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Those are some nice XJ's, but there's not nearly enough Wrangler love in this thread. Here's a shot of my '06 TJ a couple weekends ago at Rausch Creek in PA. View the whole gallery of photos of the ride (as well as a ride I went on at Paragon AP (also in PA) last March) here. Also, you can view a compilation of videos/images from the Rausch Creek ride here. Please forgive the crappy music (it's not my video).
323LX fucked around with this message at 05:22 on Feb 16, 2008 |
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Feb 16, 2008 05:19
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Aran posted:Where is your Hi-Lift mounted exactly? That's not bolted to the hood is it? Well, it's bolted to a Tough Stuff hood rack, which bolts on using the existing hood hinge bolts. If you're not familiar with them, you can bolt a Hi-Lift to it, and it also comes with various clamps for carrying shovels, axes, etc. They're pretty handy.
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Feb 16, 2008 15:08
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Yeah, you missed a lot. If you're serious about off-roading, the Rubicon is a much better bargain. I don't know the specifics about the JK, but for the TJ, the Rubicon had lower gearing, upgraded axles (D44's front and rear - you could get a slightly different D44 rear axle as part of the "off road" package on Sport and possibly X models, but the D44 front was only available on the Rubi. The Rubi also has a better transfer case, I believe, and has locking differentials. This makes a world of difference off road. I know the JK also has electronic swaybar disconnects, but I dont know if that is available on all models or just the Rubicons. Also the Rubicons have full skidplates and rocker guards, whereas the lower models just have the bare minimum (t-case). You could modify an X to be as capable or more so than a Rubicon off-road, but the Rubicon is a much better platform out of the box. Hope this helps.
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Sep 20, 2008 15:34
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Tossed_Salad_Man posted:I was really really R E A L L Y thinking of dumping the YJ for a FJ Cruiser. I really like the FJ Cruiser, but when I watched some youtube videos of FJs at Uwharrie I rethought that plan. I don't ever worry abotu banging sheet metal or loving up the pain on my YJ, watching those videos made my rear end pucker. Similar with a JK, I don't think I could bring myself to beat the gently caress out of a vehicle I was making a 350 dollar + payment on. I'm having trouble locating it at the moment but I have a photo of me driving my '06 TJ across a small river with the water almost up to the headlights. My Jeep had somewhere between 3 and 5000 miles on the odometer at the time. In fact, I wheeled my Jeep at both the old Paragon park before they closed and at Rausch creek prior to 20k (it has 27k now). My TJ is the first vehicle I've bought brand new, and at first I was worried about doing anything to the paint. However, 10 days after I first picked it up from the dealer I rear-ended an 18 wheeler (my fault). The insurance fixed it, but that really took the edge off. I was afraid to wheel it after that  . For the record I did blue trails at Paragon with only a 2" budget lift (stock tires) and it did remarkably well. I've since added a set of 32" BFG MTRs and did blue trails at Rausch with ease. Currently I'm looking for a slightly bigger lift. Eventually I want to get a 4-5" lift and run 33's, and add lockers front and rear. One of these days...Anyone in the Baltimore area know of anywhere to legally wheel other than Rausch? I hear there are public trails at Green Ridge out near Sidling Hill, and there are a couple of trails at a state forest in VA...Taskers Gap and Peters Mill Run but from what I've heard they cater more to ATVs and are kind of lame in a Jeep. 323LX fucked around with this message at 02:05 on Nov 15, 2008 |
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Nov 15, 2008 02:01
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Gavitron posted:I feel your pain on this one - My JK Unlimited is the first vehicle I've ever bought new, and I took it wheeling with less than 1000km (500mi) on the odometer. Everytime I look at the scratches, I have to remind myself "It's a Jeep, that's what it's built for." At least it's black, so a little Tremclad goes a long way... Exactly. My Jeep has some trail "pinstriping" but no major damage. It comes with the territory. You can't do any real wheeling without leaving a mark somewhere. Actually, I'll tell a quick story about my second time out wheeling my TJ. The first time I took it wheeling was at the big rally at Paragon. If you're not familiar with the park, it was a very large privately owned piece of land in eastern Pennsylvania that people had wheeled on illegally for years. A guy and his wife decided to formally lease the land from the owner and develop it into an offroad park. They had a 25 year lease and were only 3-4 years into it when the owner got an offer to buy the land for something like $30 million to develop a cargo airport, so he kicked the offroaders off the property. Initially they were to be evicted on a Monday in February (I forget the exact date) but the