Jeep Green LJ Build

[Natander]

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll try to go lower next time.

I took an overnight camp trip in the "camper" on an extended weekend. This one was a solo trip, which was a bit more comfortable with sleeping in the back.

Here's the beginning of the trail at sundown.

The top of Bald Mountain near Buena Vista

At the end of the trail, I noticed a horrible clunking noise. It only took me a minute or two to see that one of the bolts on the passenger rear shock had snapped off, and the other had loosened and stripped the threads. I spaced the stripped bolt out with a nut (I always carry a bag of random hardware) and continued on to Salida where I got some new bolts and PB Blaster.

 

[Natander]

I got to my mom's house that afternoon, and was able to thread the top of the broken bolt through with some vice grips. Easy fix.

The next day we headed to an annual thing we do at the top of Wolf Creek Pass to honor a ski patroller that passed away in an avalanche when I was in high school. Every year we pick up trash along the highway.

Obligatory pic. I worked here for 12 years!

After lunch at the top of the pass, my mom and I decided to hit some of the old stomping grounds.

And because my mom can drive the 6 speed, I was able to get this with the drone. I was flying it manually (it doesn't have following capabilities) so the video is a little raw.

 

[Natander]

Friday marked one year of me owning this amazing Jeep! We ended up taking it out Friday night.

I also put the soft top on. A little late to the party. I think I had forgotten that this top is a little rough. Maybe I'll address that by the end of the year.

In other news, the MJ is getting picked up today and taken to the western slope. A buddy of mine has a shop out there and offered to come get it and tear it apart to figure out why it's overheating. Fingers crossed!

 

[Natander]

Big recap. I planned another MJ Takeover this year. As far as taking the MJ to MJ Takeover, nothing went to plan. As far as a Moab trip goes, it was amazing.

Day 1 was a challenge with getting stuck on Vail Pass for hours in traffic, taking a bypass down Shrine Pass, and finally making it to Delta to spend the night at my buddy's house who had the MJ.

This thing was fixed, and my buddy at Old Buzzard Off Road killed it. It felt like a different Jeep on the test drive. Unfortunately, the gf wasn't able to come out, and I can't drive two cars at once, so I opted to leave it out there.

 

[Natander]

Alright, time to continue the Moab story!

Day one in Moab was a chill day. I got camp set up, then met the first set of friends to go out and do Seven Mile Rim.

Fuel mileage from Grand Junction to Moab. Not bad at all!

 

[Natander]

Day two, part 1 - 1.

The entire group decided to do Poison Spider together.

Grocery store meeting spot.

Who brings a Wrangler to a Comanche event?
The guy who planned it

https://youtu.be/-hQt4U9FfOM

 

[Apparition]

 

[Natander]

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What can I say. The man knows what he likes.

His wife actually slapped that on there when he wasn't looking

 

[Natander]

Here's a video I threw together of the action on Poison Spider that day.

 

[Natander]

Alright, time to finish this Moab recap. I am trying to get a video edited from our night run, but it's taking forever and life is very busy. So, we'll continue on with this story.

The next day, my buddy wanted to run Hells Revenge for his first time. He wanted to see carnage, and he definitely got it.

When we reached the hot tubs, we decided to hang out to see if any groups would come along and give them a go. A group rolled up and decided to give it an overconfident shot. I'll keep the majority of my opinions to myself about this encounter...

Long story short, it took three winches to flop him back over and get him out of there. That's me attached to the axle. He made the mistake of turning the engine on when he was in this position, which appeared to lock up the supercharged Hemi. We eventually left when they started figuring out how to pull spark plugs on that thing.

An aggressive reminder that money and over-confidence, mixed with the hype from your bro-friends, do not make up for lack of sense or skill.

On a positive note, this Badlands winch was proving to be really nice. The wireless controller and other features make it much nicer than the similarly-priced Warn I had in the past on the MJ.

 

[Natander]

On the last full day, I was left to my own adventure as everyone else headed for home. For different reasons, this was the best part of the trip.

I took a lesser-traveled route north of town, and didn't see another soul for most of the day. On that note, I recently changed phone carriers to T-Mobile, and have one of their higher-end plans. This allows you to use Starlink to send text messages from anywhere. Although I try to be prepared for anything, having the ability to communicate from anywhere really gives me the confidence to do stupider stuff by myself. And it really does work.

At the campground, getting ready to leave. The sides were back on because it had been pretty rainy for this entire trip.

Once among the people again, I decided to get my first exercise of the trip.

And some bonus nature from that night.

 

[Natander]

I headed home the next day. I took Highway 128 back to Cisco, because those are the rules.

And...my trip maximum MPG, corrected for speedo differences. Not bad at all for being VERY loaded and pushing 75 mph.

So, minus my video of the night run (which is an epic feat for this little LJ), that was the trip.

It was an amazing time. Did it work out how I wanted it to? Absolutely not. Would I have rather taken the MJ to the MJ Takeover? Yes and no. It was tough not having it for a second year, but I knew deep down that I wasn't in the right place mentally to deal with whatever potential letdown it would give me. So, it stayed at my buddy's shop, hundreds of miles from home, to be picked up at a later date...

 

[Wildman]

Alright, time to finish this Moab recap. I am trying to get a video edited from our night run, but it's taking forever and life is very busy. So, we'll continue on with this story.

The next day, my buddy wanted to run Hells Revenge for his first time. He wanted to see carnage, and he definitely got it.

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When we reached the hot tubs, we decided to hang out to see if any groups would come along and give them a go. A group rolled up and decided to give it an overconfident shot. I'll keep the majority of my opinions to myself about this encounter...

View attachment 659615
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Long story short, it took three winches to flop him back over and get him out of there. That's me attached to the axle. He made the mistake of turning the engine on when he was in this position, which appeared to lock up the supercharged Hemi. We eventually left when they started figuring out how to pull spark plugs on that thing.

An aggressive reminder that money and over-confidence, mixed with the hype from your bro-friends, do not make up for lack of sense or skill.

On a positive note, this Badlands winch was proving to be really nice. The wireless controller and other features make it much nicer than the similarly-priced Warn I had in the past on the MJ.

WOW WTF was popping in that thing? Sounded like maybe his transmission or transfer case was popping out of gear? Whatever it was didn't sound good at all.

 

[Apparition]

WOW WTF was popping in that thing? Sounded like maybe his transmission or transfer case was popping out of gear? Whatever it was didn't sound good at all.

I thought it sounded like he broke a shaft on the first video.

 

[Natander]

WOW WTF was popping in that thing? Sounded like maybe his transmission or transfer case was popping out of gear? Whatever it was didn't sound good at all.

I thought it sounded like he broke a shaft on the first video.

He absolutely grenaded that Dana 60 (maybe a 70, I can't recall). He probably hurt it on the first attempt, then grenaded it on the second. Then, got all worked up trying to reverse out and ended up on his side in waist deep water.

 

[T-Jay6]

Just saw your post on FB. Nice to see some are still actually documenting their builds rather that quick Look at me posts on social media. I’ll have to come back and check this out after work. Cheers

 

[pc1p]

He absolutely grenaded that Dana 60 (maybe a 70, I can't recall). He probably hurt it on the first attempt, then grenaded it on the second. Then, got all worked up trying to reverse out and ended up on his side in waist deep water.

Looks like a UD60, which aren't bad axles (generally) but certainly not up to par for handling 40"s + supercharged 6.2L + amped up "bruh" driving.

 

[NashvilleTJ]

Looks like a UD60, which aren't bad axles (generally) but certainly not up to par for handling 40"s + supercharged 6.2L + amped up "bruh" driving.

Love the new avatar, PC.

 

[pc1p]

Love the new avatar, PC.

Haha thanks... it was time for an update. My son actually made it using *gasps* AI to turn a photo that he took of me into it.

 

[Natander]

Alright, I'm going to try to get caught up in the next few days.

Before putting the hard top back on in October, we decided to do one more trail with the soft top on. It ended up being horribly windy, so the top choice didn't really matter anyways.