Expedition Scrambler..?
- Thread starter jeepdreamer
- Start date
jeffs396
mini Scrambler
- City
- NE
- State
- OH
if she is only 50% German... doesnt that mean she only needs half the dress???
I'll ask her which half, upper or lower!
I'm half German, but you aren't getting me in no white dress!
Sorry Ted, we've gotten a little off track here...I see cleavage & get a little crazy
Back to your regularly scheduled build thread!
- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
- City
- Colorado Springs
- State
- CO
Chicken or egg..?
Hey guys,
I'm still waiting for my stuff to arrive from the states so there really isn't any progress to report on. I've been occupying my time getting ready for my next visit to 'Stan and generally just drinking and chasing skirts... Lol. I have been thinking over something maybe someone could offer some advice on? I'd really like to keep the down time to a minimum when it comes to swapping in the Nv4500 trans but I'm wondering about driveshaft ordering. Since the new set up will be a good bit longer (NV/BlackBox/Dana 300) does anyone know if it's possible to order shafts that will work so it all arrives at the right time? I know thats not ideal but could it be done?? The auto center here is a joke, only 4 bays that are almost always full. So minimizing the amount of time there is a requirement.
Also, I'm thinking of finding a kit(?) to put the parking brake on the rear of the t-case. Anyone done this yet?
Hey guys,
I'm still waiting for my stuff to arrive from the states so there really isn't any progress to report on. I've been occupying my time getting ready for my next visit to 'Stan and generally just drinking and chasing skirts... Lol. I have been thinking over something maybe someone could offer some advice on? I'd really like to keep the down time to a minimum when it comes to swapping in the Nv4500 trans but I'm wondering about driveshaft ordering. Since the new set up will be a good bit longer (NV/BlackBox/Dana 300) does anyone know if it's possible to order shafts that will work so it all arrives at the right time? I know thats not ideal but could it be done?? The auto center here is a joke, only 4 bays that are almost always full. So minimizing the amount of time there is a requirement.
Also, I'm thinking of finding a kit(?) to put the parking brake on the rear of the t-case. Anyone done this yet?
- City
- Colorado Springs
- State
- CO
Updates with pics and progress...
Hi Guys,
Sorry, been a long while since I've made the time to update this thread. Work has me busy as a long tailled cat in a room full of rocking chairs and when thats not going on I've been chasing...uh, skirts. Blush. LOL! Funny how beautiful European women will pull a mans mind away from his hobby...! But I have manages to get some small things done lately.
So far I can't complain about it running...the fuel issues I had before have magically dissappeared with no explination which is nice. I do desparitaly need to locate some ball joints since the ones I have are shot! Like driving a sailboat down the Autobahn is fun!
Lets see... what have I done lately...?
I replaced the rat pooped to death stereo with a new one that lets me fire my I[hone/Ipod through it. That makes having non German music nice! These guys sure seem stuck on the bad 80s tunes...LOL! And I went to the store yesterday and as a 4th of July present I bought some new dash speakers and a pair of subs that I hope will work well. The problem with subs traditionally is the spave they take up. Plus you have to find an amp to push them etc... While wandering around I stumbled across something that "may" work but I'm not 100% sold yet and still have to install them. These are self powered subs that are fairly compact and hopefully will sound ok. I'm not into the BoomBoomBOOM junk... but when the tops off it would be nice to hear the entire spectrum of sounds. I'll add picks of the sub units so you can see what I'm talkking about.
The biggest project on the workbench has been my exo-roof rack to hold my RTT. This stinkin' tent has been stealing a large chunk of my bedroom for far to long and it is time to get it in use!And while it has pretty much rained everyday for the last month and a half... I still want to go camping very bad! So the begingin was finding a shop locally that could help me bend the tubing. I got very lucky and found a great guy just outside the gate and he has been very patient with my kindergarten sketches and vague ideas. So far I am very happy with all he has done and I'm waiting on the rear "bumper" to be finsihed so I can attach the last of the three upright hoops.
Let me say this now since I am sure there will be a heard of folks that will cry foul on this build.
This may look like an exo cage but it is not, and never has been intended to be a safety item. Its sole purpose is to mount my RTT and various other junk so I don't have stuff piled inside the beast. To that end and with a very small buget in play I am using what I can afford. The tubing is not chromolly or DOM like many will insist...just good lod HREW of the 1 1/2" variety. But with the proper gussets and logic applied I think it will suffice on a buget I can handle.
The only other things I have done were swap the factory CJ mirrors for some YJ ones mounted to the doors. The location of the front hoop dictated the original mirrors wouldn't work. So a long story short I pulled the ones off my YJs half doors and made them work. They fit ok but doing this required swapping the mirror heads left for right. Eventually I will get a replacment set for the half doors and just go that route. Sure, no doors means no mirrors but I rarely run without them on.
So let me try and upload pics and see where I get...And as always... please offer any thoughts or suggestions.! Thaks guys!
Ted
Hi Guys,
Sorry, been a long while since I've made the time to update this thread. Work has me busy as a long tailled cat in a room full of rocking chairs and when thats not going on I've been chasing...uh, skirts. Blush. LOL! Funny how beautiful European women will pull a mans mind away from his hobby...! But I have manages to get some small things done lately.
So far I can't complain about it running...the fuel issues I had before have magically dissappeared with no explination which is nice. I do desparitaly need to locate some ball joints since the ones I have are shot! Like driving a sailboat down the Autobahn is fun!
Lets see... what have I done lately...?
I replaced the rat pooped to death stereo with a new one that lets me fire my I[hone/Ipod through it. That makes having non German music nice! These guys sure seem stuck on the bad 80s tunes...LOL! And I went to the store yesterday and as a 4th of July present I bought some new dash speakers and a pair of subs that I hope will work well. The problem with subs traditionally is the spave they take up. Plus you have to find an amp to push them etc... While wandering around I stumbled across something that "may" work but I'm not 100% sold yet and still have to install them. These are self powered subs that are fairly compact and hopefully will sound ok. I'm not into the BoomBoomBOOM junk... but when the tops off it would be nice to hear the entire spectrum of sounds. I'll add picks of the sub units so you can see what I'm talkking about.
The biggest project on the workbench has been my exo-roof rack to hold my RTT. This stinkin' tent has been stealing a large chunk of my bedroom for far to long and it is time to get it in use!And while it has pretty much rained everyday for the last month and a half... I still want to go camping very bad! So the begingin was finding a shop locally that could help me bend the tubing. I got very lucky and found a great guy just outside the gate and he has been very patient with my kindergarten sketches and vague ideas. So far I am very happy with all he has done and I'm waiting on the rear "bumper" to be finsihed so I can attach the last of the three upright hoops.
Let me say this now since I am sure there will be a heard of folks that will cry foul on this build.
This may look like an exo cage but it is not, and never has been intended to be a safety item. Its sole purpose is to mount my RTT and various other junk so I don't have stuff piled inside the beast. To that end and with a very small buget in play I am using what I can afford. The tubing is not chromolly or DOM like many will insist...just good lod HREW of the 1 1/2" variety. But with the proper gussets and logic applied I think it will suffice on a buget I can handle.
The only other things I have done were swap the factory CJ mirrors for some YJ ones mounted to the doors. The location of the front hoop dictated the original mirrors wouldn't work. So a long story short I pulled the ones off my YJs half doors and made them work. They fit ok but doing this required swapping the mirror heads left for right. Eventually I will get a replacment set for the half doors and just go that route. Sure, no doors means no mirrors but I rarely run without them on.
So let me try and upload pics and see where I get...And as always... please offer any thoughts or suggestions.! Thaks guys!
Ted
- City
- Colorado Springs
- State
- CO
pics... the sequel
more pics...
more pics...
- City
- Colorado Springs
- State
- CO
Wrong half...
Thanks Randy! That's actually the front half of the rack which will serve as the extra junk holder. The rear which is still being bent will be dedicated to the RTT. It's kind of a figure it out as i go deal with no real working plan, just a cobbled collection of ideas from various inspirations.
I'm curious if you had to swap your mirror heads when you did your YJ swap? And where did you mount yours?
