Latest / Jeep Talk Show / Ep. 43 XJ Unibody Stiffening: Do You Really Need It? (Plus SYE Tip)
Transcript
- 0:00[MUSIC]
- 0:31It's that time again, XJ
- 0:33Talk Show is on the air.
- 0:36Okay, well, it's a
- 0:37podcast, but you know what I mean.
- 0:42Anyway, here's Tony.
- 0:44Well, thank you very much,
- 0:45and also too, thank you to Tom.
- 0:48Tom recorded me some
- 0:51little voice drops, and
- 0:54I finally got around to getting it edited
- 0:56and put into the show.
- 0:58It's those are really
- 0:59good, Tom, thank you.
- 1:02So anyway, today's show is gonna be
- 1:04great, because nobody
- 1:06ever says today's show's
- 1:07gonna stop listening now.
- 1:11[LAUGH] But truth in
- 1:13advertising, I don't think it's.
- 1:14I think it is a good show.
- 1:16I think the interviews
- 1:17are always very good, and
- 1:19I think the Jeep tip sections are always
- 1:21very good and informative.
- 1:23So stick around, and actually, what we're
- 1:27gonna have today is,
- 1:29we're gonna start off with a question
- 1:32that somebody called in to our voicemail.
- 1:35It's been a long time since we've had a
- 1:37question called in like that, and
- 1:38it's great, it was a
- 1:41nice surprise for me.
- 1:42And I wanna encourage all you guys to
- 1:44call in your questions and
- 1:46have them on the show, or just call in
- 1:49and tell us how you like the show.
- 1:52You don't have to be in an interview
- 1:54situation, if that makes you nervous.
- 1:56Just call in and give us a little promo
- 1:59what you think about XJ Talk.
- 2:00And actually, if you don't like the show,
- 2:03I'd like to hear that too.
- 2:05Frankly, I think it'd
- 2:05be funny as hell to play.
- 2:08[LAUGH]
- 2:08So if you wanna make
- 2:09something up, that's cool too, but
- 2:10it'll probably break my heart.
- 2:13[LAUGH]
- 2:13[MUSIC]
- 2:15So we're gonna have that, we're gonna
- 2:16have our Jeep tips segment with Josh,
- 2:21NW99XJ, or it's XJ99.
- 2:23Anyway, Josh will correct me.
- 2:25And following that, we'll have our
- 2:27interview, first time interview with Dan.
- 2:32And he has his own
- 2:33podcast called the 4x4 podcast.
- 2:36We were able to get him on a little
- 2:38connection we made through Facebook, and
- 2:41he was more than happy to do it.
- 2:42I think that's wonderful of him to do.
- 2:45It's kinda like what we do
- 2:46with the other Jeep websites.
- 2:49We're not afraid of them.
- 2:50We like to promote them because that's
- 2:53the whole idea behind XJtalk.com,
- 2:55is to help our fellow Jeep Cherokee
- 2:59owners get the help they need.
- 3:02And get things fixed, get things fixed
- 3:06cheaply, get them fixed right.
- 3:07So we're always happy to
- 3:09talk about naxja.org or
- 3:13Cherokee forum, Jeep forum,
- 3:15there's so many out there.
- 3:17And I think that's one
- 3:18of the reasons why I'm so
- 3:19flattered that there's over 2,000
- 3:22XJtalk.com members now.
- 3:24We've been going a little
- 3:25over three and a half years, and
- 3:27you guys have been
- 3:28great showing your support.
- 3:30We have a good solid core of
- 3:33people that are on the site,
- 3:35at least once a week,
- 3:37most of them every day.
- 3:39And we have several very
- 3:42knowledgeable technical people
- 3:44that check in daily and are very good
- 3:49about answering questions.
- 3:51I'll get on there and I'll
- 3:52try to answer the questions.
- 3:53Most of the time I think I get it right.
- 3:55A lot of that is from me going into
- 3:59Google and looking things up and
- 4:01reading two or three stories and seeing
- 4:04what makes the most sense to me.
- 4:06And then reporting that back.
- 4:07I always try to report it back when I'm
- 4:10answering a question that this is what I
- 4:12want to do, and I don't want to give
- 4:14anybody the illusion that I know for
- 4:17sure because of my experience.
- 4:19Now, when I have experienced it, I will
- 4:21say this was my experience.
- 4:23So hopefully truth in advertising as far
- 4:26as the answer you get from me.
- 4:27I think I've helped some people, but I
- 4:29know that we do have some very technical
- 4:30members that are very
- 4:32sharp and are able to help.
- 4:35And also too, XJtalk.com is entertaining.
- 4:39We enjoy getting on there.
- 4:41And if you're a guest, then you probably
- 4:44have not seen our
- 4:45chat window, which is at
- 4:47the top of the forum.
- 4:50It's close to the top.
- 4:51It's a small window.
- 4:52And sometimes there's a lot of activity
- 4:54going on in the chat.
- 4:56And that is chat, as in real time chat
- 4:58amongst XJtalk.com members.
- 5:01But you do need to be
- 5:02a member to see that.
- 5:03And it's really for the kids' protection
- 5:05that even though we're a family friendly
- 5:08it is an 18 or older site because, you
- 5:11know, come on, we're all adults and we
- 5:14should be able to
- 5:15discuss things as adults.
- 5:18And we try to keep it, like I said,
- 5:21family friendly because
- 5:23the kids can still see it,
- 5:25but we try to do our best to minimize
- 5:28that exposure as much as possible.
- 5:30So if you're not a member, you should
- 5:32join if nothing else so you can see
- 5:34everything that's on the site.
- 5:36The chat will be available.
- 5:39And also too, you'll get
- 5:41rid of some of the ads.
- 5:45Yeah, you'll get rid of some of the ads
- 5:47if you become a member.
- 5:49And I think you need to get up to 100
- 5:51posts to get rid of at
- 5:53least half of the ads,
- 5:55maybe more.
- 5:56So a couple of incentives there, not only
- 5:58to join, but to post.
- 6:00And of course, that's the lifeblood of a
- 6:02forum are the posts because unless people
- 6:05are talking about what's going on with
- 6:07their lives, their jeeps, what they found
- 6:09interesting today, posting pictures, then
- 6:12it's not that an interesting of a site.
- 6:15And that's one of the reasons why we try
- 6:17to make sure that we bring everybody in
- 6:20with arms outstretched and welcome and
- 6:24not criticize you and
- 6:25not tell you what you
- 6:26should and shouldn't do.
- 6:29We try to have a good
- 6:29attitude on the site.
- 6:30And I think we've been doing that.
- 6:34I think that there's a couple of people
- 6:37that have had some
- 6:39issues, but mainly it is
- 6:42overwhelmingly, it's a great site.
- 6:44It's very friendly.
- 6:45And well, actually, I
- 6:47think Steve said it best.
- 6:48Hey, I just wanted to
- 6:49tell you about XJTalk.com.
- 6:51It's a great site.
- 6:52There's no bashing.
- 6:53Everybody's nice and friendly.
- 6:55Great place to be.
- 6:56Yeah.
- 6:57And that's the way we are
- 6:58going to make sure it stays.
- 6:59And we do so with a very light touch.
- 7:03Nothing public if you get out of line, we
- 7:07just send you a PM and let you know where
- 7:11you went off the rails.
- 7:12And it's nothing personal.
- 7:14It's just how we want to make sure that
- 7:16the site is available
- 7:17for everybody to feel
- 7:18comfortable in asking questions and
- 7:20expressing themselves
- 7:22within the confines of not
- 7:26upsetting the other people.
- 7:28Yeah, it's about as close to a hippie
- 7:30fight as you can get.
- 7:30But I thought it was really important
- 7:33that there be an alternative to the other
- 7:36jeep sites where people would feel
- 7:40comfortable expressing themselves.
- 7:42So anyway, I think we should get on with
- 7:44the show and I can
- 7:46stop talking at least in
- 7:48this segment and I'll be talking a lot
- 7:49more in the other segments.
- 7:50No, you really can't get away from me,
- 7:52but that might be changing soon.
- 7:54We may be having some, well, we may be
- 7:58having a co-host show up really soon.
- 8:00So stay tuned for that.
- 8:03Hi, this is Bob from Moab, Utah.
- 8:06I just bought on XJ last week and I was
- 8:10wondering what do you guys think about
- 8:12reinforcing the unibody?
- 8:13I've read some posts that say that's a
- 8:15good idea and I've heard other people say
- 8:18it's not necessary
- 8:19with mine, mine to 2001.
- 8:22I was just wondering
- 8:22what your members thought.
- 8:24Like I said, I joined XJ talk last week.
- 8:28Okay.
- 8:28Thank you.
- 8:29Bye.
- 8:30Hi, this is Steve from
- 8:314.3LXJ from XJtalk.com.
- 8:34That's kind of a
- 8:35subjective question really.
- 8:38It's not necessary under normal use and
- 8:42unless a person is really collecting the
- 8:46suspension all the way around and getting
- 8:48opposite corners bottom down in the
- 8:52suspension, it's really not necessary.
- 8:54That is not a bad idea.
- 8:57I personally am going to stiffen my own
- 9:00frame, but I do a lot
- 9:02of rock crawling and
- 9:03I do get into a lot of extreme angles and
- 9:06so forth with my own.
- 9:07But I haven't had a problem so far.
- 9:09I've never had any cracks.
- 9:10I've never been able to not open the door
- 9:12when I needed to or anything like that.
- 9:15So it's not something
- 9:17that you have to do.
- 9:19That is something that's maybe not a bad
- 9:21idea if you want to look at it from a
- 9:23preventative standpoint and there are
- 9:25several options available that Tony can
- 9:29address with that.
- 9:31Hi, this is Josh
- 9:31Northwest 99 XJ on the forum.
- 9:34Bob, especially in Moab, Utah, if you're
- 9:37going to be doing any sort of off-roading
- 9:39and whatnot, the unibody is definitely
- 9:42going to be
- 9:42beneficial by being reinforced.
- 9:45You're going to see a lot of improvements
- 9:47in on-road handling
- 9:49as well as performance
- 9:50off-road. The Jeep Cherokee unibody,
- 9:53especially the two doors,
- 9:54I don't know if you have a
- 9:55two door or four door, but the two doors
- 9:57are even more unstable.
- 9:58The unibody not having a true dedicated
- 10:02frame likes to twist and
- 10:04flex as you go off-road
- 10:06with the suspension
- 10:06pushing back up on the body.
- 10:08And as you go on uneven terrain,
- 10:10especially a lot of that
- 10:11slick rock there in Moab, Utah,
- 10:13the XJ can get quite twisted up and you
- 10:16might not notice it
- 10:17until you would maybe put a
- 10:20try and get out and open up the rear
- 10:22hatch to get some
- 10:23recovery gear or something.
- 10:24And lo and behold, you're stuck.
- 10:26The rear hatch won't open.
- 10:27You can't get into the rig.
- 10:29The doors might not seat properly.
- 10:31You might notice they kind of give an
- 10:32extra clunk when you close
- 10:34them and stuff like that.
- 10:35That's the unibody flexing.
- 10:37There's a lot of aftermarket companies
- 10:38out there that are
- 10:39making really good products
- 10:41with the unibody stiffening.
- 10:43And TNT Customs is
- 10:45one that comes to mind.
- 10:46I'm just shooting from the
- 10:46hip here off the top of my head.
- 10:48And there's several other companies out
- 10:50there that make full
- 10:51front to back unibody
- 10:52stiffening kits.
- 10:54Now, most of them are welded in.
