What did you do TO your Gladiator today? [ADMIN WARNING: NO POLITICS, NO GUN TALK]

[XraytecH]

Upgraded to the Wolfbox G900 Tri-Pro Trail Cam version.

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[Stan H]

He’s got it right. Most hits on hitch skids it the angle or the transition. The plate going forward has to stop at some point. Here’s mine. Works great.

My suggestion since @XJFanatic is clearly a good welder; is to add protection for the chain rings.

Just doesnt seem right . But I guess it works

 

[HooliganActual]

We need old school inspectors. Boeing needs them more.

The company he worked for made lawn and garden power equipment. One of their customers for a possible new line of equipment was Sears - for making Craftsman mowers and snow throwers. They had been making things for them for a while but this was a new product.
The reps from Sears came in and did their inspections of the plant, interviewed some workers and hashed out the legal and business stuff and finally agreed - you'll make our products if he's the chief inspector on that line.

You know this made me think of something I witnessed over my career in the food & beverage industry. At some point my company (and a lot of the other companies we worked with) shifted from having a Quality Control department to a Quality Assurance department. While it was just a word change, semantics really, the connotation of that word change is a shift from active to passive, and I noticed that in practice from the QA teams. Personally, I saw it as a shift from saying "we are going to ensure that nothing goes out the door with a defect" to "we will let you know if we find anything out of spec".

The state of the world...SMH

 

[HooliganActual]

That seems odd to me, synthetic oil is usually better in most categories than regular oil…someone please school me down this twisted road. Thanks

Not the first I have heard of a gearing/axle maker recommending non synthetic.

You running a FAD delete?

Sometimes there's not so much science behind it as it is "we've had some failures" and it's blamed on synthetic rather than the BRAND and weight and so on.
Many of us run synthetic in RACING situations with no issues.
I might see not using it for break in.
And keep in mind - the factory gears are pre-burnished. New replacements from the aftermarket are not. So break-in of his gears is critical, not so much on the factory installed gears.

For several years I worked in the aftermarket automotive fluids manufacturing industry actually blending and bottling these fluids and was a certified Level 2 Tribologist. For our motor oils, we put 600 different labels on 150 unique formulas, which means that we might be filling a Valvoline, a Havoline and a Texaco oil bottle where the only physical difference between them was the label and color of the bottle/lid.

Typically, when you see a manufacturer recommend "X", and only "X", it's because during development and testing, they can't actually test their equipment/parts with every possible oil that is on the market. so they are saying "We haven't tested ALL of the oil you could use, but we are pretty sure this one will work." And that selection of oil is generally based on the partnership they have set up with one of the oil suppliers.

In fact, lubricants were one of the big drivers in the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act of 1975. Now, it is more common to see OEM's say something like "Pennzoil 10W-40 or equivalent". For automotive fluids it's not as critical because for the most part the addpacks (additive packages) are all very similar as the loads and operating environments are generally similar from car to car. It's when you get into industrial lubricants that you have to be more cautious; that's where you start getting into more "special purpose" additives that can be great in one application but can destroy another. An example of that is is EP (Extreme Pressure) additives which are a bit of a standard in turbines and their gearing BUT if used in something like a gearbox with a worm drive, it will disintegrate the worm gear which is typically made of a copper alloy.

SOOOO, long story short, there is generally no reason that you cannot swap an automotive synthetic in place of an automotive non-synthetic. The only real thing that you may have to worry about is that there will often be "memory" in the seals that were in contact with the non-synthetic which may not prevent the synthetic from leaking out.

 

[MeanGreen]

Washed, clay barred, machine polished and used Turtle Wax's Ceramic Graphene Paste Wax on the paint. There's just something satisfying about using a paste wax.

 

[XJFanatic]

That hitch skid is backwards the area toward the spare tire needs to be bent upward that will catch on stuff. Just saying

If I angled it any more it wouldn’t clear the hitch itself. Not to terribly worried as it’s quite a bit higher than all those aluminum hitch skids out there.

He’s got it right. Most hits on hitch skids it the angle or the transition. The plate going forward has to stop at some point. Here’s mine. Works great.

My suggestion since @XJFanatic is clearly a good welder; is to add protection for the chain rings.