Thanks Randy! That's actually the front half of the rack which will serve as the extra junk holder. The rear which is still being bent will be dedicated to the RTT. It's kind of a figure it out as i go deal with no real working plan, just a cobbled collection of ideas from various inspirations.
I'm curious if you had to swap your mirror heads when you did your YJ swap? And where did you mount yours?
- City
- Redmond
- State
- OR
That sounds even better! a full length rack...nice.
I mounted my mirrors opposite of yours- I had to drill and tap 3 holes each side. That's how they are mounted on the YJ's. They follow the contour of the hinge that way. I guess you could just swap the heads over- they do unbolt easily.
I mounted my mirrors opposite of yours- I had to drill and tap 3 holes each side. That's how they are mounted on the YJ's. They follow the contour of the hinge that way. I guess you could just swap the heads over- they do unbolt easily.
- City
- Colorado Springs
- State
- CO
ah Ha!
Yeah... I see what you did now. I guess I took the lazy way out since I really hate drilling and tapping holes. My luck is usually little with it too...so I tried to just reuse the existing rear most hinge hole...
Yeah... I see what you did now. I guess I took the lazy way out since I really hate drilling and tapping holes. My luck is usually little with it too...so I tried to just reuse the existing rear most hinge hole...
- City
- Colorado Springs
- State
- CO
The long, slow drag...
Well,
Sorry to any that have been following along here for my extreme lack of progress. I am heading off to a school at the end of this month and will likely be headed to Afganistan shortly after that. Since the ability to get parts here is the sole realm of the postal service I am at a semi-stand still. And with the tranny/tcase being on its last leg I can't even drive it for fun. I've been trying to get Northwest fab to answer any of my several emails so I can at least order the new input for the crawler box but they seem to be AWOL. I have been doing the internet thing to try and assemble a list of parts and stuff so that hopefully while I am deployed I can get it all in one spot ready to mail here. I'll have a pile of work waiting when I do get at it but sometimes my job takes a front seat.
I tried to get a little done on the roof rack/RTT mount today but only managed a little. SPace at the shop is very limited and there is always a line of folks waiting. Tomorrow may see a little more since I am still parked inside. LOL! Here are a couple pics from todays minor progress... More later.
Well,
Sorry to any that have been following along here for my extreme lack of progress. I am heading off to a school at the end of this month and will likely be headed to Afganistan shortly after that. Since the ability to get parts here is the sole realm of the postal service I am at a semi-stand still. And with the tranny/tcase being on its last leg I can't even drive it for fun. I've been trying to get Northwest fab to answer any of my several emails so I can at least order the new input for the crawler box but they seem to be AWOL. I have been doing the internet thing to try and assemble a list of parts and stuff so that hopefully while I am deployed I can get it all in one spot ready to mail here. I'll have a pile of work waiting when I do get at it but sometimes my job takes a front seat.
I tried to get a little done on the roof rack/RTT mount today but only managed a little. SPace at the shop is very limited and there is always a line of folks waiting. Tomorrow may see a little more since I am still parked inside. LOL! Here are a couple pics from todays minor progress... More later.
- City
- Colorado Springs
- State
- CO
"hey you..."
Today was one of those "hey you... can you lend me a hand" days at the shop. I managed to get in and set up to start working without to much hassle and was even a little excited. If anyone has ever tried to work in a military Auto crafts shop you'll understand how my day went. I don't normally mind lending a hand for a moment or offering some advice/explaining how to do something.. even lending some of my tools. But today was a bit much. Folks stopping by to "chat" (bs) or ask if I am a welder (with me in the mask and holding the mig)... that is usually expected. But I seemed to spend much of today helping people bleed brakes or repair fuel lines instead of working on my own jeep.
But... I did manage to make a little more progress. Much of what you don't see is me scratching my head looking at it or wishing I had bigger, stronger welding magnets to help hold things in place while I tacked them together. Its still far from done but its starting to finally take shape. Maybe I will get some work done during the week... I'd like to at least get the rear tie-in/bumper deal attached and maybe the front rack area more rack-like?
