Rocky Mountain Billy Goat Build

rasband said:
They are. They’re the 7069 series, and they can’t hold a bead worth a damn.
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I thought they were. That's what I have but I haven't done anywhere close to as extreme wheeling as you have.

I think the lowest I've aired don't to is 10 psi.
 
MountaineerTom said:
I thought they were. That's what I have but I haven't done anywhere close to as extreme wheeling as you have.

I think the lowest I've aired don't to is 10 psi.
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I could mitigate the issue by being more careful on those turns coming down, locked, and cranked over. Sometimes you can’t though.
 
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rasband said:
I could mitigate the issue by being more careful on those turns coming down, locked, and cranked over. Sometimes you can’t though.
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It could also be a bad pairing between the wheel and tire. I've been told that the MTR bead is unusually wide and doesn't always fit inside the safety lip inside the wheel.

Beyond that, the backside of the valve stem is too close to the bead and makes seating the tire more difficult than it needs to be.
 
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jjvw said:
Beyond that, the backside of the valve stem is too close to the bead and makes seating the tire more difficult than it needs to be.
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Yeah, that’s been annoying 2/3 of the time now. Even if I go coyote, these wheels will be replaced.
 
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rasband said:
In this week’s episode of Driving By Braille, we feature Matt:

Bumper and steering skid doing what we expect:

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I got contact on the tie rod, drag link, and axle tube. The first two didn’t bend (at least noticeably). That’s somewhat thanks to the tie rod flip.

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These aren’t pretty, but they did things.

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More pumpkin contact, some of it pretty hard. The Ram covers are doing well (but I may have a replacement for the front inbound…)
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After getting stuck on something I’ll complain about in a minute, we heard a pop while running line… turns out it was the clip on my recent front DS replacement. Also visible on the engine skid.

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Frame rails and TC skid
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These wheel’s suck, so they’re going sway ASAP. This isn’t evidence of them sucking, just getting rocks in
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Rear diff I got stuck on
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Now for those that hung in there, I’m going to comment on GenRight’s design for the mini boat sides.

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The boat side bit is great, these pictures show that I’m using the gains. However the bar/step/whatever shows how there’s a rather large interference. Noticeably throughout the day it caused more harm than good on a number of occasions. I can say I intentionally used them. Few times to pivot a bit, but those marks are higher up mostly.

I think something is necessary, so it’s not all bad. However it’s mounted much too low and bulky. I have some thinking to do on what I want there. I think it may be a combination of higher and tighter that compliments the line the boat side allows for. As long as nothing else is hang-upable there but slidable would be good. Or maybe nothing and consider the slider a wear item over the long run?

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Looks like HK found some other poor sap's rig to drive after I revoked her permission to drive mine. I'm sure she'll be begging to come back on my next wheeling trip though.
 
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I have to get a replacement output hose (first one was defective), but otherwise my York install is done for now. I’ll probably add an oil separator if that becomes an issue as sounds common.

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I couldn’t fit their provided belt with either idler option (70mm or 76mm), so I had to find a marginally longer belt (ended up being 1” longer). In doing so I used the larger idler to remove a good bit of that slack and then the tensioner didn’t move too much when I let it down - so I’m comfortable with the longer belt (but it is something I’ll double check at my next oil change).

They also sent the wrong pressure switch (200 off, instead of 150 off), but they’re replacing it.

My ARB is staying where it is until I get the hilines whenever they ship, at which point that will replace my rubicon locker pumps.
 
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You can also get smaller idlers. If your curious I can dig up the part numbers from Napa.
 
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Lou said:
You can also get smaller idlers. If your curious I can dig up the part numbers from Napa.
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I ran the numbers and with the smaller idler and smaller belt I was within a small distance of the setup I landed on - so it didn’t seem necessary to me. Though I did originally plan to swap the steel idler with another 70mm.
 
keep your eye on the tensioner. I’ve found these Napa belts stretch a bit after a few heat cycles. I actually moved up a pulley size twice after the belt stretched.

side note, the main issue is the belt tensioner is acting on the belt in the wrong plane. If you rev the engine up the tensioner does not move… it should.
 
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rasband said:
I wanted to see how well I could do with a bubble balance on the tire that discount tire said I should warranty out.

5.5oz and it feels great again.

Harbor freight win!

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How is this bubble balancer working out for you? I've had my eye on that and their stick-on weights to reduce/eliminate trips to Commerce City, where my tire guy is (I have beadlocks).
 
Jablinski said:
How is this bubble balancer working out for you? I've had my eye on that and their stick-on weights to reduce/eliminate trips to Commerce City, where my tire guy is (I have beadlocks).
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I think that’s a failed experiment. There’s not a good way we could find to get the wheel consistent on it due to the cone not really forcing an even seat. We would get a wheel balanced, then reposition it on the device and the balance said something else. We balanced again, repositioned and got another different reading.
 
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rasband said:
I think that’s a failed experiment. There’s not a good way we could find to get the wheel consistent on it due to the cone not really forcing an even seat. We would get a wheel balanced, then reposition it on the device and the balance said something else. We balanced again, repositioned and got another different reading.
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Bummer🥴
 
rasband said:
I wonder if better quality ones would do better. Instead of finding out I’m trying to get a local group to split a dynamic balancer since we are all finding discount tire’s work to be unacceptable.
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Yeah, they were always hit or miss for me. I did find a mobile tire company that does road force balance seemingly correctly, though not really worth the $$$ if not buying tires at the same time
 
Jablinski said:
Yeah, they were always hit or miss for me. I did find a mobile tire company that does road force balance seemingly correctly, though not really worth the $$$ if not buying tires at the same time
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For most cars it’s a pretty good deal to get tires and a lifetime of service at the same place. However having been to discount almost every other week this summer for 2-3 hours trying to get them to not suck has been draining. I’d happily pay them a fee to just use their machines myself. I’ve been in the garage trying to work with them directly and they’re still just 20ish somethings that are trained to turn over the bay.

Maybe this will be a new kind of “makerspace”!
 
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rasband said:
For most cars it’s a pretty good deal to get tires and a lifetime of service at the same place. However having been to discount almost every other week this summer for 2-3 hours trying to get them to not suck has been draining. I’d happily pay them a fee to just use their machines myself. I’ve been in the garage trying to work with them directly and they’re still just 20ish somethings that are trained to turn over the bay.

Maybe this will be a new kind of “makerspace”!
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Thats the problem with tire techs. Its as entry level as it gets, so its nothing but kids doing the work.
 
I’ve been happy with my discount. I found some kids I like and I request them each time and they let me help. They can also run the machine and see if rotating the tire on the wheel would help or not. Not sure if you’ve suggested that to them or not
 
starkey480 said:
I’ve been happy with my discount. I found some kids I like and I request them each time and they let me help. They can also run the machine and see if rotating the tire on the wheel would help or not. Not sure if you’ve suggested that to them or not
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I have, it seems to be hit and miss with them. My guess is most customers aren’t as picky and chalk up bad performance to “it’s a Jeep thing” which I don’t buy.
 
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