Uwharrie!

On the way home on Sunday, we stopped by Uwharrie National Forest with a few friends, Jeff, Mike, and Dante. Never having been "really" 4 wheeling, I had no idea what to expect. On the way in we stopped by the main outpost, got some maps, aired down the tires, disconnected the swaybars, and took off up the mountain. Dante, having been there numerous times, led the way to the hardest trail, Daniel. I was definitely skeptical of the Jeep making it over all the obstacles and rocks, but it took it like a champ! We finally found the secret of wheeling a Jeep without lockers, left foot braking. Dragging your left foot on the brake while trying to go up a slippery rock/hill slows down the tire trying to spin, and lets grab instead of it just spinning like crazy. Also, it really is about the driving and not your equipment. Dante with his mostly stock, lockerless, 4 door ran through all the obstacles like they were a cobblestone road.

We decided to keep Zoey in the back of the Jeep instead of tying her up at the campsite, and despite the constant bouncing in the back of the Jeep, I think she had fun. During one of the rock crawls at Kodak rock, she decided she wanted to sit in the front seat. Then exactly at the worst possible time, she slipped and popped the Jeep into neutral. It was a little scary at the time, as I thought I broke something :) I took plenty of pics as it was a beautiful day. Thats not a polarizer filter, the sky really was that blue. I realized afterwards I took mostly pics of our Jeep and Jeffs. Dante with his superior 4 wheeling skillz was always up over the rocks and then walking back to help the rest of us, so I only got 1 pic of his Jeep.

View the pictures using Picasa instead

Lots of Wheeling in Raleigh

Having come up to Raleigh for the week, we decided to meet up with some friends and head out to some in town 4 wheeling. The good power line trails are way closer to Raleigh then they are to us in Atlanta. There are some great trails and mud 15 mins out from house. We finally learned what the Jeep could really do....its a lot.

We started off with a pretty huge hill, and after a few tries to get the approach right, Cathy climbed right up! We finished off the ride playing in the mud. Wish we would have kept the damn windows on, as everything including the interior got covered with mud :) Took quite a few pics. Only a few really good ones, but I'm posting em all as it was all good fun.

View the pictures using Picasa instead

Ding, Jeep is done!

So after about 3 weeks of being down, and probably 12-14 hours of total work, the lift is on. I worked on it about 2 hours a day, every 3rd day, lol. I guess thats the nice thing about having plenty of other cars to drive. I took the car to 4wheelparts after the install to get the caster and pinion angles set during the alignment. Figured the $100 was well spent, as never having even seen a stock Jeep, I didn't know exactly what the pinion angle should be. They ended up finding that the front trackbar bushing was busted, something I missed during the install, so the $$ was well spent. Another $200 later, we had a pimpy adjustable front trackbar with spherical ends.

We took the Jeep out yesterday for its maiden voyage, up to the Apple festival in Ellijay. While the festival was fun, our search for some 4 wheeling in that area was a big fat FAIL. We ended up playing in some construction sites and gravel roads and found out the lift was a success. The Jeep is a beast now. Once we add the front locker to it shortly, it will be pretty much unstoppable.

Here are a few pictures in "highway" mode with the top up.

Working on the Jeep is harder then I thought

Almost done putting the Jeep back together now. We got a heck of a deal on it through craigslist so I couldn't resist pulling the trigger. Its a 4" Superlift with the RockRunner upgraded adjustable control arms.

Figured with the Jeep everything is so much bigger, that it all should just be easier. Well actually couple of those bigger things just make it a pain the ass. The springs are almost 3 freaking feet tall :) Between that, the gigantic control arm that was a pain to put in, to the giant axle, dang.

Last Sunday I started by taking the front suspension off. The nice thing about the big garage and 4 cars, is I can put it back together when I want. Today I finished installing the front suspension and the new extended brake lines. I still have to finish up the rear and then do some brake bleeding. We're going out of town this coming up weekend, so it probably won't be completed for a few more weeks. I'll have some "in progress" pics up soon.

More 4 Wheeling!

Our friends Jeff and Anna came into town from Raleigh for the long weekend. We went out on the town for a few days and went for some more serious 4 Wheeling on Saturday. I kicked myself the whole time for forgetting my camera for our day through Atlanta on Friday and fireworks in the Decatur square. Next time we go out on the town I'll be sure to bring it.

I only got a few good pictures on Saturday as it was very sunny. Time for a polarizer filter. Jeff's Jeep has a 4" lift with some big ol' 35" tires and right now can handle a bit more the Cathy's. Its got built in "button press" axle lockers and it was awesome watching it climb up a few sandy hills where Cathy had some issues. He also tore through some serious mud. Made for a good shot.

I got all jealous and just happened to score a sweet 4" lift on craigslist the very next day, so soon we'll be right there!

"4 Wheeling"

Since it was so nice yesterday, we decided to take the Jeep out for a little bit of 4 wheeling. A few weeks ago, we scouted this area about 30 mins from the house, and there looked to be a good bit of fun trails. Anything from mild to "break your car".

This was my first time doing some serious off road and it was a friggin blast! The Jeep is way more capable off road then I thought it would be considering the mild lift/mods. In one spot, we got out of the truck to inspect the road and were both a good bit cautious about the coming up maneuver. After getting into the truck, it went through it in about 0.2 seconds. It was easy!

Now I'm really looking forward to 4th of July weekend as we'll be doing a lot more serious wheeling when some friends from Raleigh come down to visit in their newly lifted Jeep Unlimited

The Jeep has some new tunes

After driving the Jeep for about a month now with the crappy stock stereo it was time to upgrade! Out went the crappy OEM tape player and the blown paper speakers. In its place we installed a nice Kenwood CD player, Polk speakers, a hardwired XM Radio setup, and a Infinity Basslink subwoofer. I ran all the wires nice and neat under the dash and carpet and the install looks great.

We ended up picking the Basslink over a traditional sub in a box for the space saving design, as well as the integrated amp. It has 2 10's in that tiny box, and packs quite a punch. After hearing it in the open top Jeep, I went ahead and ordered one for my Mazda.

This whole setup works AWESOME. We got to the point that driving 50 on the road, you can't hear the road noise. Only awesome music. It can get to the point where it hurts your ears without distortion with plenty of thump. We'll be the ones pissing people off at stoplights :) Cathy loves it!

I also got off my ass and started to arrange the workroom that is right off the garage. I still have to get a "house tools" set to fill up that corkboard. At least now, I have a workbench to get some stuff done. Once we get the new cabinets for the kitchen, the old ones will go in here.

News, Updates, etc

So its been a busy back half of April for us. We've continued on the house repaint by starting on the dining room and front hallway. We also finally found a SWEET Jeep for Cathy. 1998 Wrangler in great shape. It has an ARB bumper, Warn winch, new 33" tires, and a 20k mile motor/transmission. We already threw on some wheel spacers for a wider/better stance, and the suspension lift gets here next week. The below pic is "pre spacers". Looks much better now.

I also broke my hand at soccer. Blocked a shot, dove after the rebound and got kicked right in the left pinky. 6 weeks in a splint, so the racing is once again put on hold. At least I'll save some money! The car should have the new HDTV in-car cam for the next event, as well as the new splitter. Should be even faster then last time and have awesome video to boot. The next even is May 31st at Road Atlanta.

Pic of the Jeep and a recent one of Zoey. I'll take some shots of the Jeep "post spacers" this weekend, and finally get some of the painted walls to go with our "before" shots.