But I leave for a school this weekend and will be gone a couple weeks. When I get back the clock will be ticking until I deploy so it will be rush, rush, rush... Heres some pics...
I also want to add this little thought.. I'm not really happy with how this is turning out. Will it function and serve its purpose? Sure. But not having access to a tubing bender, building this on a tiny budget, and having to start/stop/clean up after each work session and I'm not liking the fial product. While it es definitaly resembling an exo cage it is by no means anything like one when it comes to strength. Asthetically I really don't like the 90* bends and the way it doesn't follow the lines of the top. I also don't like that the rear hoop stringers were too short by about 4-6 inches. It makes the visual flow all screwy. And having the tie-ins (middle and rear) being to short which requires the spacers doesn't make me smile either. It will do the job for now but I honestly see myself tossing it into the scrap heap when I am back home and have a garage of my own again...At least I'm learning with this..
Today was one of those "hey you... can you lend me a hand" days at the shop. I managed to get in and set up to start working without to much hassle and was even a little excited. If anyone has ever tried to work in a military Auto crafts shop you'll understand how my day went. I don't normally mind lending a hand for a moment or offering some advice/explaining how to do something.. even lending some of my tools. But today was a bit much. Folks stopping by to "chat" (bs) or ask if I am a welder (with me in the mask and holding the mig)... that is usually expected. But I seemed to spend much of today helping people bleed brakes or repair fuel lines instead of working on my own jeep.
But... I did manage to make a little more progress. Much of what you don't see is me scratching my head looking at it or wishing I had bigger, stronger welding magnets to help hold things in place while I tacked them together. Its still far from done but its starting to finally take shape. Maybe I will get some work done during the week... I'd like to at least get the rear tie-in/bumper deal attached and maybe the front rack area more rack-like?
But I leave for a school this weekend and will be gone a couple weeks. When I get back the clock will be ticking until I deploy so it will be rush, rush, rush... Heres some pics... I also want to add this little thought.. I'm not really happy with how this is turning out. Will it function and serve its purpose? Sure. But not having access to a tubing bender, building this on a tiny budget, and having to start/stop/clean up after each work session and I'm not liking the fial product. While it es definitaly resembling an exo cage it is by no means anything like one when it comes to strength. Asthetically I really don't like the 90* bends and the way it doesn't follow the lines of the top. I also don't like that the rear hoop stringers were too short by about 4-6 inches. It makes the visual flow all screwy. And having the tie-ins (middle and rear) being to short which requires the spacers doesn't make me smile either. It will do the job for now but I honestly see myself tossing it into the scrap heap when I am back home and have a garage of my own again...At least I'm learning with this..
- City
- Redmond
- State
- OR
A lot of progress, but I do agree with you, it looks a little "square". To make an Exo cage look good, you have to be really close to the body lines. They are also one of the hardest cages to make aesthetically pleasing.
Learning is a good thing... I don't want to talk about all the bends i ended up cutting off and throwing away in my learning curve.
Learning is a good thing... I don't want to talk about all the bends i ended up cutting off and throwing away in my learning curve.
- City
- Colorado Springs
- State
- CO
learning the wrong way...
Yeah, square is right. Maybe I'll get lucky and it won't look quite so bad once its painted and blends in a little. I will most likely be redoing this in the future but I really have to get the RTT mounted so it gets out of my bedroom!
Yeah, square is right. Maybe I'll get lucky and it won't look quite so bad once its painted and blends in a little. I will most likely be redoing this in the future but I really have to get the RTT mounted so it gets out of my bedroom!
- City
- Colorado Springs
- State
- CO
Tired...spare me!
So I went by the shop after work today to see if I could do a little something. Not a lot more than some head scratching and figuring out how to tie the back "bumper-ish" hoop into the frame. By the time I got rolling a litte and gor the old reciever hitch plates I had used for the old temp. bumper cut off and cleaned up, made the two stubby tie ins, and got it sorta posistioned I only had time to tack them in. Nothing worth pictures so sorry.