- 10:57So you're going to have to have some
- 10:59experience with welding, a little bit of
- 11:00fabrication to get those involved.
- 11:02And there's things like your suspension
- 11:05upgrades that you're
- 11:05going to have to take
- 11:06into consideration either
- 11:07during or after unibody stiffening.
- 11:11When you're when you're thinking about
- 11:13lift kits and things
- 11:13like that, a lot of long
- 11:15kits use a cross member where they may or
- 11:18may not have allowances for unibody
- 11:21stiffening. And because usually a unibody
- 11:24stiffening kit is going to be 3 16s or
- 11:26eighth inch plate that is sandwiched on
- 11:29the unibody frame rails.
- 11:31And I'm going to use that term loosely.
- 11:33All it is is really double, triple
- 11:35thickness 16 gauge sheet
- 11:36metal that is formed to
- 11:39a channel that runs on either side of the
- 11:41Jeep to create a pseudo frame.
- 11:45And these plates get welded
- 11:46up to that from front to rear.
- 11:49And there's there's varying kits that
- 11:51will give you
- 11:53increasing stiffness and things
- 11:55like a rear trailer hitch can even
- 11:58improve your stiffness a little bit.
- 12:01I know when I did my class three hitch in
- 12:03the back of my 99 Cherokee, I noticed it
- 12:05right away, not having a
- 12:07hitch back there before.
- 12:09I could feel the road manners change a
- 12:11little bit, having
- 12:13that that lateral brace
- 12:15from one side of the frame to the other
- 12:17with that trailer hitch back there.
- 12:19So things like, you know, cross members
- 12:22in the front, cross members in the rear
- 12:25can help with with stiffness as well as
- 12:28frame rail stiffness.
- 12:29Things like the TNT Customs frame
- 12:32stiffeners will help a lot.
- 12:33So, Bob, get back to your question.
- 12:36I do think it's a good idea.
- 12:38I do think the benefits way outweigh the
- 12:42cons, which I can't personally think of
- 12:44any cons to stiffening up the unibody
- 12:47other than the time and cost involved and
- 12:50the possibility of you might might not be
- 12:53able to get the, you know, the suspension
- 12:55upgrades that you want if
- 12:55you're looking at a long arm kit.
- 12:57So I would I would highly recommend it.
- 12:59I would look into it.
- 13:00I would do some research, you know,
- 13:02explore some of the
- 13:03kits that are out there,
- 13:04look at what they have to offer, how
- 13:05they're made and what
- 13:06it's going to take to put
- 13:07those in and maybe even talk to some of
- 13:09your local four wheel drive shops or
- 13:11fabricators or welders and see what kind
- 13:13of cost is going to be incurred in trying
- 13:16to install something like that.
- 13:17Now, if you can weld yourself, then go
- 13:20berserk, man, and have fun with it.
- 13:22This segment brought to
- 13:23you by detoursusa.com.
- 13:2610 years of innovating,
- 13:27not imitating XJ products.
- 13:29Check out www.detoursusa.com.
- 13:34And Detours wants to remind
- 13:35everyone to practice safe sex.
- 13:37No pig borking till you wrap that rascal.
- 13:44Son of a.
- 13:47Jeep tips.
- 13:48And we have Josh, uh, Northwest 99 XJ or
- 13:52NW 99 XJ as you've probably seen on
- 13:54XJ talk.com and Josh has a
- 13:58Jeep tip for us this week.
- 13:59Josh, what do you got?
- 14:01Well, as many of us know, when you start
- 14:03to lift up your Jeep,
- 14:04you got to deal with
- 14:05those, uh, dreaded driveline vibrations.
- 14:07And you know, you can do a transfer case
- 14:10drop, but as most of
- 14:11us know, the best way
- 14:13to go about it is a slip yoke eliminator.
- 14:16Uh, and for those of you a little
- 14:18unfamiliar with it,
- 14:18I'll be real quick and
- 14:19say a slip yoke eliminator.
- 14:20What that does is it removes the slip
- 14:23yoke from the transfer case output and
- 14:26moves it to the drive line.
- 14:28Uh, you know, if some people have the
- 14:30horror stories of over flexing their
- 14:32suspension and the drive line coming
- 14:34right out of the transfer case, the slip
- 14:36yoke eliminator eliminates the slip yoke
- 14:39in the transfer case.
- 14:40And there's two, there's
- 14:41two methods to do this.
- 14:42Um, there's the, the, the hack and tap
- 14:44method, which I personally have used
- 14:47because I have the NP two 42 transfer
- 14:49case where there is
- 14:50a, there's very limited
- 14:51options, um, for the
- 14:52slip yoke eliminator.
- 14:54Um, and the more common and P two 31 or
- 14:56the NV two 31, uh,
- 14:58which is primarily the,
- 15:00most found transfer case in Jeeps.
- 15:03Um, and how the, uh, the slip yoke
- 15:04eliminator kit kit works is it's a new
- 15:06output shaft.
- 15:08Um, you basically split the case, the
- 15:10transfer case, and you will be putting
- 15:12any different output shaft.
- 15:14A lot of people think, Oh man, there's a
- 15:16lot of gears in there and, and you know,
- 15:18that could be real scary work.
- 15:19Actually it's not, I thought the same
- 15:21thing delving into mine.
- 15:23Um, and, uh, I actually had
- 15:25to replace my output shaft.
- 15:26That's a whole nother story.
- 15:27We'll get into that another day.
- 15:28My God, you didn't bend it.
- 15:30Did you?
- 15:30No, I didn't bend it.
- 15:32Um, there, there's a,
- 15:34Oh, this is the, this is the one where
- 15:36you broke the, the,
- 15:37the, uh, the tap off in it.
- 15:39Yes, sir.
- 15:40And that was quite the ordeal.
- 15:42Okay.
- 15:42I won't, I won't tell, I
- 15:44won't ask anymore about that.
- 15:45That's painful enough just to remember.
- 15:47I saw the picture.
- 15:48Tell me about it.
- 15:48Tell me about it.
- 15:49Yeah.
- 15:50And I also say it was very easy when I
- 15:53did my, uh, S Y E on my end to be two 42.
- 15:57It was a lot easier than I
- 15:58thought it was going to be.
- 15:59Yeah.
- 15:59And I was the same way.
- 16:00Um, once I actually got the transfer case
- 16:02out and got it split apart and started
- 16:05pulling things apart, I was surprised at
- 16:07really how easy things came, you know,
- 16:09as long as you keep track of, of the
- 16:11clips and the order of which you pulled
- 16:12things out and stuff, it's, it's really
- 16:14not that hard, but here's the trick is,
- 16:16is, um, on the newer transfer cases, this
- 16:19is going to be on the newer models, uh,
- 16:2096 and up the, um, there is a seal that
- 16:25goes around the output shaft.
- 16:26And the, the cone on the
- 16:28back of the transfer case.
- 16:30And it's kind of like an axle shaft seal.
- 16:33And it is very, very finicky and it can
- 16:36be nicked or damaged really easy when
- 16:38you're trying to get that cone back onto
- 16:41the back end of that transfer case around
- 16:43the new output shaft, um, it can get
- 16:45damaged kind of easily.
- 16:47And it doesn't take, I'm sorry.
- 16:49It's got a little spring in there, but it
- 16:50does have a little spring and you nick
- 16:53that and that spring comes
- 16:54out and then so does the fluid.
- 16:56Yeah.
- 16:56You can roll that lip.
- 16:58You can, you can bend that spring really
- 16:59easy and that spring is small where, you
- 17:01know, less than what you'd find in a
- 17:02little clicky pen or something like that.
- 17:04So you got to be real careful.
- 17:05A lot of people have had success with,
- 17:07Oh, I just, you know,
- 17:08goop it up with grease really well and,
- 17:10and slide that cone on it and be good.
- 17:12And you may have had
- 17:13success with that, um, or not.
- 17:15What I have found, um, uh, is a really
- 17:18good trick to do is
- 17:19yeah, the grease works.
- 17:20You want to have that handy because
- 17:22you're going to use it, but a little bit
- 17:23of electrical tape
- 17:24around the splined end.
- 17:26And you want to make sure that you start
- 17:28from the inside of the shaft, working
- 17:31your way to the outside, wrapping some
- 17:32electrical tape around those splines
- 17:35all the way out to the tip.
- 17:37And that's the most important part is the
- 17:39tip, even though the most of those
- 17:40output shafts have a little bit of a
- 17:42bevel to them on the end of the splined
- 17:44output shaft, um, those
- 17:46splines are still pretty sharp.
- 17:47The edges are sharp and they can go ahead
- 17:50and, and just the slightest little
- 17:52will end up spraying transfer case fluid
- 17:54all over your undercarriage.
- 17:56So the electrical tape will actually help
- 17:58protect that output shaft seal from
- 18:01getting nicked and the grease, of course,
- 18:03once you wrap it up, you're going to
- 18:05slather it with grease, but you leave
- 18:07yourself a little tab, um, you know, all
- 18:09the way out to the end of the shaft.
- 18:11And we're only talking, you know, maybe
- 18:12two or three inches worth of electrical
- 18:14tape, uh, you know, wrapped around two or
- 18:16three inches of, of, of shaft, I should
- 18:18say, um, but the electrical tape will go
- 18:20all the way to the end.
- 18:21Leave yourself a little bit that you can
- 18:22grab onto at the end.
- 18:24And it's important to go from the inside
- 18:26to the outside because once you grab,
- 18:28once you're all reassembled and you know,
- 18:31you've got the electrical tape on, you've
- 18:32slathered everything down with grease.
- 18:34You've got your output shaft cone, um,
- 18:36you know, your, your
- 18:36rear seal put back on
- 18:38and everything, um, you go ahead and you
- 18:40start to remove that, that tape and it
- 18:42will just pull right off, especially
- 18:44being all greased and that seal will be
- 18:47protected and it will collapse right down
- 18:49onto the output shaft in absolute
- 18:51perfect shape.
- 18:51Oh, that's a great idea.
- 18:52I went through probably three of them and
- 18:55I think, um, I, I had, uh, transfer
- 18:58case problems because I was always
- 19:00running low on fluid because of that, uh,
- 19:02that issue.
- 19:03Yeah.
- 19:03I, uh, after I did my first one, I
- 19:06thought I had it right.
- 19:07I, you know, I thought, you know, I, I
- 19:09put so much grease on there.
- 19:10There's no way this thing
- 19:11would have been damaged.
- 19:12And, uh, honestly, after I had taken it
- 19:14back out, um, it was hard to see where
- 19:18it was going to need damage, but I was
- 19:19driving home, uh, one day, and it was, I
- 19:21just, you know, I had done the repair,
- 19:23the, the, the slip, you'll colliminate
- 19:25or the night before, went to work the
- 19:26next day driving home.
- 19:28And I'm noticing this giant mist of smoke
- 19:31and spray behind me as I'm driving
- 19:33down the freeway, what the heck is that?
- 19:35And I get home thinking, you know, the
- 19:37worst that I've, you know, I've blown,
- 19:38uh, you know, uh, you know, something in
- 19:41the engine or something like that.
- 19:42And I climb underneath and the entire
- 19:44undercarriage just absolutely coated in
- 19:46transmission, or, you know, in the
- 19:48transfer case fluid.
- 19:49Yeah.
- 19:49And it's from the transfer case back,
- 19:51which is, which is a good sign for the
- 19:53motor and the transmission, but a bad
- 19:55sign for the transfer case.
- 19:58I mean, luckily, uh, you
- 19:59know, I didn't lose all that much.
