Topics

OK, I know I was just recently promoted from chief intruction reader, but these have me considering a vulontary demotion.  WTF?  Can anybody follow this?  I think these may  be the worst instructions ever.  I don't want to order these things if we can't get them on... Can anybody ascertain if this is something we could do?  What about that funky Heavy duty rivet nut tool?  Anybody have one of those?

Paul, Jonathon, and I joined the two tracker National Forrest clean-up this weekend.  What an eye-opening experience!  We're not talking walking through the woods collecting pop bottles in bag... We were pulling out piles of dumped clothing 3' deep, kids toys, TV's, furniture, about a dozen mattress springs, etc.  Absolutely crazy.  Here are a few pics:

One of the clothing piles.  It's hard to see, but that entire mound is actually clothing...


Here is a broader view of the piles of trash all over...


We had several bobcats to do the heavy lifting...


Unloading at the dumpster.


Filling the dumpster.  133 volunteers filled 5.5 30 yard dumpsters in about 5 hours!


Over 1200 tires were collected.  In this pic, you see a 28' box truck just about full and the overflow that was loaded onto additional trailers.

I re-did the flyer with the times, etc.  Not sure how to post this up on the home page - Cody or Matt?

Also, Anyone who wants to print a few to put up at work or wherever shoot me an e-mail address and I'll send you the file.  

Any forums we could post this up on to let other jeepers know about it?

***EDIT: Here is the large flier if needed

We ended the month of February in style wheeling through the snow in West Branch.  Hit some really deep snow trying to find the new route and several people got stuck so we had to turn around.  Other than that, the trails were pretty fun.  The route known as "Pinball Alley" was particularly cool - some pretty tight turns and a bit of off-camber stuff as well. My Camera battery died after a few pics in the morning, then I took a few with the blackberry in the afternoon...

To Celebrate the 70th anniversary of the wrangler, the city of Toeldo is trying to have the old Jeep Plant site converted to a 4x4 playground.  If this becomes a reality, we will definitely have to plan a trip.

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar ... 02/2150301

I believe Paul H. mentioned it at the last meeting, but just to get it "on the record" I wanted to post up that the Two Trackers are holding their annual Trail Clean-up in the Manistee National Forest (Muskegon & Oceana Counties) on Saturday April 17th.  This is not ORV trail maintenance but rather an actual litter pick-up event.  Apparently all kinds of illegal dumping takes places in the forest area and literally thousands of pounds of trash are hauled out every year at this event.  Here is a link to their web page:

http://www.twotrackers.org/events/

The following Day (Sunday April 18th) Great Lakes Four Wheel Drive Association is holding their Spring Quarterly meeting out in the same area in Hart, MI.  This is right near Silver Lake Sand Dunes so I would imagine that we could get some wheeling in on the dunes at very least Sunday afternoon for a few hours before driving home.  (Paul may have some better input on this as he has been to this in the past) I know there is camping nearby (though that might be a bit chilly still in April) and the Comfort in where the meeting is being held has some nice rates for the event.  

Julie and I are going to be heading up for this weekend, though we may not be able to make it until lunch time on Saturday due to other scheduling issues.  Is anyone else interested in making this trip?

So, thinking about the Go Topless Day event I had a couple of ideas.  I actually e-mailed John for his input as well but I wanted to throw it out there for a discussion.  My first thought is how to create some tie-in between the Jeep Club event and Bubbles Galore.  Since we are not doing this as a straight "car Show" but more just parking our topless jeeps at the carwash and having a picnic, I am struggling with how do we make a connection so car wash customers don't wonder what the heck is going on and people coming for the picnic aren't confused as to why we are doing it at a carwash.  The first thought I had was perhaps to muddy up a couple of our jeeps at the mounds first and then we could have a muddiest jeep prize and/or some type of carwash competition of who gets their jeep cleanest with the fewest tokens or something similar.  This could even be some type of promotional pictures that John could use - like "we got this muddy jeep clean for just $3.00 - imagine how your car will look" or something similar.  Any other ideas on how to make this tie-in successful and fun?

