The LJ-8 hit a milestone today

What depressing is I just bought a fairly clean LJ, 140k miles, all of which look like miles going back and fourth to work! This thread should inspire most to get out there!
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2001slvrstntj
Just because the LJ has over 200k on the clock doesn't mean it's close to retirement...

Earlier in the thread I posted this map, I was considering exploring the headwaters of the Colorado River this summer. The trip is on and I'm outfitting the LJ for it now.

View attachment 347947

Highlights of the trip include some trails - Pole Hill near Estes Park, Old Fall River Road west out of Estes, Flat Tops Trail (82 miles) and perhaps Hay Flat, North Supply Creek and Deadhorse Loop. Also checking out some of the historic railroad sites on the old Denver & Salt Lake Railroad (last year we did Rollins Pass, which was the highest point on that railroad). And, trying out the hot springs at Hot Sulphur Springs and Steamboat Springs, and a stay at the Glenwood Hot Springs Lodge. Maybe I'll call this the Hot Springs expedition :).

Even though most of the planned trails for this trip are fairly easy, it's much better to carry my recovery gear and not need it than to need it and have it at home in the garage, so the first thing I did was install the winch mount. My winch mount and winch live in the garage most of the time so when I'm leaving on an expedition I bolt the mount in place and throw the winch in the receiver.

View attachment 347948

I use this mount on both my LJ and my '06 Wrangler pickup and I have a similar mount for my JKU, so the same winch serves on all three Jeeps. Testing the winch in the driveway, I've want to make sure the remote batteries are good and everything works as expected:

View attachment 347949

The winch slides into the receiver so it can be used in the front or the back of all 3 Jeeps; for the interstate run from upstate NY to Colorado I usually carry the winch in the back. It's out of the way there and can be moved up front in a minute when needed.

View attachment 347950

Also part of the recovery gear are 4 aluminum sand ladders/recovery tracks. There won't be any sand on the trails I plan for this trip, but there may be mud, so I put these up top.

View attachment 347951

The sand ladders also serve as anchor points for the winch, in the event there aren't any convenient trees or rocks to winch from.


Also to be carried on the rack is a second spare. It's not in the photo above because the Jeep won't fit in the garage with it on top so I'll put it up there the night before we leave. The trip is planned on a fairly tight schedule which would be disrupted by trying to get a tire fixed or replaced, so I like to carry a second spare as a precaution.

Inside the cabin, the overhead/swing-down MOLLE panel has a few more recovery items. A small shovel and a small tree saw are mounted on the panel. The long cable is the extension for when the winch needs to be used in the rear receiver. It's also a jumper cable extension; the battery clamps are also mounted to the panel. Both of these plug into the winch cable that lives in the engine compartment; that cable reaches the winch when it's in the front receiver but the same cable also serves as a jumper cable with the clamps. The panel swings up against the inside of the hardtop so it's out of sight and the gear on it doesn't take up any real storage space.

View attachment 347952

We're not camping on this trip so I don't have the full Trail Kitchen installed but we are bringing the fridge for snacks and lunch. It's on a homemade slide for easy access. Other gear in the cabin:

View attachment 347953

  1. Battery and power panel for the fridge. This battery gets charged by the Jeep's alternator and can be used as a second battery to start the Jeep in case the main battery fails.
  2. Compressor and related supplies (hose, tire repair supplies).
  3. Ammo can containing the TrailVision camera system. The trails I'll be doing on this trip won't require the extra views the Trailvision system can provide, but it's in the Jeep in case I decide it will be helpful; it can be set up in a few minutes and offers a 3-camera view of the details of the trail ahead.
  4. First Aid kit; hanging on the rear slope of the roll bar. Out of the way but quickly accessible.
  5. (On the floor well behind the passenger seat) Hydraulic jack. Much quicker and easier than the factory jack.
  6. Winch/recovery bag. Includes winch line damper, ground anchor (bolts to the sand ladders), tree saver strap, snatch block, winch remote and other related gear.
  7. Tool bag.
  8. Cool Bag hanging on the seat back. Can be used to keep drinks and snacks cool on the road and easily accessible from the driver's seat and also can be used to carry lunch on hikes to picnic spots away from the Jeep. Also strapped to it is a picnic blanket to spread on the ground when we stop for lunch.
  9. 35,000-lb recovery strap in a roll bar bag on the vertical part of the main roll bar hoop. Out of the way but easily accessible.
  10. (Above the roll bars) Overhead/Swing-down Molle panel. And on the roof rack, the sand ladders and an extra spare.
  11. CB. This is only in the Jeep for expeditions, it's on a clip-on mount that hangs on the back of the center console.
  12. A pair of shackles hanging on pouches on an Overland Outfitters Zip & Go mount on the seat back.
  13. Small hatchet hanging in a pouch on the roll bar.