I’m just an ok welder, I wouldn’t use this to pull on. My 110v welder definitely needed beveled edges and multiple passes to glue these together. It will definitely hold against a rock bash though.

I thought about it, and probably will if it becomes an issue. The 104 temp made it so i wasn’t putting a ton of effort into it that day.

 

[Stan H]

It’s not finished, and the offroad lights aren’t on yet, and it STILL doesn’t have the passenger fender. . But it’s coming along. I bought some KC flex era 3’s from a forum member a couple months ago. I decided to try them out in the fog light position, even though they might be too bright to use behind cars. I kept the factory harness connection to the jeep, but then cut the fog harness and used the KC wiring from that point. Larger gauge and better fray protection on there. Initially one of them would drop out. A google search revealed that they need to have the Jeep setting to non-led fogs. @Mightytalldude was nice enough to remind me how to use my tazer. It’d been in the glove box for 3 years. They’re working great.

The new bumper is the Next Venture Motorsports adventure series aluminum. I’m going to do a separate thread reviewing it. It’s quite a thing. But here’s how it is so far. Bumper and skid are on, the Warn Zeon Platinum 12s is back in and wired to the solenoid. And the flat link is snug against the new fairlead. I’d had the fair lead laying around for at least 2 years. It seemed like the bumper deserved it. I still need to mount the flex era 4 off road lights that were on the last bumper. But I slightly modified the mounts and needed to repaint them. So that’ll need to wait.

Carpet in the garage ..geesh ..high rolling right there .

 

[Stan H]

Washed, clay barred, machine polished and used Turtle Wax's Ceramic Graphene Paste Wax on the paint. There's just something satisfying about using a paste wax.

I like paste wax finish but it wears me out and my shoulders cant take that kind of abuse anymore . But looks fantastic .

 

[WILDHOBO]

Just doesnt seem right . But I guess it works

It doesn’t look like it, but nothing hits in front of it. The angles work out that once the tires drop off the contact point is almost always the angle up and away from the Jeep. Other wise mine would be folded like a, dammit I don’t know, something that’s folded.

 

[WILDHOBO]

If I angled it any more it wouldn’t clear the hitch itself. Not to terribly worried as it’s quite a bit higher than all those aluminum hitch skids out there.



I’m just an ok welder, I wouldn’t use this to pull on. My 110v welder definitely needed beveled edges and multiple passes to glue these together. It will definitely hold against a rock bash though.

I thought about it, and probably will if it becomes an issue. The 104 temp made it so i wasn’t putting a ton of effort into it that day.

If you can weld that well with 110, I wish you were closer to come use my 240, 180 amp. It penetrates really big stuff, but I’m so terrible at it that it doesn’t look good.

 

[WILDHOBO]

Carpet in the garage ..geesh ..high rolling right there .

It’s 11 year old former outdoor porch carpet from Florida. And after these projects, it’s dumpster bound. Lots of terrible things got all over it.

 

[XJFanatic]

If you can weld that well with 110, I wish you were closer to come use my 240, 180 amp. It penetrates really big stuff, but I’m so terrible at it that it doesn’t look good.

Yea, I’ve learned to adapt with my little welder. Once the military stops moving me every 3 years I’ll invest in a good welder. For now this works fine for 3/16 and 1/4.

One of these days I’ll get a Jeep or two up CO to get some wheeling in!

 

[WILDHOBO]

Yea, I’ve learned to adapt with my little welder. Once the military stops moving me every 3 years I’ll invest in a good welder. For now this works fine for 3/16 and 1/4.

One of these days I’ll get a Jeep or two up CO to get some wheeling in!

My welder is powerful, but not fancy. Miller m180 arc that was my grandpa’s. He built the welding table with the welder that sits on it. It’s at least 60 years old I’d guess.

 

[YGBSM]

Washed, clay barred, machine polished and used Turtle Wax's Ceramic Graphene Paste Wax on the paint. There's just something satisfying about using a paste wax.

DAMN!!!! That is an amazing looking Jeep!!!!

 

[YGBSM]

It’s 11 year old former outdoor porch carpet from Florida. And after these projects, it’s dumpster bound. Lots of terrible things got all over it.

It would have blood, sweat, and tears on it if I were doing the same projects as you.

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