Picked Up A Traitor Jeep (tj)

Or you can just weld one up.

 

The TJ is in Moab right now and doing well so far.

 

That white jeep looks awfully familiar.

 

Smacked the front Diff pretty good yesterday. Just the bottom though, so I don't think the thicker covers really helped any:


One Hell's Revenge:

 

The TJ has proven itself far more capable than me down in Moab. It seems like it can do any number 6 trail and drive comfortably with AC and cruise control to get there.

In a sandstone alcove:


It did have one issue that started on the way down. There was an at-speed and on-throttle vibration that was getting progressively worse. After 2 1/2 days of offroading it was a lot worse yet. I checked the rear driveshaft and there was only a BARELY perceptible side-to-side movement in the rear U-joint. It didn't seem like enough to cause the issue but I took the driveshaft out and went for drive with only the front driveshaft. Smooth as butter. It was definitely the rear shaft.

Rather than drive home in front wheel drive, I decided to fix it. Out came the hammer and sockets:


The old one was a pain in the butt to get out, but the new one went in easy, and the vibration is gone. Cruises happily at 80mph now.

You can see where the old one was starting to fail:


I'm guessing it would have gotten me home without issue, but it's a lot nicer to drive without the vibration.

I'll do a trail damage report when I get home. Thankfully, only superficial stuff.

 

While I'm thinking about it, I do have a couple complaints while rock crawling.

While the gearing is great, even for crawling (I can't see much advantage to more than 70:1), it has a lot of driveline lash. It can get bucking pretty good if you are using your foot on the throttle in the lower gears. It can also get bucking when you go over obstacles that reverse the torque, like when you are crawling up over something and then it rolls into a short hole unloading the drivetrain, and then loading it again.

Two work-arounds that help are:

1. Be in as high of a gear as you can be. I was in 3rd and 4th low range a lot. Even over obstacles.
2. Use the handle throttle so your foot doesn't become part of the feedback loop, and drag the brakes a little with your now unused foot.

Clearly, I'm not fixing that, so I need to practice driving with the hand throttle and a little brake.

The other major issue is the lack of visibility with the hardtop and doors on. You really can't see anything on the passenger side. On trails in Moab it's not a big deal, you just need to make sure to stay on the back tire-marked line. There are a couple of times I made sure I followed the line when I couldn't see anything to realize there was a 30ft drop off 4ft to the right. You really need to follow the line!

This is harder on normal trails. I'm not taking the hardtop off the TJ, so I'm going to add the front camera I've been thinking about. I have to say the backup camera was mint on some 3-point switchbacks!

Visibility is one huge advantage to a low-hood flatfender with the windshield down!

 

Post Moab damage assessment.

The new U-joint, but that really wasn't Moab's fault:


Every single wheel except the spare got nicked somewhere:








The rear bumper has a bent chain hook and a couple knicks. It came down HARD on that bumper several times:






Nailed the gas tank skid plate in a couple spots:




Hit the driver's side factory rock slider:


Incredibly it never touched the highly exposed transfercase mount bolts. I was going to weld some guards around these but didn't get to it:


The front diff took a good hit to the bottom (that stops the Jeep quick). There were a couple of inconsequential scrapes on the rear diff:


Knocked some powder coat off the new engine skid plate. I'm glad I added that before the trip:


Finally, some new pinstripes:




Everything was superficial and cosmetic. Can't complain. That's exactly what I was hoping for at the end of the trip.

 

That looks like she faired fairly well, and you guys did some good trails.
I went up jeeping with Kyle’s (norcal69) uncle Mack a few years ago to pre-run trails for the earlycj5 tillamook run and took Anna’s TJ. It was a muddy mess on firebreak 5 and I somehow bent the license plate on a rock. How it didn’t mangle the metal I’ll never know. I would have become a battered husband had I returned Anna’s jeep with body damage.
I also really regret not taking Anna’s jeep down to Moab when we went in 21’. But the extra fuel cost was close enough to the rental cost of a Rubicon gladiator rental we just opted for that and got to ride down together instead of her driving the TJ and myself towing the cj.

 

that's exactly what the skids/armor are supposed to do If you don't have one yet, look at buying or making one for the steering box. Getting rid of the factory belly skid and going with something smoother (and higher up if you can!) also really helps. The factory skid catches and grabs on alot more than a smooth one does.

 

bunch of TJ Moab action shots thanks to James and Jen: