So, I'm still in Moab, Utah and will be leaving at about 4 am for Colorado to run some trails in and or around Montrose, Colorado.  In the meantime, here's some shots from the trail I spent all day on: Metal Masher

This was my first time on the trail, so I had no idea what to expect.  There are a lot of difficult and technical obsticles, all of which are optional.  The one with the vertical Jeep was our trail leader, Wayne, early on playing.  Later on in the day, he killed a driveshaft, a front axleshaft, and a tire.

Ok, so maybe I tilted the camera a bit.  I was holding it near my foot to get the angle I wanted.

Anyway, enjoy some pictures from the 25th anniversary of the XJ in Moab, Utah.

So  I pull into the Market today to get some ice for my cooler.  No big deal there, buy a couple bags, come back out to a lifted TJ parked next to the Grand.  Weird thing was, the driver was gone, and as I pulled up to this Jeep, the passenger gets out and starts walking to the store.  Ooookay... why not just wait in the Jeep for the driver to get back?

Then I get to camp and meet with the Andy Steiner, the guy who put the run together I went on today (Hell's Revenge).  As I'm coming out of his RV, I see the same TJ, with the same passenger getting out.

It was to be about 2 hours later I realize that the "passenger" was actually the driver of this TJ brought over from England and left in Salt Lake for most of its year.  And, what's more the family brought an XJ over too, and it was on the trail as well.  However, because of the more compact and tucked together nature of the XJ, the differences were more apparent on the TJ.

So, here's some neat English mods from the factory that kept me looking for more unique European Jeep stuff on a Jeep in Moab, Utah.

You might have noticed I haven't blogged the last couple of days.  That's because I've been getting ready for a cross-country road trip.

Right now, I'm in Moab, Utah covering the 25th anniversary of the XJ.  Here's a mapquest link to where I'll be stopping on this wild and crazy voyage.

Click HERE to see a map of where I've been and where I'm heading!

I'm in the Long term Diesel Grand towing a trailer behind me... if you see me cruise by wave!

I was looking at a few photos from my most recent Rubicon trip and remembered I snapped this one of my trail gear right after I unloaded my flattie.

So here's what I carry in my flattie for a weekend Rubicon trip for me and my son.

There's a tent, 2 camping chairs, 2 sleeping bage, a camping air matress, a moving blanket for the bottom of the tent, a 2.5lb Powertank.  A medium bag holds more than enough clothes, jackets, and personal stuff for both of us. The Rubbermaid tub is filled with freeze dried food, coffee, plates and utensiles, a small camp stove, and propane cylinders. The black MasterCraft Walker bag carries snacks and of course the JP Cooler carries drinks. I also have an ARB freezer/fridge that stays in the back of the flattie.Then there's my camera bag housing a Canon D10, Nikon F4s, and Canon G3 cameras and a small arsenal of flashes, lenses, film, CF cards, and batteries. Not to mention tech sheets, Jp plates and stickers, and pens.

On the other side is stuff that stays in the back of the pickup at the trail head just in case. The red box holds the Jeep tie downs used for trailering and various ratchet straps. Up from there is another box filled with oil, water, antifreeze, 90W gear lube, brake and power steering fluid, brake cleaner, and so on. In the steel ammo can is various spare parts like yokes, hoses, and so on. Then there's a 5-gallon jug of high test fuel and a pallet of water.

And, of course the welding supplies for the Powermaster on-board welder, the winch recovery bag, and the ammo can full of assorted tools stays in the Jeep. And depending on where I'm going and how long I'll be gone there's probably a pistol or three and some ammo as well as a multi-tool, chem light, flashlight, compass, matches, flint, and so on. Oh year, and goggles, spare hat, sunscreen, first aid kit, and so much more. It's amazing how much stuff you can pack in a Jeep.

I finally dropped the top on the Mtruck so I could fit it in the parking garage as support for an upcoming engine swap in a parking garage story.  Anyway, I found this amusing.

I kinda LOL when I think of all the people driving the cars that were parked around the truck.  Can you imagine the reaction to seeing this in the spot next to you when you come to work in the morning?

The stock market has tanked. I'm buying!

