I did, I used 7.5 gallons of the extra I had. Think I left the trail with 3/4 tank so it was the perfect amount to bring.
DJ's TJ: Low and Slow
- Thread starter Dev
- Start date
That is an amazing trip, what an awesome experience to get to do that with your dad.
I was editing some pics I took on the Rubicon and noticed I somehow captured this shot. Check out this heli in the background carrying a load out to the springs area. Thought it was pretty cool.
And since we're all here, here's a few more edited shots from the trip.
And since we're all here, here's a few more edited shots from the trip.
Whatsup guys, hope you all had a good thanksgiving.
I haven't touched the jeep since I put it away after the Rubicon. I'll be honest it's been pretty nice stepping away from garage work for the first time in a couple years. I've been spending some time with other hobbies. But now that the warm weather is fading away it's officially WHEELING SEASON! My buddies and I headed out to Johnson valley for Thanksgiving weekend. It was crazy packed but it's always a good time. Made some new friends around the campfire and ran into some dudes that I connect with on social media.
I want to start this off by talking about something I didn't mention on the Rubicon trip.. my truck. I had a '99 ram 2500 8.0 v10 that I mostly used just to tow things. That truck was an absolute DOG going up the mountain passes. It's pretty clapped out so it doesn't have much grunt left it in. The AC didn't work so we were blasting the heater for the entire 16 hour drive to the trail (on a hot summer day) to prevent the engine from overheating, which it did anyway. And the trans would overheat on every hill climb to where we'd have to stop to let it cool for at least 15 minutes, drive another 100 feet and stop to let it cool again. It was rough. I was as tired as the truck was when we got to the trail. Long story short that trip made me decide to sell it. I sold it for cheap, along with two of my other trucks. In August I placed an order for a custom 2026 F250 and have been waiting for it to get built.. until I saw my dream truck for sale. I've always secretly wanted a flatbed dually long bed with a cummins and g56 manual. These can't really be found here in Cali so I hopped on it. I paid too much for it especially the condition that it's in but it's still about half of what I would've paid for my new truck. Plus I won't have any payments to deal with.
Here's a couple pics of when I bought it. 2012 Ram 3500, 6.7 cummins, g56.
It had 40/15.5/20s which I immediately stepped down to 37/12.5/17s. I rebuilt the whole front end, built a quick front bumper, threw the tent in the back and took off to the desert. It's still way too tall but I'll eventually get this truck bitchin. I also plan on building a pop up camper for it real soon.
If you guys recall I was having problems with my first steering box. I sent it to Redhead to get rebuilt. They ended up having to put a new housing on it and said the existing steel balls that were in it weren't sized properly. I got it back 2 days before this trip so I ended up installing it out there. After the install we were still having problems bleeding air out of the system. I took out the ram and capped off the box to see if it would help but it didn't. I ended up finding one of the fittings on the pump wasn't sealing properly which means air was entering from that spot. I left my ram off so we can quickly hit some trails and it did fine the rest of the weekend without hydro assist.
After we got back I washed the jeep down and found this. I literally had no idea this happened. I must've had a few trail waters
I haven't touched the jeep since I put it away after the Rubicon. I'll be honest it's been pretty nice stepping away from garage work for the first time in a couple years. I've been spending some time with other hobbies. But now that the warm weather is fading away it's officially WHEELING SEASON! My buddies and I headed out to Johnson valley for Thanksgiving weekend. It was crazy packed but it's always a good time. Made some new friends around the campfire and ran into some dudes that I connect with on social media.
I want to start this off by talking about something I didn't mention on the Rubicon trip.. my truck. I had a '99 ram 2500 8.0 v10 that I mostly used just to tow things. That truck was an absolute DOG going up the mountain passes. It's pretty clapped out so it doesn't have much grunt left it in. The AC didn't work so we were blasting the heater for the entire 16 hour drive to the trail (on a hot summer day) to prevent the engine from overheating, which it did anyway. And the trans would overheat on every hill climb to where we'd have to stop to let it cool for at least 15 minutes, drive another 100 feet and stop to let it cool again. It was rough. I was as tired as the truck was when we got to the trail. Long story short that trip made me decide to sell it. I sold it for cheap, along with two of my other trucks. In August I placed an order for a custom 2026 F250 and have been waiting for it to get built.. until I saw my dream truck for sale. I've always secretly wanted a flatbed dually long bed with a cummins and g56 manual. These can't really be found here in Cali so I hopped on it. I paid too much for it especially the condition that it's in but it's still about half of what I would've paid for my new truck. Plus I won't have any payments to deal with.
Here's a couple pics of when I bought it. 2012 Ram 3500, 6.7 cummins, g56.
It had 40/15.5/20s which I immediately stepped down to 37/12.5/17s. I rebuilt the whole front end, built a quick front bumper, threw the tent in the back and took off to the desert. It's still way too tall but I'll eventually get this truck bitchin. I also plan on building a pop up camper for it real soon.