weekend before the owners (who were going to court to fight the eviction) held a huge rally where they didn't charge any admission and only accepted donations to support their legal fight. Well over 200 rigs showed up. My Jeep had less than 3k on the clock but I wanted to see Paragon before they closed so I made the trip and had a blast doing "green" (easy) trails. We couldn't try too much beyond that because the area got 4-6" of snow the night before. So, to try and make the story shorter, the owners were granted an injunction by the court and weren't actually evicted for another 2-3 months after that. I had so much fun I wanted to go back a couple months later, but the rules were that you had to have at least 2 or 3 vehicles in your group in case someone got stuck or whatever, but I didn't know anybody else. So they had a messageboard on their website where you could meet people who wanted to go on the same day as you. So I posted and asked if anyone wanted to go on this particular saturday and do "Green trails, and possibly try a blue (intermediate) trail if the weather is decent". 3 or 4 people replied and said they were interested. So we met that Saturday at like 7am. I was in my bone stock TJ (other than a 2" RE budget lift, but I still had the stock 30" Goodyear GS-As) and was met with a guy in a stock TJ Rubicon, a guy in a Dodge Ramcharger with like a foot of lift, a guy in a pretty well built XJ and a guy in a mid 80s Toyota pickup with a huge lift. When I got out to introduce myself, they pretty much said "We're doing blues and blacks (expert) today, right?". We did mostly mid to upper level blue trails all day and even with the crappy tires I was able to keep up. I was really afraid I'd be holding the group back but I was surprised. I did have an issue on a trail called "Rock Swamp" - basically you're wheeling up a creek littered with pretty good sized rocks for a quarter mile or so. There was one section where you had to navigate two big rocks. I was concerning myself with the first one so much that by the time I cleared it I was too close to the next one and couldn't see it from the driver's seat. I thought I knew where it was and I thought I was clear so I let the Jeep drop off the first rock and I caught the second one on the way down, put a pretty large dent in the factory t-case skidplate and cracked the oil pan. It still held oil pressure and I wheeled the rest of the day and made it home without incident, but it cost me like $300 to repair. Here's a couple pictures of the trail in question.   And the aftermath:  Bonus pics!   Edit: I forgot the whole reason I started typing this post in the first place - anybody here wheeled at Green Ridge before? Do you need a permit? I know at the state forest in VA I mentioned earlier it says you need a permit (like $5 or so). Do you need a permit at Green Ridge or can you just go up and start wheeling? And how rough are the trails? 323LX fucked around with this message at 06:23 on Nov 16, 2008 |
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Nov 16, 2008 06:18
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Gavitron posted:So "easing into" a creek would be a bad idea...? I think I will wait a few years before attempting a river crossing such as this then. :/ I've not yet had enough practice in an expendable vehicle to try something like this in my new baby. It was fun . But actually I got no water in the cabin in the crossing pictured above. Later in the day we went through a really deep mud/water pit and I got a little bit of water in the passenger side but it wasn't bad (I actually didn't even notice it at the time).
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Nov 17, 2008 03:16
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I have a question: As I think I've previously mentioned I have an '06 TJ with a 2" suspension lift and 32" BFG Mud Terrains on the stock 15" TJ Sport wheels. The 32" tires rub a bit on the swaybar at full lock. I will be getting a 4" lift in the not too distant future, but I was also thinking about getting a set of 1.25" Spidertrax wheel spacers to move the tires out to take care of the rub. Is there any reason why I shouldn't run wheel spacers? I know aftermarket wheels with the right offset would accomplish the same thing but I like the stock wheels. I'm concerned with things like added stress/wear on wheel bearings/hubs/differentials/etc. I have heard some people on other forums say it'll make my Jeep eat wheel bearings and can cause weak differentials to go boom, but I've heard other people say that's not true. Any opinions here? Edit: Also, would I need to be concerned about the spacer coming loose and my wheels falling off??
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Mar 25, 2009 04:36
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Tossed_Salad_Man posted:Quick stupid question. As long as you only use the spare to get you somewhere where you can get the 'normal' tire repaired you should be fine. However, if you're planning on driving on the spare for an extended period of time your drivetrain won't like it. You'll just have to make sure they don't rotate it in when you have a normal rotation (if you don't rotate your tires yourself that is). Some places will always rotate the spare in when you do a rotation if you have a full size spare.