For the last 8 or so years everybody has been telling me to put my money into stocks. Glad I don't listen to what people say. Instead of building a huge stock portfolio, I put my money into cash, my savings, or anything other than stocks.

Now that the market has tanked I'm buying up all the long term stuff I can get my hands on, as well as a few stocks with good growth potential. And the price? It's literally pennies on the dollar.  A couple of my favorites:

Freddie and Fannie - they own 80-percent of the home mortgage and were trading at $60./share a year ago. They're both hovering around a dollar right now. Buy, buy, buy. They're not going anywhere - the government won't let that happen. It's like buying a new SRT Grand Cherokee for $100 with the only catch being you can't drive it for 10-20 years. Hopefully these will be the kids' college funds.

Cummins and Apple - Good technology that's gonna be necessary for building both industrial and social infrastructures. They're both waaay down and I don't see their core markets decreasing much. Buy.

Sirius/XM - Regular radio is so bad by comparison. It's very, very much like the difference between network and cable TV. And I'm not speaking just about the programming. I can get Satellite radio in the middle of the lake on my boat or I can listen to the same station with crystal clarity on a cross-country drive. No need to figure out which AM or FM station will get reception for the next 75 miles until the signal gets fuzzy. Also, no annoying DJs and 30 minute commercial blocks. This morning Sirius is just over $.50 a share. I've got a ton of it.

Google and Microsoft - They're gonna own the world shortly. I figure I'll get involved before the mother ship lands and turns us all into cattle.

There's a few other investments my brother turned me on to. He's a financial planner and market type guy, and a damn good one at that. It does feel a little funny spending money on something other than Jeeps, but at these prices you really can't not buy up all the stuff you can get your hands on. I only wish I has some real money squirreled away since houses are gonna be nearly 50-percent off soon! 

Can you guys guess what's in the box?

Hint: it isn't the first thing that you'd think it is.

Sure, some of the stuff is from where the "hint" picture was taken... but most of it was from a junkyard or scrapped vehicles.

Well, my second MJ didn't go to its resting place like the first one did... one of my Jeep geek buddies (Pelle) (see DAS BOOOOT!!!! blog) decided he wanted it.  So this morning I left the house at 5 am to drop it off.

So, one is out of the house, another is coming in, and yet another still needs a home. 

Why is it I'm never thrilled to see them go?  Parting really is sweet sorrow.

My broken tool pile grows by 1.

I just traded in a sizeable pile of broken Craftsman tools. I stopped buying them because I got tired of trading them in after they broke. I'd rather spend more to begin with than have to run into a store every few months to swap out broken stuff.

Then the next day I snapped my mondo adjustable. I can't remember where I bought it. It says U.S.A. on it, so it was probably NAPA or Lowes or somewhere like that. Regardless, with no claim of manufacturer on it, it's in the trash bin now. Time to visit matco.com or snapon.com

I ended up cleaning out the new to me Jeepster because I needed a picture of a Jeep with no interior.  Well, look at what I found.

I found the normal assortment of parts... and an inflatable boat.

I mean, I've found some weird things in Jeeps over the years.... but a boat?!?!?

Another story I'm working on for the January issue is a weather resitant stereo for the open top Jeep.  I mentioned it in my Cappa Broke me iPod blog, and here I am again.   

What you see here is the transferring of 1/16th of my music, which has been going on for 30 min now, and is claiming another 171 minutes to go.  You see, with 28,000 pictures just from my Canon cameras, not to mention Fuji, Kodak, or video,  I've run out of space on my 300Gb external.  So, I decided that the 250 Gb External which was a backup for the 300Gb would get used for music (70-80Gb) and give me some space to work with on the 300Gb.  It kind of makes me uncomfortable because now I don't have that redundancy at home anymore... if something dies I have to retrieve one of the duplicate drives from work.

Oh, but I digress... you also see an ice pack to keep the drive I am transferring to cool (no built in fan), an iPod in a waterproof Otterbox, and job that likely won't be done anytime tonight.  And that's not even to mention the sorting of the songs on the iPod itself.  I've got almost 50 Gb on it, with around 10,500 songs... and they need to be sorted.  Duplicates deleted from iPod, artist names corrected and made uniform, etc.

But, I thought someone might get a kick out of my external drive cooling methods.

