Keep the rain down there, and 60 still requires a heater. I'm too thin for that to be comfortable.
I’d say 60 is my limit, I wouldn’t call it comfortable, but definitely tolerable
Austin's 98 TJ
- Thread starter Austin O.
- Start date
I’d say 60 is my limit, I wouldn’t call it comfortable, but definitely tolerable
For the past month or so, I’ve been working on this project…
I rock climb a lot, go to the indoor climbing gym 4-5 times a week and climb outdoors any chance I get. I don’t do a ton of roped climbing, mostly bouldering where you climb max 20ish feet and have pads under you in case you fall. When you do this outside, you of course have to bring pads with you… nature doesn’t provide them.
As we all know, our tjs offer little space and I needed to find another way to cary them. This is the main reason I started this project, some others and some of my requirements are listed below:
- Be able to carry my climbing pads + friends pads too if needed
- Have a way to carry skis as well
- Doesn’t cover brake lights
- Collapsable and compact-able for super easy and tiny storage
- Not heavy
- Cheap
- Fits with my existing hitch receiver and hugs the spare tire for some extra support
I based my design around some Yakima ski clamps that I bought super cheap on eBay. I cut those ski clamps up a ton to make them work for this. And then focused on making it all as compact as possible.
Painted it all with a bedliner
Here it is with the ski clamps attached
And with a couple skis and pads on there!
Overall pretty happy with it. Definitely a couple small things I’d do differently if I were to do it again, but nothing major.
I rock climb a lot, go to the indoor climbing gym 4-5 times a week and climb outdoors any chance I get. I don’t do a ton of roped climbing, mostly bouldering where you climb max 20ish feet and have pads under you in case you fall. When you do this outside, you of course have to bring pads with you… nature doesn’t provide them.
As we all know, our tjs offer little space and I needed to find another way to cary them. This is the main reason I started this project, some others and some of my requirements are listed below:
- Be able to carry my climbing pads + friends pads too if needed
- Have a way to carry skis as well
- Doesn’t cover brake lights
- Collapsable and compact-able for super easy and tiny storage
- Not heavy
- Cheap
- Fits with my existing hitch receiver and hugs the spare tire for some extra support
I based my design around some Yakima ski clamps that I bought super cheap on eBay. I cut those ski clamps up a ton to make them work for this. And then focused on making it all as compact as possible.
Painted it all with a bedliner
Here it is with the ski clamps attached
And with a couple skis and pads on there!
Overall pretty happy with it. Definitely a couple small things I’d do differently if I were to do it again, but nothing major.
Put in my H&R 1 inch lift springs this afternoon! Was much easier and faster than I thought. After measuring, it gave me 1.25-1.5 inches of lift. Definitely a noticeable difference in looks as well as feel when I drove it for a minute up and down the street after.
Before:
After:
I’m happy with it!
Before:
After:
I’m happy with it!
Put on the spring outfit for my tj yesterday
Found a dirt road today
And then it decided to throw some misfire codes. Discovered that a couple of the spark plug wires were pretty well corroded.
I replaced those and have been advised to replace the distributer cap and rotor, so I’ll do that tomorrow. I replaced my spark plugs not too long ago, so I won’t be replacing them now.
Found a dirt road today
And then it decided to throw some misfire codes. Discovered that a couple of the spark plug wires were pretty well corroded.
I replaced those and have been advised to replace the distributer cap and rotor, so I’ll do that tomorrow. I replaced my spark plugs not too long ago, so I won’t be replacing them now.
Use cap and rotor with brass terminals. A lot of them are aluminum.
And, for future reference, if you’re replacing plugs, do the cap and rotor as well. Wires, probably every other time.
Are you new here, don't you know we have "false-spring" every year? It's going to get fuckin' cold in a week or two, for a week or two, then it's spring.
Are they old or do you frequent wet areas like creek crossings? Either way, a little dielectric grease will help seal the wires.
Are you new here, don't you know we have "false-spring" every year? It's going to get fuckin' cold in a week or two, for a week or two, then it's spring.
Are they old or do you frequent wet areas like creek crossings? Either way, a little dielectric grease will help seal the wires.
Born here - about a mile from my house, so yeah I know how it works, but it somehow still tricks me every time
I have reason to believe the wires are original… So yeah, pretty old!
I know how it works, but it somehow still tricks me every time
It gets us all. I was worried about getting sunburned the other day when we had two 70 degree days in a row.
It gets us all. I was worried about getting sunburned the other day when we had two 70 degree days in a row.
I actually did get sunburned last weekend! Wasn’t expecting that… Was outside working all day.
Are you new here, don't you know we have "false-spring" every year? It's going to get fuckin' cold in a week or two, for a week or two, then it's spring.
Are they old or do you frequent wet areas like creek crossings? Either way, a little dielectric grease will help seal the wires.
boy, at least you only have ONE false spring...
Here in Michigan, we go from Winter, to sucker's spring, to second winter, to false spring, back to third winter, THEN we hit real spring, sometime in mid May. (same thing happens in the fall too)
Moved my air compressor into the engine bay to try to gain some more storage space in the trunk (just drilled some holes and put zip ties through them and around the compressor).
