Wife's MJ

[reson46]

While I was welding the cage, fenders, etc. Ron and Keith helped throw some rattle can paint on so that everything was at least close to the same color.  Then it was time to start putting things back together.

 

Bed sliders.

 

 

 

 

Willy

[reson46]

On to the tube fenders, tail lights, grill etc.

 

 

 

 

 

Willy

[reson46]

By Friday evening we pretty much had everything back together.  We went to fill it up with gas when it died a couple blocks away and wouldn't restart.   :doh:  I walked home, picked up the red MJ, and drug it back.  We replaced the CPS and it ran fine to the gas station and back.  Unfortunately we could smell the brakes getting hot.  Turns out the left front caliper was seized.  We got it home and decided to fix it the next day.

 

Saturday morning we picked up a new caliper.

 

Then it died as we were loading it on the trailer.   :fs1:  I had a fuel pressure regulator waiting for me to have free time to swap on.  Decided we may as well swap it now and see if it made a difference.  I don't think it was the issue but it did run long enough to finish loading it.

 

On the way to Trail Jamboree we picked up a fuel pump and TPS just in case we had any more problems.  It continued to have starting problems, but if we just waited about ten seconds before attempting to restart it would fire right up.  That was good enough to get us through the week, but I'll need to figure out if I can fix that.

 

Trail Jamboree was a great time.  Pictures to follow once they upload.

 

Willy

[knever3]

Okay, I'll bite.

 

Great job!  That's a ton of work to put into any vehicle, you really should just build a complete tube buggy.  I can understand though, they are boring because they have no soul.  A Jeep Comanche trail rig?  Awesome!!  That's why you do it!  Almost a month of posting before someone noticed and replied!  That's just sad...  I will do you justice on the build by saying a phenomenal job indeed! 

[reson46]

Okay, I'll bite.

 

Great job!  That's a ton of work to put into any vehicle, you really should just build a complete tube buggy.  I can understand though, they are boring because they have no soul.  A Jeep Comanche trail rig?  Awesome!!  That's why you do it!  Almost a month of posting before someone noticed and replied!  That's just sad...  I will do you justice on the build by saying a phenomenal job indeed! 

 

Thanks.  I'm not interested in a tube buggy at this point.  There is a reason I built all the sliders.  I wanted to keep it a full bodied truck.

 

Willy

[H3RESQ]

Looking real good buddy, hope the starting issue presents itself to you soon!

[reson46]

Trail day 1 - Sunday.  Since our club are trail hosts we are responsible for pre-running our trails and clearing any down trees, etc before Trail Jamboree.  Our club usually hosts the Kaner/Quartz, Manastash, and Rocky Saddle runs.  Sunday we started on Kaner/Quartz.  Not a lot of MJ pics since I was driving.

 

Airing down.

 

 

Very little snow this year.

 

On top of Quartz Mountain.

 

The bridge across Buck Meadows.

 

 

 

Willy

[reson46]

Trail day 2 - Monday.

 

This turned out to be a pretty exciting day.  We found out Sunday evening that the trails we normally host had been changed.  Instead we were hosting Divide, Manastach, and Rimrock.  Two of which - Divide and Rimrock - none of us had run before.  I at least knew where Divide was and had wanted to run it, so we decided to check it out.

 

The problem with the Divide trail is location.  It took us an hour and a half to get there over very rough dirt roads.  And that was with only four rigs not opposed to a little drifting through the corners.   :brows:

 

Once you get there the trail is pretty fun and offers beautiful views.  Plus it is anything but straight.   :D

 

The trail starts near the bridge across Buck Meadows.

 

You may notice Keith under his Jeep.  More on that shortly.

 

 

Maybe a quarter of a mile later we discovered a little problem with Keith's Jeep.   :hmm:

 

You can see here where the bracket had actually been repaired previously before he bought it.

 

No big deal.  Some chain, a couple zip ties, and a ratchet strap should hold it together.

 

 

Luckily this was towards the beginning of the trail.  We were able to limp Keith back to a campground with some nice picnic tables.  We still needed to finish pre-running the trail so he hung out with the dog while we finished it.  But, it didn't take long before we ran into another issue and out came the tools again.

 

Ed's steering started giving him problems.  This type of setup just puts so much stress on a very little mounting area it was only a matter of time before something happened.  Luckily he had a spare bolt we were able to swap in and it held everything tight enough to finish the week.

 

After this we finished the trail and joined Keith for the slow drive back to camp.  Everything held pretty well until we hit the really rough sections.  Does anybody smell burning rubber?   :yes:

 

Another ratchet strap and we're on our way again.  This time it held back to camp.

