springs I picked up for free off a guy who put a custom suspension on his truck. I keep seeing these parts deals [economy firesale prices] and my apartment looks like a humvee depot right now. I got a radiator cooling cowl on the kitchen table, a box of custom built shocks in one corner, a few boxes of cable harneses and misc fasteners, etc. Oh and a rolling dolly with 2 new differentials sitting on it by the bathroom door. On that note, tomorrow I'm renting a storage unit and on sunday I'm going to move all my truck poo poo there. Here's a friend's humvee going through a similar job to mine: Here you can see the rear crossmembers between the frame rails, they box in the differential. If you drop the differential, you have easy access to the 12 or so cross member bolts on each axle.  The front is similar to the rear, just that the cross members have different holes to allow the front prop shaft & coolant hoses To fit. The front most cross member has a big gap to make room for the optional winch package.  This is a better shot of what's I'm replacing... except my truck isn't in as lovely condition as this humvee. The cross members you can see on the left and right, which have the lower a-arm pockets welded onto them. Slightly off set you have the upper control arm pockets which are small bolt on bits, then you have the spring seat/shock mount forward of that. Thanks to Uncle Sam's spending and surplus sales, I got all new suspension hardware for fairly cheap [under 1000$]. Fortunately my frame is in very good shape still.  I'm so busy at work I never had time [or a day off] over the last 2 months. There's a Best in the desert race series coming up in Primm, NV [Right on the California / Nevada border] on April 18th, I'll be pitting for that, so in the mean time I had a friend weld up the crack on my frame cross member. It'll hold for another month until after the race when I'll finally get time to put everything together. The race is the Terrible's Primm 250, should be a fun day, I'll be pitting for the US Army H1 racetruck and probably another H1 or Ford F250 since they seem to be rotating classes at different times of the day. I should have a few good pictures from that event. On your transfer case... does it have an internal pump? Even a small one? Maybe you should bypass the gearbox, and run a seperate pump/cooling setup. Here's a picture of what I'm talking about from a NV 242: Small pump with a pickup with a tiny little mesh filter on the bottom.  I don't like having t-case's switching fluids with the transmission, my 242 does this for cooling by cycling transmission fluid through a cooling loop into the t-case and back out to a transmission cooler (Or was that vice versa?). Problem is if that loop cracks or breaks then the t-case will start draining the gearbox of fluid. I'm planning on isolating the cooling loop to a different circuit for reliability. Big K of Justice fucked around with this message at 05:11 on Mar 21, 2009 |
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Mar 21, 2009 05:01
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Never buy a beach truck. I get to find out tomorrow when I take some parts off if I need to buy new frame rails or not. Salt water /edit turns out it was paint bubbling due to a piece of metal wedged between the frame and the bracket which allowed rust to build up. I'll strip it down and repaint it when I get the body mount bolt off. Fun times. Big K of Justice fucked around with this message at 00:46 on Mar 28, 2009 |
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Mar 21, 2009 19:45
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jonathan posted:
That looks like an awesome spot to wheel, provided you have a good winch to get yourself unstuck. That reminds me I'll have to keep an eye out for a winch, haven't decided on hydraulic or electric. I like the Mile Marker hydraulics for hmmwv's, cheap to get complete kits army surplus, and they keep pulling and pulling with no cooldown. The electrics on the other hand are easier to setup, and can run with the engine dead but you need to shut it off after one minute of operation to cool things off. Choices choices. That being said, if I know theres soupy poo poo around I'll hook up a big tow strap in advance and throw the rest of the line in the dump, if someone gets stuck, they can go through the muck and fish out the line and hook it up. Did anyone see the thread that went around a year or two ago about the kid in his dad's range rover who got stuck at a private wheeling park on the east coast, got pulled out and then went online to blame the people who helped in, and then not realizing those guys were on the same forum? I'll have to find that thread and post it.
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Apr 13, 2009 21:41
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See it's always a good idea to have a few friends to go wheeling with, because when one of you get stuck, the other can at least pull you out
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Apr 20, 2009 06:14
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I was susposed to go pit for the Terribles 250 off road race in Primms Nevada this past weekend, but our race truck had head problems that was discovered at the last minute and we didn't want to rush an engine job. Missed out on a chance to test drive the Ford Raptor, that seems like a cool desert 4x4. http://jalopnik.com/5217795/ford-f+150-svt-raptor-pricing-starts-at-38995 It has factory wiring harnesses and extra aux switches built in for light bars and other accessories. I wanted to check it out in person, but I'm sure you'll start seeing them on the road in a few months. /edit Actually my buddy didn't beat the Raptor truck, he was in a different class. BITD results reporting..Big K of Justice fucked around with this message at 23:38 on Apr 20, 2009 |
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Apr 20, 2009 21:32
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Well with the time off I got, I started cleaning up my frame and taking look at one of the skid plate brackets which had a ton of rust and sand stuck in it. It looked iffy and I was afraid the frame was cracked or deformed at that point... After a bit of cleanup and a few scrapes with a pry bar, it's just surface rust under the bracket, I installed new fasteners and will go back and sand, convert the rust then repaint with a nice chassis paint. Speaking of frames... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lP3u5ucH04 We got the suspension dialed in and solved the overheating problem on our race hummer. Unfortunately we were having boost/turbo issues [black smoke] but still tested on the track, until we lost a bit of power in the middle of a double jump and came down really hard into the start of the 2nd jump, bent the frame at the one reinforced section, which broke the the front u join behind the differential turning that area into a blender, which knocked a hole in the lower oil pan and sliced up a 4" cooling hose. It's back in the shop right now to get the frame straightened and reinforced on the s-curve sections. The other damage is trivial to fix.