Got my new cap and rotor and put them in. I’m not really sure what they would look like if they were old or bad, but nothing on the old ones looked concerning to me. Replaced anyway for peace of mind
Old:
New:
And then added a clock. That’s where my seat warmer buttons were before, so I had to move those down slightly. This project took a little while…
Got a lot done today!
I’m thinking about making something to store the stuff I always carry with me in the jeep (some tools, recovery stuff, first aid kit, etc) - I’d do it under the rear seat so that way the trunk is fully open for other things. Unfortunately the tuffy rear underseat storage drawer isn’t an option as I have a powered sub mounted to the tailgate and I also don’t want to raise the rear seats for the sake of headroom.
Got my new cap and rotor and put them in. I’m not really sure what they would look like if they were old or bad, but nothing on the old ones looked concerning to me. Replaced anyway for peace of mind
Old:
New:
And then added a clock. That’s where my seat warmer buttons were before, so I had to move those down slightly. This project took a little while…
Got a lot done today!
I’m thinking about making something to store the stuff I always carry with me in the jeep (some tools, recovery stuff, first aid kit, etc) - I’d do it under the rear seat so that way the trunk is fully open for other things. Unfortunately the tuffy rear underseat storage drawer isn’t an option as I have a powered sub mounted to the tailgate and I also don’t want to raise the rear seats for the sake of headroom.
Finally got around to building that storage compartment under the rear seat. It’s super simple and not locking, but should be basically invisible, so I don’t have any concern about stuff being stolen.
I first welded some brackets to the seat mounting pieces, and repainted them
I then attached a couple super strong magnets to them that I got off of Amazon.
Got some sheet metal from my hardware store and cut it so that it just simply connects to the seat via the magnets - doesn’t even rattle!
Painted it
My rear bedrug finally came today too! Put that all in
And here’s how my new storage compartment thingy looks with the bedrug
I plan to put some carpet on that metal so that it blends in even better and really makes me feel good about how hidden my stuff under there will be. Now the trunk area is free of everything and I can actually put things in there that I don’t need to keep in the TJ permanently!
I first welded some brackets to the seat mounting pieces, and repainted them
I then attached a couple super strong magnets to them that I got off of Amazon.
Got some sheet metal from my hardware store and cut it so that it just simply connects to the seat via the magnets - doesn’t even rattle!
Painted it
My rear bedrug finally came today too! Put that all in
And here’s how my new storage compartment thingy looks with the bedrug
I plan to put some carpet on that metal so that it blends in even better and really makes me feel good about how hidden my stuff under there will be. Now the trunk area is free of everything and I can actually put things in there that I don’t need to keep in the TJ permanently!
Put back in my trunk thingy (after painting) that will let me keep stuff in the back securely. And put extra bed rug on my under seat storage compartment, can barely tell it’s even there!
Haven’t updated this in a while since going to college and being busy with all of that, so here’s a bunch of stuff from the past couple months.
I don’t have any pictures because it was 11pm and dark, but on a camping/climbing trip I actually got the jeep stuck in a hole off of a gravel road in linville gorge when backing up in the dark. My back two wheels were hanging in the air, frame was resting in the ground. First time I got to use the winch for a recovery rather than as a tool for moving stuff! Worked great!
Shortly after, gas started leaking out of the fuel lines right above the tank that connect to the pump. I think it might’ve been related to getting stuck, I might’ve hit the gas tank hard when I fell into the hole, I’m thinking they got pinched against the frame somehow? A few punctures in the fuel lines, as well as a crack in the y-connector there.
I built new fuel lines and fixed the y-connector by melting a whole bunch of plastic around the crack and then epoxy over top. Might bother some people, but I needed to drive to work the next day and this was my solution.
Instead of continuing to store the plastic craftsman box with my ratchets/sockets under the rear seat, I got some socket organizers and a tool pouch - takes up probably 1/5th of the space!
I’ve put the climbing pad rack I built to good use recently, have been climbing outdoors a lot - at least once a week for the past 5 weeks!
And I’ve really just enjoyed exploring the area recently, doing a lot of driving, lots of good places for pictures!
I don’t have any pictures because it was 11pm and dark, but on a camping/climbing trip I actually got the jeep stuck in a hole off of a gravel road in linville gorge when backing up in the dark. My back two wheels were hanging in the air, frame was resting in the ground. First time I got to use the winch for a recovery rather than as a tool for moving stuff! Worked great!
Shortly after, gas started leaking out of the fuel lines right above the tank that connect to the pump. I think it might’ve been related to getting stuck, I might’ve hit the gas tank hard when I fell into the hole, I’m thinking they got pinched against the frame somehow? A few punctures in the fuel lines, as well as a crack in the y-connector there.
I built new fuel lines and fixed the y-connector by melting a whole bunch of plastic around the crack and then epoxy over top. Might bother some people, but I needed to drive to work the next day and this was my solution.
Instead of continuing to store the plastic craftsman box with my ratchets/sockets under the rear seat, I got some socket organizers and a tool pouch - takes up probably 1/5th of the space!
I’ve put the climbing pad rack I built to good use recently, have been climbing outdoors a lot - at least once a week for the past 5 weeks!
And I’ve really just enjoyed exploring the area recently, doing a lot of driving, lots of good places for pictures!
It somehow practically came out of nowhere too! Was lucky it happened so close to my house and could limp it there
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