A peak at what a certain traitor has been up to

A couple feet???!!!! I've barely ast the dovetail as it is. I've placed my Jeep there everytime with that trailer so far and it tows great like that. It doesn't sway, doesn't buck, just rides down nice and smooth behind whatever truck I've had it on.

The Durango just has a really soft rear suspension. It sags down an inch or so with the empty trailer on it. I'm going to do airbags first and then if I'm still not happy I'll look into a weight distributing hitch. In all reality I've got so many trucks I can borrow I probably won't even be using the Durango to tow my Jeep farther than Left Hand or MSV.

I will say though, I ddragged it around my neighborhood like that (didn't go out onto the main streets as I don't have my trailer connector yet so no lights) and at least getting up to 25/30mph it accelerates a hell of a lot better off the line than my 5.3 Silverado ever did. I honestly barely noticed the weight in terms of throttle input and acceleration. Now in my steering.... yeah i felt it there. :D
 
So after going through the water crossing at Eagle Rock w/o a breather hose hoooked up on my front axle I had some concern about water in the diff. I also wasn't exactly sure how much fluid I had in it as a fair amount had spilled out when I rolled over in Moab.

I decided to pull the cover off and make sure all was well. I also decided to weld the back side of the cover as I had a few small pin holes that were leaking.

The steering ram needs to be moved out of the way to get the cover out
270.jpg


It was a bitch trying to clean out the gear oil and get it weldable. I did my best though.

271.jpg


272.jpg


Then I welded the outside of the fill plug bung for good measure
273.jpg


Tomorrow I'm taking it to work and I'm going to tap a drain plug and fill plug hole (I'll be using smaller plugs then what Blue Torch Fab provided) so I can drain and fill the diff without moving the ram out of the way. I'm probably going to add a fill level plug on the opposite side of the provided fill plug too. The ram covers up the fill plug already in the cover and its a pain to get to. So yeah, all said and done I'll have 4 total plugs in my front diff cover. Awesome :rolleyes:
 
How's 21 road compared to Pritchett? Thought pritchett was pretty much a cake walk. :dunno:
Which ones are the big leagues? I wanna join.
 
DutchVDub said:
And?

Its all in the trails, and actually its the 4th time if you count when I flopped my neighbor's Jeep over on 21 Road.

Out of the 4 Jeeps in our group out in Moab 3 of us rolled/flopped. 1 (me) on Pritchett, and 2 on Green Day in area BFE.

Here is the one I watched as I was swapping out my fuel pump on top of Rocker Knocker
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5YFMSoEoM0

And here is a guy in that same group that rolled over at Rock Pile on the same trail (same area I rolled over except I went on the right line and not there)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfEBZF0kvSY

You step into the big leagues and it quickly becomes a matter of "When I roll over" and no longer "If I roll over"

Hence the beffy cage I built into mine.
Click to expand...

LOL...... and you need the beefy cage :D What's the big league....... I have been wheelin since I could drive. I have never rolled anything though I probably should have many times but hey........ I have been lucky sofar :D
 
21 Road and Pritchett don't really compare at all. 21 Road is basically just a bunch of big rocks thrown into a ccreek bed where as Pritchett is relatively easy but with some technically challenging obstacles spread through out it. I know exactly why I rolled where I did on Pritchett and now that I've learned the Jeep more I'm sure I'll be able to go right up it. I think thats a lot of why I found Pritchett so intense, I'd never driven the Jeep before and was completely lost as to where tires were and how it would react.

When I flopped my neighbor's Jeep on 21 Road it was a lot of the same. I'd never driven his Jeep before and the other issue was that I was trying to follow Rory's lines but his Jeep has a 6" longer wheelbase and is probably a foot wider than Brian's.

When I flopped on Spring Creek the first time is was an issue of not knowing the limits of the Jeep. I started climbing the front tire up on a rock just to try it and then had the passenger rear fall into a crack, that was when it went over. There were some suspension issues at hand and again I was purposely testing the limits of the rig and learned them.

When I actually rolled and crushed the XJ on Spring Creek that was purely mechanical failure. I had a brake line rupture and lost my pedal while in neutral. I tried getting it back in gear but it started rolling backwards too fast and then I went over. I was actually stationary when it happened.

I'm actually kind of glad I laid it over in Moab because that was a nice roll that wasn't overly crazy at all and proved the cage worked. It really helped me get over that fear of being off camber and also really showed me just how far that Jeep can get sideways before flopping.

Big Leagues? Well I've definitely learned that Spring Creek might as well be a paved road compared to other trails out there. I've been wheeling a long time myself, basically since before I got my license. However, I basically always wheeled the under built and under capable rigs. I started out on just dirt roads in the 88 Suburban 2500 and then got my own truck. 84 2wd S10 and I was pre-running the snot out of it. Then it was a stock Samurai for ever. My Cherokees were always the most capable rigs I've ever owned or wheeled and I've very quickly gone from that easy trail and stock vehicle level of wheeling to where I am now. Its been a big learning curve and i've definitely stumbled from time to time. Thats part of the process though and I've also been having fun with it.
 
DutchVDub said:
I decided to pull the cover off and make sure all was well. I also decided to weld the back side of the cover as I had a few small pin holes that were leaking.

It was a bitch trying to clean out the gear oil and get it weldable. I did my best though.

271.jpg


272.jpg
Click to expand...
That is a tall order, especially for a mig welder. I hope it works for you.
 
What's a tall order? Welding it to the point it doesn't leak? My rear cover turned out fine and I only welded the outside of it too. The front just had 2 spots that were seeping fluid. I could've just welded up the pin holes on the outside and been done with it but I decided to weld the inside for extra measure.

I MIG welded a fuel tank and it didn't leak, that was a pain though.
 
So this is what I found last week after all that rain we got.
274.jpg

Apparently my winch decided to short out and start retracting until the battery died. The tube is smached completely into the solenoid box and the entire winch mount is tweaked and bent. I also have atleast 2 breaks in the cable. I still need to recharge the battery and see if I can get it to unwind, right now its so bound up that even affter unlocking the drum I can't pull the cable out. After that I'll see how expensive its going to be to fix. I'm hoping the motor isn't burned up and its just a mater of a new solenoid box and mounting plate. I'm also hoping the break in the cable is close enough to the end that I can just cut it a little bit shorter. Even then though, I'm looking at over 300$ for what brand new is a 500$ winch.
 
Holee keerap Dutch...... how'd it short out????

That's gotta rank up there among the most unusual jeep related things I've ever seen.

Mike's free-spool idea...... not a bad one. Just went out to the BOR rig and did just that.
 
The first time I saw the pix I didn't read the post and was thinking what dork screwed up getting the bend off center.
 
Well, I played around with it a bit and the winch is fried. Even if I jumpy my neighbor's battery charger straight to the power feeds for the motor nothing happens. I guess its time for me to go back to a Harbor Freight winch.
 
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