Also, I was wondering if we could somehow tie-in another food drive for the Eastern Michigan Food Bank.  I doubt carwash customer will happen to have canned food with them, so we could also have a donation bucket and maybe ask people for their leftover quarters or something...Not sure if John would appreciate us pestering the customers though... Any other thoughts on how to help out EMFB with this event?

I have some tailgating type games I could bring and set up for everyone (hillbilly golf and washer toss) and if anybody else has something like this that would be cool.  I also thought about having a contest to time people on taking their top down and putting it back up or something similar.  What are some other events we could add to make the day fun?  

Finally, I am thinking the actual picnic might be around 4-6 or something like that and we could do a mounds run pre-picnic and /or end the day over at our house where we could have a couple of beers and a fire out on the deck.  What do you think?

Not that we are rushing out and buying anything at the moment, but I was browsing through winches the other day and I found this one from warn that also has an aircompressor.  I thought that was a great idea to "kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.  here is a link:

http://www.quadratec.com/products/92101_100_07.htm

So I wasn't sure if anybody had seen these before or had any ideas on how effective this would be, etc.  Is it just a gimmick and you wind up with a not so great winch and not so great air or what?

Upon futher review, I found basically the same set-up from smittybuilt for half the price:

http://www.quadratec.com/products/92122_1005_07.htm

One think about the smittybuilt is it says the fairlead roller does not mount to the winch or someting like that, so I'm not sure how it gets set up... What does everyone think?

I see a tenative date set of March 27th for the annual workshop on trail Maintenance in Gaylord.  Apparently lots of changes this year especially related to the shared sign package and such.  It would probably be worth a couple of us going.  It is scheudled for 9:00 am until about 12:00 noon.  I know this is forward thinking a bit, but what about a few of us heading up friday night, hitting the workshop in the morning and then hitting some nearby ORV Routes in the afternoon before driving back?  There are a couple ORV Routes in Counties adjacent to Otsego county (where Gaylord is located) Likely some fairly easy two tracking, but still an early chance to get outdoors.  Alternatively, Twisted Trails isn't too far either...
Any thoughts?

attached is one 35 mile route and there were one or two more nearby...

Found this on the JK owners website that John menitoned... Awesome article by a reviewer that truly gets that "It's a Jeep thing... you wouldn't understand"

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-n ... 554.column

You may remeber this post after our may trip to the mounds:

So, when we were at the mounds a couple of weeks ago, as I climbed out of one of th bowl areas we were playing in,  I got hung up pretty good at the breakover point on a hill and rocked back and forth a bit trying to get loose and eventually just throttled out.  I saw a small cluster of Skinny stumps sticking up there, which I guess got caught up between the side step and the frame or something... I hopped out of the jeep and looked at the side step and it looked normal.  Obviosuly I didn't get down and take a close look.  Last friday, Gabrielle, all of 70 pounds, tried to climb in the passenger side and the step lurched to an angle.  I was out of town so Julie called me and I told her just to go ahead and take the steps off (I didn't like them anyway).  Here is what we found...

So, I guess I need some touch up paint or this whole door sill is going to rust as there is a bit of chipped paint with the bare metal exposed. Also, I'm not sure if we are not going to be able to put on rock rails or what?  This looks like just sheet metal and not a true bolt-on point.  What do you think?

Well, 4wd.com had 40% off plus free shipping, (and I had a $25 gift card from the show, but it turns out that expired...) so last week I ordered a set of Body Armor rails.  Since they are on the way, I peeked at the installation instructions and then got under the jeep and took a close look at the damage.  Those holes you see ripped out are where the screws for the mount are supposed to go through, plus the mount up underneath is actually ripped out a bit... Not sure, but I don't know if we are going to be able to mount the rails as it stands.  May need to weld it or maybe replace the rocker panel itself... Should be an intersting challenge for a future wrench fest...