Most of the gear listed above doesn't live in the Jeep all the time, I put it in whatever Jeep I'm using before the trip.

Before leaving on the trip, I add the GPS coordinate of the trails we plan to do to the GPS.

View attachment 347954

I have three of the same GPS, one for each Jeep. They're older models (Garmin 2555), and easily found on eBay for $50 or less so it's not a big investment to have 3, and they work just fine even though they're older. Usually I'll load the trails on two of them and bring the second one as a spare just in case the first one fails. If the trail is from a trail book, I'll also scan those pages and bring a printout on the trip, a piece of paper is much easier to deal with on the trail than a book that you need to hold open to a page.

View attachment 347955

Just about ready for the expedition :).

My daughter spent a year at a Bible school on Pole Hill 3 years ago where she met her future husband. They got engaged nearby last year.

Sounds like a great trip! If I can get more of my kids out of the house, I can use your plan to persuade my wife to do a similar excursion.
 
We're back from the "Hot Springs Expedition". Most of our Colorado trips are focused on trails and exploring Colorado history (abandoned mines, ghost towns, railroad sights) and this trip was about a few trails, trying out hot springs we hadn't been to before, exploring the headwaters of the Colorado river and exploring the historic railroad line west from Rollins Pass (we did the Rollins Pass trails last year). We didn't spend too much time taking photos on this trip, but here are a few.

On Pole Hill Trail near Estes Park. It's not an especially challenging trail, but the line taken was important for a Jeep with only 2" of lift and 32" tires. I did drag the rear receiver once coming off a ledge.

PoleHillTrail2.jpg


Off pavement (but not off road) following the railroad and the Colorado River:

ColoradoRiver1.jpg


Enjoying the hot springs at Hot Sulphur Springs, pop. 800. They say these springs were used for bathing (both people and horses) by the Ute Indians and they've been a commercial enterprise since the mid 1800's. We're told the springs have the highest mineral content of any springs in Colorado and there are 19 pools there of various temperatures and minerals. It's a very rustic setting compared to some of the other springs one can visit in Colorado, well worth a visit.

HotSulphurSpringsUtePoolx2.jpg


We also visited Steamboat Springs and tried the springs there.

One stop on the trip was Glenwood Springs, we often stop there and enjoy staying at the Glenwood Springs Lodge which is part of the hot springs there. In the past I've explored most of the trails on the north rim of Glenwood Canyon from Coffee Pot Road to the Transfer Trail and all the trails in between so this time I decided to explore the south rim. I've always wanted to explore Hubbard's Cave - I've read conflicting reports about whether entering the cave is allowed so I decided to go see. About 100 yards into the 4wd trail I came across this sign (photo taken after I had turned around and was heading back out). No point in traveling some miles on a very narrow trail if there's no entry to the cave.

HubbardsCave4wdRoad.jpg


After that I found my way up to the rim overlooking the town of Glenwood Springs. Just as I was about to reach the rim, my wife called - she wasn't with me that day because she decided to get a spa treatment. She was just about to head over to the spa and wanted to let me know. I told her to wait outside the hotel for just a minute because I was almost to the rim. At the rim I took these photos...

GlenwoodLookoutFoundHer.jpg


The rim is about a half mile higher in elevation than the town, and I'd estimate the hotel is about a half mile horizontally from where I was standing on the rim. I don't have a very long telephoto lens because almost all of my photography can be done with an 18-200 zoom, but it is a very sharp Nikon lens and my camera has enough pixels that I was able to zoom in to catch her standing there. Fun.