- 20:01Um, you know, I didn't, I didn't run it
- 20:03dry or anything like that.
- 20:04So, um, I was able to, um, to get home
- 20:07and, and there was still, you know,
- 20:08plenty of fluid left in there.
- 20:09You'd be surprised at how, how much a
- 20:11little bit of fluid will coat, how
- 20:13much undercarriage and, and of course,
- 20:14spraying all over the, you know, the
- 20:16hot muffler and exhaust and stuff.
- 20:18It creates quite a bit of smoke too.
- 20:19Right.
- 20:20And everybody needs to understand that it
- 20:22doesn't matter if you're in four-wheel
- 20:23drive or not, if you're in a 240, uh,
- 20:26running a 242, of course, you can be
- 20:28doing it down the road and a full-time
- 20:30four-wheel drive, uh, and certainly,
- 20:32uh, part-time for the 231 or the 242.
- 20:35But, uh, what you may not understand is
- 20:38those parts in the transfer case
- 20:41are always turning.
- 20:43It doesn't matter if you're in two-wheel
- 20:44drive or four-wheel drive.
- 20:46So you need that fluid in there.
- 20:48So don't think, Oh
- 20:50yeah, I'm leaking fluid.
- 20:51I'll worry about this later.
- 20:52I'll worry about getting a checking it,
- 20:54filling it up, blah, blah, blah.
- 20:56No, it's, it affects
- 20:57you if the Jeep is moving.
- 20:59And you don't have to have a lift kit to,
- 21:01you know, have a, you know, transfer
- 21:02case issues or have to worry about
- 21:04replacing that output shaft seal.
- 21:05Some of you guys run in stock vehicles
- 21:07that may have higher miles.
- 21:09You know, those output seals can wear out
- 21:11over time, especially, you know,
- 21:13in some of the saltier climates, uh,
- 21:15people living by the coast or where
- 21:16they salt the roads, those seals might
- 21:18wear out a little bit faster.
- 21:19And you know, you might find that, uh,
- 21:21it'd be time to replace that seal.
- 21:23It is something you can do yourself.
- 21:25Um, it's a little bit more involved than
- 21:27changing your oil, but you know, if you,
- 21:30uh, if you're used to wrenching on a
- 21:31vehicle, especially a Jeep, um, it's
- 21:33really not all that entailed.
- 21:35Now you mentioned, uh,
- 21:36driveline vibrations.
- 21:38Why would a SYE kit, uh, have anything to
- 21:42do with improving driveline vibrations?
- 21:44Well, as, uh, uh, some of you may know,
- 21:47um, the stock driveline, um, uh, it's,
- 21:50it's, it's not, it's not
- 21:53set up for high angles.
- 21:54Um, and so when you start lifting the
- 21:57vehicle up, you're increasing the
- 21:59driveline angle in relation
- 22:01to the pinion at the rear axle.
- 22:03And of course, where that driveline meets
- 22:05the output shaft of the,
- 22:08um, going to a slip yoke eliminator, you
- 22:12then upgrade your drive shaft to a double
- 22:14card in or CV joint drive shaft.
- 22:17And what that enables you to do is run a
- 22:19steeper driveline angle as the, you know,
- 22:22the more lift you go, the higher you get
- 22:24up away from that rear axle.
- 22:26They remember that that transfer case is
- 22:28right up there next to the body.
- 22:30And the more lift you have, the further
- 22:32away that body gets from that rear axle.
- 22:34And, um, a lot of guys can get away with
- 22:36it by throwing a couple, you know,
- 22:38degree shims in, in that rear axle
- 22:40underneath the leafs and helping point
- 22:42that rear pinion back up towards the
- 22:44transfer case, which I recommend doing
- 22:45in any case, um, because, uh, you know,
- 22:48that just takes that much less, that
- 22:50much more stress off of those U joints,
- 22:52uh, down by the, uh, by the axle.
- 22:55But, um, when you start lifting the
- 22:56vehicle with that stock, uh, stock
- 22:58drive shaft, um, especially in the older
- 23:00models, a lot of guys, you know,
- 23:01it looks like a stick in a coffee can.
- 23:03Um, it's not set up for those steep
- 23:05angles of a lifted Jeep.
- 23:07And, and those vibrations can occur
- 23:09because basically what's happening
- 23:11is that those U joints, those joints
- 23:13inside of those, um, inside those
- 23:15yokes are basically bottoming out.
- 23:17And, and it's, it's so stressed out.
- 23:20It's basically, you know, hyper flexing
- 23:22or hyper extending those joints.
- 23:24And so every time that that drive line
- 23:26goes around in a rotation, you're
- 23:28bottoming out on one of those U joints
- 23:30and inside, inside that yoke.
- 23:31And those were the
- 23:32vibrations are coming from.
- 23:34And also too, that would, uh, I guess
- 23:35that would mean that the
- 23:37U joints will wear out quicker.
- 23:38Absolutely.
- 23:40So I don't understand if you, if you
- 23:42change, you put the slip yoke on the,
- 23:44the, the rear of the transfer case,
- 23:47there's a drive shaft in front.
- 23:49Don't you have to
- 23:50modify that one as well?
- 23:52No, you don't because the output shaft of
- 23:55the, um, NV or the end, uh,
- 23:57MP transfer cases as new
- 23:59venture or new process.
- 24:00That's what most of the transfer cases we
- 24:02have, um, in our Jeeps, um,
- 24:04primarily the NP two 31 or the two 42,
- 24:08uh, the two 49s, I believe were found
- 24:11in the grand Cherokees.
- 24:13Um, those were the, you know, all wheel
- 24:14drive all the time, but all these, uh,
- 24:16transfer cases have a fixed
- 24:19yoke output, um, for the front.
- 24:21And so you have, um, the, the double card
- 24:24and style, uh, drive shaft for the
- 24:27front of the vehicle and oftentimes what
- 24:29guys will do, um, even in my case,
- 24:32uh, you go to a junkyard, you search
- 24:34around, you find a front drive shaft
- 24:36because it's set up for what you're going
- 24:38to be doing in the rear.
- 24:40Um, and a lot of guys will be running a
- 24:42front drive shaft out of a Cherokee
- 24:44for their rear drive line after they do a
- 24:46slip yoke eliminator.
- 24:47Which I guess means that you
- 24:49now have a spare drive shaft.
- 24:51So if you end up breaking a U joint or,
- 24:54you know, worse, twisting up a drive
- 24:55shaft or bending it up on the trail, um,
- 24:58you know, you're looking to not being
- 25:00able to get home. Um, and so you would be
- 25:02able to just unbolt your front drive
- 25:05shaft, put it in the rear and limp your
- 25:07way home. And while it wouldn't be
- 25:08limping, you'd be able to get down off
- 25:10the trail and drive around in regular
- 25:11two wheel drive.
- 25:13Oh, that's great.
- 25:13That's, it's nice having spares on the,
- 25:15on the Jeep like that.
- 25:16And I guess technically you could, uh,
- 25:18you could drive home and a four wheel
- 25:19drive, it would be a front wheel drive,
- 25:21which is the popular thing that, uh, all
- 25:24manufacturers seem to
- 25:25be making now anyway.
- 25:26So I hate front wheel drives, but, uh,
- 25:30well that's, that's really cool.
- 25:31So, uh, have you, have you seen any
- 25:34downsides to, uh, the, the hack and tap
- 25:36method? I know I'm not a
- 25:38big fan of the hack and tap.
- 25:40Um, there once you get into, you know,
- 25:42bigger lifts and especially bigger tires,
- 25:45um, you get into those gear ratios, you
- 25:47know, um, you know, like four
- 25:49eighty eights and five, 18's, I think
- 25:51would be the next step up from that.
- 25:53Um, you know, you're, there's a lot of
- 25:55torque that's applied on things in there.
- 25:57When you're getting up into maybe 35s and
- 25:59above, uh, you know, you're, you're,
- 26:02you're flirting a little
- 26:04bit with, with danger on that.
- 26:05I have heard of guys that have been
- 26:07running the hack and tap successfully
- 26:09doing extreme, uh, four wheeling with
- 26:12these, with the hack and tap running
- 26:1433s, running 35s and, and
- 26:17for years being just fine.
- 26:18Um, you know, it's, it's going to really
- 26:21come down to, I think, um, your,
- 26:23your driving style, how
- 26:24hard you are off road.
- 26:26Uh, I think the biggest thing to stay
- 26:28away from with a hack and tap would be a
- 26:30high angle bounce where your front end is
- 26:32way up in the air and you're climbing
- 26:35over a very steep obstacle.
- 26:37You're running very deep gears.
- 26:38You've got big tires.
- 26:40We're talking 35s or larger, and you're
- 26:42trying to climb this face of an obstacle
- 26:45and your Jeep is doing
- 26:46that bouncing up and down.
- 26:47You're, you're really, you know, trying
- 26:49to, you're going to be wrapping up that,
- 26:51that rear axle against the suspension and
- 26:53of course the drive line and what's,
- 26:55you know, it's connected at
- 26:56the end of the drive line.
- 26:57Well, you're slippery oak
- 26:58eliminator to the transfer case.
- 27:00I'm not saying it's a weak point.
- 27:01You know, oftentimes a U joint, um, strap
- 27:04is going to pop before your,
- 27:05your hack and tap would,
- 27:06um, because especially it's,
- 27:08it's secured with grade eight hardware,
- 27:10um, more times than not,
- 27:11at least it should be.
- 27:12Um, but it could
- 27:14theoretically be a weak point.
- 27:16I do know there are guys out there
- 27:17running them and
- 27:18they're running them hard
- 27:19and they last, but, um, ultimately the
- 27:22best solution would be a short shaft
- 27:25at replacing that output shaft with a
- 27:26fixed yoke style for the silky oak
- 27:28eliminator coming out of the
- 27:30rear output of a transfer case.
- 27:31Yeah.
- 27:32And that's what I went with, which was,
- 27:33uh, uh, the Tom Woods, uh, solution
- 27:36for my MP two 42 and it's, it's
- 27:39absolutely wonderful, but it required a,
- 27:42uh, custom drive shaft and, uh, the, uh,
- 27:46the short, you have to replace the,
- 27:48the tail cone and you replace the shaft
- 27:50and it's very nice, but, uh, it's,
- 27:53it's very expensive.
- 27:54I think it was four 75 after I sent back
- 27:56all the, uh, the other parts, the core.
- 27:59They do require a core on that, on that
- 28:02particular kit, don't they?
- 28:03Yes.
- 28:04Well, it's interesting cause I spoke with
- 28:07one of the people there at Tom Woods and,
- 28:10that you would, you would be really
- 28:12surprised how many people do not send
- 28:15the cores so they literally are sitting
- 28:17on $400 worth of, uh, of refund.
- 28:20So, yeah, because you'll be out of
- 28:22pocket, you know,
- 28:23about 800 some odd dollars
- 28:24initially, but you get a big chunk of
- 28:26that back sending in the core.
- 28:27Yeah.
- 28:28It's, it's a hard, it's a hard purchase
- 28:29to make unless you have lots of credit
- 28:31on your credit card, uh, cause it's,
- 28:33it's, it was like $900 upfront.
- 28:36And, um, but like I say,
- 28:37you get about 400 back.
- 28:39That's the, the MP two 42 is a little
- 28:41more expensive than, than their 231, uh,
- 28:43solution, but, uh, yeah, I was just going
- 28:46to say too, you know, a lot of people get
- 28:48away with a lot of things that are, are,
- 28:50are, uh, what is common do not do, uh, in
- 28:55the Jeep knowledge database, like run a
- 28:57Dana 35, which I noticed Steve, uh, 4.3
- 29:00LXJ runs a Dana 35 and he just went off
- 29:04road last weekend and he's fine.
