Tennessee Red

[gasiorv]

When it has rained 4" in the last week, the trailer is in the backyard, you have a 2wd pickup, but you're going wheeling this weekend. You come up with solutions

 

[Apparition]

When it has rained 4" in the last week, the trailer is in the backyard, you have a 2wd pickup, but you're going wheeling this weekend. You come up with solutions

View attachment 384126

A for effort

C+ for lack of cable ties and duct tape

 

[gasiorv]

Added Seat Heaters to the PRP daily drivers. It was super easy, only had to untie the lace, remove one staple, pull up cover, install pads, and reassemble. Took me longer to get the peal covering off the sticky part of the pad then it did to disassemble and reassemble the seat.
Dorman 628-040 universal kit installed on both driver and passenger side.

 

[NashvilleTJ]

Added Seat Heaters to the PRP daily drivers. It was super easy, only had to untie the lace, remove one staple, pull up cover, install pads, and reassemble. Took me longer to get the peal covering off the sticky part of the pad then it did to disassemble and reassemble the seat.
Dorman 628-040 universal kit installed on both driver and passenger side.
View attachment 384510

You'll be all set for Saturday.

 

[starkey480]

Added Seat Heaters to the PRP daily drivers. It was super easy, only had to untie the lace, remove one staple, pull up cover, install pads, and reassemble. Took me longer to get the peal covering off the sticky part of the pad then it did to disassemble and reassemble the seat.
Dorman 628-040 universal kit installed on both driver and passenger side.
View attachment 384510

That’s good to know. I already have the Dorman heaters so I won’t order the PRPs with seat heaters.

 

[Ocho]

That’s good to know. I already have the Dorman heaters so I won’t order the PRPs with seat heaters.

fwiw the corbeau lumbar pillow fits in the daily driver back between the bolsters pretty much perfectly. the bartact one didn't fit all that well so i switched em out.

 

[gasiorv]

The stoke is high to go shake this thing down tomorrow.

 

[gasiorv]

Shook down the rear axle install at Hawk Pride on 12/17/22. See the Hawk Pride write up in the Wheeling Trips section.
Hawk Pride Trip

Axle itself-
The Rear Axle seemed to work great, I was a little worried about the locker since I bought a used axle but the locker seemed to work, the Ford Explorer breaks that I installed seemed to work, the parking brakes worked, etc.... I seemed to have good clearance with the RJ60 and my LCA brackets seemed to give me a little more clearance.

Control Arms and Suspension-
Overall I was very happy with the suspension. When I loaded up all my gear the day before the shocks did not compress as much as I thought they would so at normal ride height I had approx 6.5" up and 5.5" down. But I set it up with the spring just coming loose at the lowest so I should be getting as much down as needed. I also was concerned about not having a rear sway bar, but I didn't even really notice a difference without it.

I beat it pretty hard in the rocks and all my welds seemed to hold up. I also kicked it up into 2H on a few of the access roads and opened her up to let the rear suspension work and it seemed to work great, I never really opened it up on bumpy access roads with the short arms installed so I really have nothing to compare it to but I was happy with it.

I was worried about hitting the control arms in the rocks since the mounts are further fwd and outside of the "tire", but it was really a non-issue.

I still have some wheel hop (bouncing) so my antisquat must still be pretty high. I really don't want to lower the lower axle side brackets anymore due to clearance. I have a little room to go up on the upper frame side brackets but that will be a ton of work to accomplish, so I think I am going to wheel it a few more times to see how it does in different conditions and in different rocks (Windrock, Hot Springs, Green Acres, etc...) then I will make my decision.

Exhaust-
I was worried about the exhaust being too loud, but I actually liked the way it sounded

Issues not related to Rear Axle:
My front locker did not work from the very start of the trip. Need to troubleshoot.
Sliced the sidewall on Mickey Thompson MTZ tire. I think I put three plugs in it and it is holding for now.

 

[gasiorv]

Front Locker troubleshooting resulted in a bad connector at the diff connection which was a disappointment because if I would have went with my gut feeling and just cut out the connector on the side of the trail I would have had a locker. But while I was fixing it (cut out connector and soldering wires directly together), I lost the ground somewhere, so further troubleshooting resulted in ziptie pinching and breaking the wire. So the wire would have most likely broke along side of the trail which would have had me back to no locker. Guess I was just meant to wheel with no front locker so I can understand how the other half lives!!

The pile after troubleshooting:

The connector on the relay side was good and had power and ground to it on the side of the trail. The connector on the locker side had an internal short and I don't understand why the fuse didn't blow.