If you guys recall I was having problems with my first steering box. I sent it to Redhead to get rebuilt. They ended up having to put a new housing on it and said the existing steel balls that were in it weren't sized properly. I got it back 2 days before this trip so I ended up installing it out there. After the install we were still having problems bleeding air out of the system. I took out the ram and capped off the box to see if it would help but it didn't. I ended up finding one of the fittings on the pump wasn't sealing properly which means air was entering from that spot. I left my ram off so we can quickly hit some trails and it did fine the rest of the weekend without hydro assist.
After we got back I washed the jeep down and found this. I literally had no idea this happened. I must've had a few trail waters
That electrical work makes me so jealous. I want to get into my engine bay and clean everything up. Remove all the unnecessary wiring and add
What a great build.
T
Thanks! I had a lot of compliments on it last weekend. It definitely gives me peace of mind knowing where everything lands.
Thanks! I had a lot of compliments on it last weekend. It definitely gives me peace of mind knowing where everything lands.
So last night my 19yo was told to find employment else where.
He always thought it would be cool to learn how to glue metal together, you mentioned your brother being certificated. And you've taken classes on Welding,. Where did you go?
We've been eyeing a school in Missouri before he started this last job.
We both got our certificates from a small community college called Cerritos College in southern California. It's known nationally to have one of the best welding programs. I got certified in GTAW (aluminum), really just for fun after I finished high school. My brother took classes for SMAW and got his Los Angeles certificate which is HIGHLY recognized around here for blue collar trades. Within the last few years my union actually started offering a SMAW welding class to obtain the LA cert for their apprentices. Goes to show how much they want welders.
It's that time of the year! It's time for KOH!!!
As you guys saw from one of my previous posts I went to King of the Hammers last year for my first time and had an absolute blast. The jeep wasn't done at the time so I wasn't able to take it. This year I'm taking my jeep and I'm STOKED. It's also about that time where a lot of offroad races happen so my buddies rigs are torn down for race prep while mine is finally ready to go
There are a few things I need to tackle before the trip though.
First things first I've had non-stop steering problems every time I hook up my assist ram. When it's installed my steering turns nice and easy at idle. When I try turning fast my steering won't keep up with my wheel input making it feel super unsafe while driving at speed. When I increase rpm it turns slightly faster but nothing very noticable so I kind of ruled out it being a pump flow issue. I figured it was the steering box because I had problems with it since the beginning of the build so I had Redhead rebuild my box with a new housing. After the new housing and ram were installed I ran into the same problem. I contacted Lee Power Steering and have been troubleshooting through email for the last few days. Here's how it went down.
When I swapped my TJ pump to a WJ pump I retained my TJ flow control valve (very common to do for us TJ owners so that we can retain the same output hose fitting size). But here's the big thing I overlooked (for some of you this is probably common knowledge).. refer to the bottom paragraph.
I also found this adapter that PSC makes. This uses an orifice size of .160" which they recommend for higher flow at higher RPMs.
After speaking to Lee Power Steering about my exact steering setup here's what he said:
"The 11/16 is way too big. A 5/32 drill bit will get you to .156 which should be right around 4GPM. That should be just over 1 GPM more than what you currently have.
That will increase GPM at low revs as well. Not as drastic as it does at higher revs, but it will help."
So last night I drilled out the fcv with a 5/32 bit. Here's a pic of before and after. As you can see .036 of a difference is pretty small.
TJ flow control valve:
Before drilling, .120" orifice:
After drilling, .156" orifice:
Reinstalled, properly bled and it definitely made a difference. It's still far from perfect but it feels safe enough to drive at higher speeds along the lakebed.
While I was swapping things out I also swapped out the aluminum AN fittings I was using on my high pressure side. Before starting to build my steering I read that aluminum fittings would've been fine for high pressure PS. This is definitely not the case (refer back to my Rubicon trip).
Here's a new steel adapter I got to convert my flow control valve fitting from the pump to -6. Apparently the aluminum fitting I was using was supposed to come with a compression washer, hence the small leak I had on my last trip
. This one seals with an Oring.
Here's the new high pressure line I made to replace the aluminum crap.
Steering pump is much happier and I can finally use ram assist.
Onto the next item. After my shakedown run, Rubicon trip and a single day of wheeling on Thanksgiving weekend my tires were TRASHED. as stated before I got these tires for like $300 to use as mockups for my build. The date code on these are from 2004 so after 22 years I'd say they're time to retire.
I never look forward to swapping tires on beadlocks but I couldn't wait to get my new stickies mounted.
I didn't use any type of balancing remedy on my old tires and I didn't have any issues with them. With these treps being a soft compound I decided on 10oz balancing beads. We'll see how they do.
Got them all mounted and took her for a rip down the block. Tires feel great, steering feels ok. She's pretty much ready to tackle some dirt.
