Practical Truck for the Over Prepared Woman

[OngsterA]

Last week was a big week of projects:

* Reid knuckles installed
* Synergy Ball Joints installed
* 4.5" Coils swapped
* Swapped the SteerSmarts Trackbar brace for the Synergy Trackbar brace.

I went with EVO HD 4.5 coils up front and the Rock Krawler 4.5" coils in the back. I left the 3/4" spacer in the front since the truck is very front heavy at this point.

After driving it around Sunday:
The ride is stiffer on the road and I can feel the ball joints tightening up the front steering play. The 4.5" lift cleared up any rubbing I can test with the tools/terrain at hand.

The Synergy Brace is about half installed. I swapped to it because it has that nice little bearing to protect the steering box. With the bigger tires, I figure why not, and its still compatible with the PSC I hope to add at somepoint this season. The 46 mm socket arrived yesterday, so now I can finish that up. I seriously thought I had a complete set of sockets with up to 36 mm represented... it never ends.

This weekend is the first trip of the season, so excited to get everything looked over and put the truck back on the trail again!

I just spent the last 45 mins going thru your build here, very impressive the approaches, your goals, and final product...for now! Awesome work with the TIG welding! Gives me tons of ideas. Out here we have more desert and rocks, so that breakover stuff I need to address very soon. Up to 5.38s should be plenty with 37s, my plan.

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[JTBurns]

We had crazy weather
Started off sunny and not terribly cold
Then rained a little
then got cold and changed to snow
after lunch we had a litle bit of hail
then the last 2hrs were sunny and 50+ degrees.


But the day went well, just a little bit of scrapping but no one broke.

I think I had the biggest failure.
Driving home the Gladiator blew a fuse which broke the connection between my brake pedal and the 7 Pin harness for the trailer. For safety sake, I manually braked the trailer once I noticed this issue.

The month of April is insane for me, so it looks like the next time I will be Rock Crawling with be May 22nd at AOAA. i will drive up on Saturday to camp at the Campsite right there. This is with my Jeep Club, so if you find yourself in need of a trail fix, let me know. I'll be with the Black Trail group all day.

@Elff and @Kindafearless, you two lead the last two trail rides I did, and I had an awesome experience both times. Lots to learn from each of you and love both your builds. They are on another level!

 

[Elff]

Thanks!!

 

[John in the Woods]

Hey @Kindafearless, I hope you got some design credit for this:



https://www.motortrend.com/events/2022-easter-jeep-safari-concepts-first-look-review?slide=10

40s, big axles, bobbed bed, 3.5 lift; didn't you already do all that?

 

[Kindafearless]

I appreciate it, but I’m far from the first to do this. I do like mine better than their prototype though

 

[Kindafearless]

Another weekend of offroading and some lessons learned.

After trying a couple lines with fairly big rocks I noticed the bracket connecting the ram to the axle was starting to bend. This was a custom job, so I was kinda expecting something to go wrong... but I wasn't expecting this to be the weak point. I took it easy for the rest of the day and it didn't bend much further, so that was great.

The bracket required a lot of heat and an 8 ft breaker bar to reshape, so ya.... that ram has power.

Welded everything together Sunday to hopefully prevent future bending. Going to weld the bracket to the axle also, just waiting for a welding blanket to arrive. I really don't want to be welding under the axle without a little more slag protection :P

The pieces I combined are a synergy track bar riser and a steer smarts stabilizer relocation bracket.

 

[jsalbre]

Not much will stop a hydraulic ram. Get a wheel wedged hard against something and it'll rip the wheel off if you try to force it to turn.

 

[Kindafearless]

Had a bad day. Was driving the truck on errands this morning (prior to a planned wheeling trip tomorrow) and the dreaded CEL showed up. Pulled over and checked under the hood. Oil was visible on top of the engine and opening the oil fill port showed smoke inside. Shortly after stopping, oil was pudding under the truck

Got it towed to a dealer to see what they say, but I’m assuming I’ll be towing it home to do the real work soon. Fingers are crossed that Jeep honors their warranty, but I’m not holding my breath :/ (though I’d love to be able to report back otherwise if the Jeep gods smile on me)

Based on my cursory inspection, I’m guessing a camshaft seal blew. There are a few possible culprits though.

Hopefully it was caught soon enough to prevent catastrophic damage, but ya… rough day.

Will report back with findings and fixes.

 

[kevman65]

So sorry Elise, I hope it's the best possible outcome for you.

 

[3VOLVE]

Sorry to hear and hope the Jeep gods smile on you.

 

[Elff]

Nooooooo
Wish you the best of luck getting this fixed

 

[Rusty PW]

Bummer.

 

[jsalbre]

Oh no!

Good luck with the dealership. Fingers crossed for you.

 

[Free2roam]

Another weekend of offroading and some lessons learned.

After trying a couple lines with fairly big rocks I noticed the bracket connecting the ram to the axle was starting to bend. This was a custom job, so I was kinda expecting something to go wrong... but I wasn't expecting this to be the weak point. I took it easy for the rest of the day and it didn't bend much further, so that was great.

The bracket required a lot of heat and an 8 ft breaker bar to reshape, so ya.... that ram has power.

Welded everything together Sunday to hopefully prevent future bending. Going to weld the bracket to the axle also, just waiting for a welding blanket to arrive. I really don't want to be welding under the axle without a little more slag protection :P

The pieces I combined are a synergy track bar riser and a steer smarts stabilizer relocation bracket.

I need that kind of shop! Or at least that much room in my garage!

 

[Kindafearless]

The Jeep gods did indeed smile upon me! The problem was identified as the oil cooler. Independent research shows that was a JK problem too

The surprising thing was how the dealer replaced it no questions asks, even when my truck showed up muddy:

Big thumbs up for Umansky of Charlottesville for anyone in the area.

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