Ground wire damage, you can see the marking from the zip tie.

 

[gasiorv]

I also did my morning workout with a set of tire irons and patched the Mickey MTZ sidewall. The patch you see in the picture is from a previous repair, you can't see the patch that I installed this morning.

 

[bty34]

Front Locker troubleshooting resulted in a bad connector at the diff connection which was a disappointment because if I would have went with my gut feeling and just cut out the connector on the side of the trail I would have had a locker. But while I was fixing it (cut out connector and soldering wires directly together), I lost the ground somewhere, so further troubleshooting resulted in ziptie pinching and breaking the wire. So the wire would have most likely broke along side of the trail which would have had me back to no locker. Guess I was just meant to wheel with no front locker so I can understand how the other half lives!!

The pile after troubleshooting:
View attachment 385628
The connector on the relay side was good and had power and ground to it on the side of the trail. The connector on the locker side had an internal short and I don't understand why the fuse didn't blow.

Ground wire damage, you can see the marking from the zip tie.
View attachment 385629

I didn't have great success with that connector either and ended up replacing it with bullet connectors and heat shrink over top. It seems to be somewhat common.

 

[gasiorv]

I didn't have great success with that connector either and ended up replacing it with bullet connectors and heat shrink over top. It seems to be somewhat common.

I never thought about bullet connectors, that is a good idea, Thanks! Next time I got to remove the axle or pull out the locker I will see if the bullet male end will fit through the hole in my housing (I am using stock rubicon Dana 44 housing air locker hole to run wires through). If so, I will add them at that time.

 

[Brianj5600]

Deutsch connectors are waterproof. I've used a few with good results. You will need a fancy crimper though.

 

[gasiorv]

Since my last update, I have wheeled it pretty hard at Hot Springs (new years eve) and at Windrock (jan 2023). The Windrock trip was particularly hard on the jeep with the snow and muddy conditions resulting in the need for wheel speed and "bumping" it pretty hard. At the end of the windrock trip I was getting a loud thumping noise from my trans tunnel area, I have heard it before when the front wheels were articulated but could never find where it was coming from, at the end of the day at windrock it was consistent and I threw it in 2wd and it went away and now when I put it back into 4wd I can't find it?!?

I dropped the trans skid and can't find any evidence of the driveshaft hitting, the transfer cable brackets show no signs of hitting, I did find evidence of the exhaust hitting the engine skid and I clearanced that, and I found evidence of the top of the transfer rubbing the tub and I clearanced that, the engine and trans mounts look good. The transfer chain seems to be tensioned correctly (not much play at front yoke when I put it in 4wd), no metal evidence at trans or tranny drain plugs. It sounds like something rotational is beating on the tunnel when it happens but I can't get it to happen at home.

Also found:
- both knuckles to be wallowed out slightly where TRE attaches and I fixed that with sleeves,
- the Drag Link TRE at the Pitman arm feels good in the hand but when installed has an area of play where it moves up and down considerably,
-Drag link is bent,
- hydro assist ram body was hit by something (most likely the Tie Rod clamp due to the drag link being bent), ram is leaking, and both Heims are thrashed,
-the passenger side front axle upper control arm mount bolt was missing,
-the front antirock aluminum arm splines appear to be stripped,
Some of this is probably due to the Windrock beating, but some is also the cumulation of recent trips and just wear.

In addition to working on fixing the above, I am going to install a rear anti-rock before my next trip in March. Also, for June trip to Moab, I am going to need a rear seat (wife and son are going with me), so I have come up with a way to move the rear seat back 3" to give my son more leg room (my cage has X behind front seats) and also a plan to redo the back side of the cage to give him head clearance and protection. Going to be a busy few months!!

 

[gasiorv]

Summit Racing has been a great go to over the last few years with parts in stock and quick shipping. They did just raise their free shipping order requirement, but I don't think I ever spend under $100 anyway

I ordered the Drag Link Tie Rod End and some Swepco from Summit on Thursday night before I went to bed and it arrived Sat morning (less than 2 days). Got all the steering fixed (minus the hydro assist) and drove it to work this morning with no issues. Rear Antirock also arrived but other than looking and measuring I haven't done anything with it yet, will most likely start that project on a Sat morning on a rainy weekend.

 

[gasiorv]

Due to my gas tank arrangement I was originally going to put the antirock in the forward side of the rear wheels. With some inspiration from bty34 build and reading through some of Blaine's comments where he stated to put it in the rear (on a TJ ) I decided to make it work on the rear side.