- 29:06Uh, it all has to do
- 29:07with skinny pebble pebble.
- 29:09Skinny pedal folks, you know, being smart
- 29:13about things and choosing your trail and,
- 29:15uh, you know, driving skills is what it
- 29:17amounts to, but, uh, uh, I'm just glad I
- 29:20have a, uh, an eight and a quarter on the
- 29:22back of mine and I don't, uh, to me,
- 29:24it's one less worry,
- 29:26less skill I have to have.
- 29:27Yeah.
- 29:30So, uh, anyway, it sounds like an S Y E
- 29:32is a, is a good idea.
- 29:34And, uh, I was asking that question about
- 29:37the front because I know some people
- 29:38would, uh, that aren't knowledgeable in
- 29:40the area would say, okay, well that's
- 29:42fine, I got the front
- 29:43taken care of what I do.
- 29:44I mean, I've got the rear end taken care
- 29:46of what I do about the front.
- 29:47I personally don't fully understand why
- 29:50they went to the time and expense of
- 29:52doing a, uh, the, the slip yoke being
- 29:55inside the drive shaft on the front.
- 29:58And they didn't do the
- 29:59same thing in the back.
- 30:02Yeah.
- 30:02It makes no sense at all.
- 30:03I mean, you're already doing it on the
- 30:05front, the technology's there.
- 30:06It's obviously proven, uh, you know, why
- 30:09not do it in the rear?
- 30:10Uh, and I just don't, I don't understand.
- 30:12You know, it had to be a 59 cent savings
- 30:15on the line or something.
- 30:17That's what it was.
- 30:17I'm sure, I'm sure if we got right down
- 30:19to the, the, the meat of the matter,
- 30:21that it would make plenty of sense as the
- 30:23reason why they did it.
- 30:24Uh, but to, to somebody that is lifting
- 30:26the Jeep and taking it off road,
- 30:28it would be, it's been so nice if they
- 30:29have just, has it stunned the back
- 30:32drive shaft, just
- 30:33like they did the front.
- 30:34And one other thing that you didn't
- 30:35mention is the really nice thing is,
- 30:38is that if you do break something in the
- 30:40rear, the drive shaft, uh, anything
- 30:42that this disables the drive line from
- 30:44the transfer case back to the axle,
- 30:47you can take that drive shaft out and you
- 30:49don't have to worry about leaking
- 30:51fluid because you know, you got that yoke
- 30:54on there, just like you have on
- 30:55the front of your transfer case, and it
- 30:57will be perfectly fine.
- 30:58It'll just spin.
- 30:59It's spin while you're driving along and
- 31:01it's not going to be spraying
- 31:02out to transfer case fluid.
- 31:04So it's a wonderful, because the stock
- 31:07setup, it does, I mean, the, the,
- 31:09the stock setup makes it so that the,
- 31:11the, the output shaft is, is essentially
- 31:13hollow, uh, going right into the transfer
- 31:16case and your drive line slides in and
- 31:17out of that and you lose that drive line
- 31:20stock, uh, with, you know, no slip
- 31:22yoke eliminator, you're on the trail,
- 31:24you're going to be leaking fluid all day
- 31:25long and that's not only bad for the
- 31:27engine, but it's also our bad for the
- 31:29transfer case. Rather. It's also bad for
- 31:31the environment. Uh, you know,
- 31:32you don't need to be
- 31:32spilling fluids out on the trails.
- 31:34So with the Slippy Oak eliminator, it
- 31:36seals that transfer case up button tight.
- 31:39And you worst case, narrow,
- 31:40you do break a drive shaft. Um,
- 31:43you're not going to be stranded and
- 31:44you're not going to be leaking fluids.
- 31:46Right. And even if you're not a big
- 31:48environmentalist, uh,
- 31:49I'm not big on the environment, but I am
- 31:52big on them closing trails.
- 31:54Yes.
- 31:55So keep that in mind that even if you
- 31:57don't think, Oh, what do I care?
- 31:59Well, if they, if they close the trail
- 32:00and you can't go out there and play,
- 32:02then then maybe you would.
- 32:03Yeah. I'm not a, what you'd call a huge
- 32:05environmentalist either,
- 32:06but I like having the trails open and
- 32:08the, you know, the
- 32:09more that we can do as a,
- 32:10as a community, as Jeep owners to keep
- 32:12those trails open, the better.
- 32:13And if that means making sure we're not
- 32:15spilling fluids on the trail,
- 32:16then so be it.
- 32:17Yeah. I have no problem with people with
- 32:19tree huggers, but, uh, I remember I took
- 32:21a poop in the woods one time and lit,
- 32:23had to lean against the tree and I had a
- 32:24rash for a good three weeks.
- 32:25So I don't know, I
- 32:27don't know how they do it.
- 32:29Well, Josh, thanks a lot
- 32:30for this week's Jeep tip.
- 32:32Absolutely. Thanks Tony.
- 32:33And now for a disclaimer, Jeep tips for
- 32:35entertainment purposes only.
- 32:37If you choose to follow these tips,
- 32:39man up and take the
- 32:40responsibility for your own actions.
- 32:42If you cannot, or you feel that working
- 32:44on your Jeep is beyond your abilities,
- 32:46seek the help or advice of a
- 32:48trained certified mechanic.
- 33:19Hi tonight we have Dan Jeep in Idaho from
- 33:23XJ talk.com and a
- 33:25host of the four by four
- 33:27podcast. Hey Dan, thanks for joining us
- 33:30tonight. And then doing this interview.
- 33:32Hey, my pleasure. Any
- 33:34chance I get to, uh,
- 33:36sit down with somebody and talk about
- 33:37Jeeps is a, it's a pleasure.
- 33:39Yeah. Interesting. Interestingly,
- 33:41I found out today that Dan is in the army
- 33:45and he's out in the Mojave desert right
- 33:47now talking on his
- 33:49cell phone through Skype.
- 33:50So if it sounds a little funky,
- 33:53it actually sounds a lot better than it
- 33:54would be if it was a cell call.
- 33:56And Dan's going the extra mile
- 33:58to do this interview with us.
- 33:59So I'm very happy that he's able to do
- 34:02that. Uh, first off, Dan,
- 34:04is it hot out there?
- 34:05You know, it's actually,
- 34:07it's been a very nice day today.
- 34:09I think it may have just barely broke 90
- 34:11degrees. Um, usually like two days ago,
- 34:14I was getting a nice hot wind.
- 34:17I call that the blow dryer.
- 34:19Yeah. It's like sticking your head in
- 34:21front of a blow dryer.
- 34:23That's really all it is.
- 34:24You can't even cool off.
- 34:26Now I think it's cooled off to about 80
- 34:28degrees, 82 feels nice.
- 34:30Well, you know, it's, it's the
- 34:32differences that you notice.
- 34:34If it's like three inches from the
- 34:35surface of the sun and now it's 80,
- 34:37then you know, you're
- 34:39thankful for what you can get.
- 34:40Yeah. A week and a half
- 34:41ago is like 115 out here.
- 34:43So this is a welcome change.
- 34:46So Dan, I recently became aware of, uh,
- 34:48of your podcast. I was, uh, uh,
- 34:50looking around through, I think I was,
- 34:52uh, I think I actually
- 34:53saw it on, on beyond,
- 34:54uh, beyond pod, uh, the lab vacation. And
- 34:57I was doing searches for things.
- 34:59And I went, wow, look at,
- 34:59look at this. It's a, uh, uh,
- 35:01a four by four podcast and I added it
- 35:03and, uh, uh, started listening.
- 35:06And then, uh, I can't remember. I think I
- 35:08saw you on Facebook and, uh,
- 35:11you were amenable to
- 35:12doing a, uh, an interview.
- 35:14I also want to do a little across a
- 35:16podcast pollination, so to speak.
- 35:18And I thought that was great. Uh,
- 35:20it was wonderful to run across somebody
- 35:23that was doing basically the same thing I
- 35:24was doing. Although your show is more of
- 35:27a, a wide range, uh,
- 35:29and as by the name four by four, which
- 35:32covers a lot of ground,
- 35:33whereas we kind of focus on just the, uh,
- 35:36the Jeep Cherokee here.
- 35:37So, uh, how did you
- 35:38get started with that?
- 35:39Well, uh, I, I, at the time I
- 35:42was living in South Korea, um,
- 35:44my army duties had taken me over there
- 35:46and I was there for three years.
- 35:48And after about two years,
- 35:50I got tired of being disconnected from my
- 35:53Jeep and from the off-roading
- 35:55community. So I decided, you know what,
- 35:57I've been thinking about starting a
- 35:59podcast. I listened to a ton of them.
- 36:01And I know that once I get
- 36:03back to the United States,
- 36:04I'd appreciate being able to listen to an
- 36:06off-roading and adventure travel type
- 36:08podcast, uh,
- 36:10as I'm driving across the country for
- 36:12whatever it is that I'm doing.
- 36:14And I figure I'm
- 36:15probably not the only one.
- 36:16So I went ahead and put together the four
- 36:19by four podcast and got my brother on
- 36:21to co-host it. And since then,
- 36:24it's been just a great adventure meeting
- 36:26all kinds of great people.
- 36:29Met a lot of great people in the industry
- 36:31and a lot of great manufacturers
- 36:33sharing their, their products. And it's
- 36:35just been a great time. We just,
- 36:37just crossed the one year anniversary. So
- 36:40it's been a lot of fun.
- 36:42That's great. And you mentioned adventure
- 36:44a couple of times there. And gee whiz,
- 36:46if I was in South Korea,
- 36:48it certainly would go under the heading
- 36:50of, uh, of adventure to me. Now, uh,
- 36:53you said you're away from the four by
- 36:55fouring and whatnot.
- 36:56Isn't there like an H one or something
- 36:58you can take out across, uh, uh,
- 37:00North Korea? I mean, being very careful
- 37:01not to wander in, uh, in South Korea.
- 37:05And I didn't want to
- 37:06wander to North Korea,
- 37:07but surely there's something you can do
- 37:09out there in South Korea. Isn't there?
- 37:11Oh yes. Uh, now I'm not with my vehicle,
- 37:13but you're right. At the time I was in
- 37:16command. So I had access to
- 37:18a lot of military vehicles.
- 37:20And if you actually go to the four by
- 37:21four podcast.com, uh, on the,
- 37:25one of the menus is my little profile and
- 37:28tells a little bit about me.
- 37:29And there's some videos of doing some
- 37:31off-road driver training and mounted land
- 37:34navigation type things. And you know,
- 37:36you can see kind of what off-roading is
- 37:38like a real military vehicle instead of
- 37:41just the derivative Jeeps
- 37:43that we drive around today.
- 37:45Now that's one vehicle that, uh,
- 37:47as far as a Hummer goes that I've never
- 37:49made made fun of is the military Hummer
- 37:51because to me, uh, that is,
- 37:54uh, all of an off-road vehicle.
- 37:56What's your estimation of it?
- 37:58Well, you know, it's,
- 37:59it's really good. Um,
- 38:01but it's just like any
- 38:02other off-road vehicle. It,
- 38:04it depends on the driver, uh, in the
- 38:06hands of a really good driver,
- 38:07you can do some just phenomenal things
- 38:10with that Humvee. Uh,
- 38:11but in a hands of a new soldier that
- 38:14doesn't know what they're doing,
- 38:15doesn't know how to do left foot braking
- 38:18and how to actually engage the, uh,
- 38:20the lockers that are in
- 38:21the vehicle, you know,
- 38:23it all comes down to the driver. So.
