Tennessee Red

Nope. I think that was on Donnie's Hill. I heard that they put two on their side and had an issue with another (not sure if it was fire or not).

From the list of trails that they run and the actual number of rigs that they had make it, I am not impressed. I think all the babysitters ran the same trails and got most through. Of course we weren't trying to capture "highlights" for a youtube video neither.
 
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gasiorv said:
Nope. I think that was on Donnie's Hill. I heard that they put two on their side and had an issue with another (not sure if it was fire or not).

From the list of trails that they run and the actual number of rigs that they had make it, I am not impressed. I think all the babysitters ran the same trails and got most through. Of course we weren't trying to capture "highlights" for a youtube video neither.
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I watched their recent youtube series on EJS and noticed they struggled up some of the same obstacles we had no issues with, they actually made some things seem much harder than they are. Really puts different builds in perspective. But they sound cooler. A decently built TJ on 35's is extremely capable.
 
Apparition said:
I watched their recent youtube series on EJS and noticed they struggled up some of the same obstacles we had no issues with, they actually made some things seem much harder than they are. Really puts different builds in perspective. But they sound cooler. A decently built TJ on 35's is extremely capable.
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If you watch more of their videos, you’ll realize that grdloc sucks. It’s heavy as fuck, has terrible suspension geometry and has 46” fucking DOT tires. Sure it looks cool, but if you ask me it’s a show Jeep that he wheels, not the other way around. It was literally built “for the gram” and he admits that. For as big, loud and attention grabbing as it is, it definitely doesn’t perform very well.
 
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TRE3TOP said:
If you watch more of their videos, you’ll realize that grdloc sucks. It’s heavy as fuck, has terrible suspension geometry and has 46” fucking DOT tires. Sure it looks cool, but if you ask me it’s a show Jeep that he wheels, not the other way around. It was literally built “for the gram” and he admits that. For as big, loud and attention grabbing as it is, it definitely doesn’t perform very well.
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I realized that a year or so ago when I think they may have been starting Pritchett and he was driving along and all of a sudden ended up on his side.
 
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Apparition said:
A decently built TJ on 35's is extremely capable.
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I am usually the only TJ with the group I ride with. They think TJs handle bad on the interstate and need big Jeeps around me help me get across obstacles. Last time on the way home I passed the guy that always asks if I can keep up at just under 90 mph with my arms extended straight out to my sides. They are starting to have confidence in my TJ.
 
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gasiorv said:
I am usually the only TJ in the group and I end up leading all the big guys around. But that may be attributed to my yankee mannerisms ;)
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Yeah I got a little chuckle of you leading around a crew of pretty much everyone over 40” tires.
 
TRE3TOP said:
Yeah I got a little chuckle of you leading around a crew of pretty much everyone over 40” tires.
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In most places I wheel, it's all about that shorter wheelbase and having a smaller rig. 75% of the time I am better off having my shorter wheelbase and small rig, 15% of the time I struggle a little more than the longer wheelbase and bigger tires but still make it, and 10% of the time I am wishing I had longer wheelbase and bigger tires. It is that 10% of the time that you got to be careful that you don't fall victim and make changes that ruin the other 90% of the time. I have seen it happen, perfectly good rig, guy installs bigger tires or stretches, etc... and then he spends the next few years trying to figure out why he now struggles 90% of the time.

I have talked myself out of 37's numerous times over the last year, hell if a good deal came up I would probably lose the debate. Lucky for me no one offers any good deals anymore.

I will say that the best thing about a TJ on 35s is that almost every trail is fun. My friends that made the big jump to 40+ now only want to go straight to the big obstacles and then their done for the day. While I am out there having fun all day on every trail.

I got a few corrections to make on my jeep, I get the bounce on the steep rock slabs which forces me to stop and work the clutch more than I should have to (my friend Aaron actually put a video of my Jeep bouncing on a slab while he blares Techno music and it looks like the jeep is dancing) and I am getting tired of breaking and working on my rear Dana 44 axle (shafts, locker, seals, all constantly breaking) and the short rear DS is causing me some issues. I have a solution for all of those issues in work, but I am not going to rush the install. And I would like to get a HP front axle since my front DS takes a pretty good beating. But other than that (and that's a lot), I don't plan on making any more changes until I make the "big" jump to a rear steer buggy (haha!).
 
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gasiorv said:
In most places I wheel, it's all about that shorter wheelbase and having a smaller rig. 75% of the time I am better off having my shorter wheelbase and small rig, 15% of the time I struggle a little more than the longer wheelbase and bigger tires but still make it, and 10% of the time I am wishing I had longer wheelbase and bigger tires. It is that 10% of the time that you got to be careful that you don't fall victim and make changes that ruin the other 90% of the time. I have seen it happen, perfectly good rig, guy installs bigger tires or stretches, etc... and then he spends the next few years trying to figure out why he now struggles 90% of the time.

I have talked myself out of 37's numerous times over the last year, hell if a good deal came up I would probably lose the debate. Lucky for me no one offers any good deals anymore.

I will say that the best thing about a TJ on 35s is that almost every trail is fun. My friends that made the big jump to 40+ now only want to go straight to the big obstacles and then their done for the day. While I am out there having fun all day on every trail.

I got a few corrections to make on my jeep, I get the bounce on the steep rock slabs which forces me to stop and work the clutch more than I should have to (my friend Aaron actually put a video of my Jeep bouncing on a slab while he blares Techno music and it looks like the jeep is dancing) and I am getting tired of breaking and working on my rear Dana 44 axle (shafts, locker, seals, all constantly breaking) and the short rear DS is causing me some issues. I have a solution for all of those issues in work, but I am not going to rush the install. And I would like to get a HP front axle since my front DS takes a pretty good beating. But other than that (and that's a lot), I don't plan on making any more changes until I make the "big" jump to a rear steer buggy (haha!).
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I relate to this so much. Our rigs are setup similarly size wise and at AOP a couple months back I was walking over things my buddys LJ on tons and 40s would take a few attempts. I’m not really dying to grow my rig that much because as you said i can have fun on almost all trails but I also don’t feel I have outgrown 35s yet. I do sometimes feel I could do with a few more inches of wheelbase but I would probably keep it around 100, not really longer.

I haven’t run into any of the rear dana 44 issues you mention though although I’ve broken several front axle shafts. Chromolys are about to get ordered to hopefully remedy that for me.
 
gasiorv said:
In most places I wheel, it's all about that shorter wheelbase and having a smaller rig. 75% of the time I am better off having my shorter wheelbase and small rig, 15% of the time I struggle a little more than the longer wheelbase and bigger tires but still make it, and 10% of the time I am wishing I had longer wheelbase and bigger tires. It is that 10% of the time that you got to be careful that you don't fall victim and make changes that ruin the other 90% of the time. I have seen it happen, perfectly good rig, guy installs bigger tires or stretches, etc... and then he spends the next few years trying to figure out why he now struggles 90% of the time.

...
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Hey man - Why ya lookin' at me????

:D
 
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Figure out why the axle seal started leaking. Threw my spare axle in for now, will replace the bearing and seal on this axle after memorial day vacation with the family.
PXL_20220525_223843717.jpg
 
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gasiorv said:
Figure out why the axle seal started leaking. Threw my spare axle in for now, will replace the bearing and seal on this axle after memorial day vacation with the family.
View attachment 332945
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Wow Vic - that seal is so bad that in the picture it makes the bearing look a little bit worn…

🙂
 
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Did another quick trip over to Hot Springs this past weekend and finally got to do the Mt Biking I wanted to do a few weeks ago, then we hit the Off-Road Park on Sunday before coming home. Friend of mine who never been wheeling before rode shotgun and he laughed the whole time! Ran some good trails and definitely showed him some hard stuff. Ended up slicing the sidewall on the Mickey Thompson tire on Gregg's Rock trail. Got it back to the parking lot and threw on the spare to continue wheeling the rest of the day. Total damage assessment was 1 tire and 1 rear sway bar link but it was well worth it, great weekend of mt biking and wheeling.

I finally got around to sending the Adam's drive shaft back to Adam's due to the excessive play in the slip joint. They told me that they would repair it at part cost (no labor) and cover shipping back to me. Once they received it they turned it in one day and I believe they just sent me a new shaft (no charge). So even though I was a little irritated with them before (see above somewhere), I was pretty happy with the quick turnaround!

I already installed the new Adam's shaft, fixed the rear sway bar link, and went ahead and removed the stock rear axle shaft that I installed after the Great American Crawl trip and reinstalled the chromoly shaft (with new bearing and seal). I also ordered a new tire, but not sure when it will arrive.

We are going to head to Hawk Pride in Alabama this Saturday and since I am already on my spare tire and I am not sure when my new tire will arrive I went ahead and borrowed a tire off my neighbors TJ to throw on my trailer (just in case).


Here is a few pics from a brewery that we stopped at on the way home this past weekend.
studduck 2.jpg


They get major points for putting 110% of their effort into the beer and not the frivolous stuff like facility maintenance.

I want to point out that they were concerned with the proper hand washing.
studduck 1.jpg
 
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gasiorv said:
Did another quick trip over to Hot Springs this past weekend and finally got to do the Mt Biking I wanted to do a few weeks ago, then we hit the Off-Road Park on Sunday before coming home. Friend of mine who never been wheeling before rode shotgun and he laughed the whole time! Ran some good trails and definitely showed him some hard stuff. Ended up slicing the sidewall on the Mickey Thompson tire on Gregg's Rock trail. Got it back to the parking lot and threw on the spare to continue wheeling the rest of the day. Total damage assessment was 1 tire and 1 rear sway bar link but it was well worth it, great weekend of mt biking and wheeling.

I finally got around to sending the Adam's drive shaft back to Adam's due to the excessive play in the slip joint. They told me that they would repair it at part cost (no labor) and cover shipping back to me. Once they received it they turned it in one day and I believe they just sent me a new shaft (no charge). So even though I was a little irritated with them before (see above somewhere), I was pretty happy with the quick turnaround!

I already installed the new Adam's shaft, fixed the rear sway bar link, and went ahead and removed the stock rear axle shaft that I installed after the Great American Crawl trip and reinstalled the chromoly shaft (with new bearing and seal). I also ordered a new tire, but not sure when it will arrive.

We are going to head to Hawk Pride in Alabama this Saturday and since I am already on my spare tire and I am not sure when my new tire will arrive I went ahead and borrowed a tire off my neighbors TJ to throw on my trailer (just in case).


Here is a few pics from a brewery that we stopped at on the way home this past weekend.
View attachment 335632

They get major points for putting 110% of their effort into the beer and not the frivolous stuff like facility maintenance.

I want to point out that they were concerned with the proper hand washing.
View attachment 335633
Click to expand...

I watched probably 2 hours of your videos the other night. Damn I’d love to go to hawk pride but it’s about 4 hours from here and I’ve got finals next week. Was itching to get out in the woods somewhere.
 
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