 

Willy

[reson46]

Trail day 3 - Tuesday.

 

We pre-ran Manastash and were joined by a couple of Land Rover Discovery IIs.  The Land Rovers had problems all day.  We didn't even make it to the trail before one blew its expansion tank and started overheating.  We ended up heading back to camp early with all the problems.

 

At Moon Rocks.

 

Back at camp Keith and Bill were busy with repairs.

 

 

By the end of the day we had everything back together and Keith was ready for more wheeling!

 

Willy

[reson46]

Trail day 4 - Wednesday.

 

We decided to do a little exploring.  I started looking at the OHV map and saw a part of trail 694 that we had not run.  We went in search of it.  We didn't find it, but we did have fun.  We ended up on a rough dirt road that offered some great views and ended on an abandoned road that had not been traveled in quite some time.

 

View from our lunch stop.

 

 

The road started to get interesting when we came across some beaver handiwork.

 

 

 

 

After some bushwacking and washouts, just as things were getting easy, Keith decided that it was a good time for new tires.

 

 

 

Luckily Ron was running the same size and bolt pattern.  After swapping two tires it was time to head back to camp.

 

 

[mnkyboy]

Looks like fun. I've got some buddies that run out to rimrock every year and are always trying to get me to come out.

 

They actually just got back on friday.

[reson46]

Trail day 5 - Thursday.

 

This was the first official day of Trail Jamboree.  Our club led a group through the Divide trail.  All the rigs were very capable and we were actually finished with the trail well before lunch.  Afterwards we took a little detour to Lost Lake.

 

 

We were almost off the trail when we had a u-joint attempt to occupy the same space as a ball joint.

 

 

We were able to beat it back together enough to get a c-clip back in and get back to camp.

 

Willy

[reson46]

Trail day 6 - Friday.

 

We hosted the Manastash run.

 

Moon Rocks.

 

Eric, from Northridge 4x4, joined us for the day and found the perfect place for their banner.

 

 

We did have one guy end up in an interesting situation.

 

 

 

After Moon Rocks most went back to camp, but one participant wasn't ready to be done, so we hit a couple more trails.

 

Willy

[Comanche County]

This MJ has the perfect stance!  Capable and looks darn good from any angle! 

[reson46]

Trail day 7 - Saturday.

 

We ended up with just a small group for Rimrock.  It was my first time and I a more than ready to go back.

 

Blue Lake.

 

We stopped for lunch at Blue Slide Lookout.  The views were incredible.  Mt. Rainier.

 

Mt. Adams from the same location.

 

Many more pics here.

 

Willy

[reson46]

This MJ has the perfect stance!  Capable and looks darn good from any angle! 

 

Thank you.   :thumbsup:

 

Willy

[88whitemanche]

Man! I'm in such awe! The country side looks so amazing! I don't get to see that at all here in miami....mainly highways and inner city neighborhoods....great mj coming along very nice! Especially with all the armor.

[reson46]

Northridge 4x4 has some nice shots of the MJ and Trail Jamboree over on their Facebook page.

 

Willy

[buffalob]

Awesome photos, awesome gathering and awesome MJ

Might have to head out your way next season....

[jimoshel]

Would like to see how they got the Wrangler off that rock. Did the windshield survive?

[reson46]

Would like to see how they got the Wrangler off that rock. Did the windshield survive?

 

Yes, the windshield survived.  We just hooked up a winch line high on the passenger side and he drove out of it.

 

Willy

[Bornindesert]

Was really looking forward to your wheeling pics, always interesting to see how prepared you guys are. When you see welding rod laying next to the work in progress at the campground, well enough said :thumbsup: ...and all the fab work really looks great, it all came together.

 

Now just need some door sliders :D

[reson46]

I usually try to wash it once a year...if I have time.

 

 

Got a great deal on some Truck-Lite LED headlights from Northridge 4x4.  Yes, one headlight literally fell apart when I removed it.

 

 

Willy

[reson46]

I was a little surprised to find these after less than two years of wheeling.   :(

 

 

I ground out the cracks, welded them up, and added some 1/4" fish plates.

 

 

Then I tossed in some gussets to attempt to help relieve some of the load.  Not sure how much good they'll do considering they aren't exactly on the same plane as the stress that caused the crack, but I figured it couldn't hurt.

 

 

Willy

[H3RESQ]

Bracing looks good. As does the clean rig. I have H4's in my MJ and have been eye balling those LED's since they finally came out with the square one's. Getting the XJ (still stock lights) finally gives me an excuse to do the LED's on my MJ and move the H4's over to the XJ. :)