Tennessee Red

gasiorv said:

Last few wheeling trips we had some work to do on rigs in the evenings and a vice would have come in handy. Harbor Freight sent me a coupon for a cheap vice so that kicked off the next project.

Mounted vice to 1/2" plate and welded on 2" square tube. Then I welded a 2" ID square tube to the trailer in two places. 1 on the LH side on the front side which is where the vice will stay during transport and is also at a good height to work. To keep it somewhat secure I put a lockable hitch pin through and also added a clamp bolt to keep it from vibrating around while in transport (and to hold it tight when working on it).
Transport mode:
View attachment 444613
Work Mode:
View attachment 444616
Sometimes the trailer is not always parked in a place where I have easy access to both sides, so there is a chance that the vice could be in the wrong location, so the 2nd receiver was mounted on the RH side about 1/3 of the way back.
Work flush with trailer:
View attachment 444614
Raise it to not have to bend over:
View attachment 444615


I didn't feel like moving the trailer to my welder so I pulled out the old stick welder. I learned to weld with stick but I haven't stick welded in quite a while, I figured it is wise to pull it out and practice stick welding every once in awhile in case I would need it in the future. I quickly remembered why I haven't stick welded in a while, it's because I suck at welding vertical with stick Having said that, my real concern is not my welds but will the cheap HF vice hold up.

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NashvilleTJ said:

That’s a great idea, Victor. I may steal it at some point.

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gasiorv said:

Yes. They were from Blue Demon, I think BD-7000. I have a whole box of them, if i lived closer I would give you a handful.

I did rip the 1/4" plate off, bad welds, I think oil contaminated the welds. So the second plate I welded on I cleaned it up real good with brake cleaner and then I took a torch to it (trying to burn off any residual diff fluid in the metal). Second plate welds held up much better and the plate and hard face was still intact when I removed the axle.

In lieu of adding a plate, you can check out Starkey build thread for how he built it back up with just weld.

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gasiorv said:

I bought the crawlteks right before 4th of July once I realized the 36" tires needed more clearance. They were the cheapest decent highlines I could find and they were also having a 4th of July sale, offered free shipping, etc... so it was an easy decision.

The battery mount that they provide only has a front support on the outboard side and with no support on the inner front side it has some bounce to it. So I added a support to that inner front side. I cut up the factory bracket and used the inbd side to pick up two holes on the firewall, then I welded a tube between the modded factory bracket and the crawltek bracket. I had a piece of square tubing laying around from another job so I just used it for the support which is way overkill and kind of ugly, but it didn't cost me anything. Once the mount was installed, I installed the factory battery tray but I moved it forward and outbd slightly in order to get me clearance for battery and for the hold down. Just a matter of drilling a few holes for the tray attach and also for the battery temp sensor.

Here is the added support, ugly as can be, but no one will ever see it. Also, my photo skills suck I didn't take a picture of the tray installed.

View attachment 443004

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gasiorv said:

A good bit of wheeling and maintenance to the jeep after wheeling over the last few months, but no real big changes. I did add a Baja Designs 10" light bar to the front and some KC Cyclone rock lights to help with the night wheeling, but everything else has been just fixing stuff between wheeling trips.

This has been a good year for Wheeling. I tried to have a wheeling trip at least once a month and I didn't meet that goal, but did hit it on average (12 trips over the year).
Jan - Windrock
Feb - no wheeling but I did go skiing!
Mar - Hot Springs
April - Hawk Pride (2x), SMORR
May - no wheeling, mostly prepping jeep for Moab in June
June - Moab
July - SMORR
Aug- no wheeling, too hot and humid in the Southeast
Sept - SMORR
Oct - Windrock
Nov - Good Evening Ranch, Hawk Pride
Dec - Heading to Hot Springs for NYE weekend.

Overall, pretty happy with the jeep right now. The rear axle that i installed last December has proven to be a good fix and I haven't had any axle issues since the install (nice to be able to go from wheeling trip to wheeling trip without having to replace axle shafts, locker, etc...) The beadlocks and thicker sidewall TSL SXs has really seemed to help with my tire issues, I do have a slow leak in one tire (air is seeping through sidewall) and I sent an email to dealer to see about warranty, if they don't warranty I will probably just put some tire sealant in the tire to help with the seeping. The body has really suffered some damage over the last year but at this point it doesn't really matter, as long as I can maintain a windshield install and get the doors and soft top on when needed, I am OK with it.

Next year, I have plans to do some "bucket list" wheeling and that is my focus (in lieu of a lot of trips, a few big trips). No real major changes to the jeep just keeping it in good running shape and prep it for the bucket list trips.

2024 Planned Wheeling Trips
Jan - annual Freeze fest in East TN (overlanding trip)
Mar - Arizona (bucket list) and Hot Springs Jeep Jamboree (guide)
June - Black Hills South Dakota (bucket list)
Sept - Northern California (Rubicon, Fordyce, Barrett, Dusy Ershim, hopefully more trails) (bucket list)
Will probably through a few trips to Hawk Pride and SMORR in there as well.

My normal overlanding trip in Jan is usually just me and one of my boys in my jeep, so it is really just using our backpacking gear in the jeep which takes minimal room and other than adding some bulk with bulkier sleeping bags, winter coats and bibs, and a portable heater it is really not that much extra going into the back of the jeep. The No Cal trip will include a lot of camping on the trail and at trail heads and I will have my wife with me, so I have to think about camping requirements for the wife (larger tent, cots, WAG bag toilet, 12v refrigerator, etc...) so I have already started to prep for that trip and will be trying things out during my Jan overlanding trip. I bought a larger tent (one that provides more room and can stand up but still fits in the jeep), portable toilet and privacy tent for toilet, small cots, and chairs. I also added a rack to the back of the jeep, shifted around my tool boxes and jack, and added a way to tie down the refrig, So in Jan I will probably take some/most of this stuff to test it out and then hopefully work out some things over the year to make the sept trip go well.

Happy New Year to everyone and I hope everyone has a great 2024 and gets to do all the wheeling that they hope to do!! I also look forward to hopefully meeting and wheeling with a few more of you this year!

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gasiorv said:

I first bought a 4 person hub tent and it was way too big to put in the jeep, so I returned it and got a Ozark Trail 6 person cabin tent (not a hub) just normal cabin. It is much larger than I would like but it does fit in the jeep laying side to side on my rack with about 6" to spare (I think my rack is 48" wide). As far as standing, I am 5'7" and can stand in the middle, my wife is shorter so she can stand anywhere. The cabin tent is not light and it is breeze to put up but damn it is a bitch to fold back up and get into bag. I am going to use it this weekend and it is supposed to rain/snow the first night so I am interested in seeing how much water, leaves, and dirt I get on the inside when I fold it up in the morning. This is why I am testing it now without the wife!

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gasiorv said:

Weekend camping trip did not go as planned due to weather. Plan was to camp at a different location each night; however, we ended up camping at the same location both nights so we only set up camp once and then left it set up.
Day 1, I had all camping gear in the jeep and wheeled all day with it and that night set up camp (which happened to be where my truck/trailer was parked so I really didn't have to carry all the gear with me but did not know it that morning when we departed)
Day 2 - just left camp set up and didn't take all the gear in the jeep and went wheeling and returned back to camp that night.
Day 3 - packed up camp and threw it all in the truck and then loaded jeep on trailer and relocated to another wheeling location, unloaded jeep (only) wheeled all day and then loaded back up and drove home.

With the one day that I did have all the gear in the Jeep, I did learn a few things.
1. I am running my 12v fridge off a jackery and have the jackery being charged when jeep is running. This worked good but I need to place the jackery in a location that I can get to the other outlet locations in order to plug in other items (phone, milwaukee battery charger, radio battery charger, etc...)
2. I had the air compressor strapped in a location that made it difficult to remove the strap. So when we hit pavement and I went to air back up, I had to fight with the strap. Need to find a different location for compressor to make it easier to access.
3. Air compressor gauge quit working and due to the screw on valve fitting I had to unscrew and screw on every time I went to check pressure using another gauge. Need to add a pressure switch to compressor and then install a normal tire chuck or tire inflator with gauge.

Things that went well:
1. I added weather stripping to the Plano sportsman trunks which were installed on the outside of the jeep and even in pouring down rain and crossing multiple water crossings, everything in the trunks stayed dry. Unfortunately with the high water crossings, items that were stored against the floor in the rear seat footwells did not stay dry.
2. I added cheap side mirrors from Amazon (since rear view would be blocked by cargo) and they worked really well.

Camp:
1. Tent worked really well but I did not get to test the take down and loading back in jeep each morning.
2. My nephew told me that the cot/sleeping bag setup was fine for him and me but he recommended getting something different for the wife to ensure her comfort so I sucked it up and bought her a better cot and North Face bag.
3. Since we camped each night at a campground with bathhouse, I didn't get to test the WAG bag toilet that I bought. Still need to test it out so the wife isn't the first to use it and things go wrong.

Other items for my to do list:
1. I backed into a tree at AOP and ripped the plastic piece that slides into the tub channel off of the soft top and bent in the rear fender (even more). So I need to fix the soft top somehow.
2. Grinding noise coming from front (sounds like wheel bearing).
3. Johnny joints in the front control arms are toast and need to be rebuilt.