I was browsing on allthingsjeep.com for stocking stuffers and stumbled upon this event that they sponsor.  Check out the link here and you can also browse the 2009 activties.

 http://www.allthingsjeep.com/go-topless-day.html  

Neat idea.  I know it's a bit far off, but perhaps we could consider a club picinic or something for that day... Maybe a mounds trip followed by a picinic?  May 8th may be a bit dicey weather wise for us here in MI, but we should be able to manager something...

This is the weekend after the Jeep Blessing in Mesick, so that is why I am thinking just a picinic or a day tripper.

I see Bundy Hill is going to be open the weekend of December 12th & 13th.  Would anyone be interested in meeting locally around 10:00 am on Saturday the 12th and caravaning down to Bundy Hill?  It looks like a 2 hour drive meaning we would arrive around noon and the park is open till dusk, which I assume would be around 5:00 by then...   I haven't discussed this with Julie yet, so I am not positive we can go (who knows what holiday plans we may have?), but I thought I would throw the idea out there.

Had a great time Sunday with Paul, Chris, Derek, and John.  Some of the Phase 2 rocks were complete and Paul and Chris went over the big rocks (John did them before we got there) No locker on the JK meant I made an attempt at the phase 2 rocks, then had to give up and go play on the phase 1.  Of course I also have some pics of the "The Swamping of the Jeep, Part II"
I got a bunch of great shots of Paul on the rocks.  Here are a few:










Chris walked over the big rocks so fast, I got a lot less pictures.  Here are some:









Finally a couple of me:






And Yes, the Swamping of the jeep:

Julie and I are going to be in the U.P. this weekend.  Does anybody know where I could find maps of ORV routes that we might be able to cruise around and take in some fall color while we are up there?  We are going to be in Paradise, MI... Any thought or suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Got a few pics on saturday, including some good ones of the tree we had to cut into pieces and winch out of a huge mud puddle.  

The What Lies Beyond Crew:

Here' the first tree we had to cut up, with Paul wielding the chainsaw:

Winching out the big tree:




Here's Matt's Buddy Derek, who came to help, playing for the first time in a full-size Off-Road Vehicle.  With all the rain, we spent the day splashing through lot of mud and water!


Wanted to say thanks again to Derek, who worked his but off with us for the day.  We really appreciated the help!

After removing the stupid side steps from the JK, we were hoping to have Neil & Paul make us a set of rock rails.  As they are not able to do it right now, I have been looking at other options.  After reviewing whats out there, I am thinking about the Highrock 4x4 slider step.   This appears to combine a rock-rail type design with a nerf bar that also folds down as a step.  When I first saw them, I thught it looked kinda gimik-ee and silly, but they are growing on me.  Looks like the would provide full protection for the bottom of the doors and such but then you get the added convenience of a step.  The step folds up for when you are off-roading acting as a nerf bar.  Seems like a great solution, particualrly if (or should I say when) we eventually lift the jeep - getting in and out is already a bit climbing a jungle gym for Gabrielle.  

My thought is that the step part may rattle around and make an awful racket and/or not stay seated in the up position when bouncing around on the trails.  Has anyone every seen these on a vehicle or heard any feedback?

Hey Everyone-

I have been reading reviews on-line for sway bar disconnects for the JK and the winner seems to be the "Quicker Disconnect" from JKS ($140.).  I was going to order a set this week.  Keeping in mind that I am no mechanic, is this something we can install ourselves or am I better off having Unlimited Offroad do it?  Reading the PDF instuctions from the JKS the only thing that looks a little difficult is they are very concerned that they are mounted at a specific angle and that makes me a little nervous about doing it at home...  What do you think... can somebody give me a hand "wrenchfest" style, or shoul I take it to the pros?

Ed

Here is a link to the install instuctions:

http://www.quadratec.com/Assets/Installation/87992.pdf

Here are a bunch from those who satyed in the late afternoon.  Brain amd I from the club, and two of his buddies.  Tyler, in the orange jeep, has been to a couple meetings and Scott, in the Suzuki.  

Julie and I spotted Debbie at Atherton and ?? (some side street) She was looking down at something in the passenger seat, so she missed us...