As you guys saw from one of my previous posts I went to King of the Hammers last year for my first time and had an absolute blast. The jeep wasn't done at the time so I wasn't able to take it. This year I'm taking my jeep and I'm STOKED. It's also about that time where a lot of offroad races happen so my buddies rigs are torn down for race prep while mine is finally ready to go
There are a few things I need to tackle before the trip though.
First things first I've had non-stop steering problems every time I hook up my assist ram. When it's installed my steering turns nice and easy at idle. When I try turning fast my steering won't keep up with my wheel input making it feel super unsafe while driving at speed. When I increase rpm it turns slightly faster but nothing very noticable so I kind of ruled out it being a pump flow issue. I figured it was the steering box because I had problems with it since the beginning of the build so I had Redhead rebuild my box with a new housing. After the new housing and ram were installed I ran into the same problem. I contacted Lee Power Steering and have been troubleshooting through email for the last few days. Here's how it went down.
When I swapped my TJ pump to a WJ pump I retained my TJ flow control valve (very common to do for us TJ owners so that we can retain the same output hose fitting size). But here's the big thing I overlooked (for some of you this is probably common knowledge).. refer to the bottom paragraph.
I also found this adapter that PSC makes. This uses an orifice size of .160" which they recommend for higher flow at higher RPMs.
After speaking to Lee Power Steering about my exact steering setup here's what he said:
"The 11/16 is way too big. A 5/32 drill bit will get you to .156 which should be right around 4GPM. That should be just over 1 GPM more than what you currently have.
That will increase GPM at low revs as well. Not as drastic as it does at higher revs, but it will help."
So last night I drilled out the fcv with a 5/32 bit. Here's a pic of before and after. As you can see .036 of a difference is pretty small.
TJ flow control valve:
Before drilling, .120" orifice:
After drilling, .156" orifice:
Reinstalled, properly bled and it definitely made a difference. It's still far from perfect but it feels safe enough to drive at higher speeds along the lakebed.
While I was swapping things out I also swapped out the aluminum AN fittings I was using on my high pressure side. Before starting to build my steering I read that aluminum fittings would've been fine for high pressure PS. This is definitely not the case (refer back to my Rubicon trip).
Here's a new steel adapter I got to convert my flow control valve fitting from the pump to -6. Apparently the aluminum fitting I was using was supposed to come with a compression washer, hence the small leak I had on my last trip
. This one seals with an Oring.Here's the new high pressure line I made to replace the aluminum crap.
Steering pump is much happier and I can finally use ram assist.
Onto the next item. After my shakedown run, Rubicon trip and a single day of wheeling on Thanksgiving weekend my tires were TRASHED. as stated before I got these tires for like $300 to use as mockups for my build. The date code on these are from 2004 so after 22 years I'd say they're time to retire.
I never look forward to swapping tires on beadlocks but I couldn't wait to get my new stickies mounted.
I didn't use any type of balancing remedy on my old tires and I didn't have any issues with them. With these treps being a soft compound I decided on 10oz balancing beads. We'll see how they do.
Got them all mounted and took her for a rip down the block. Tires feel great, steering feels ok. She's pretty much ready to tackle some dirt.
I checked back into what I ordered from summit for mine. I’ve got the PSC sf25 flow control valve with a .160 orifice. I bought it to adapt straight to the -6 AN line but I guess I got lucky on the sizing. PSC pump for what it’s worth too. Mine is kinda slow at idle but any throttle picks it up fast. I’d love to have a 3 turn box instead of the slightly over 4 turns I’ve got currently but I’m not sure that exists.
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/PFN-SF25
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/PFN-SF25
What size ram are you using? 1.5"?
I also have the ~4 turn box. The fast ratio wasn't in stock at the time but it honestly feels great on the rocks. Also plan on driving on some street so I feel like it'll work well.
Other than your PSC pump I think we have the same steering components. Have you had a chance to drive it yet? Last I heard from you you were still getting the steering bled.
I also have the ~4 turn box. The fast ratio wasn't in stock at the time but it honestly feels great on the rocks. Also plan on driving on some street so I feel like it'll work well.
Other than your PSC pump I think we have the same steering components. Have you had a chance to drive it yet? Last I heard from you you were still getting the steering bled.
I’m pretty sure it’s a 1.75”. I’ve put a TON of miles on it since May. Like 10-12k
. A lot of street driving and it’s been in the woods a good bit too. And 2 400-500 mile 24hr endurance rallies with 24 Hours of Appalachia. I’ve had a few minor issues but overall I’m happy with it. No regrets at all with building around the ford box. 
H
Hell yea man!!! She looks good
I’m pretty sure it’s a 1.75”. I’ve put a TON of miles on it since May. Like 10-12k
View attachment 665161View attachment 665162View attachment 665163
Hell yea man!!! She looks good
Similar threads