It also dawned on me that I really need to address the spare tire mounting somehow. While there will likely be room on the roof in front of the tent I really (REALLY) don't want the weight up there. Not to mention having to find some way to muscle that 35" beast up there! So then I got to looking at how the rackbends and what not and started to ponder building a swing out off of that. The two obvious possibilties would be a swing out or a swing UP? I kinda nixed the Up swinging one since I think it would be a face smasher between the rear hatch and especially if the tent is deployed. So that kinda leaves the side swing one. Since there still has to be new spacers made to account for the height differences I ran into with the tubing (see pics. Its temp spaced by the big oval 2" bar stock) I thought "why not use those as the swing outs anchor points?". Instead of using solid stock I could use thick wall square 2" tubing. Maybe grind the rear most end into dog ears to accept a bolt and find some way to let it swing free like bearings...? I haven't really started thinking about this to hard yet but the sketch paper will come out and I'll play with some ideas. Sure wish I had JScherbs computer skills...LOL! If you look at the pics you'll see the rear "bumper-ish" part is basically a bug U. If I made two more of those I could tie them into either side and mount the tire on that. If I did it right I may even be able to make it so it (ok... start chuckling now) swings both ways.?. Not sure just yet.
I have some other things to do this weekend so I don't know how much of what I will get done soon. I do REALLY want to get the tent on so I can not have to worry about it.... Thats all for today...
So I went by the shop after work today to see if I could do a little something. Not a lot more than some head scratching and figuring out how to tie the back "bumper-ish" hoop into the frame. By the time I got rolling a litte and gor the old reciever hitch plates I had used for the old temp. bumper cut off and cleaned up, made the two stubby tie ins, and got it sorta posistioned I only had time to tack them in. Nothing worth pictures so sorry.
It also dawned on me that I really need to address the spare tire mounting somehow. While there will likely be room on the roof in front of the tent I really (REALLY) don't want the weight up there. Not to mention having to find some way to muscle that 35" beast up there! So then I got to looking at how the rackbends and what not and started to ponder building a swing out off of that. The two obvious possibilties would be a swing out or a swing UP? I kinda nixed the Up swinging one since I think it would be a face smasher between the rear hatch and especially if the tent is deployed. So that kinda leaves the side swing one. Since there still has to be new spacers made to account for the height differences I ran into with the tubing (see pics. Its temp spaced by the big oval 2" bar stock) I thought "why not use those as the swing outs anchor points?". Instead of using solid stock I could use thick wall square 2" tubing. Maybe grind the rear most end into dog ears to accept a bolt and find some way to let it swing free like bearings...? I haven't really started thinking about this to hard yet but the sketch paper will come out and I'll play with some ideas. Sure wish I had JScherbs computer skills...LOL! If you look at the pics you'll see the rear "bumper-ish" part is basically a bug U. If I made two more of those I could tie them into either side and mount the tire on that. If I did it right I may even be able to make it so it (ok... start chuckling now) swings both ways.?. Not sure just yet.
I have some other things to do this weekend so I don't know how much of what I will get done soon. I do REALLY want to get the tent on so I can not have to worry about it.... Thats all for today...
trust
PITA
- City
- White Rock
- State
- NM
for your spare check ou the hitch gate, or hitchrack, same company, they make a swing out that goes in your receiver. They are way expensive but not that hard to reverse engineer. I made one for my daughter's scout 800 that works, not quite as elegant and much heavier than it needs to be but also not that difficult to make a functional clone. I bought material to build one for my scrambler for longer trips but I probably wont build it since I put the spare back on the roll bar.
I hope you get the RTT mounted up and slept in, I've been intrigued, and looked at several at SEMA last year and Moab this year but with a fairly flexy jeep on 35s I wonder about sway while up there, especially in high winds. Be interested in your impressions.
Be careful on the next deployment, we'll be thinking of you
I hope you get the RTT mounted up and slept in, I've been intrigued, and looked at several at SEMA last year and Moab this year but with a fairly flexy jeep on 35s I wonder about sway while up there, especially in high winds. Be interested in your impressions.
Be careful on the next deployment, we'll be thinking of you
- City
- Colorado Springs
- State
- CO
Found it...
