derf

Oh, I know. I've been there in the middle of summer. It's miserably hot. I vote for spring or fall too.

Why not July or August?

I could probably be talked into Moab in 2027. And 2028 too.

I believe there are systems that hook up to the line from a trailer brake controller and push a piston to push the brake pedal. Let the CJ help with braking. Probably not enough time before EJS and I have no idea how much they cost but it's always an option.

Not too hard to make your own. So not terrible if they aren't there. Just inconvenient.

There can be a little slop and new bushings will potentially improve the ride quality. Though the swaybar is a minor contributor. I had an old XJ. I bought it and replaced all suspension and steering parts (swaybar, control arms, track bar, and tie rod ends). I even did unit bearings and axle shaft u-joints. It went from vaguely going in the neighborhood of where you were trying to steer it to being pretty well behaved. But everything was completely shot.

Good idea. I do have a kit to do that...

I'm getting close to being ready to pull the Renix 4.0 out of the donor to be put in my next project. I'm starting my to-do list of what to do while it's out. I'm probably going to start with a compression test on the engine before it comes out. If it's low, it'll get a full rebuild. If not, I'd still want to do some work while it is out and easy to get to everything. At the very least, a good cleaning, new gaskets and seals all around. I'm going back and forth on doing a head gasket and new head bolts. Though if I decide to do a new cam, the head would probably come off. So I'm thinking of doing an RV cam that is close-ish to stock. I'm not looking for a big change. But as long as I'm thinking about replacing a worn down cam, may as well do a mild upgrade. Of course, I'll be doing a water pump and thermostat. And even if I don't do a cam, I'll check and potentially swap the timing chain. New injectors are probably a good idea. I have a bored out Renix throttle body already. I'll do all hoses and look at replacement EGR, PCV, and breather. Anything else y'all an think of?

You would think, wouldn't you?

I've been having fun with the old broken gas tank strap. But the rear wiring has been done for a bit. I'm running new hoses (vent, supply, and return) as long as it's all apart. The Genright tank skid os quite a bit beefier than the stock. So I feel good about installing it. I've mostly been poking at a few odds and ends. Got the front bumper and fog lights installed so it looks more like a CJ now.

Yep. Prices got stupid when Covid hit and they never came back down.

That was a JK. That had the NSG370 transmission and a much better clutch. And a Rubicon comes with 4.10s which are decent for stock 32" tires. The JL (and JT) have a completely different transmission and clutch that are basically junk. And if you don't get a Rubicon, you get 3.45 gears which are not adequate for even stock tires.

I'd avoid the pentastar and manual. The engine lacks low end torque and needs short (high number) gears to really be usable. And the manual has really bad history, especially with the shoddy clutch design. If they put a better engine and transmission, with a decent clutch in it, I would absolutely love a 2 door Gladiator.

One more to consider. The Rimrocker trail. It goes from Montrose, CO to Moab. https://rimrockertrail.org/

I have had fun on myddy trails but the cleaning after is very low on my "enjoy doing" list. I'll stick with the dry trails out west.

A week in Moab should be on your list for sure. Several great trails there. Ouray and Silverton in SW Colorado has some really great trails too, beyond the Alpine loop.

Yep, West Kansas (east of the front range) is definitely a shift in the demographic.

I wish they would enforce the laws about this a little better around here. It's not common but there are enough to be annoying. Now, if you have a performance tune that burns clean-ish, I'm okay with that. Especially if you live in the middle of nowhere. But around Denver, with poor air quality, I'd like to see the brodozers dialed back.

There are people working on it. Biggest issues were performance at high RPM, durability, and cost.

The El Camino beds were over 6 feet long. Biggest problem though is that they couldn't even handle as much weight as our base Comanches, nevermind the metric ton models. I bet it would ride on the bump stops with only one yard of gravel.

People will get an 8 year loan on a car just to buy new. And then in 3 years they want to trade it in and they're upside down but they roll it all into the next loan, paying stupid interest rates. They also lease, which can lower your monthly payment but you don't actually own the car so you're stuck with a payment every month for the rest of your life. My folks would buy new with a 3 year loan. When they paid it off they'd keep setting aside the payment money into savings. After about 8 years and 100K miles the car was done (60s and 70s cars, into the 80s). But they had a bundle to put down on their next car. So they could have a nice car with a low payment for only 3 years. These days, cars last longer. It's not hard to get 200K miles out of a car. So it's easier to bank some money after it's paid off and have a good down payment. But that's 15 years or so and you have to accept having an old car for years.

Also, 90% of the people who own pickup trucks don't need or use them as trucks. At all. Everything they claim they need a truck for they can do in a station wagon or crossover. Or a minivan for that matter

I definitely like the 3.0 EcoDiesel in my Wrangler. And, while the 4.0 is a couple of generations old at this point and it needed a complete overhaul, it is way better than the 3.8 and 3.6. Want to talk about no low end torque. You'd call the 4.0 a beast after driving those engines.

Keep in mind that there are number ranges cast into the mount for the gear. Those tell you how to rotate the mount by how many teeth are on the gear you're installing. Different gears are bigger (more teeth) or smaller (fewer teeth). The gear mount piece is offset. You need to rotate it to the right number setting after swapping out the gear. That gets the new gear the right distance away from the other gear. There are 4 slots. The retainer has two tabs that lock it in place in 2 of the slots. You have 4 choices for rotation, at 90 degrees. Pay attention to how it comes out. It'll probably be covered in gunk but when you clean it, you should be able to find the numbers.