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Mar 31, 2009 02:19
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incredibull posted:If you're going to do a BB, you might as well go with the RC 2.5" kit, which includes progressive rate coils and shocks, and isn't much more expensive. The ride quality is excellent from all reviews. Not going to disagree with any of your comments, I just wanted to add that I have the RE 2" Budget lift on my '06 TJ and have been extremely satisfied. That said, I'm looking to go to a 4" lift, but someone who is just getting in to off-roading will be able to get in WAY over their head with just the budget lift. The RC kit may work a bit better, however.
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Apr 11, 2009 13:36
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DFWlly posted:I'm about to jump into an 07 Wrangler Unlimited with a 6 speed manual and I can't be more excited. I loved the way it drives and it is just so much fun with the top off Wait...they make a version of the JK that is 2wd only??? I'm sure you know all Wranglers are 2wd normally and you have to lock the transfer case into 4wd (either low or high range) to engage the front wheels. Maybe this is a stupid question but are you sure it doesn't have 4wd?? I mean, seriously...what's the point of a 2wd Wrangler?
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Jul 26, 2009 23:49
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It's 2 wheel drive though.... Anyone here care to shed some light on the off-road capabilities of a 2 wheel drive Unlimited? I won't be doing anything extreme, but I'd like to know that if I take a dirt road to a hiking trail I won't be stranded
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Any Jeep owners in eastern/central Maryland (or the surrounding area) want to get together for some four wheelin' somewhere?? We could maybe go to Green Ridge or tag along for a ride up at Rausch Creek in PA. Or if someone knows of some private land we could use I'd be up for that also. I haven't had my Jeep out in over a year and I'm itchin' to get it muddy before all the mud freezes .
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Oct 11, 2009 00:30
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Veeb0rg posted:I'd be up for a ride, just need to get my longer front brake hoses installed, then I can give the new lift kit a workout. I actually realized after I posted above that I still need to get a new spare tire before I try heading out into the woods again. Hopefully I can get this taken care of in the next month. I'm trying to get a new lift myself (going from a 2" budget lift to a 4" short arm).
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Oct 11, 2009 16:54
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I have the Cobra remote mount CB with the display and controls built into the mic. It fits nicely under the drivers seat... Edit: Oh crap. How do I delete the image??
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Nov 21, 2009 13:57
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Question for the AI Jeep Crew: As I've probably mentioned on here before, I have an '06 Wrangler Sport. Currently it has a 2" Rubicon Express budget lift and 32" BFG MTR's. I am in the process of upgrading to a 4" short arm with a 1" body lift. I already have springs and shocks, and I'm about to order a full set of Rough Country adjustable X-Flex control arms (upper and lower). I'm also going to add an adjustable track bar, and I'm going to get a high-clearance belly pan and SYE before all is said and done. Now, my question is in regard to the axles. Ideally, I would like to run 35" tires with some sort of lockers. My research indicates that 4" + 1" body lift should clear the tires without any issues, but I'm concerned about my axles holding up with the lockers. I have the stock D44 rear and D30 front. I'm not really worried about the D44, but how bad of an idea is it to run lockers and 35s on a D30? Even if I upgrade to say 30 spline axles?? If I went with 33's instead of 35's, how much difference would that make? Would I just be better off trying to find a front D44 to swap in?