- 38:26Well, it certainly is a very unique
- 38:27looking vehicle. Uh,
- 38:29unlike the, uh, the H2.
- 38:31Now I kind of like the H3 it's, it's kind
- 38:33of Cherokee looking, but, um,
- 38:36it's still got some issues with
- 38:37visibility. It's got a
- 38:38real high belt line. Um,
- 38:40and that's, that's not what it is with a
- 38:42lot of the newer off-road vehicles,
- 38:44like the FJ cruiser that
- 38:45has the same issue. You know,
- 38:46it's just limited visibility. And the
- 38:49same thing with the
- 38:50Humvee military Humvee,
- 38:51man, unless you've got the doors off, you
- 38:52can't see anything out the back.
- 38:54Well, would part of that
- 38:55be just to protect the, uh,
- 38:57the soldier inside or is it
- 38:58just the way it's designed?
- 39:00Uh, I think it's just kind
- 39:02of the way it's designed.
- 39:02There's really no consideration of
- 39:05creature comfort or anything like that.
- 39:07Um, it was very utilitarian and there's
- 39:1020 or 30 different variants of the Humvee
- 39:13now. And the newer ones that
- 39:15are actually up armored, yeah,
- 39:17the visibility is an issue because you're
- 39:19covered in armor, but even the older
- 39:21ones, you know, if you take
- 39:23the top off, the doors off,
- 39:25it's still pretty limited just because of
- 39:26the way it's designed.
- 39:28And how is it approaching,
- 39:30uh, obstacles in the, uh,
- 39:32the Humvee with the 50 caliber on top? I
- 39:35would think that would make,
- 39:36make it make you feel a little bit
- 39:37better. Cause if it really messes it up,
- 39:39you can always take the
- 39:40gun, the main gun to it.
- 39:42Yeah. Yeah. You can do a
- 39:44lot of damage with the 50 cal.
- 39:47You get to do the depleted uranium rounds
- 39:50or is it just your standard, uh,
- 39:51big bullet?
- 39:52You know, mostly it's just
- 39:53a big lead round. You know,
- 39:55the depleted uranium ones are kind of
- 39:57rare. The armor piercing, but, uh,
- 40:00well, I guess, I
- 40:00guess in, in South Korea,
- 40:02you really don't want to be
- 40:03firing off guns that much.
- 40:05So that's true. You know, one of the
- 40:07funny thing is a lot
- 40:08of people don't know,
- 40:09a lot of the training areas
- 40:11are very close to the DMZ.
- 40:13And you know,
- 40:14I've been on some ranges where you can
- 40:16stand on top of the hill and see the,
- 40:18the markers for the
- 40:19military demarcation line.
- 40:21So you're that close and some of the
- 40:23ranges you can't even fire.
- 40:25Live 50 cal rounds because of the range,
- 40:28it just takes one ricocheting it's gone
- 40:30over the border and you've created an
- 40:32international incident.
- 40:33Right. You know what they'll do.
- 40:35They have plastic 50 cal bullets. Okay.
- 40:38So the range is limited because it's a
- 40:40real light round and very inaccurate,
- 40:43but I guess it still gets
- 40:44the, the feel of firing around.
- 40:46Yeah. I would imagine that's
- 40:47a quite a jolt, uh, from the,
- 40:49just the sound and the, the, uh,
- 40:53base type stuff hitting your chest. So I
- 40:55could, it would be, to me,
- 40:57it would be a little nerve
- 40:57wracking at least at first,
- 40:59just being that close to that
- 41:01much danger because you don't,
- 41:03you never know when the, when it's going
- 41:05to hit the fan. And, uh,
- 41:07I kinda stopped thinking
- 41:09about it after, you know,
- 41:10well you get used to it.
- 41:12Yeah.
- 41:13The actual combat areas where I know I'm
- 41:14being shot at. Yeah.
- 41:16I'm sure it's like
- 41:17anything. You just, uh,
- 41:18you just accept the way it is and you're
- 41:21okay now and you'll probably be okay.
- 41:23Later. And if not, you'll just deal with
- 41:25it as the situation comes up.
- 41:26But we all deal with things
- 41:28that, uh, as best we can, uh,
- 41:30in stressful situations. So yeah. And as
- 41:32I, and as I told you,
- 41:33and as I told you in the email,
- 41:35I did want to thank you very much for
- 41:36your service to the country.
- 41:37It's very important to me. I, uh,
- 41:39I was a kid during the Vietnam war and I
- 41:42never agreed then or now how they were
- 41:45treated. And, uh, I'm
- 41:46glad to see that, um, uh,
- 41:48both political parties are trying to
- 41:50treat our soldiers. Um,
- 41:52at least in, at least verbally, they're
- 41:55trying to treat them right.
- 41:56I don't necessarily
- 41:57think that cutting, uh,
- 41:58military funding and stuff is a good
- 42:00thing, but there you go.
- 42:01Yeah. It is totally my pleasure. I really
- 42:04enjoy my job. You know,
- 42:06despite, you know,
- 42:07being sent out to the middle of the
- 42:09desert for however long,
- 42:11there's still a lot of fun to be had. Uh,
- 42:13talking to my sister on Facebook,
- 42:15you know, give me a Humvee with a full
- 42:16tank of gas and a little bit of time to
- 42:18explore. I'll have a ton of
- 42:19fun out here in the desert.
- 42:21Yep. On the, uh, and all the taxpayers
- 42:23dime too, but not like you're not,
- 42:25like you're not earning it or anything. I
- 42:26want to indicate that,
- 42:27but that's pretty cool.
- 42:29Lots of good training to
- 42:30be had. Yeah. There you go.
- 42:32So, uh,
- 42:33tell us about your Jeep Cherokee cause
- 42:35you're not just a Humvee driver. Uh,
- 42:38you're also a
- 42:38Cherokee owner and operator.
- 42:41Yeah. I I've really fond
- 42:43of the Jeep Cherokee. I,
- 42:44I got my first one in 2000.
- 42:48It was a 1990 and drove it up to college
- 42:51from Colorado Springs up to Idaho and
- 42:54put a lot of miles on it, uh,
- 42:56had it for a number of years.
- 42:58And then finally graduated college and,
- 43:00uh, drove it from Idaho,
- 43:02made a cross country trip. And this was
- 43:04really kind of phenomenal.
- 43:05I went to Northern California down
- 43:08through Southern California to Phoenix,
- 43:10to Houston up to Colorado Springs back
- 43:13down to Houston or Dallas and then all
- 43:16across the United States through Alabama
- 43:18and then up to Baltimore, Maryland.
- 43:19I put about 6,000 miles on the Jeep in
- 43:23about two weeks time.
- 43:25And it just kind of finally gave up. Uh,
- 43:29it flipped the head over it or flipped
- 43:32the cylinder head
- 43:32over inside the cylinder
- 43:34and shot the piston rod
- 43:35out the side of the engine.
- 43:38Dumped oil all over the place and it was
- 43:40just, that was it. It gave up.
- 43:43So I was in the market for a new Jeep
- 43:44and, uh, just for fun,
- 43:46I was looking on eBay one night and, uh,
- 43:49I found the Jeep that I have now and
- 43:52there was a guy about two hours south of
- 43:53where I was, uh, was selling it for
- 43:56less than he spent on the parts. Uh,
- 44:01and he was a kind of a spoiled kid and
- 44:03his dad just paid for all the parts to be
- 44:05installed at a professional
- 44:06shop. So when I bought my 1990,
- 44:11uh, Jeep Cherokee sport, the two door,
- 44:13it already had an eight inch Skyjacker
- 44:16lift with 35 inch BFG mud tires,
- 44:20had the chromoly axle shafts with four 56
- 44:22gears ox lockers front and rear.
- 44:25I've got the ARB bull
- 44:27bar on the front, uh,
- 44:29Drango four by four bumper
- 44:30on the backside. And, uh,
- 44:34I think that's all the mods that were
- 44:36done to it when I got it,
- 44:37but that's certainly not a short list.
- 44:39No, it's not. I mean, you,
- 44:40you could have done said two of those and
- 44:42it would have been a big deal. Uh,
- 44:44my gosh, that's, that's, that's, that's,
- 44:46that's gotta be horrible. Uh, I mean,
- 44:47it's great, great news for you,
- 44:49but that's what's gotta be horrible for
- 44:50the, for the dad. And I can't help,
- 44:52but think that that kid, uh,
- 44:53sometime in the future is going to look
- 44:55back on that and go,
- 44:56what the hell was I thinking?
- 44:57Yeah. Well, I think they did it a little
- 44:59bit together as a project, just,
- 45:01and they didn't do any of the wrench time
- 45:02themselves, but you know,
- 45:04just shared in the buildup
- 45:05process, I guess together.
- 45:08And they wanted to start a new project.
- 45:09So they sold it off for,
- 45:11I bought it for 10,000 and I totaled up
- 45:14all the parts and they were just
- 45:15recently installed. It was still nearly
- 45:18brand new and I got it. And it was,
- 45:20I think he spent 12 just on parts, not
- 45:23even counting the labor.
- 45:24So I picked it up for nothing and it's
- 45:27been serving me well since
- 45:282004.
- 45:31Uh, on your, on your 90, uh, the, the one
- 45:34that gave up on you,
- 45:36what size tires were you running on it?
- 45:38You know, I was running
- 45:3930, you see a 31 to 32.
- 45:42And it was a standard, uh, probably three
- 45:4555 gears on your, uh,
- 45:47your differentials.
- 45:47Yeah. So 55s. I had a three inch, uh,
- 45:50rusty lift kit that actually,
- 45:52it's funny. I was on another,
- 45:54it was one of the Yahoo groups. Um, there
- 45:57was a guy down at Albuquerque.
- 45:59So I drove down from Colorado Springs.
- 46:00We met in the middle and I bought his
- 46:02used lift. He had three inch, uh,
- 46:04leaf Springs and three inch coils and I
- 46:07bought them for 80 bucks.
- 46:08Use lift kit, uh, went home
- 46:10and it took me about a five,
- 46:12six hours to swap the Springs and
- 46:14everything. And it ran great. You know,
- 46:17after a while I started
- 46:18getting a little bit of, uh,
- 46:20drive shaft vibration because I didn't
- 46:22correct the opinion angle. Um,
- 46:26so that caused a little bit of problems,
- 46:28but I didn't get a full three inches of
- 46:30lift out of the rear Springs.
- 46:31Cause they are, you know,
- 46:33used in already starting to sag, but it
- 46:36was great. Uh, kind of a starter.
- 46:38That was my first Jeep, my
- 46:39first lift and everything.
- 46:41Yeah. It's kind of
- 46:41what got me into it more.
- 46:42Yeah. You can't, you learn a lot. Uh,
- 46:44whenever you get out there
- 46:45and start doing those things.
- 46:46So, uh, did you notice a
- 46:47big difference between, uh,
- 46:49the three 55s and the
- 46:50four 56 gears? Oh yes.
- 46:53I mean, even with 35 inch tires, you have
- 46:55to notice it. Those three,
- 46:56three 55 on, on 32s,
- 46:59especially going over just minimal
- 47:01overpasses on the highway is, uh,
- 47:03it's to be very interesting.
- 47:04Yeah. You got to downshift
- 47:06right away. Yep. But you know,
- 47:08even with 35s and four to 56 gears,
- 47:11I can run down the highway seven miles an
- 47:13hour and it's about 2,500 RPMs.
