20 years of incrementalism or Blackjacks 98 SE

I’ve escaped to West Virginia for thanksgiving but saw the weather reports. Wish it would stay cold, the 35* rain freeze + snow is the worst! We’ve got to make the drive back down Sunday, hopefully they’ve got the roads straightened out by then

Be glad you escaped. Yesterday was pretty treacherous for sure.
 
  • Sad
Reactions: Wildman
Probably should have done this years ago. Did not take long to figure out how big a difference siping these BFGs made. Yesterday would have been the real test but this morning we had three inches of fresh pack and I could immediately tell it was helping. Previously I had to run down to 20 psi to get ok grip but I aired them up to 26 and still had more traction.

778CE6AF-3A4D-4CB2-9A10-8608875A6F62.jpeg


DF296EE8-AFBB-4C99-BC57-204AD4B85324.jpeg
 
Probably should have done this years ago. Did not take long to figure out how big a difference siping these BFGs made. Yesterday would have been the real test but this morning we had three inches of fresh pack and I could immediately tell it was helping. Previously I had to run down to 20 psi to get ok grip but I aired them up to 26 and still had more traction.

View attachment 379081

View attachment 379082

I don't remember when or who told me but back around 1999 or 2000 I started to get my tires sipped by Les Schwab and have never gone back. I had tires that would chunk off on some of the lugs but this was from some serious rock crawling.
I knew trucking companies did it on their truck tires but hadn't ever heard of people doing it on car tires.

Stay safe and glad it's helping.
 
I don't remember when or who told me but back around 1999 or 2000 I started to get my tires sipped by Les Schwab and have never gone back. I had tires that would chunk off on some of the lugs but this was from some serious rock crawling.
I knew trucking companies did it on their truck tires but hadn't ever heard of people doing it on car tires.

Stay safe and glad it's helping.

If you at the pics of when I was running TSLs the center lugs were siped. I had Les Schwab do the siping and they cut them too deep so they chipped pretty bad but the extra traction was good. Ideally with a TSL if you sipe them right you can actually do it twice as long as you never sipe the outer lugs or they self destruct.

I am too as I can still smell the burning rubber and my wrist still hurts.
 
  • Like
Reactions: NashvilleTJ
If you at the pics of when I was running TSLs the center lugs were siped. I had Les Schwab do the siping and they cut them too deep so they chipped pretty bad but the extra traction was good. Ideally with a TSL if you sipe them right you can actually do it twice as long as you never sipe the outer lugs or they self destruct.

I am too as I can still smell the burning rubber and my wrist still hurts.

Yep I learned to find the guys who wheeled and worked there. They explained to me about cutting too deep and that many stores didn't like to sip used tires. It dulled the sipping tool. But it was worth the possibility of chunking some tread for the added traction.
I've never tried to do it myself but I do have a grooving gun. What size blade did you use?
 
Yep I learned to find the guys who wheeled and worked there. They explained to me about cutting too deep and that many stores didn't like to sip used tires. It dulled the sipping tool. But it was worth the possibility of chunking some tread for the added traction.
I've never tried to do it myself but I do have a grooving gun. What size blade did you use?

#4 head so IIRC that is 7/32.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Wildman
So getting a Rockjock kit for the price of a used track bar is good but it’s not all roses. The TJ it came off of had been in an accident. It boogered up one lower arm, one front upper arm and one anti rock arm. So I have good uppers up front so I just have everything a good one over and placed an order with Rockjock which just happened to arrive today.
2AC65BD1-1D96-41E2-905D-97B37E29C9D8.jpeg

While they don’t package as well as Blaine they still do better than most companies. Both string tape and staples and a decent amount of filler.
542E04B4-9F0F-4F26-AE7B-4CCA7FF08EC4.jpeg


F8E98CF8-5B8D-4878-9522-088792B50E26.jpeg
 
And because I can, no reason not to mod the mods. After talking to @mrblaine about the JJ conversion for the front track bar the one thing he observed is the zerk is not in the best place. So I figured I would put a cup zerk in and see how that works.

17B4A256-2CF8-464D-9A81-5CE9C8A498BB.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Hey, I lowballed those about a year ago. Figured they needed a rebuild!

Yeah it is all definitely a bit on the rough side but I will manage. It is a bit weird in a way to take off a pretty functional suspension but this will allow a handful of minor tweaks that will hopefully add up to a substantial improvement in offroad capability.