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Jun 24, 2009 18:17
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jonathan posted:I've got a dent in the passenger side rocker now. You can see it in some of the pics. I ditched the front bumper, and have sliders on the way. I've been trying to be careful around the rocks until I get the sliders. Sliders is a must IMO, always the first thing I slap on a off road vehicle. Not that I'm afraid of dents but why beat something that it's a pain in the rear end to repair or replace when you don't have to. Plus you don't suck your seat up your rear end when you go through a rock pile scraping every which way
Big K of Justice fucked around with this message at 15:47 on Oct 16, 2009 |
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Oct 16, 2009 00:47
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Welp, I got a month off which means I can get caught up on my truck, I got a storage units worth of parts, and I'm about to tear the frame down and everything on the H1, so I'll probably set up a big project thread for that, start to finish by the end of the month. Hopefully I can get everything wrapped up by then. But meanwhile, I had a chance to go out to to Holcomb for trail maintenance... I took a few pictures .... http://www.dirtopia.com/wiki/Holcomb_Creek_Trail It was shut down in 2007 due to fires, but the BLM and Park Service is allowing 2 Jeep groups and our Hummer group to clean up the trail so that it's safe to reopen. Mostly dealing with erosion issues and boulders [not moving too many but ones that have shifted or rolled onto the trail since 07]. Another issue is dead trees. The Forest Service went ahead and tied off tress to be removed. You can't have a 3000 lb dead tree fall on top of a few folks going through the area. Usually we use chain saws, drop the dead tree on the high side of the trail, hook up a tree saver and a shackle on a tree on the low side of the trail and winch them over and off the trails. Hopefully things will be in good shape so the Forest service can open the trail up for access again. It wasn't a real off road trip, more like work... But here we go: California on fire? Yes! We were a few miles away from the fire line that sprung up on the opposite side of the 15. California or Mordor? You decide.  Click here for the full 1024x683 image. This is a few miles into the trail past the first river crossing. A jeep group [Victor Valley I think] was already on site doing cleanup so we moved onto the bigger stuff down the trail. I missed the opportunity of taking a picture of a Jeep CJ's tire carrier cover. "Save the desert, plant a sierra club member"  Click here for the full 683x1024 image. This is the Park side of the trail down from Big Bear. It's still gated off, but the ranger gave us access to the trail. They should put up a warning sign. Your vehicle *MAY* become disabled, you *will* get body damage. Just like Disneylands warning signs for water But the first part of the trail is pretty mild for a few miles. Click here for the full 683x1024 image. A little further in where we started clearing dead trees away from the trail.  Click here for the full 683x1024 image. After going over a series of boulders, one of the trucks started making fan hitting noises. We figured it was a broken motor mount or cooling stack mis-alignment.  Click here for the full 1024x683 image. This was a new guys truck. Really nice guy, a vet, came back to the US became a firefighter and got an used H1 after driving them overseas for a while. He had everything setup nice on his truck with military cases for all of his tools. Took all the chrome off and swapped to HMMWV wheels, and fixed it up.  Click here for the full 1024x683 image. So we did the broken mount test by hitting the brakes and standing on the thottle in D and R and determined the L mount broke. We fixed it by crossing heavy duty chain over the motor mount and looping it back to the frame mount and securing it with a few grade 8 bolts. After that we're back on the go again.  Click here for the full 683x1024 image. I didn't take many pictures of the more crazy bits of the trail. It's more like John Bull "jr" if you are familar with the socal off roading scene. It's not bad, but with an H1 you have to tackle some obstacles at interesting angles.  Click here for the full 1024x683 image. After spending most of the day taking down trees and hauling logs off the trail, we went back across the mountains using BLM trails and came across a Camel Ranch on federal land in the middle of nowhere  Click here for the full 1024x683 image. And I mean no where as in no public service roads, no utilities, in the desert at 6500 ft. After camping out the night, and being almost blown away by the high winds, we went back down home, this is coming down 15 from Victorville. You can see the fire still burning on the right. The pattern on the glass is the heated windshield element which is an option on some H1 models.  Click here for the full 1024x683 image. Now I got to figure out what parts I need before I start tearing down my truck this weekend. -> New wireing harness for lights. -> New lockers -> New ujoints -> New skid protect -> New cross members -> New cupholder  -> New alloy nutserts and trim pieces -> New seat mount on body -> New Paint -> Welding rust spots on doors -> strip out interior -> Install Boost/EGT guages etc It's going to be a long month. Big K of Justice fucked around with this message at 21:46 on Oct 19, 2009 |
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Oct 19, 2009 21:43
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Seat Safety Switch posted:
It's legal. There's ranchers up in the mountains, horses and cattle I've seen. But not camels. From what I understand you can purchase or lease land from the BLM for personal use but you have to prove that there is public access to the land [via a road of some sort, and BLM trails are very much in the grey area of "public road"]. I have a friend who has a ranch on BLM land with a house but it's not part of any township. It's pretty funny because hes the one guy in our entire group who needs a big rear end 4x4 to get to his home every day  There's also homesteading laws but that will vary wildly from state to state.
