New Toys for The JK

Since Black Friday and Cyber Monday, I have been on a spending tear for this little Jeep! My Visa sure is taking a beating! But some of the deals are so good that I just can't pass them up and these items are all on my build list, so I might as well buy them now, while I can save some $$$.

Right now, laid out all over my garage, I have my Teraflex 2.5" lift and Fox shocks sitting there. I just don't have any time to install the kit! I was planning on getting it done this past weekend, but then I got called into the hospital to do some work and that spanned into two days and 16 hours! Well, those parts aren't going to pay for themselves! I do have this coming weekend off, so I'm hoping to get the lift and shocks in on Saturday, then I'll take her out for a run at the local OHV park the following day.

In the meanwhile, I've been assembling a winch recovery kit. I've also purchased some ARB items- the flat tire kit and the tire deflator. To blow the tires back up, I bought a Smittybilt compressor. It was inexpensive and got strong ratings.

Today my Hi-Lift jack arrived in the mail. I've been collecting Hi-Lift accessories over the past couple of weeks. Tonight after work, I had a few minutes to get that jack mounted.

Jeep Update- Granite Max

It's been about 5 weeks since I brought the Wrangler home. I've been hard at work transforming this little Jeep into the capable rig that I want to take off-roading.

I spent an afternoon meeting up with one of the local 4x4 clubs, getting to know some of the "members". I also spoke with another work colleague who has been 4-wheeling for close to 40 years. One thing I've noticed is that whenever I speak to a JK "expert", they always tell me that I'm doing the wrong thing and they have no problem trying to spend my money! With the club, they immediately tried to modify my Jeep into a dedicated super-hardcore crawler, asking me to return some already purchased parts in lieu of more durable (more expensive) parts. On the other hand, my work colleague warned me about going bigger than I could reasonably afford, describing stressed-out and broken parts in my future. I have spent countless hours scouring the Internet for pearls of wisdom and I do believe I now know where this little rig is headed.

The first things I did was buy some Rubicon take-off wheels from a local Craigslist seller. I also ordered some insulation (carpet) liners for the hardtop. This basically brought my jeep up to the level of the one that I passed up at another dealership- that dealer was asking $3000 more for their vehicle. It only cost me about $650.

I also purchased some good rock rails from ExtremeTerrain- something that would endure the punishment of some real rocks, but would aid in getting into the Jeep, since my wife and I aren't very tall. Carpet liners are an absolute must in an outdoor vehicle, so I went with Rugged Ridge.

Jeep Wranglers have ZERO security- everything is accessible to the public. So I spent some coin buying a locking gas cap, Tuffy hood lock and Tuffy tailgate enclosure, so I could actually have a locking "trunk" area.

Then came the bigger purchases. I bought a front bumper again from ExtremeTerrain and a rear bumper from Quadratec. Since I snowboard and I will be doing some surfing this coming season, I wanted a roof rack system. I went with Surco, so I wouldn't have to drill into that expensive fiberglass hardtop. I have an old Yakima Powderhound rack that I can use with their bars. I haven't yet decided on whether to buy a basket or an enclosed box yet for the roof.

I searched high and low for a good performing tire that will pull double-duty doing commuter miles plus give me great off-road performance. After much turmoil, I ultimately decided to go with 33" tires. My Jeep has a Dana 30 front and Dana 44 rear geared at 3.21. Any size larger would cause considerable stress on the drivetrain, forcing me to eventually regear and fortify the front axle. I bought some Spidertrax 1.5" spacers and am going with the Goodyear Wrangler Duratrac 285/70R/17 tires. I got a phenomenal deal through my local Wheel Works shop. They're getting installed tomorrow.

I will probably be installing the suspension sometime over the winter season. I'm pretty sure that I'll go with a 2.5" Teraflex lift and some Fox 2.0 Performance IFP shocks with a a JKS quick disconnect. The combination of tires and suspension should be well behaved enough for DD duty, while having enough capability for all but the hardest off-road terrain. By not going any taller than 2.5", I shouldn't have to rework the drivetrain too much and it shouldn't affect the steering.

I'll post pictures as I complete the installations.

There's a New Pony In the Stall

For over a year now, I've been planning on buying a Tesla Model 3. On the day that they went "public", allowing anyone to put down a $1000 deposit for the car, I was on it! Not long ago, Tesla announced that they began building the cars and that it wouldn't be long before my car would be ready to be built. At this point, I started to realize that I wasn't really ready for a Tesla- I'm just not ready to be that grown up yet.

The Tesla Model 3 only has a touring distance of 220 miles on a single charge, which means that I won't be taking it on any long road trips. It's pretty much meant to be a car for commuting and local errands. On top of that, they're really a one-off kind of breed. There are no modifications that you can make to the cars to make them better, to make them your own. I think I will be easily bored with that kind of car. My original dream was to have a house that had solar power and to get an electric car, so that I could basically drive for free. Well, my priorities changed.

For a little while now, there's been this small notion of getting a Jeep Wrangler. I know, it makes no sense, since it's almost the exact opposite of the Tesla. I started looking around at prices on used Wranglers and realized that these suckers really don't depreciate very much over the years. As a matter of fact, it costs just about the same amount to buy a used 2013 vs. a brand new Jeep. So I started doing my research on buying a brand new jeep. By now, the cat was out of the bag- I told my wife and surprisingly, she didn't oppose me on it.

So I went online and requested a refund for my Tesla. The process was actually very easy and a physical check showed up in my mailbox 2 weeks later! It only took a week before we took a long drive down to Gilroy to buy the Jeep :)