Trust... Thanks for the input. I looked at the hitchgate and honestly don't think the design is that great. With all that loaded weight on one end it seems only a matter of time before the hinge would begin to fail? But I think I found some pics of what I'm thinking of. Its actually Genrite's design in general but with my own made to fit needs. They also make a drop down design that showed me I really DON'T want that! lol!!
The original thought was having the "arms" of the swing out between the tire and the tub. After looking at the pics and mulling it over I kinda like the idea of the "arms" outside of the tire. That could allow me to add other things without having to go around that big 'ol spare. Even something simple like hanging a trash bag or clothes to dry... And while I am still thinking about the opens both ways option and how to mount it to the rack so it swings (some kind of bearings I'm thinking) smoothly... at least now I have a better idea. The gears are turning... now if only I can get the time!!!
Trust... Thanks for the input. I looked at the hitchgate and honestly don't think the design is that great. With all that loaded weight on one end it seems only a matter of time before the hinge would begin to fail? But I think I found some pics of what I'm thinking of. Its actually Genrite's design in general but with my own made to fit needs. They also make a drop down design that showed me I really DON'T want that! lol!!
The original thought was having the "arms" of the swing out between the tire and the tub. After looking at the pics and mulling it over I kinda like the idea of the "arms" outside of the tire. That could allow me to add other things without having to go around that big 'ol spare. Even something simple like hanging a trash bag or clothes to dry... And while I am still thinking about the opens both ways option and how to mount it to the rack so it swings (some kind of bearings I'm thinking) smoothly... at least now I have a better idea. The gears are turning... now if only I can get the time!!!
- City
- Colorado Springs
- State
- CO
RTTs, Out riggers, and boxes.. oh my!
I forgot to mention that it has been my intention to build some out riggers to stabalize the jeep when the RTT is deployed. As tall as it is and having a pretty soft suspention I can only imagine how much movement a high wind would generate. Not to mention if the GF comes along and is... ahem, nice to me.
I may not get into that if I can't start making this thing look a little better though. I dropped off another request at my steel guy so I can work on the swing out. It will be hard to do since I don't have "My" shop... Getting charged 6 bucks an hour to weld when much of that time is spent head scratching or trial fitting, grinding, etc gets expensive. Not sure if I can have a chat with them about that but I'm gonna try. Last time I was there for about 2 1/2 hours and the end result was about 8 tack welds and almost 20 bucks.
I went and picked up some grinding wheels and what not at the German version of Home depot and spotted some really neat, super lite weight storage boxes that may help with some of my storage issues. I hate to have more weight up in the rack than I need so maybe some of these can be used to hold some of the bulky, lighter stuff like sleeping bags or cookware etc.?. I'm not sure how they would hold up to heavy stuff like parts or tools or some of my recovery gear since they are just thin aluminum. They seem decently made but i need to go droo...uh, examine them some more. Here is the sales flyer I got on them but I don't speak or read German...sorry.
I forgot to mention that it has been my intention to build some out riggers to stabalize the jeep when the RTT is deployed. As tall as it is and having a pretty soft suspention I can only imagine how much movement a high wind would generate. Not to mention if the GF comes along and is... ahem, nice to me.
I may not get into that if I can't start making this thing look a little better though. I dropped off another request at my steel guy so I can work on the swing out. It will be hard to do since I don't have "My" shop... Getting charged 6 bucks an hour to weld when much of that time is spent head scratching or trial fitting, grinding, etc gets expensive. Not sure if I can have a chat with them about that but I'm gonna try. Last time I was there for about 2 1/2 hours and the end result was about 8 tack welds and almost 20 bucks.
I went and picked up some grinding wheels and what not at the German version of Home depot and spotted some really neat, super lite weight storage boxes that may help with some of my storage issues. I hate to have more weight up in the rack than I need so maybe some of these can be used to hold some of the bulky, lighter stuff like sleeping bags or cookware etc.?. I'm not sure how they would hold up to heavy stuff like parts or tools or some of my recovery gear since they are just thin aluminum. They seem decently made but i need to go droo...uh, examine them some more. Here is the sales flyer I got on them but I don't speak or read German...sorry.