OP
Oh god, me too. I absolutely suck at anything wiring / electrical related, except for soldering (which I'm great at).
I hate going through wiring diagrams.
Going Alone - Single Vehicle Offroad Travel Safety
- Thread starter Chris
- Start date
Oh god, me too. I absolutely suck at anything wiring / electrical related, except for soldering (which I'm great at).
I hate going through wiring diagrams.
Walked out to work on it again, and guess what!? The four ways were merrily flashing away! This intermittent crap is going to make my head pop. I'm guessing that it is an intermittent ground at the left rear of the rig or bad wiring where U-Haul attempted to wire in the trailer lights. Probably the U-Haul leftovers. I hate those amateurs with a passion. They seem to have a knack for converting a perfectly sound wiring harness into crap in 15 minutes or less. This is the second time it's happened to me with a Jeep. My last XJ had a U-Haul trailer hitch and trailer wiring harness on it and it gave me fits for years. Even completely removing the hitch and harness didn't restore reliability. Grrrr!
Akajam
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When I first got my brand new JKU, I made the (almost) mistake of following a nutty friend around a north Idaho mountain in his old rattletrap Suzuki Samurai. It was fun and occasionally scary (I was driving alone), and I didn't know yet how or why to disconnect my sway bar, and looking back on it, that off-road jaunt was crazy! I learned to LOVE 2nd gear in 4WD low.
OP
Akajam
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That's a fact. I didn't realize how much smaller it was than I was until we were on a very (very!) narrow, log-strewn road with a steep drop on my left and a steep face on my right, and two-foot-deep ruts across the road from spring runoff. He made it through that passage with a lot more room to spare than I had. I figured where he could go, I could go - after all, I was in a JEEP! But there are limits. In the final analysis, the Samurai can squirrel through tighter spaces, but I can carry more gear.
A built Samurai will go places you probably wouldn't want to walk. lol I'd chase one in the TJ, but it would cost me some paint. Wouldn't even attempt to chase one in the JKU.
So, who spends time in the back of beyond by themselves, and how do you manage it? That's a good conversation to have.
OP
Samurais are cool, but the biggest downfall (for me at least) is you can carry less gear than a TJ, and that's saying a lot!
Akajam
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My answer is: it's my first jeep and I often have more enthusiasm than good sense, but I got it to take me prospecting, and pretty much the only places where there is still "easy" gold are places that are hard to get to. When I need to go prospecting, I gotta go, even if there's nobody else to go with me; I do take some heat for that. I'm extremely careful, and I don't really get too far out into the back of beyond, and I don't hike much farther beyond where I park unless I'm with other people. Lots of miners are far more intrepid and adventurous than me (and sturdier - the further away I hike, the further back I have to carry buckets of dirt).
Regardless of how far away from civilization I go, I "file a flight plan" with my husband; carry food and water, revolvers, and a loud whistle; and could probably be better prepared for an emergency than I am. I guess I haven't scared myself yet.
I don't know about the four-ways part, but the brake turning the right signal on is most likely the turn signal lever assembly on your steering wheel - which, I'm guessing, might have an effect on the flashers at some point.
The reason I say this, is that the turn signal stalk is a common failure point - my last jeep had it fail, and my current one is in the process of failing... One part of that failure, is that if I don't bump it up just a little after making a turn (kinda like tapping it slightly for a right turn, but without actually activating the signal), I will regularly have the left turn signal light up when I hit the brakes.
But, if I just tap up on it slightly after turning, it doesn't ever do it.
Seems to me that it is shorting out inside just a little unless I break the connection.
Ted
TJ Enthusiast
Im bad about going alone. But my wife has hunted my hunting spots with me so as long as I tell her which spot I'm hitting she can find me. She even showed up one about 10 pm. I dropped an elk and had just loaded the last load and was taking a breather.
I go pretty well prepared. Shelter and small stove and enough food for a few days.
I go pretty well prepared. Shelter and small stove and enough food for a few days.
I spend a fair amount of time out and about by myself. A day, two, or three. I always file a "flight plan". (Hat tip to @Akajam, I like that term)
I always carry my Redhawk on me. I have my go bag, basically a backpack with all the gear for at least 72 hours. Water. Recovery gear. Tools. Shovel. Axe. Rope. GPS. Maps. Plus whatever specialized stuff I need for whatever I'm doing.
I always carry my Redhawk on me. I have my go bag, basically a backpack with all the gear for at least 72 hours. Water. Recovery gear. Tools. Shovel. Axe. Rope. GPS. Maps. Plus whatever specialized stuff I need for whatever I'm doing.
The really important part, for me, of heading out alone isn't the gear, or even the Jeep. It's what goes on between my ears.
I slow down. I stop and get out. I think you need to be a lot more conservative in your driving when you're out alone.
I slow down. I stop and get out. I think you need to be a lot more conservative in your driving when you're out alone.
Ted
TJ Enthusiast
Ted
TJ Enthusiast
OK thought that was Idaho tags. I'm from Sandpoint. Worked in Post Falls. Hoping to make it back this summer. I love it there. The elk have been whispering to me lately.
Akajam
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My husband is a long-time avid hunter (although he's very picky about what he will shoot - no game for a couple of years now because it's all too small). But in elk season he's gone a lot. We've had two big elk (I call them "my boys" - Mike and Ike) showing up in our pasture every night for at least a month now. We had a bunch of moldy hay that I won't feed to the horses, so my husband hauled it out to the pasture to burn in the spring. It's not a big pasture - our whole property is just 5 acres, in Rathdrum. Don't know how the elk found us. We have deer trooping through the property in the evening a lot - always have - but never saw elk before. I just noticed one evening while I was feeding, right about as it got dark, that the horses were all in high alert, and when I looked out through a crack in the stall wall, there were two big boys standing in the snow-covered hay pile, eating! Caught this shot of them with a game camera.
Ted
TJ Enthusiast
OP
If your husband every needs the best pricing he'll ever find on FLIR, Trijicon or other infrared cameras, rifle scopes or sights, let me know. One of the companies I do web work for sells nothing but thermal stuff, and I can get it for cheaper than anyone else, including Optics Planet!