Got everything figured out and tacked in today. Got to relocate my axle side shock mounts and tack them in and cycle one more time before I burn everything in permanently. My plan is to cut off the fwd three holes after I wheel it a few times and make sure everything is good to go.

 

[gasiorv]

Got everything burnt in and installed. Had a problem with my welder that took me a while to figure out, wasn't getting any gas to the nozzle, ended up being a loose fitting where the wire feeds into the liner.

Also, got all my front end steering issues taken care of and ram reinstalled.

Going to drive it to work today to ensure everything is ready to wheel. I was asked to be a trail guide for the Jeep Jamboree at Hot Springs the weekend of Mar 24 and then hopefully going to Hawk Pride for a day trip on Apr 1. So back to back wheeling trips with my birthday (50!) the Thursday between trips (that is how my wife said yes to back to back trips .

 

[gasiorv]

(Following is notes and reminders to myself)

Recently found and fixed the following:

• Transfer case bolts were loose. Removed and installed with loctite.
• Changed transfer case fluid (no metal in fluid and chain seems tight).
• Evidence of front driveshaft hitting transfer shifter bracket, trimmed it back to remove interference.
• Evidence of exhaust bracket hitting transmission and I trimmed the bracket.
  • The above three has taken care of the "thumping" that I have been hearing in my trans tunnel area.
• Gas tank skid forward attachment (bolts through frame) have broken (I cut them down during original install and there wasn't enough meat there to take the beatings). You can see the tear out in the above post #276. I redid the forward attach. I added a few attach brackets on the front side of the skid and on the frame. I was able to do this since I am no longer running a track bar.
• Front Frame Side Track Bar Bracket Cracked. I ground out cracks and welded up as a temporary fix. I will be adding a cross brace as a permanent fix before wheeling again.
• Passenger side Drag Link TRE keeps coming loose at the knuckle. I added washers to get proper torque. Need to come up with better fix.

To do:

• I installed new hydro assist hoses and since installing new hoses I have been having problems with them coming loose. Need to figure better routing and how to get fittings to stay tight.
• Rear Antirock passenger side arm is contacting fender well, need to add more of a bend or clearance fender well.
• Add cross brace to track bar bracket.
• Passenger side knuckle TRE attach hole needs addressed.

Rear Seat To do: (in order to have rear seat for Moab in June)

• Completed the floor mounts and floor harness attachment which relocates the seat back 3".
• Cut off the rear hoop of my roll cage. Need to fabricate a new hoop that will allow for head clearance and also provide harness attachment. Purchased tubing and have basic design in my head, will need a weekend to work out concept on the Jeep and get it tacked up.

I have had 5 trips (HPO-Dec 22, HSORV-Dec22, Windrock-Jan23, HSORV-MAR23, HPO-Apr 23) on the rear RJ60 install and have had no issues with the rear axle. Wheeled pretty hard in muddy/snowy/icy conditions on these trips and have not broken anything in the rear. That is what I was hoping to have with the RJ60 install and Happy that I did it. The clearance lost with the RJ60 was minimal (approx 1/4" loss); however, I do feel like I am getting it hung up on rocks more than with the Dana 44 previous. I guess I just got to get used to that RJ60 in the rear when picking lines.

 

[gasiorv]

Welded in a track bar bracket cross brace and installed new hydro assist lines (hopefully routed better than last time and they won't come loose). I cheated the brace up as high as I could to allow for room for steering ram when articulated but "hopefully" low enough to allow for the crank shaft pully to be pulled off if needed. If the brace is in the way of the pulley, I can just lower the tranny or raise the engine a little and it will definitely clear.

Started on the new rear section of the roll bar. Got the rear hoop mocked up and tacked in. The seat is sitting 3" aft in this picture. Still need to fab up the upper bars to tie it into the B cross tube, but that has been put on hold so I can go wheeling this weekend So tomorrow I will be removing the rear hoop and seat so I can throw in my gear to head to Hawk Pride on Sunday.

 

[gasiorv]

No rear hoop for when there is no rear seat.

Fabbed rear hoop for when seat gets installed:

Seat installed (moved 3" aft) with rear hoop and LJ spiderweb shade for full coverage:

With the shade on you got to enter through the side and it is tight! I did it a few times just to see if it was possible and it was tough for me. My son is smaller and more nimble so he should have no issues but my wife is definitely not riding in the back.