- 47:15Yeah. I, that's another reason why I was
- 47:17kind of thinking about doing the 35s
- 47:19was to get my RPMs back in line.
- 47:22Cause if I do 80 with my, uh,
- 47:2633 inch tires, but do 80 on
- 47:29the with the four 56 years,
- 47:30I'm turning 3000 RPM. Yeah.
- 47:34And not real great for the gas mileage.
- 47:36No, no, it's not, but it's, um,
- 47:39it's very peppy. It's more like it was
- 47:42one of our first got it now. Uh, yeah,
- 47:44here, here in the next, uh, a couple of
- 47:47days, I'll be changing out the, uh,
- 47:48the engine, uh, with a, uh, a
- 47:514.1 liter. It's not a stroker,
- 47:53just a 60 over somebody did the
- 47:55calculation for me on XJ talk.
- 47:57And, uh, it's, uh, going to
- 47:59be about a 4.1, uh, liter, uh,
- 48:02uh, Jeep engine. And, uh,
- 48:04Matt and I are going to be, uh,
- 48:07at his shop in Conroe this Friday,
- 48:09swapping that out. So I'm, um,
- 48:11I'm interested to see what it's going to
- 48:13be like with a fresh engine. Cause the,
- 48:15uh, I probably had,
- 48:16um, oh, 110,000 miles.
- 48:19Uh, I wonder if we've at the four 56
- 48:21gears in there. So, uh,
- 48:24it'll be interesting with a little extra
- 48:25horsepower and a much fresher engine to
- 48:27see what it's going to be like.
- 48:28Yeah. You have to make sure you capture
- 48:30all the stats for before and then after.
- 48:34Yeah. Well, I've got the
- 48:36gas mileage information. Uh,
- 48:37I've been collecting gas mileage
- 48:39information since
- 48:40before the four 56 gears
- 48:41were, uh, were installed. And, and
- 48:44actually that was the
- 48:44main reason for doing it.
- 48:46Uh, but for putting the gears in,
- 48:47cause I was told that that would make a
- 48:49big difference. And it jumped me,
- 48:51uh, it gave me about a two mile per hour,
- 48:53um, mile per gallon bump.
- 48:56So, uh, yeah, of all the
- 48:59things that I've done to it, uh,
- 49:00to trying to fix some of
- 49:02the, uh, uh, gas mileage issues,
- 49:04that was the biggest
- 49:05thing. But I'm still, uh,
- 49:07if I see 12 miles per
- 49:09gallon, that's rare. Oh wow. Yeah.
- 49:11So, uh, I don't know
- 49:13why it's that way. Uh,
- 49:15I don't think it should be based on the
- 49:16other things that I've, uh, I've heard.
- 49:18Have you ever done a good, uh, uh, mile
- 49:21per gallon calculations on yours?
- 49:23Yeah. I keep pretty
- 49:24close track of that. Um,
- 49:26I usually get between 200 and 260 and
- 49:31280 miles on a tank. I think it comes out
- 49:33to about 13 and a half,
- 49:3514 miles per gallon.
- 49:36I ended up driving to and
- 49:39from work down state highways,
- 49:41usually doing about 55. Yeah.
- 49:44But I've got the five speed manual so I
- 49:46can get into a top gear pretty quick.
- 49:48Uh, that's, yeah, that
- 49:49makes a big difference.
- 49:52I love having that manual
- 49:53transmission. Yeah. I hear, uh,
- 49:55whenever I went to get mine, I bought
- 49:56mine brand new and, uh,
- 49:58I was looking at it. It was the right
- 50:00color and all that. And I said, uh,
- 50:02this is nice. Uh, it was on the showroom
- 50:04floor and I said, this is nice,
- 50:05but do you have one, uh, that's a
- 50:07standard? Because in my mind, a, uh,
- 50:10a four by four should
- 50:11be a standard. And they,
- 50:13they would have looked at each other and
- 50:14go, well, they make a,
- 50:16they do make them with a
- 50:17standard transmissions,
- 50:18but we'd have to order you one from the
- 50:20factory. Oh yeah. You know,
- 50:22the standard thing they tell you whenever
- 50:23they don't want to get you something,
- 50:25they want to sell you
- 50:26what they have. Yeah.
- 50:28I want you to take
- 50:28what's on the lot. Yeah.
- 50:30And another reason I was
- 50:31looking at the standard was, oh,
- 50:33my wife and I were actually there to make
- 50:36the decision on a, uh,
- 50:37on a Wrangler 98 TJ. And, uh,
- 50:40we had two young children, uh, at the
- 50:42time, three and four years old. And I saw
- 50:45the, uh, uh, uh, the red Cherokee there
- 50:48on the showroom floor. And I thought,
- 50:50you know, we could
- 50:51drive this. It's four doors.
- 50:52It's still a four wheel drive and we
- 50:55could get the, uh, the TJ later.
- 50:58So, uh, we, we finally did get that TJ
- 51:00later, much, much later,
- 51:04earlier this year. So, uh, and my wife is
- 51:06driving that one. So,
- 51:09we, um, um, we have the TJ, the 98, uh,
- 51:13uh, Cherokee, which, uh,
- 51:14which we had bought
- 51:15new then. And, uh, um,
- 51:18shortly before, I guess maybe six months
- 51:21prior to getting the TJ,
- 51:22I found the 99 XJ and, uh,
- 51:26my oldest daughter is driving that one
- 51:27now. So we were a three Jeep family.
- 51:30That's awesome. I'm sure the, uh, the
- 51:32neighbors think we're crazy.
- 51:35I know. And I'm a two
- 51:37SUV family. When, uh,
- 51:39my second daughter was getting ready to
- 51:40be born. We realized at time,
- 51:42I bought a, uh, FJ
- 51:44cruiser for my wife, right?
- 51:46The very first year of a no
- 51:47seven when it was released, um,
- 51:50because I was getting ready to deploy the
- 51:52vehicle we had was a Chevy,
- 51:54I was GMC, uh, Yukon. It was getting
- 51:57close to a hundred thousand miles.
- 51:58And I don't want my wife to have any
- 51:59issues, uh, during the,
- 52:02supposedly year while I was gone, which
- 52:04turned in 15 months. So, so you know,
- 52:07we'll just go ahead
- 52:07and get you a new car.
- 52:08Got the FJ cruiser and, uh,
- 52:11then we had to get a second vehicle or a
- 52:13different vehicle because the FJ
- 52:14cruiser doesn't really fit
- 52:16two car seats in the back.
- 52:18Really? That's interesting. I would
- 52:19thought I would have thought it would.
- 52:21Yeah. There's the way it's the back seat
- 52:24is arranged. The, uh,
- 52:25the middle seat in the rear
- 52:27is kind of raised and, uh,
- 52:30it's not real conducive to
- 52:31car seats and having a, uh,
- 52:34rear facing car seat behind a seat was
- 52:36just not going to happen. It was
- 52:37impossible. Whoever that passenger would
- 52:39be knees up in their chest through the
- 52:42dash. And so we had to
- 52:43make the decision, okay,
- 52:44are we going to go for a minivan or are
- 52:46we going to go for something else?
- 52:47And she was starting to
- 52:49lean towards a minivan.
- 52:50I really wanted to get
- 52:51something bigger that could,
- 52:53I could tow my Jeep because we had
- 52:55multiple moves with the army, you know,
- 52:57Oh yeah. Yeah. That makes sense.
- 53:00It's not a real highway
- 53:01friendly vehicle. I mean,
- 53:02I can drive it on the highway,
- 53:03but the cross country trip is not going
- 53:05to be real fun. Right.
- 53:06So I, uh, got her in a
- 53:09Chevy suburban and a test drive.
- 53:13And she said, you know what? I really
- 53:14like this. This is really comfortable.
- 53:15I said, sweet. This V8 will pull the Jeep
- 53:18on a trailer. No problem.
- 53:20She goes, yeah, that was my first
- 53:22concern. Yeah, sure. Whatever.
- 53:23I don't care about that. I can put a lot
- 53:25of stuff in the back.
- 53:26A lot of stuff. Yeah. Those are,
- 53:27so we're ones are great from that,
- 53:29especially with the family.
- 53:30Yep. So it's been great.
- 53:31I've got a suburban from my wife and
- 53:34it'll tell the Jeep across country,
- 53:35which it's done a couple of times. And,
- 53:39uh, we, I, I always know,
- 53:40I've got a vehicle to come rescue the
- 53:42Jeep that should it break down,
- 53:44which hasn't happened yet. It was one
- 53:46time we were getting ready to go to Korea
- 53:48and had to put it in storage. So my
- 53:50sister-in-law was
- 53:51going to take care of it.
- 53:52So we drove from like Richmond, Virginia
- 53:54to halfway between there and Nashville.
- 53:58And as I was back in
- 53:59the Jeep off the trailer,
- 54:01the transmission just totally took a
- 54:02dump. I said, great.
- 54:04Here I'm in the middle of nowhere with
- 54:05the Jeep with no transmission.
- 54:07And my sister-in-law was going to drive
- 54:09it back to Nashville and take care of
- 54:10it for the three years.
- 54:12So I ended up having to run the winch
- 54:14cable back up to the front of the trailer
- 54:16and self recover itself drive, you know,
- 54:19just on a, you know,
- 54:21minutes decision to say, all right,
- 54:22we're just going to drive the West way in
- 54:23Nashville and kicked it off the
- 54:25trailer in front of four
- 54:27wheel parts there. I mean, uh,
- 54:29I think Franklin Tennessee and
- 54:31they took care of everything.
- 54:32What did it turn out to be? Uh, the
- 54:35master cylinder. Oh, okay.
- 54:38So you just couldn't get it to get it
- 54:40where you could shift.
- 54:41It was un-driveable.
- 54:42Right. I got it into first gear.
- 54:46While it was not on
- 54:47that, I would, you know,
- 54:49leave the clutch out and just starter,
- 54:51use a starter and jockey it back up onto
- 54:53the trailer as much as I could.
- 54:54And I said, you know what, I've got the
- 54:56winch. I might as well just use it.
- 54:57Sure.
- 55:00There's been lots of
- 55:01adventures with that Jeep.
- 55:03Well, the neat thing
- 55:04is, is that you can, uh,
- 55:05you can usually work out a way to, uh,
- 55:08get down the road or,
- 55:09or like you said, recover itself. It's
- 55:11nice having that ability.
- 55:13And it's kind of funny. Uh, I was, uh, on
- 55:16Facebook, XJ talk on Facebook,
- 55:18somebody, uh, one of the
- 55:19XJ talk members posted, uh,
- 55:22something from a Morris four by four.
- 55:24It's a, uh, an image, uh,
- 55:26a satellite image of a hurricane
- 55:28approaching Florida, which is,
- 55:29is kind of what's in
- 55:31process right now. Yeah.
- 55:33It's not the exact image
- 55:34that this currently going on,
- 55:35but it's similar to what's happening
- 55:37currently. And it said, uh, uh,
- 55:39something along the lines of, uh, uh,
- 55:43Prius owners or wishing
- 55:44they had Jeeps right now.
- 55:46Oh yeah.
- 55:49It's perfect for those post-apocalyptic
- 55:52seasons, you know? Yeah.