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Oct 23, 2009 09:16
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I'm replacing all of my bushings right now [or rather in 2 weeks]. I'm being lazy and decided to pick up new [army surplus] control arms with bushings already installed. I got a set of upper arms from the race team, with 2 part polyurethane bushings with grease fiiting but I think I'll just stick with the rubber and steel bushings from the OEM 
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Oct 25, 2009 22:50
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Skyssx posted:What is going on in this picture? Is that just the standard battery position in civilian H1s? The batteries were originally stored under the passenger seats like on the HMMWV until 1995 or so, then they were relocated to the left passenger fender area. I'm not sure of the reason other than it's easier to access and service. I guess it's a bit safer than having it in the cab. CA is amazing for trails which is strange considering how restrictive the state is on automotive related stuff. Within 2 hours drive of LA you have mud, rock, desert, woods and snow [in the winter]. Pretty mind blowing coming from Eastern Canada where you have a few wood trails and fields with rocks and that was it.
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Oct 26, 2009 07:35
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Skyssx posted:
Pretty much. The widowmaker/high lift jacks looks cool but in years of wheeling I've never had to use one. 90% of the people who use them have no idea what they're doing and I can't tell you the number of times I've seen someone almost lose their jaw or break an arm on the drat things. I take a factory jack, a bottle jack and a titan lift/jack: http://www.airjackusa.com/ There are companies that make sleds and accessories for standard floor jacks to make them more portable off road: http://www.kartek.com/Product/Tools/Jacks.html
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Dec 3, 2009 02:34
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oof. Was that OEM trailing arms? I'm starting to think of carrying a set of radius arms/center link in my spare parts case. Already have 3 different sized half shafts, spare ball joints and spare idler and pitman arms so far.
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Jan 7, 2010 20:54
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jonathan posted:Does that grand Cherokee have the computer controlled traction control ? If so, it's basically like being locked front and rear, which would make it more capable than my XJ Cherokee, unless you're trying to get up and over something that requires ground clearance. The problem with traction control systems off road is they.. can be unpredictable. You'll get onto an obstacle, it'll spin for a bit before it decides to engage and then you may get enough torque distributed to get through an obstacle. Lockers is the way to go, you can be on something tricky, flick a switch and you're done. Computer traction control is fine for on pavement I guess, but .. useless off road IMO.
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Feb 13, 2010 07:10
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jonathan posted:The computer traction control in the Cherokee is somewhat unique. It's an offroad traction control, similar to the new FJ Cruiser's setup. Its similar to whats offered on other 4x4's, anything that got a ABS system got the traction control as a free bonus, it works the same on Hummers, and Land/Range Rovers, etc. The problem begins with how the system gets is input, via the ABS sensors usually. The systems work fine on road and .. with mild off road use (ie. dirt road). But if you anything serious, fording through water, going through serious mud/snow, etc, crud is going pack in around the sensor or brake it off, or cause similar issues then the system is going to error out and disable or lock. It's a bit of a head ache to deal with, especially when you have to spin for a bit for the system figures out when to engage. I've been on a few trips where people know the fuse location first hand for the traction control system. Because they need to pull the fuse and disable it to get home .I ran into this problem this past weekend out in the Parker race in Arizona, we're going through mud recovering race cars and trucks the day after the race and.. well bye bye traction control, it errored out, fortunately there was lockers installed as well. Brake throttle modulation with a bias or limited slip diff is cool but you are losing some torque fighting against the brakes, it's better than an open diff certainly, but I'd put in a rear locker at the minimum. 95% of the time you don't really need a front locker, and it's nice to have the rear locker just to get you out with a push of a switch.
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Feb 14, 2010 08:03
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