I went to an FC round up out in the desert last weekend and got to see some neat FC stuff.

Its no secret I like the Forward Control Jeeps.  I like the M677 series the most. 

Anyway, I was invited to an FC roundup and shot some more pictures of things I thought was neat including a speedo marked for speed ranges in certain gears and high/low range, a V8 in a 4 door FC with waaaay more rear seat space than an 08 Grand, and a unique cast aluminum step that I think all FCs should have come with.

Ok, so just because I don't own a Jeep does not mean I don't still work on them. Over the weekend I helped pull the trans out of a friends XJ so we can swap out the shot throwout and get it back on the road, and I learned a few things along the way...

Everything went smooth, for the most part. Pulling the trans took two of us about 6 hours total over two days (two Sunday afternoons). The first day we got the drive shafts off and every thing unplugged and unbolted, except for those two stupid bolts on the top of the bell housing. So we left it for a week while we asked for advise on how to remove those two bastards. This was two weeks ago.

Fast forward to yesterday, we get back at it again. Turns out the easy way to get to them is to tilt the engine trans assembly down. To do this we had to remove the fan shroud and loosen the motor mounts. With the engine dropped we could see the stupid star head bastard bolts. One came out easy with a wired specialty socket, the other however, did not. Turns out the last mechanic that had the trans out stripped it, and then we finished it off. So after one trip to Pepboys and three to Sears we had the tool we needed to get it out, a nifty little thing that was hammered on to the bolt head.

With all the bolts out and the trans strapped to the jack it took the two of us laying under the Jeep pushing on the TCase with our feet to wiggle it loose, but it worked! Once we got it out from under the Jeep we loaded it in the truck and it's off for its date with about a gallon of degreaser and a pressure washer.

So what did I learn? I learned that whoever designed this Jeep and decided to use those two bolts needs to be shot, repeatedly. I also learned that I can sit almost upright under a Jeep XJ with only a 6" lift and 33's. Also, I learned that the trans/transfercase assembly from a Jeep isn't as heavy as it looks, just awkward. Also learned that in lieu of a trans jack an ATV/Motorcycle jack will do the trick. And lastly I learned to undo the exhaust BEFORE the trans is resting on it... lol

So yup, that's my fat ass crammed under the Jeep working on the upper bastard bolts with our makeshift 4ft extension, and thats me pushing on the t-case, so I don't want to hear any more crap about owning a Ranger! Haha!

Over the weekend I worked on my Hot Rod Jeep, among other Jeeps. Yeah, I know I need to work on Juggy, but I'm juggling my time between four different projects right now.

Anyway, it doesn't seem like I got a lot done but it pretty much took me all of Sunday to put the body on and take it off and locate the GM inline-six and SM420 in the frame, and then build the engine and tranny mounts. I'm trying to use as many of the old authentic parts as I can but the Willys truck mounts Christian gave me were over the top and way overbuilt. I mean they must weigh 10-pounds each! So I built my own frame mounts using 3x4 inch 3/8-inch-think angle iron and reused the butch motor mounts made from U-channel steel that were already on the engine.

For now the tranny mount is done. I still need to finish-weld the engine mounts once I get the front suspension on. But the inline-six fits! I'll even be able to use the factory M38A1 frame-mounted master cylinder. Although, it's a good thing I'm not leaving the grille in the stock location or the fan would be rubbing the filaments of the headlights. 

Christian gave me this greasy '60s GM inline-six nearly two years ago. It came out of the Murderous Overkill Willys truck he's been not working on and in this application it was mated to a T90 Jeep tranny. But it came to me on a wooden crate built of Christian's handiwork and some scrap lumber. So it's a crate motor, to me at least. If this particular engine originally came from a GM truck, it would have likely been mated to an SM420 right from the factory. So I'm returning it to stock

and not really swapping or adapting anything.

I mated the engine to the $50 GM SM420 I bought from a buddy a few weeks ago. The engine came with a GM bellhousing, so to get them connected I had to swap out the T90 clutch disc and release bearing for some GM parts. I also slapped in a new pilot bearing...only because I had one. I reused the old pressure plate though. Looking at the old assembly I don't even know how the clutch could have even worked before. There was zero freeplay. The release bearing was too tall. I think someone had the wrong part in there. Interestingly, because of this the bearing was pretty much smoked. Powertrain complete! Yep, this Jeep will be 2-by 'cause there is no way a divorce-mounted transfer case is fitting in this flattie.