- 55:55I mean, it's great to have the gas
- 55:56mileage and it's a,
- 55:57it's great to be, you know,
- 55:58one of the cool kids with the low
- 56:00vehicles, but boy, I tell you what,
- 56:03whenever the fan is
- 56:04getting ready to be hit,
- 56:05it's nice to have
- 56:06something that's going to, uh, uh,
- 56:09be able to get you from point A to point
- 56:10B and most any situation. And, uh, well,
- 56:13I mean, that's, that's
- 56:14the reason why we, uh, well,
- 56:16the reason why I built up the 98 in the
- 56:19first place was because of hurricanes
- 56:20here on the Gulf coast. If, if not
- 56:23everybody's familiar,
- 56:24I'm in located in the
- 56:25Houston area. So we, uh, um,
- 56:29we prefer hurricanes here over
- 56:30earthquakes because we
- 56:31have warning, but still,
- 56:32it can get pretty, uh,
- 56:34pretty ugly, uh, given the, uh,
- 56:37the severity of the hurricane.
- 56:38Yeah. Well right now I'm living in, uh,
- 56:41northern New York, central New York,
- 56:43it's about an hour and a half north of
- 56:44Syracuse and we get the, uh,
- 56:48this last winter wasn't so bad, but I've
- 56:50only been living there for seven months.
- 56:52But when they do get snowed,
- 56:53like the lake effects know just comes out
- 56:55of nowhere and just slams everybody
- 56:57and they get, they measure, they measure
- 56:59the snow in feet instead of inches.
- 57:01And, uh, a few times this last winter
- 57:04when we did get slammed with snow,
- 57:05it was great. It was like a playground.
- 57:07Nobody driving around except for me.
- 57:09I was going blasting through
- 57:10snow banks, having a blast.
- 57:12So, uh, how was it with the lockers?
- 57:15Uh, well, since they're box lockers, I
- 57:17can disengage them anytime.
- 57:19So when I'm driving on ice, they just
- 57:20open differentials and snow issues. Um,
- 57:24but then when things get muddy
- 57:27and sloppy during the spring,
- 57:28I can engage them and climb out of the
- 57:31suit and the ruts with no problems.
- 57:34So what are the New Yorkers think of the,
- 57:36uh, the lifted, uh, no,
- 57:38actually eight inch lift is pretty
- 57:40substantial in the 35 inch tires.
- 57:42What do they think about all that?
- 57:44Well, it's funny, you
- 57:45know, there's down in Syracuse,
- 57:46there's the a CNY Jeep dot org group.
- 57:50And I went for a little bit
- 57:52with them a couple of times.
- 57:53I go down there, club
- 57:54meetings. When I get a chance,
- 57:56they're usually during the week and I
- 57:57have a hard time
- 57:57getting down there for, uh,
- 57:59getting off of work on time. Um, but
- 58:01they're a great Jeep group.
- 58:03There's a couple of them that are running
- 58:05Cherokees. Most of them are Wranglers.
- 58:07I fit right in with those guys. I guess
- 58:09it kind of gave me a hard time.
- 58:10But then when I crawl through the
- 58:11obstacles with no trouble,
- 58:13the ones that they're having a really
- 58:15hard time with the laughing stops.
- 58:17Of course. Yeah. The name calling begins
- 58:20at least under their breath.
- 58:22Yeah. But then right in
- 58:24Watertown, the nearest town,
- 58:26they've got a truck club.
- 58:28It's not a Jeep specific group.
- 58:30And I'm actually one of the smaller guys.
- 58:33They're mostly running full size pickups.
- 58:36Most of them are diesels and they've got
- 58:38big exhaust stacks coming out of the
- 58:40bed, running 38 and larger tires.
- 58:44So the first trail run in
- 58:45the spring I did with them,
- 58:47I didn't know really
- 58:48what I was getting into,
- 58:49but they were going through
- 58:50water. It was about three,
- 58:52three and a half feet deep. And, uh,
- 58:54that was coming up to
- 58:55the door on my, on my Jeep.
- 58:58I thought, well,
- 59:00I got my four year old daughter in the
- 59:02back and she loves going off roading.
- 59:04And I just go chugging
- 59:05through the deep mud and water,
- 59:07no problems.
- 59:08And watching them slide off because
- 59:10they've just got lots of lift without the
- 59:13traction aids they need and not the same
- 59:15kind of articulation.
- 59:16So these deep ruts, I've got tons of
- 59:20flex. I can grow all through it,
- 59:21maintain traction and
- 59:22they're dragging their,
- 59:23their beds and bumpers across everything
- 59:26getting hung up. Right.
- 59:27It was funny. I watched
- 59:29the one truck in front of me,
- 59:30he had his exhaust stacks stick up past
- 59:33the top of his cab by about two feet,
- 59:35three feet. And he had to stop, get out,
- 59:37climb up on the roof with his chainsaw
- 59:38and cut down the tree ranges just so he
- 59:40could get past.
- 59:42Oh wow. Yeah. The,
- 59:44the Jeep is a very much a different type
- 59:47of vehicle than the, uh,
- 59:48the full size pickups. You
- 59:49know, we, I see those, uh,
- 59:51those land yachts driving around here all
- 59:53the time and I love a full size truck.
- 59:56The first four wheel drive I
- 59:57had was an 83 Chevy. I had,
- 1:00:00I went with a four inch lift because I
- 1:00:01didn't like the, uh, the, the six inches,
- 1:00:04six inch lifts that
- 1:00:05were very common back then.
- 1:00:07It was a lot of room between the top of
- 1:00:09the wheel and the, uh, the fender.
- 1:00:11So I went with a four inch lift and 33
- 1:00:14inch tires and I'm sorry,
- 1:00:1536 and a half inch tires. And, uh, it was
- 1:00:18a blast. I just, uh,
- 1:00:20I miss being up that high and driving
- 1:00:22around. It was, uh, it was great.
- 1:00:24You did have to watch out for small
- 1:00:25vehicles though, cause, uh,
- 1:00:28might run over one.
- 1:00:29Yeah. And that was the reason I didn't
- 1:00:31take my Jeep to Korea actually.
- 1:00:33I didn't take the suburban because I knew
- 1:00:35I'd be just hard pressed to get through
- 1:00:37the narrow streets and everything,
- 1:00:39but I didn't take the GP there cause I'd
- 1:00:41run over a dude on a mocha and not
- 1:00:43even know it. Yep. And it's, it's, it can
- 1:00:46be humorous when you say that,
- 1:00:48but it really literally can happen
- 1:00:49because you get high enough in the air.
- 1:00:51You can't see really what's
- 1:00:53going on on the other side.
- 1:00:54I remember driving my truck around. It
- 1:00:56was, uh, I would make a joke about,
- 1:00:58you know, I didn't see that
- 1:00:59car that was there. Uh, yeah,
- 1:01:00I had the large mirrors on the side of
- 1:01:02the Chevy truck. And even with that,
- 1:01:05it was difficult to see. Uh, I managed to
- 1:01:08keep off of people, but, uh,
- 1:01:10it, uh, it really, you really have to be,
- 1:01:12it's a different world when you, when you
- 1:01:13start getting up that high.
- 1:01:15Oh yeah. And you gotta
- 1:01:16consider how you're driving.
- 1:01:18Cause I don't have sway bars on either
- 1:01:20the front or the rear,
- 1:01:22but it's got a stiff enough, uh, spring
- 1:01:25rate that, you know,
- 1:01:26as long as you slow
- 1:01:27down in the corners enough,
- 1:01:28you really don't feel like you're gonna
- 1:01:30flip over either that,
- 1:01:32or I've just become accustomed to it.
- 1:01:34I no longer have that same pucker factor
- 1:01:36that most normal human beings have.
- 1:01:38Yeah. It's a much different feeling.
- 1:01:40I have a tendency to drive mine like a
- 1:01:41race car with the, uh,
- 1:01:43with the custom bumpers and now with the,
- 1:01:45uh, the sliders and the,
- 1:01:48um, uh, the frame stiffeners, I've got a
- 1:01:50lot of weight down low and I can make,
- 1:01:53uh, make turns pretty, uh, pretty good.
- 1:01:56I'm a, I'm a low fast kind of guy.
- 1:01:58And that's the reason why I got into
- 1:01:59SUVs, trucks and SUVs
- 1:02:01to start with is just
- 1:02:01so I would have an excuse to not drive
- 1:02:04fast. It's a lot of fun, but so, uh,
- 1:02:08whenever I, if I
- 1:02:09forget to connect the, uh,
- 1:02:10the quick disconnects back up and I start
- 1:02:12making those turns, I notice it.
- 1:02:14Uh, it's not earth shattering. It's not
- 1:02:16like a, like a death wobble or anything.
- 1:02:18It's just like, Hey, that
- 1:02:19feels kind of strange. Oh,
- 1:02:21I forgot to hook up the disc, the sway
- 1:02:23bar. That's what it was.
- 1:02:24I got a flat what's going on, you know?
- 1:02:28So yeah, I understand. I've heard that on
- 1:02:30the, on the site where people, they just
- 1:02:32don't run the sway bar at all.
- 1:02:34And of course mine only came with a front
- 1:02:35sway bar. So, uh, it's, uh,
- 1:02:38it's quite a quite capable road vehicle
- 1:02:40with, uh, with just the,
- 1:02:42the front sway bar.
- 1:02:43I don't know what the rear sway bar does
- 1:02:44anyways. It's so skinny. The,
- 1:02:46the stock one, it just serves virtually
- 1:02:48no purpose, you know?
- 1:02:50You know, I don't know. Uh, recently, uh,
- 1:02:53put a lift on the, uh,
- 1:02:55the wife's TJ and it's got a, uh, uh,
- 1:02:58it's got one on there.
- 1:02:59So I don't know if it's a good thing to
- 1:03:00have it or not, but you know, whatever.
- 1:03:02Uh, I'll just leave it alone. And then,
- 1:03:05uh, as I learn about the, uh,
- 1:03:06the Wranglers, I may do
- 1:03:07more to it. Well, Dan,
- 1:03:09we've come to the
- 1:03:10magical 30 minute, uh, Mark,
- 1:03:12and I've been doing my level best to, uh,
- 1:03:15to get into the, uh,
- 1:03:16the 30 minute limitation. So we can,
- 1:03:20we can wrap this up and you can stop
- 1:03:22tearing up all the minutes on your, uh,
- 1:03:24on your cell phone. Uh, yeah, I guess it
- 1:03:28just really depends on the plan.
- 1:03:29So, uh, when, when, when are
- 1:03:31you going to have another, uh,
- 1:03:32four by four podcast episode?
- 1:03:34Well, it's a very good question. Uh, I
- 1:03:37guess it would depend on,
- 1:03:39uh, how the recording with this current
- 1:03:41setup that I have who seems to come out.
- 1:03:44Okay. Yeah. I've got a
- 1:03:45couple interviews lined up.
- 1:03:47Uh, I just gotta be
- 1:03:48able to get them on lately.
- 1:03:49I've been having a lot of
- 1:03:50overland, uh, off rotors on the,
- 1:03:54on the podcast and, uh, you know, I've
- 1:03:56got one lined up, uh,
- 1:03:59Lewis and Lacey from,
- 1:04:00uh, Lost World Expeditions.
- 1:04:02They've just got the travel bug and
- 1:04:04they've been
- 1:04:04traveling around through South
- 1:04:06America, Chile and Peru. And, uh,
- 1:04:09they've just come back for a little
- 1:04:11sabbatical and refill the bank accounts.
- 1:04:13So I'd be doing it
- 1:04:14with them pretty soon. Um,
- 1:04:17overland gourmet, uh, Zach from Phoenix,
- 1:04:21he's a an overland traveler
- 1:04:23that does gourmet cooking.
- 1:04:25Actually overland gourmet.com.