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May 23, 2010 17:34
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Saturday I went to check out the 18 mile long ORV trail at Green Ridge State Forest near Hancock, Maryland. My wife ended up having to work all day and my brother was out of town, so I was literally by myself. Oh well, still had a good time! Here's a map of the area: http://www.dnr.state.md.us/publiclan...dge_ORVmap.pdf I live in Baltimore, which approximately an hour and forty minutes away (without traffic). I left at about 9:30am. Stopped at Clear Springs (about 15 miles west of Hagerstown) for some breakfast and was at exit 62 on I-68 at about 11:30 am. As soon as you get off the exit you're dumped onto gravel roads that aren't marked very clearly. I had printed out the map I linked to above. I didn't have too much trouble finding my way until the last turn. There's a stop sign but I got confused as to which road I was on and ended up going the wrong way. I didn't know anything was wrong until I crossed campsite 79. That's where I took the first couple of pictures (the ones where the top is still all the way up and the Jeep is least dirty ). I turned around and found a couple of guys on ATV's and decided to just follow them in and didn't have any more problems. I passed a guy in a red TJ and a guy in a white XJ who were leaving on my way in. Got to the parking lot at the trailhead and there were a handful of tow vehicles parked around. The trail makes a big 18 mile long loop, and from the parking lot you can go clockwise or counterclockwise on the loop. I initially decided to go clockwise, but about 100 yards into the trail there was a sign that said "ORV/Motorcycle ONE WAY" pointing counterclockwise. I got confused and turned around and went the other way. Found out later (as you can see by the picture of the sign I took) that licensed vehicles (i.e. Jeeps/trucks) can go either way, only motorcycles/ATVs are limited to one way. Anyway, so I turned around and went back to the parking lot and headed off counterclockwise. I had read reviews and saw some short videos about the trail and it had been described as very easy and nothing special. I wasn't expecting much but was hoping that although we havent had a lot of rain lately there'd still be some mud holes to play in. This part of the trail was excellent, lots of off-camber spots, some moderate rocks and some decent mud holes. It's true that a stock Wrangler could probably handle this trail with no issues, but depending on how wet it is you could get in some hairy spots with street or all-terrain tires. With MTR's you should be fine. I ended up running in 4-low, not because I needed it but because it was easier to control my speed (less clutch work). So about a mile and a half in, I passed a guy in a Chevy pickup going the other way who told me that about another mile and a half in there was a large tree down that was blocking the trail and they had to turn around. I decided to keep going to see it for myself. I eventually made it to the tree and he was right, there was no way around it. So I turned around and started to head back. Right after I turned around I passed an older Toyota pickup and I passed along the information that they were going to have to turn around. Didn't see anybody else ecept for a guy in a brand new looking JK who I passed right as I was making it back to the parking lot. I got back to the parking lot at about 1:00. I was looking at the map and trying to decide what to do, seeing as how I wouldn't be able to complete the loop. There's a road that cuts through the trail about halfway through the loop, so I decided to go clockwise until I got to this road (depending on how long it took to get there). Starting from the parking lot, there's some interesting (but not too difficult) climbs, and then you get on top of the mountain (where the scenic photos were taken). Once you get on top there are a couple of slightly rocky areas, but it's mostly flat with just a couple of small mud pits - not the most exciting four wheelin', but the views make up for it. The one picture is an old abandoned shack that was up there with an old school bus parked behind it. That was just a couple hundred yards from the clearing with the power lines. I don't think the pictures did justice to how high up it was and how steep it was down both sides of the trail. When I pulled into that clearing with the power lines, I snapped the two photos you see, and then the battery on my camera died so I couldn't get any more. Not too far past the power lines you start to make a descent and then you cross the road. By the time I got to the road it was about 2:45, so I decided to go ahead and call it a day since my wife was getting off work at 4, and I wanted to leave part of the trail unexplored to give me reason to want to come back soon . All in all it was a lot of fun and while it's definitely not as extreme as say Rausch Creek or the old Paragon park, it only cost me about $30 in gas and the views were amazing.                         Sorry for the crappy quality of the video.
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Jul 26, 2010 23:50
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Veeb0rg posted:I've been meaning to get up there, I've been to Rauch Creek but not Green Ridge. I just haven't had the time to get out that way. I've heard grumblings that there is a new off road park in development that will be located very close to where the old Paragon park was on some old abandoned coal mining property...