Welp, there goes a grand.

The NP208 t-case I bought used on line for $100 was totally hammered and needed a complete rebuild. I wrote a story covering MIT's rebuild of the unit for my Project J2008 '68 pickup.

I'm trying to actually get somewhere on this friggin' thing, so this afternoon I was getting the drivetrain ready when I remembered the t-case arrived without the 4WD shift indicator thingy. To plug up the big hole, I ran through my assortment of plugs and fittings until I found one that threaded easily into the hole.

Well, I didn't notice it at the time, but the plug I grabbed was tapered, so as I screwed it in with a 3/8 wrench I suddenly heard a sickening snap. Yup. There goes the case.

At this point I'm pretty over this truck. I'm over junkyard parts. I'm over wrenching on half a dozen projects in my driveway. I'm fighting the urge to unload my 12-gauge into the grille.  Yup, I'm pissed off and I've got only myself to blame. Back to square one. Hopefully I can find somebody to weld up the magnesium/aluimnum alloy and save it. Time for a shot of Jack.

This is what I bought.

It's another 4-cylinder YJ. This is my second. It's an '89. The red paint is faded, but it's not really that pink in real life. It's got some yellow pollen on it that makes it look more salmon colored than it is. Just gotta decide whether I drive it or blow it apart and build it.

It wasn't that long ago I put up a blog about all the wagons in my driveway and how I was ok with that.  Well, after mucking around today for 7 or 8 hours with what should have been a 2 hour job, start to finish of cleanup, I once again hate the wagon.

See, I'm doing these 1-page stories reviewing products that I think are cool and applicable to us (Jeep people).  Usually it ends up I get a product release come across my desk, and I decide I want to see if it does what it claims it will do.

In this case I got a hold of the new dual-beam HID H4 conversion kit.  To date, not many manufactures made an HID conversion kit that was HID  in both low and high beam.  Either it had no high beam (some make the argument that it wasn't needed anyway) or they used a regular Xenon or Halogen high beam (which usually ended up with a dimmer high beam than low beam) or the bulb used a trick little flap inside the bulb itself to direct the same wattage where it needed to be (high or low).

I couldn't see the little flap lasting long off road... and I sure wasn't about to spend all the money on a kit that got rid of my high beams... or at least didn't improve them.  I've been looking into projector conversions, when I saw this kit from ElectroSport Industries (http://www.electrosport.com/off-road-truck/).

I ran a press release on it... and then looked at it a little harder and decided that this kit would be good for what I use Mileage Master for... but doesn't really do anything with Mileage.  So, I decided to get a hold of it and do a short install/review.

This kit, unlike others on the market, uses two HID elements per H4 sized bulb.  On low beam, on element is on.  On high beam, BOTH are on.  Well, the instructions say to lay it all out and test it first... I had to take out the welding helmet to see if they were lighting up the way they should... these puppies are BRIGHT!!!

The issue lays in the significant lack of space under an XJ hood.  The kit comes with a ballast for each side, and a "starter" for each side... after hours of messing with it, I finally got the ballast mounted (all these parts are fully potted, BTW)... and thought, after about 10 tries that I'd found a place for the starter, and mounted both starters.

Then I put the rectangular housing in, and try to put the header panel back on... goes the back of the bulb on the starter.  Yeah, I eyeballed it first... and even test-fitted... but when the starter is securely fastened, it gets a bit cattywhompus back there, resulting in a 1/4 inch interference fit with the back of the headlight housing.

If I were in a TJ or YJ or CJ or M-truck, or anything with a dang frame under it, I'd be done by now... enjoying my searchlight of God like headlights.  Dang Wagons anyway.

I'm telling you now, these things are ridiculously bright, but check out the January issue of JP Magazine for the full story.

So, over the years I've accumulated bunches of 715 parts... most of them I can keep on a shelf.  However, the last couple weeks, these tires and rims came home to roost because the friend who was keeping them moved to Texas.  And, I was on the 715 tire subject so I thought I'd share this one with you too.