More fun: The last half mile down from the south rim is Red Canyon; the road there is a very narrow shelf road with almost no room for passing most of its length. Just after turning the corner pictured below, I came face to face with a semi truck and trailer. Luckily it was in the one spot where passing was possible. I stopped to talk to the driver as I passed and he said his GPS told him to go this way. I told him the road got a lot narrower right around the bend and he said he planned to back down to the switchback and turn around. I offered to spot for him but he said he would be fine so I went on my way.

RedCanyon.jpg


We did a lot more than I showed above but like I said we didn't spend much time taking photos on this trip.

As usual, the LJ performed great - it's comfortable and quiet at 75+ mph across the Great Plains states and plenty capable crawling over rocks on narrow mountain trails.

I carried most of my recovery gear on the trip, including the winch even though the trails planned were pretty mild. When I get home from an expedition, all of the recovery gear comes off the Jeep for daily driving. In this video I'm removing the winch mount and returning the stock bits to the bumper. Takes about a minute to remove the winch mount and replace the stock stuff, although a few seconds longer in this video because I dropped one of the bolts :)


I always get design ideas while driving on these trips, and this trip was no exception. My wife wanted a little more storage accessible to her in the front seat, so I designed a door pocket for her. I sewed a prototype when I got home:

TJDoorPocket1.jpg


TJDoorPocket2.jpg


TJDoorPocket3.jpg


In the photo above the Grab Bar Pockets can also be seen; she makes use of all of this storage on trips.

The original molded-in pocket is still accessible behind the new pocket.

Also I've got a Jeep brand grab handle on the roll bar and it works great but I'm not fond of the plastic handle so I started thinking of ways to improve on it. I thought leather handles might be nicer, and what if a pocket was part of the design to add a bit of extra storage? I sewed one of those when I got home too. The center photo is in the JKU and the right photo is in the LJ.

GrabHandlePocket2.jpg


I came up with a few other ideas while on the trip, if/when I make prototypes I'll post about them.

More trips/expeditions planned for the LJ...

Every year I attend the SEMA Show in Las Vegas. The show is the first week in November and I'm planning to drive the LJ out there to attend the show; I'm working on a few side trails to do along that trip, probably including the Diamond Creek trail to the bottom of the Grand Canyon in the Hualapai Nation.

And looking ahead a little further - next summer I'm thinking of doing another Alaska trip. A few years back I did the Dalton Highway (remember Ice Road Truckers?) all the way up to Deadhorse on the Arctic Ocean. Would like to do Alaska again, not sure if I'll do the Dalton again or some other route.
 
Last edited:
Very impressive list of trails. All of them in a mostly bone stock TJ with a 2" lift. Fantastic.

Any mods to the axles, such as lockers?

Also, what do you do to level it out when fully loaded?
 
What resources do you use to find obscure trails?

I start with a good collection of trail books, they usually provide excellent starting points for exploration.

TrailBooks.jpg


Then I'll often use Forest Service maps Motor Vehicle Use Maps (MVUM), National Forest Maps and sometimes even state DOT maps. The Forst Service Maps will show forest service roads, many of which are not in the trail books and make for excellent exploration.

TrailMaps.jpg


Using an MVUM map I found a forest service road up Brown Mountain outside of Silverton; it turned to be an incredibly scenic trail in the fall.

DownBrownMountain_zpshjcuna8f.jpg


If I'm planning to do a trail from the trail books, those often show up in Google maps, so I look for potential side trips in Google maps. For example, there's a trail up into a gulch north of Silverton that's in the trail books and does show up in Google maps, but looking at it in Google maps shows a mine nearby that isn't mentioned in the trail books. Google maps shows the trail from the trail book (which is a forest service road) in gray:

GaryOwenMineGoogle.jpg


A little exploration on side trails found a route to the mine, it turned out to be a huge and well-preserved mine at a very high elevation.

GaryOwenMine1_zps3mfquchu.jpg


Sometimes I have to do more detailed research. For example, this grave in the Silverton cemetery is my great uncle's (my paternal grandmother's brother). He was a mining engineer and a miner in Silverton. He came east one Christmas and gave each of us kids a silver dollar, and talked most of the adults into investing in his mine (I still have several stock certificates). I visited him in Silverton once just before he died but never got to see his mine while he was alive.