- 1:04:27He's got a whole store
- 1:04:29selling cooking gear,
- 1:04:31lots of great things going on. Uh,
- 1:04:33hopefully if I can work
- 1:04:35things out right with my boss,
- 1:04:36I'll be able to escape the Mojave for a
- 1:04:38little bit for the Southern California
- 1:04:41mountain rendezvous. Uh, got lots of
- 1:04:43things going on, but my,
- 1:04:45my military professional duties kind of
- 1:04:48limit things. So worst case,
- 1:04:50it'll be probably the end of October. I
- 1:04:53get another episode out. Gotcha. Well,
- 1:04:56as long as you keep them coming, uh,
- 1:04:57because, uh, I've started listening and,
- 1:04:59you know, I don't want to sit
- 1:05:00around and wait for, you know,
- 1:05:02the summer reruns and then wait for the
- 1:05:04fall schedule and all that stuff that
- 1:05:06they do. Yeah.
- 1:05:08I think we've got at least 20 episodes
- 1:05:10out of the four by four podcast.
- 1:05:12So you can, you might as well skip the
- 1:05:14first one. That one was pretty bad.
- 1:05:16Oh, they always are. They
- 1:05:17always are, but they're,
- 1:05:18but they're never as
- 1:05:19bad as you think. Yeah.
- 1:05:21It was good. It got things started. And
- 1:05:22actually on one of the early podcasts,
- 1:05:24I did an interview with Jim Taylor.
- 1:05:27He is the trail boss at the Brazos Valley
- 1:05:29off road ranch outside Brian,
- 1:05:32Texas. So I know that's a little bit of a
- 1:05:34drive from, you know,
- 1:05:36Houston, your area. But if you ever get a
- 1:05:38chance to go up there,
- 1:05:39I'd definitely give Jim Taylor a call.
- 1:05:43Uh, awesome trails down there.
- 1:05:44Yeah. Real quick question. How's your
- 1:05:46wife with, uh, doing the off road thing?
- 1:05:48You know, she is a, she
- 1:05:50loves adventure traveling. Um,
- 1:05:52when we've just before we started dating,
- 1:05:55I think it may have been when I asked
- 1:05:57her, I said, you know what you're getting
- 1:05:58into, right? Cause
- 1:05:59anytime you hang out with me,
- 1:06:01you're bound to be involved
- 1:06:02in some sort of adventure,
- 1:06:04whether it be planned or
- 1:06:05unplanned. She said, no,
- 1:06:08I think I can handle it.
- 1:06:09Well, you say that now,
- 1:06:11we just had our 10 year anniversary this
- 1:06:14last weekend and it's been a wild
- 1:06:16adventure the whole time. Oh, that's
- 1:06:18right. That's right.
- 1:06:19I take that back because I did listen to
- 1:06:21the interview where you were talking
- 1:06:22about teaching your wife how to drive off
- 1:06:24road. And so she does go off road.
- 1:06:26The reason why I asked that is,
- 1:06:28my wife doesn't want to have
- 1:06:29any part of going off road.
- 1:06:32I went up a steep
- 1:06:33embankment, uh, once before the,
- 1:06:36the Jeep was lifted and everything. And
- 1:06:38my wife almost bailed out. I think,
- 1:06:40uh, she got, I think she said he eject
- 1:06:42twice before I got it leveled out,
- 1:06:44you know, the 30 Jack,
- 1:06:45then the the the top would have got off
- 1:06:47and she would have been gone.
- 1:06:49Yeah. You know, one of the very early
- 1:06:52times in a relationship with my wife,
- 1:06:54we, uh, went off-roading by ourselves in
- 1:06:59February and southwest Idaho,
- 1:07:01which, you know, this is like the strikes
- 1:07:04are piling up against us. Yeah.
- 1:07:06Eventually we got high centers and it was
- 1:07:10probably well below freezing.
- 1:07:12The frame was literally frozen to the
- 1:07:14ground and there was no hope of getting
- 1:07:17that vehicle recovered.
- 1:07:19Fortunately, I always have my,
- 1:07:21my bug out bags.
- 1:07:22I had my sleeping bag, some food and
- 1:07:23blankets and all the
- 1:07:24emergency stuff in the
- 1:07:25back end of the Jeep. So it was ready.
- 1:07:27So we had a relatively comfortable night
- 1:07:31despite the freezing temperatures and
- 1:07:33blowing wind and the Jeep
- 1:07:34that was not quite level. Uh,
- 1:07:37but ever since then it's just been one
- 1:07:39adventure after another.
- 1:07:40So just for clarification in down in
- 1:07:44Houston where we don't have weather like
- 1:07:45that, uh, and we, and we go out with a
- 1:07:47girl, we run out of gas.
- 1:07:49But I guess in Idaho,
- 1:07:51what you do is you high center the
- 1:07:52vehicle and sleep overnight.
- 1:07:55That's right. You wait for a time to come
- 1:07:57around and reassess the situation.
- 1:08:01We were thoroughly stuck. There was no
- 1:08:03doubt about that. Oh yeah.
- 1:08:05I have no doubt a skilled
- 1:08:06driver can stick a vehicle.
- 1:08:10That's right. When I get stuck, it is
- 1:08:12really, really stuck. Well, great, Dan.
- 1:08:15That's funny. Uh,
- 1:08:17we're going to have to get you on again
- 1:08:19because I can tell there's some, uh,
- 1:08:20there's some more
- 1:08:21stories that you can tell.
- 1:08:22Is there anything you want to tell our
- 1:08:24listeners before we wrap it up?
- 1:08:26Well, now I just encourage everybody to
- 1:08:27go check out the four by four podcast.com
- 1:08:30and check out all the episodes. You can
- 1:08:32find it in iTunes. Uh, we're on Facebook,
- 1:08:35uh, I think it's facebook.com slash the
- 1:08:38four by four podcast.
- 1:08:40Nice and easy. I think we're on Twitter
- 1:08:43and see also Google plus,
- 1:08:46you know, there's not a whole lot of
- 1:08:47interaction there just because it's kind
- 1:08:50of, it's Google plus.
- 1:08:52Google plus is still kind of a morphing
- 1:08:54and developing creature.
- 1:08:57It's because there wasn't
- 1:08:58enough Facebook, you know,
- 1:08:59but yeah, about what's something else. I
- 1:09:01really liked Google plus,
- 1:09:02but it's still just kind of a developing
- 1:09:04community. Yeah, it really is.
- 1:09:06Lately we've been doing the, uh,
- 1:09:08the off-roading question of the day and
- 1:09:09the off-roading answer of the day kind
- 1:09:11of summarize everybody's answers. Lots of
- 1:09:13good things. Talk about, you know,
- 1:09:16manual verse automatic
- 1:09:17transmission. Uh, let's see.
- 1:09:19We also talked about do you change your
- 1:09:21own oil kind of modification?
- 1:09:23Would you make today if you could, lots
- 1:09:26of different things.
- 1:09:28It's a new question every day and a lot
- 1:09:29of interaction on Twitter and especially
- 1:09:31Facebook. So lots of
- 1:09:33things to check out, you know,
- 1:09:34we don't have a forum for the four by
- 1:09:36four podcast or anything. It's just,
- 1:09:38just a hobby for me, not a business. Uh,
- 1:09:41it'd be great if hobby could pay for
- 1:09:42yourself, but you know,
- 1:09:44that's not why I do it.
- 1:09:44I just enjoy talking about off-roading
- 1:09:46with folks. Yeah,
- 1:09:47that's great. Well, Dan,
- 1:09:49thanks a lot. And, uh, again, thanks for
- 1:09:51being a guest on the, on the show. It,
- 1:09:53uh,
- 1:09:53it'll help me feel another week before I
- 1:09:55have to scramble around and find another
- 1:09:57guest. But you know,
- 1:09:59but you know how that is.
- 1:10:01Yeah, that's the thing.
- 1:10:02You got all of these people
- 1:10:04that you'd love to talk to,
- 1:10:05but just lining up schedules sometimes
- 1:10:07pretty difficult. You know,
- 1:10:08if work this didn't get in the way,
- 1:10:10you know, I always
- 1:10:11interrupt in real life.
- 1:10:14Well, thanks again, Dan. All
- 1:10:15right. We'll talk to you later.
- 1:10:17We welcome and look forward to your
- 1:10:18questions and comments dial 5 3 0 6 7 5 4
- 1:10:231 0 2 5 3 0 6 7 5 4 1 0 2 and leave your
- 1:10:29message on our 24 by seven voicemail.
- 1:10:33Well, that's our show. And
- 1:10:34I want to thank Dan again,
- 1:10:36not only for being on our
- 1:10:37show and doing the interview,
- 1:10:38but also being a member of our armed
- 1:10:40services and protecting this country.
- 1:10:42And, uh, you know, if nothing else,
- 1:10:44just being in the desert and sweating his
- 1:10:46ass off because I know it gets hot
- 1:10:48here. Uh, fortunately
- 1:10:50this, uh, this past Friday,
- 1:10:52when MS.
- 1:10:53Moriburg and I were
- 1:10:54installing the 4.0 liter,
- 1:10:57uh, or taking the 4.0 liter out and
- 1:11:00putting him the 4.1 liter,
- 1:11:02I had a little bit of rain that morning,
- 1:11:04so it wasn't too terribly hot.
- 1:11:06It got that way towards the afternoon and
- 1:11:08I'm not kidding you, man. Uh,
- 1:11:10I stood there and
- 1:11:12asked questions and, uh,
- 1:11:14told jokes and held a
- 1:11:16flashlight in 10 hours.
- 1:11:19Matt took that 4.0 out,
- 1:11:22put the 4.1 in and got
- 1:11:26it started and running.
- 1:11:27We just have a slight little issue with
- 1:11:29it where it's not performing like we
- 1:11:31expected to. So trying to get that lined
- 1:11:34out, you know, how, you know,
- 1:11:34how engine swaps are,
- 1:11:35who knows what it is. Uh,
- 1:11:37but hopefully by next week we'll have
- 1:11:39some better, better news on that.
- 1:11:41Maybe even sooner.
- 1:11:44So, uh, just want to take a moment to
- 1:11:46remind you that we're on Facebook.
- 1:11:48So you can friend us, uh, at
- 1:11:51Facebook.com slash XJ talk,
- 1:11:53or on the Twitter, uh,
- 1:11:55Twitter.com slash XJ talk.
- 1:11:58And if you don't want to type that in,
- 1:12:00you can just go to XJ talk.com.
- 1:12:03The, the reason why the podcast is here,
- 1:12:05the forum about Jeeps
- 1:12:07and Cherokees and gosh,
- 1:12:09technical stuff and fun and jokes and,
- 1:12:12uh, well, I won't say anything else.
- 1:12:14So, uh, you can go
- 1:12:15there and at the very top,
- 1:12:17there's little icons that you
- 1:12:18can click on, including, uh,
- 1:12:20getting to this podcast. Of course,
- 1:12:22this podcast is available on iTunes and
- 1:12:25various other outlets,
- 1:12:26but you can just go to
- 1:12:27podcasts.xjtalk.com and,
- 1:12:32uh, you can go directly from the site or
- 1:12:33you can download it onto your smartphone.
- 1:12:37So anyway, till next week, we hope you
- 1:12:39have a very good week and thank you again
- 1:12:41for listening to the show.
- 1:12:42[inaudible]
- 1:13:04I just wanted to say XJ talk
- 1:13:06is the best site in the world.
- 1:13:09And if you think you know
- 1:13:11a better site, by the way,
- 1:13:14this is big M three 50.
- 1:13:16Bye.
- 1:13:19Yeah, I guess green Jeeps are okay.