The clock is ticking, Rubicon here we come.

I forgot to mention in the last post, I am headed to the "Rubicon Trail" in two weeks. I actually feel pretty good about my progress and schedule. I have two weeks and all this weekend to play in the garage. Before most trips I have the wheels off Jeep the axles out and all parts scattered all around the night before.

But for this trip, I am doing the upgrades in small steps. I could just put the new springs in and go. All I would need is to just change the front pinion angle with the existing arms. But I want more long arms here I come.

My new Jeep TJ suspension and Lift kit.

Yup, Once again I find myself in way over my head. I have a low, flat, squished Jeep with crappy squashed springs, and a mix of control arms that are loose and not adjustable. So I am going to fix it. Here are the steps I have taken so far to upgrade the lift.

Step 1) 650+ bucks at Tera-Flex for a belly up skid plate and the brackets for the Tera-Flex long arm kit. I shall be building my own arms outta some really expensive DOM tube and Johny Joints, and old RE control arms.

Step 2) A 6 mintue job, take off the 6 bolts holding the stock belly pan, and the 4 little nuts holding the transfer case. This simple job turns into at least 6-10 hours. The front two bolts, spin inside the frame. I spent hours cutting all nice with 6 sawzall blades, the next side wasn't so lucky the Plamsa cutter was call into action. So now the plate is off, I built 2 new nuts, welded to washers, plasma cut a big hole in the frame and welded these back in. Did I ever tell you how much I hate welding and cutting upside down under a jeep on my back. I told Brett I am sure of this.

Step 3) Put on new brackets, and skid plate. This was easy enough, then the next day I lined it all up and welded the long arm brackets in place.

Step 4) New springs. I collected a couple of sets of hand me down springs and attacked the front. I got the old springs out Tera 4 inch, and compared them to the RE 4.5 and the Other RE 4.5 I wanted to put in. Something didn't mix, I had two different 4.5 inch spring one set being at least 2 inches longer than the Tera 4 inch and 1.5 in longer than the other RE 4.5. I oped for the Taller spring and spent the last two night installing them. I should have bought new springs all around but, I am outta cash.

Step 5) Drive Jeep to work tis AM. WHOOO!!!, Death wobble, Serious passenger lean. The thing was leaning low on the passenger side, but these new front springs made it way worse. I will be putting on new rear springs this week and hopefully I will get the jeep to stop listing to the starboard side.

Step 6) Enjoy the death wobble. Yup got the front end pinion pointing way down and the front wheels did not want me to get on the freeway. Nope no way, keep her under 40.

Step 7) New rear springs. Gotta see how the set I have lines up vs. the old ones I will be taking out. This will consume the rest of this weeks nights.

Step 8) Build my new control Arms, cut of factory mounts and see what happens.

Step 9) Maybe replace the front track bar. With the extra lift I think the axle it not aligned correctly.

Step 10) Go on the Rubicon Trail. 16 Days and counting them down.

My Custom Jeep 4x4 off road trailer.

So I haven't been adding much here as of late. Sorry about that all ya all. But I have been keeping busy in the Red Jeep side of life. I went Jeeping and camping two weekends in a row. I have almost finished up my 4x4 off road jeeping trailer and I am getting over a terrible cold and flu. I know spring colds are the worst, I want to be outside playing and I am stuck in bed with a fever and the chills.

This is a picture of my Red Jeep all loaded with my new Trailer in tow.



Well anyway check out my new Jeep Trailer.

4x4 Off Road Jeeping Trailer

The first tank of gas goes through "The King"

I bought a new used 2006 Road King a few weeks ago. I have now dodged the weather enough days in the past 2 weeks to ride it 300 full miles. It's raining again today in case anyone is wondering. So back to the first tank of gas in the 2006 Harley Davidson Road King. I filled it up on Wednesday morning 4-23-2008 when it was cool, and like I said Wednesday. The reason I mention this is I read these tips on any one of the 100 how to save gas articles floating around right now. When it's cold out you get more gas than when it is warm and mid week gas is cheaper as gas prices tend to rise in cost over the weekend. Well anyway the gas was $3.29 a gallon in Draper Utah, and I needed 4.3 gallons to top of "The King". The trip odometer read 161 miles and the fuel gauge was just entering the red marks near E. These miles were a combination of one long freeway trip of 60 miles and the rest around town stop and go and my 3 mile freeway sprint down the on ramp each morning. Do the math 161/4.3 = 37.44 MPGs. This is not too bad, I was hoping or expecting it to be about 45-50 miles per gallon but this was the first tank and my first 300 miles to really test out the bike so I was riding it hard most of the time. When you have a new bike you have to goose it at most all stops signs. Well more to come on this great gas debate.

Harley pays the big guy big.

MILWAUKEE WI Harley town USA. Harley-Davidson says it paid, gave cash and food stamps to its CEO of about $4 million last year. Chump change for a big guy.

A government mandatory regulatory filing shows that's a four percent decline from the previous year. a 4 percent decline, sorry pal I lost 70 percent on the Harley Stock I bought.

James Ziemer's compensation included a salary of more than $875,000, Plus a free lunch once a week plus stock and options awards.

The Harley Davidson Motorcycle maker's proxy statement filed with the SEC the Stock Police or Securities and Exchange Commission shows that's an increase from the base salary of nearly $825,000 he received in 2006, when his total compensation was valued at about $4.25 million. But wait the guy did get a 50,000 dollar raise, WOW, I think I got a 50 cent per hour raise.

The company's filing says no executives received bonuses because they didn't meet performance incentive targets. NO BONUSES that's really kinda sad when you think about it.

The company's profit fell about 10% in 2007. Well maybe they can lower prices a bit to spur new sales.

Tera Flex Lift Kits 4 vs. 3

Here is some information about Teraflex lifts for a Jeep Wrangler TJ. A 4 inch lift gets more complicated than a 3 inch lift but does allow 35 inch tires. A 3 inch lift will allow 33x12.5 tires if you get new rims with additional backspacing. For 33x10.5 tire you need to check into backspacing issues. With a 3 inch lift you can use the stock control arms but should get new shocks. The work involved installing the kit is basically replacing the track bar connection in the back with a new bracket and adding length to the rear sway bar linkage. Install new shocks and new springs. Up front you add the springs, relocate the position of the track bar, and install new shocks. Then you need to install a new pitman arm. If you are doing the work yourself, the things to watch out for are: The removal of the stock pitman arm requires a big strong pitman
arm puller. This part is pressed on at the factory and can be very difficult to remove. I have heard of guys that have broken a rental pitman arm puller. It also require a transfer case lowering kit. This is pretty easy to install.
When it's all said and done the ride and look is great. I have been very happy with mine, very low vibration until I bent the rear drive shaft, which force the purchase of new drive line and slip yoke eliminator. When I get my server backup check out more details.

The Red Jeep Club
My Custom Chopper Build

Here is some serious Buggy Action In Johnson Valley CA.

Here is some serious Buggy Action from one of my friend on a recent trip to Johnson Valley California. It is amazing to watch the super buggies crawl over what is almost impossible terrain. I guess the obstacles are called Bender Alley and Chocolate Thunder. I will need to put these on my list of trails to run. They do seem way too serious for my modified Stock TJ. I may need to move up to the buggy for accomplish this level of trail.