Minche

[WranglerMangler]

Also ran back over the pass yesterday for another load of firewood. Found an old burn with lots of windfall. Perfectly seasoned firewood just laying there for the taking. 

[Pete M]

score!  that reminds me, I really need to fell and slice up that tree by the house before it rots on me like that oak did. 

[WranglerMangler]

3 hours ago, Pete M said:

score!  that reminds me, I really need to fell and slice up that tree by the house before it rots on me like that oak did. 

It’s always nice to have a full woodshed! 

[WranglerMangler]

Yet another load of the dry stuff before Chinook pass closes for the winter. Got 2 loads today with the help of my Daughter. Another 280 miles racked on the odometer. 

[WranglerMangler]

Another load of the dry stuff today. And what a beautiful day it was. First snow on the pass too. 
I did find out that taillights will melt if directly exposed to exhaust. The back 6-8” of my exhaust (the down turn) apparently decided to part ways from the truck. So now I have this mess to deal with. 

Was the nicer of the two taillights too. Bummer. 

[Pete M]

what the heck? 

[WranglerMangler]

On 10/2/2023 at 5:19 PM, Pete M said:

what the heck? 

Lol. That was my reaction too. Just the way the exhaust is ran. The downturn was “wheeled” off for lack of better term. Now the outlet is right behind the taillight. Just another thing on the list of things to fix 

[Salvagedcircuit]

Excuse me sir, I'll have to label this post as NSFW!

Not Safe For Wallet

 

 

[WranglerMangler]

On 10/6/2023 at 9:43 PM, Salvagedcircuit said:

Excuse me sir, I'll have to label this post as NSFW!

Not Safe For Wallet

 

 

Lol. True huh. I could probably have a nice property and house paid off by now if it wasn’t for this Jeep thing I got 20 years ago. 

[Salvagedcircuit]

11 minutes ago, WranglerMangler said:

Lol. True huh. I could probably have a nice property and house paid off by now if it wasn’t for this Jeep thing I got 20 years ago. 

 

Hahaha. At least most of the parts are not crazy expensive and don't require custom tools or triple-square adapters!

I do love the mixture of torx, metric and standard sprinkled all over the vehicle though

[WranglerMangler]

2 hours ago, Salvagedcircuit said:

 

Hahaha. At least most of the parts are not crazy expensive and don't require custom tools or triple-square adapters!

I do love the mixture of torx, metric and standard sprinkled all over the vehicle though

And don’t forget the infamous External Torx (Etorx) bolts either. (Top bolts on the bell housing) and I believe calipers as well. Love finding those after somebody already rounded em off 

[WranglerMangler]

For those curious, On my last load of firewood, I found this: 

1 full truck load (pictured),split and stacked measures: 

6.5’Long x 3.5’Tall x 3’Wide = 53% of a chord per load (SWB) 

I have found that splitting the rounds into halves, makes them more manageable to move and easier to stack into the truck. Seems to leave less dead space between pieces as well. 

We have done 9 loads so far this year and I am hoping to get 2-3 more before the pass closes for the winter. Can never have enough dry firewood. Especially since we are already burning and it seems like my wife likes to burn into June. 
Minche has been loving the pull over the 5200’ pass especially fully loaded. Lol. We live at about 300’ so she feels about every foot of elevation change. 

[Salvagedcircuit]

34 minutes ago, WranglerMangler said:

Minche has been loving the pull over the 5200’ pass especially fully loaded. Lol. We live at about 300’ so she feels about every foot of elevation change. 

That's quite the elevation change. Wowzers!

[WranglerMangler]

We got rained out at work this morning, So I decided it would be a good day to go get another load of firewood. First, I had to break apart and chip away the remainder of my melted taillight. Can’t believe how tough that stuff was. 

Secondly, I cut about a foot off of the exhaust so it wouldn’t happen again. I had a taillight lense sitting around and I lightly screwed it in so it wouldn’t fall out until my replacement arrives. (Going for looking legal here) Cut the harness back past the damage and tucked it away for now. 

There was snow on top of the pass, and according to my elevation app, the top of the pass is 5430’ elevation not 5200’ like I thought. 

 

Got another really full load, with the snow comes the pressing pass closure. 
I think my next trip over will be with Gladius the J20 trailer and I will be about finished up for the season. I’m curious how she will handle the added weight.
Where I cut wood is at 3,430’ elevation and it feels like straight back up the mountain the 2000’ difference. 

Spotted this double rainbow on the drive home as well. 

 

This shows how splitting the rounds in half seems to leave less dead space between pieces. 

here's the pile on the ground. Plus the wheelbarrow load. Decent amount of wood these little trucks can move around. Just another reason we love them. 

[WranglerMangler]

Today was yet another load of firewood. I did take Gladius the J20 trailer. It was quite the drive.  No problems, fortunately. It actually tows pretty good. Minche wasn’t very happy about the added weight however. If we were going up hill, she needed to be 3000 RPM or above to not be loosing speed. Had the electric fan on the whole way, never got above where she usually runs on the temp gauge. Think we may finally have enough firewood for the winter. 
 

[WranglerMangler]

Last time I was over cutting firewood, I left behind a nice 30’ section of really good, dry  wood that was on my mind all week, I was picturing someone else over there cutting on my log, so I had to go get the rest today. It sure was a beautiful day. Worth the 140 more miles racked up on the Odometer. My daughter came along too. Always nice to have company. 

 

Once we broke above the socked in Pacific Northwest rain clouds, it was actually a beautiful day. 

 

We were searching for a camping spot, for next summer and found this place. Pretty cool with the creek running through. 

 

Basically across the street from the campground is where we load up at. Got the rest of the log I was worried about, plus another little bit as well to finish off the load. (This has become my picture taking spot if you haven’t noticed yet. Lol.) I don’t just keep posting the same picture 

 

Driving home was almost as beautiful as the way over. 
Mount Rainier 

[WranglerMangler]

Finally got around to getting my melted taillight and harness fixed thanks to saveevryjp1998 for the parts! The new harness had different color wires than the existing harness so it took a little figuring to get it all wired correctly but it all works now. 

[WranglerMangler]

Actually hauled something more than Firewood recently, found a junk boat on Facebook Marketplace that had a very clean, low hour, Evinrude 50hp outboard on the back that the guy claimed was a runner, so for $100 I had to go get it. 
It took some convincing to make my wife realize that we needed this junk boat in our yard for a while but eventually, she came around. 
 

Cap Sante look out Anacortes, Wa 

Some pictures of Minche in LaConnor Wa. Stopped for breakfast. Cool old town, if your ever driving by, it’s worth a stop. 

Only picture I got of the boat in tow. (It actually moves more than firewood!)

 

Upon getting home and checking things out further, the trailer is actually really heavy duty and has brand new, still soft tires on it, and a surge brake set up as well. Does still need some work but is a big upgrade over my current trailer now.
 Cleaned the carburetors on the outboard and it fired right up with new gas after installing a new ignition. Didn’t come with a key. 
 

[Pete M]

Evinrude ftw  

[WranglerMangler]

36 minutes ago, Pete M said:

Evinrude ftw  

I’m very happy with the investment. Lol. Bumping from 40hp to 50hp on the cheap! Really more of a Yamaha outboard guy but dang, $$$$. Evinrude is my 2nd choice for sure. Almost enjoyable to work on too. 

[WranglerMangler]

For years now, I’ve had a little “Jeep tool kit”

that has served me very well. For a smaller kit, it’s very well stocked. Perfect to grab for most jobs to be done on MJs or around the house.  Recently the plastic case hinge had fallen apart and the top had separated from the bottom. 

Home Depot had a Black Friday sale on some Husky tool kits and my wife got me one for my birthday. 
Perfect size to be strapped down in the bed. 

1/4” stuff

3/8” stuff 

1/2” and wrenches. 

 

A very respectable kit for the average home owner/ weekend oil changer guy. But that, I am not.  As with most everything in my life, I couldn’t just let it be. Had to make it mine. So I started cutting apart the “shelves” to make more room. This is what I came up with. 
 

The blue plastic is the bottom half of my old kit. Cut out all the wasted space and crammed it into the husky shelf. The standard deep sockets were in the top half of my old kit so their new home is in the loose compartment to the right. 

The 1/2” shelf organization, from the factory was pathetic. So much wasted space. Cut all that crap out and probably tripled the availability socket space. Plus threw in the cheap, trail wrench set. Pretty happy with it now. Still have some room for more stuff. 

 

I need to make a trip to the hardware store for some spray foam. I want to unload the 3/8s” shelf, flip it upside down and fill the void with spray foam. Think it will add to the strength, keep the blue case up off the bottom, and keep anything from falling in the void. 
Thinking about it, I almost need to buy a whole other box to gut out for pliers, torx bits, hex bits, big wrenches, screwdrivers and other miscellaneous things. THEN I’d be pretty set up for trail wrenching.
Thought I’d share the trail box.  

[Htchevyii]

The mixture of fasteners sure makes the emergency tool kit a challenge! Mine is all stuffed inside of a tool bag inside of Crown Royal bags. 

[WranglerMangler]

13 hours ago, Htchevyii said:

The mixture of fasteners sure makes the emergency tool kit a challenge! Mine is all stuffed inside of a tool bag inside of Crown Royal bags. 

Yes, I agree. They didn’t make it easy for us. One of the reasons I always replace the goofy fasteners with hex stuff whenever possible 

[WranglerMangler]

Got in a four wheeling trip today with my long time friend who’s YJ hasn’t been on a trail in 10+ years. It was an absolute beautiful day. Probably the last one of the year. Minche had a couple of minor issues, sprung multiple pin hole leaks on a power steering line. Pretty sure it wasn’t leaking the last time I drove her. Kinda seemed strange to have 3 pin hole leaks start at once. Who knows. Got plenty of P/S hoses around here for an easy fix. We got to the bottom of the hill and I couldn’t shift the transfer case, the linkage had pulled out of the body mount because my transmission mounting bolts had fallen out at some point! 

 

 

 

 

 

Just about the best view of Mt.Rainier that I know of. 

 

[Salvagedcircuit]

35 minutes ago, WranglerMangler said:

Got in a four wheeling trip today with my long time friend who’s YJ hasn’t been on a trail in 10+ years. It was an absolute beautiful day. Probably the last one of the year. Minche had a couple of minor issues, sprung multiple pin hole leaks on a power steering line. Pretty sure it wasn’t leaking the last time I drove her. Kinda seemed strange to have 3 pin hole leaks start at once. Who knows. Got plenty of P/S hoses around here for an easy fix. We got to the bottom of the hill and I couldn’t shift the transfer case, the linkage had pulled out of the body mount because my transmission mounting bolts had fallen out at some point! 

 

 

 

 

 

Just about the best view of Mt.Rainier that I know of. 

 

Excellent view! My power steering line started sweating, so I replaced both of them. Sure enough they had the yellow 10-10-87 AMC marking on them. That's one hell of a run. Glad the new lines exist. I got some sunsong ones they seemed fine.