AlfredGrave.jpg


I visited the Silverton Historic Society and asked about him; they had known him well and gave me approximate directions to his mine, which in on Kendall Mountain south of town. I used both Google maps and a Colorado topographical map in Garmin Base Camp to put a finer point on the directions they gave me, and then I went up the mountain in the Jeep and explored until I found a route to his mine.

KendallMtnTopo.jpg


Maybe that's more than you wanted to know, but starting with trail books (you can build your collection affordably on eBay or ThriftBooks) and then using other free or inexpensive resources you can find many very interesting places to explore.
 
  • Like
Reactions: CV04TJR and TRevs
Very impressive list of trails. All of them in a mostly bone stock TJ with a 2" lift. Fantastic.

Any mods to the axles, such as lockers?

Also, what do you do to level it out when fully loaded?

The axles are stock LJ; Dana 44 rear with factory limited slip. That's all.

For leveling/load carrying I have Airlift 1000 air bags in the rear springs. They level the Jeep very well and they don't have any ill effect on the trail. I've got a pressure gauge under the dash to monitor them and I carry a Schwinn bicycle pump (the small frame-mounted type) to adjust the pressure on the road or trail if that's ever necessary.

gaugeinstalled_zpsvoq2xl7t-jpg.149009



amazing journal!!! Can I ask what the LJ suspension setup is? Tire size? Jeep Safely!!!

Suspension setup is very simple: 2" spacer lift. Adjustable track bar in the rear to recenter the axle after the lift (the front didn't end up needing to be recentered). As mentioned above, Airlift 1000 air bags to handle loads (like my rooftop tent, Trail Kitchen and all the other gear one takes on an expedition).

Tires are 265/75-16 Michelin Defender LTX M/S2 6-ply tires. Very quiet on the highway at 80mph across the Great Plains and they've never let me down off road.
 
Just arrived in Las Vegas for the SEMA Show. Drove the LJ, it was 2,470 miles one way. Did it in 4 days, including time to drive to the Colorado River at the bottom of the Grand Canyon on the Hualapi Indian Reservation.

DiamondCreekRiver.jpg


DiamondCreekTrail.jpg


It's about a 42-mile round trip from pavement to the river and back, most of the way is a heavily washboarded dirt road but the last few miles have lots of running water flowing on the road. Not a very difficult trip and definitely worthwhile. Some writeups on the "road":

DiamondCreek.jpg


DiamondCreek2.jpg


You need to get a permit to do the drive, it cost about $32 for us and we got the permit and a card authorizing us to "trespass" on the reservation :).

HualapaiTrespass.jpg


The bag on the spare tire on the LJ in the first photo is a preproduction SpareHopper bag from Overland Outfitters and the cross-country drive is also a bit of a test for it. It's something I designed and I sewed several for my own use from used soft top fabric; they liked it so they picked up the design and this is their first prototype. There are a few minor things I'd like them to change before it goes into production, and I'd like to see it get tested through an entire winter before release (my two prototypes have been through last winter on my Jeeps and they did just fine but this one is a different fabric). Our current plan is to drive back through Colorado so the bag may see some snow there but it's not the same as being on the Jeep an entire winter. On this trip the bag is mostly serving as a recycling bin because I can't bear to throw out plastic water and drink bottles on a road tip but it's carrying a few other things as well. A few closer photos:

SpareHopperSample1a.jpg


SpareHopperSample1b.jpg


SpareHopperSample1c.jpg


The preproduction sample is olive drab fabric; they tell me the first production release will be in black but they may also do a few in o.d. Not sure if they'll do it in tan, I sewed mine in black and tan soft top fabric to match my Jeeps...

SpareBagsClean.jpg


I'll post interesting things from the SEMA Show, maybe I'll start a SEMA 2022 thread. If anyone has heard of something being introduced or displayed at the show they want to see more about, let me know and I'll see if I can find it and take some photos.

If anyone is interested in seeing more about the show, SEMA has a web site that allows scrolling around the show floor map to find exhibitors, search for exhibitors by name or category, among other functions. It's here: https://sema22.mapyourshow.com/8_0/floorplan/. There's also a SEMA app, which has similar functions and can be found on app stores, search for SEMAShow.

It's really nice to have a Jeep that can effortlessly and quietly cruise at 78 mph all the way across the country and on the same trip go off pavement on an adventure like this one. And it's got over 200k miles on the clock :).