Well,  Rick Pewe of Peterson's 4 Wheel and Off Road spotted me into a tight parking spot the other day, I had two of them in my truck and he asked about em.  I told him I actually had 4 stock 715 tires and rims that I was sick of tripping over, and since recently rescued a 715 that was at the bottom of a dry creek bed he wanted tires and rims and said he'd take em.

The two in the back of my 715 weren't a big deal, they help with the ride of the truck.  But I needed the other two out of my garage, and brought em to work with me today in my XJ and promptly delivered them to Rick's office.
Heck, they have '69 stamped on some and '70 stamped on others.  These are about as OE as you can get, and Rick for his part was actually happy to get free rims and tires for his river rescue truck.

We'll see how long it is until the office building gestapo complains about tires in the office.  They are fine with a bunch of the other crap we've got just hanging out, but tires they claim are a huge fire hazard.

So Pete stops by to tell me a fuuny story and this happens...

By no fault of Pete's a piece of my dilapidated cube in our palatial offices near Beverly Hill's fell off in his hands. So what does he do with it? Limbo Bar!!

Ok, I'm done.

Since the webpage locked up for me last night... and subsequently, I wasn't able to put a blog up, I had lots of time to sift through pictures.  Here's some from a Saturday 3 or 4 years ago trying to break down 40 year old tires.

Ok, I know its not OSHA approved... but when a bunch of 715 guys get together, what do you expect?

We actually ended up having a tougher time with the Michelins than we did the NDT's.

Ok, so maybe it's not a Jeep, but at least I was wearing my Jp Magazine standard issue uniform while shooting it.

Did you really expect a blog about a Jeep out of me? Haha, good one. We've got John, Christian, and Pete to cover all the Jeep stuff so that leaves me open to post the cool stuff.

On a recent outing to Pismo Beach California I had the opportunity to shoot photos of a pretty crazy sandrail built by Eyeball Fabrication (www.eyeballfab.com). The thing was a wheelie monster! And it jumped pretty well too.

For the record, I did not take that photo, that is me in the picture shooting a picture. Make sense? Didn't think so.

I didn't take this photo either (below) but that's me in the passenger seat. Let's see a JK do this!

When the winch goes on the trailer that means something is coming home on it.

I'm in computer hell right now. My company laptop is dead. My home tower is in the hands of the Geek squad getting fixed. And as I type this on my personal laptop my wife is waiting by the door to take this computer with her since it's the one with which we run the business we're part owners of.

So, with no computer with which to get my ever-increasingly late stories done with, I had to find something useful to do with my day that will somehow benefit Jp Magazine.  So I'm bringing home another Jeep.

What is it? I aint saying. Let the guessing commence.

I've spent the better part of two days planning and routing the brakelines on my Juggy project.

I'm pretty good at routing, bending, predicting length, and finding paths where the lines won't get damaged. I also have an awesome hydraulic flaring tool that I bought sometime ago. It works perfect when I need to cut the and flare the hard steel lines. All the fittings and braided lines are Russell parts. So far no major problems. I only have one hard line left to build for the front axle before I can start bleeding the system.

What is so hard about digital photos that these cell phone manufacturing 'tards can't build a dang cell phone that takes a picture that doesn't suck?

I mean, it shouldn't be hard.  Take a decent lens (one that isn't the size of the head of a pin) back it with technology that was available to cameras even 5 years ago (it'll be that much smaller now)... and stick that crap in a phone.

My most recent cell phone takes a claimed 3MP image... yet only works when standing in direct sunlight with the sun behind me, with no wind, and the object standing still for 5 seconds or more.

I don't know about you guys... I travel A LOT with my cameras... but they stay in a case that protects them from whoops and dust and the brake-riding smack nut in front of me.  So, many pictures I take while travelling, I take with my phone.  My 3MP POS phone.  In this day of phones with 256Mb memory and 256Mb operating memory that can take up to a 32Gb card (FTLOG... my D20 is still shooting on 1Gb cards), its time that some damn manufacturer stepped up and made a phone that can also take a picture.

Jeez.  Is this is the only way I'll ever get a good picture on a phone?