That's what I have to do. Weights on both sides. Looks shitty, but smooth. Weights can get knocked wheeling I know
Arizona Rock Crawler
- Thread starter starkey480
- Start date
OP
I’d rather take the smooth while it lasts! I’ll probably just spray the weights with some quick wheel paint and won’t even notice them
B00mb00m
The Church of Cutting Brakes of Atlas-Front Digs
Supporting Member
Ride of the Month Winner
That trail looks RAD! I am personally working on throttle control (and I'm super stoked to try it with my new 3.8:1 ratio) and you may be able to work on it as well. Once your auto torque converter engages and you find traction on an obstacle keep that throttle exactly on the edge, don't let it drop down and slip once you're in the line. For example on that steep face at 4:47 you had good traction and progression and let off halfway up while you still had traction. Sometimes you'll find obstacles where if you do that you'll be farked and have to start over.
OP
Heck yeah thanks for the tip. This was my second time wheeling the new auto and to be honest I was pretty nervous on some of these waterfalls. They were huge in real life. Lots of guys told me I couldn’t even do this trail without winching in a 2 door but we got it done! You should have seen me struggle with the manual/231 combo, I was even worse haha. Hopefully I can go back to this trail soon with some confidence and work on being smoother.
B00mb00m
The Church of Cutting Brakes of Atlas-Front Digs
Supporting Member
Ride of the Month Winner
Did you keep the 231 with the auto? When i had the 231 that throttle control was quite difficult it only takes a hair of throttle pedal movement and the TC slips and its over, but it can be done. Blaine told me about the trick to jam your foot against the tunnel and then rock it slightly into the pedal vs if you keep your foot right on the pedal if the rig bounces so will your foot on the pedal. I'm expecting the additional ratio will help that a lot by making the margin for error much larger.
B00mb00m
The Church of Cutting Brakes of Atlas-Front Digs
Supporting Member
Ride of the Month Winner
The MTr's seemed to do exceptional on those rocks. I could even hear the lugs digging in when they slipped a bit.
OP
Yeah I still have the 231. An atlas or 241 aren’t quite in the budget yet. Once I got the 35s, it was either regear or do an auto swap. The auto swap ended up being cheaper for me since I already had the correct ratio for the 32rh. And much more effective at gaining me control as well!
Th MT/Rs do great out here. At this point the rig performance is far from my limiting factor. Time to focus on technique and armoring up the Jeep a little more.
I’ll try jamming the foot in the tunnel. Sounds like a good tip.
The manual and 231 wasn't a great combo for technical stuff. Life is so much better with the 5:1
OP
Update on the wheel shimmy-
A dynamic wheel balance with weights on both sides of the wheel fixed the shimmy completely. Drives awesome now. I’m not stoked to have weights on the outside but it’s a price I’m willing to pay for a nice driving rig. I live next to discount tire so if one gets ripped off I’ll just have them stick another one on real quick.
A dynamic wheel balance with weights on both sides of the wheel fixed the shimmy completely. Drives awesome now. I’m not stoked to have weights on the outside but it’s a price I’m willing to pay for a nice driving rig. I live next to discount tire so if one gets ripped off I’ll just have them stick another one on real quick.
OP
Wow POs are astounding. Going through some wiring for my license plate lights and all kinds of no nos. This crimp was covered in electrical tape but the butt end conductor was still exposed.
The conductors on these scotch locks are also exposed.
Scotch lock style connectors. I hate those things on external wiring. I use them inside sometimes.
Good on you for cleaning it up. Those wires would be green already if you weren't in AZ!
OP
Cleaned up the wiring by using heat shrink splicing and taking off the scotch locks and sealing the wire back up with a dab of RTV.
Also added a little license plate bolt light so that I’m legal. I don’t really like it. I didn’t want a light on the left corner because it runs the risk of getting torn off on a rock but one light looks bad.
Once I get corner armor I will relocate the license plate to the spare tire. I liked the way @Alex01 license plate looks. I’ll probably just try my hand at making my own mount
Also added a little license plate bolt light so that I’m legal. I don’t really like it. I didn’t want a light on the left corner because it runs the risk of getting torn off on a rock but one light looks bad.
Once I get corner armor I will relocate the license plate to the spare tire. I liked the way @Alex01 license plate looks. I’ll probably just try my hand at making my own mount
OP
Getting some practice with the welder putting some black magic raised sway bar mounts on my dads Jeep. I’m still a total beginner welder but I’m gaining confidence.
I can’t wait to do all the fun cheap mods a welder opens the door to.
OP
Got a good welder and good mask now. Making this welding thing a lot easier. Still learning with every bead I drop on real projects. It’s so much different getting into tight spaces at different angles than welding on a flat piece of scrap.
I have always said that I am not a great welder but I am a good grinder.
OP
I’ll let @pc1p give the update on his project but I had a ton of fun helping him do a 5” rear frame stretch in his TJ yesterday.
Here’s Patrick giving me a lesson in vertical plug welding! Don’t let it get too hot or the puddle runs out of the hole.
Fun discovery here is that the middle crossmember is in front of where the trackbar would be if you chose to do the stretch with a short arm rather than triangulated midarm.
We also determined that Patrick will be better off with blank corners and cutting his own wheel opening. Looks like the tire will be running into the stock gas filler location. So we figured something out that helps both of us. I’ll order him blank corners in exchange for his stock cut Savvy corners. So these will be going on my Jeep very soon. @Alex01 has inspired me to try my hand at color matching them. Although the metallic chili pepper red color scares me a little I like a challenge.
Patrick was also kind enough to give me his scrap frame tubing from the project which I will use to do a rear frame raise here shortly also inspired by @Alex01 who made it look easy! Maybe one day I will use it to stretch my own TJ as well! Thanks Patrick!
Here’s Patrick giving me a lesson in vertical plug welding! Don’t let it get too hot or the puddle runs out of the hole.
Fun discovery here is that the middle crossmember is in front of where the trackbar would be if you chose to do the stretch with a short arm rather than triangulated midarm.
We also determined that Patrick will be better off with blank corners and cutting his own wheel opening. Looks like the tire will be running into the stock gas filler location. So we figured something out that helps both of us. I’ll order him blank corners in exchange for his stock cut Savvy corners. So these will be going on my Jeep very soon. @Alex01 has inspired me to try my hand at color matching them. Although the metallic chili pepper red color scares me a little I like a challenge.
Patrick was also kind enough to give me his scrap frame tubing from the project which I will use to do a rear frame raise here shortly also inspired by @Alex01 who made it look easy! Maybe one day I will use it to stretch my own TJ as well! Thanks Patrick!
Possible tip for you. It looks like you are getting some spatter (those little round dots stuck around the welds) with your welding. A couple of things to try if it’s happening often. Make sure the metal is clean, remove the oil coating if it has any, sometimes a quick flapper wheel across the edges you’re welding do the trick. You may reduce the wire feed rate a little. Make sure your not leaning the torch too flat, also or if there is a breeze or fan running it could be blowing the shielding gas away. Otherwise it looks good.
OP
Thanks for the tips! Appreciate all the advice I can get to improve
OP