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Jul 27, 2010 20:09
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Getting ready to put all of this on my '06 TJ next week. It's a 4" short arm lift. Kind of a long story. I was poking around on 4WD hardware's website almost 2 years ago and I saw a 4" 'economy' lift kit from Skyjacker on sale for barely $500. It had springs, shocks, and fixed lower control arms (as well as TC drop and misc hardware, etc). I had some extra cash at the time so I bought it on the spur of the moment. After I recieved it, I was searching online and saw some reviews of the kit...not very good. Apparently the control arms are crap, as are the shocks. I regretted my decision but didn't want the hassle (and expense) of shipping it all back. So I decided to take the time (and money) and put together the parts to make this kit work. My investigation revealed that the Skyjackers springs might not be complete garbage, so I decided to stick with them. The next thing I needed to address was the control arms. I started with a full set of Rough Country X-Flex adjustable control arms (upper and lower, front and rear). A few months later, I got a Rough Country adjustable front track bar. Shortly after that, I got a rear adjustable track bar by JKS on sale. Another month or so went by and I picked up a set of JKS quicker swaybar disconnects. Now at this point this was pretty much everything I needed for the suspension, but I really didn't like the idea of doing a bigger transfer case drop. After looking around, I decided to pick up a PORC SYE kit. A couple months later, I learned about a company called Undercover Fabworks that makes some nice looking aftermarket belly pans for Wranglers. I decided to pick up an extra-clearance belly pan. This would only require a 1" body lift. They make an ultra-clearance pan but it requires a 2" body lift or a lot of clearancing in the tub. I went with the extra clearance pan because it's only hangs about an inch lower and it's less work to get it in (and it's still a big improvement over stock). This requires the aforementioned 1" body lift and riser motor mounts (both of which were supplied by JKS over the next couple months). Oh, one last thing. I mentioned before that I have heard that the Skyjacker shocks (Hydro 7000's) are junk, but I decided since I already have them I'll go ahead and use them for a while until I can afford better ones. I finally finished putting all the parts together last month. The belly pan came in bare steel so I needed to have it powdercoated anyway so I decided to get the control arms/track bars and springs powdercoated to match. I don't know if this is considered "off road rice" or not, but it's the way I want it so I don't care. I had a friend do the powdercoating for a total of $400 ($200 for prep, $200 for the powder), not counting the belly pan which he said would be less than $100. He's finishing the belly pan this week and hopefully I'll have it back and ready to start work by the middle of next week. I have to take my TJ on a hunting trip on the 19th so hopefully everything will be done by then. Last thing - I have a set of Skyjacker extended length lower control arms, transfer case lowering kit, rear trackbar relocation bracket, and front extended sway bar end links left over. If anybody is interested in any of that, let me know.
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Nov 5, 2010 00:33
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Just want to be clear: the control arms that I would be selling are NOT the ones in the picture (I can send you a picture if you want). They are fixed length non-adjustable ones that came with the Skyjacker kit and they reuse the stock bushings. I just want to make sure I'm not misleading you. Having said that, let me know if you're still interested and I'll sell them to you cheap.
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Nov 5, 2010 21:07
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Bojanglesworth posted:Cool. Any idea what lift they would be good with? Currently I am at 3.5" and fine with my stockers, but I am about to go up another 2" and I will probably need to use different control arms. It appears that they're made for 2-4" of lift. Let me know if you want them.
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Nov 7, 2010 14:43
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Bojanglesworth posted:Here is the full list actually: Edit: Waffleimages seems to be down right now, can't get my pictures to upload. I'll try again later. Looks like they're just over 18" total length; looks like a little over 16" from center bushing to center bushing. I'd say it's probably closest to 16.33" in your table.
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Nov 8, 2010 02:35
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I'm almost afraid to post this here for fear of getting flamed, but I like it. Hopefully you guys don't think it's too much like "Jeep Rice" or something. Anyway, here's a shot of the finished product. (Well...as finished as a Jeep project can ever be. It still needs bigger tires, lockers, etc, etc....)
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Nov 18, 2010 04:32
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323LX posted:I'm almost afraid to post this here for fear of getting flamed, but I like it. Hopefully you guys don't think it's too much like "Jeep Rice" or something. Son of a bitch, the image didn't attach. Trying again... Edit: There we go. Sorry for the crappy nighttime pic but it's the best I can do for now. If I don't get torn apart for my bad taste then maybe I'll post some better pictures tomorrow.
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Nov 18, 2010 04:33
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Yeah, I know I need bigger tires. I want to run 35s when I get the money (plus these 32s have a little bit of tread life left in them and they weren't cheap).
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Nov 18, 2010 12:41
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Sharp_angus posted:Well if I HAD to nitpick, everything looks good mechanically (nice lift/fenders/etc), but that hood decal has gotta go. IMO the only decal that should be on the hood of a TJ is RUBICON, but that's just me. Still a sweet Jeep otherwise; I'd drive her brains out I understand your point, but it's not a Rubicon model (and I think it should be pretty clear that I'm not trying to make people think that it is). It's a reference to the old AA battery powered Stomper toy trucks (and they did make a few Jeep CJ models too btw) that I used to play with all the time back in the early 80s.
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Nov 18, 2010 12:43
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Braincloud posted:I would gladly remove the Rubicon sticker from my JK and replace it with STOMPER. I loved those things growing up! I'm glad somebody else can appreciate it .
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Nov 19, 2010 03:31
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