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JMT said:

I don't presume to know it all, but I've tried several sleeping situations. Everyone has their preference, but I ended up dumping the cot and sleeping on a 3" pad. I purchased a couple of them. One was over $200 and my wife and I liked them, but we felt the price was a bit steep, so I went with an $80 version that I liked best. I tried it on top of the cot and that was not as good because the contours made it sink in the middle and a flat surface on the ground was just better. Anything to make the wife sleep comfortably is a plus.

The toilet is another thing. We've finally got a camp toilet that works pretty well, though I have to clean it after the trip. I got it at Wal-Mart. It's got a lid that closes and a flusher to let the bad stuff into a lower holding tank that is filled with a tab that breaks down in water. We limit it to #1 if at all possible. Wife is good with it.

Nice review of the camping setup. These things are trial and error.

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gasiorv said:

Jan 2024 Maintenance

After being under water at Freezefest and also noticing that the front control arm joints had some slop in them and the front drivers side wheel bearing was starting to make a noise when turning left, I decided to do some general maintenance to the jeep in order to prepare it for the year. Figure after out annual Freeze Fest is probably the best time to do the annual mtc since freeze fest is so hard on everything (mud, water, snow, etc…).

• Front Axle mtc:
  • Drivers and Passenger Side Ball Joints replaced.
    • Drivers side had excessive up down play, it was last replaced in 2020
    • Passenger side felt good with knuckle installed but when I removed knuckle the lower ball joint had a lot of up down and lateral play and the upper was locked in place. It was last replaced in 2017.
    • Replaced both sides with Spicer Ball Joints.
  • Drivers and Passenger side unit bearings
    • I think the drivers side is where the grinding noise was coming from and thus I decided to change it. With the unit bearing installed, it felt fine and I didn’t hear any noise but once I removed the axle shaft there was a grinding noise and feel in the bearing. It was only 1 year old? It was a 1 yr old timken so I am disappointed it was bad.
    • Replaced the passenger side just because, it felt good and didn’t have any noise so I kept it as a spare.
    • Replaced both sides with cheaper SKF bearing from summit. Figured why spend the money on the Timken if I am going to have to replace them every year.
  • Drivers side knuckle sliders had divots. I filled the divots with weld and ground flush (already did the passenger side in Dec 2023).
  • Welded hard face material to bottom of housing to try and slow down the wear due to the rocks.
  • Installed new Barnett Diff Cover, the PS bombproof cover did great but it was worn thin at the bottom bolt.
  • Replaced both upper control arm bushings on axle side (Moog bushing at the OEM drivers side and the Barnes 4x4 at the passenger side).
  • Upper Control Arms (both sides), replaced the 2.0” johnny joints.
  • Drivers side lower control arm, replaced the 2.5” johnny joints.
  • Passenger side lower control arm johnny joints were just replaced in Dec 2023 so I didn’t change them again.
  • Added bullet connectors to locker wiring, this way I can just disconnect it in the future and if I have to pull the carrier out of the housing the bullets should fit through the hole in housing.
  • Filled Diff with fresh gear oil.
• Front Drive Shaft:
  • Removed shaft and greased the Double Cardan ball joint.
  • Pulled the front side and cleaned up the splines, greased, and reinstalled.
• Changed Engine Oil and Filter and also changed the oil pressure sending unit.
• Changed transmission fluid
  • When I pulled the drain plug the fluid was very milky from water (water must have gotten in during freeze fest).
  • Let it drain completely then added two quarts of synchromesh and then ran the jeep with clutch out.
  • .Then drained again to get any and all moisture out and then filled with new clean synchromesh.
  • Used Pennzoil Synchromesh
• Changed Transfer Case Fluid
  • Used O’reily’s brand ATF+4
  • I also checked the bolts attaching the transfer to the transmission to ensure they were still tight (they were tight).
• Skid Plate
  • Removed skid to change transmission and transfer fluids and when I reinstalled I reinstalled the bolts with loktite.
  • The light on the back of the skid plate, I added bullet connectors for easier removal in the future.
• Rear Axle Mtc:
  • Checked fluid and it was clean, no water ingress, so I didn’t change it.
  • Removed each control arm and regreased each Johnny Joint and then reinstalled.

Drove Jeep to work this morning and it drove really good, even with the unbalanced bias ply TSLs. Half way to work the transmission was a little harder to get in gear than normal (I was noticing this at the end of freeze fest as well), but at approx the half way point it started shifting smoothly again.

Good bit of maintenance, but she had a great year of wheeling under her and it was time to give her some TLC.
Time to go make some memories with the jeep in 2024, but first I got to go try and not be a Jerry on the slopes.

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