Adventures with Peggy's jeep.

[sdsupilot]

Poughkeepsie Gulch was next. It was unexpectedly the most beautiful trail we went on. Overall not as difficult as expected. Everyone in our group was locked front and rear on 35s. If you take the bypass I don’t feel Poughkeepsie was any harder than anything else in the area. The wall was a decent obstacle. I initially missed the line and lifted a front tire. I wanted to drive it out up the hill, decided against that with my family on board. I don’t have picture of the wall yet. If I find some I will post them.

 

[sdsupilot]

The silver TJ struggled on the wall with old BFG KOs. He ordered a new set of KM3s after this trip. He came pretty close to a flop and was a bit skittish the rest of the day. Poughkeepsie ends at Lake Como. Beautiful little lake with oddly vibrant water color.

 

[mhinchliffe]

looks like the weather cooperated 100% for you all. Great stuff

 

[sdsupilot]

looks like the weather cooperated 100% for you all. Great stuff

We were really fortunate. Luckily we only got a bit of afternoon monsoons. It seems like I installed and removed the side panels to the top 15 times. Cold in the morning, then got hot, then rained and got cold at altitude. Then got hot heading back to town.

 

[sdsupilot]

After stopping at Lake Como we took California Pass over to Animas Forks. It was a really neat little mining town. Would have been crazy to see and operation of this scale running 100+ years ago.

 

[sdsupilot]

After Animas Forks we headed up to Engineer Pass. Saw someone a few of us would recognize. This area was quite a bit wider than the other canyons we followed. Saw horses and a camp at around 12,000 ft. Apparently sheep herders from Peru and other countries come here to watch the sheep.


Saw a visitor rescuing a JK. He came all the way from Moab.

As much as I would have liked to visit with him. They were waist deep crawling in a JK to fix the steering.

His YouTube channel tow mater has the video posted. Gives a good view into the area.

 

[sdsupilot]

After all that, it was back out lower engineer/mineral creek to the rental house. Still very surprised the Jeep rental places tell folks to take that to the alpine loop. We saw some very unhappy passengers on this stretch.



Got back and relaxed. Hiked and explored town the last day as everyone was done jeeping for the trip. But then we weren’t finished since the borrowed tow rig broke. I will say it was much more relaxing to drive the scrambler on 550 from Ouray to Durango than the half ton towing it.

 

[gpassida]

Great pics! I can't wait to get mine back out again!

 

[AdamH]

Amazing trip that the family will always remember

 

[sdsupilot]

It’s been pretty busy since we returned from Ouray. Went wheeling at Crossbar once. Took the Scout and a turbo TJ. The little TJ is a sleeper. It flat out destroyed the LS swapped scout in an impromptu race. My friend in Dallas makes the kit, this Jeep was the template. 225K miles making 248 hp to the tire.


After the completing the “big” wheeling trip of the year I’ve decided to fix some annoyances. When we were on “the wall” at Poughkeepsie I got rather hung up on a shock mount. I plan on outboarding the rear shocks. This should fix that and hopefully improve stability when loaded heavy in the rear.

In the front I am going to flip my U bolts. It’s a pain as there isn’t much clearance - at least on the diff side. Made some mock ups with wood after drawing in sketch up.


Should solve the clearance issue and make a nice spot for the bump stop. This gives just under 4” of up travel. The rubber bumps will compress a bit rather than a hard stop.

 

[mhinchliffe]

That right there is what it's all about. Great work, well thought out!

 

[sdsupilot]

Well, 25% done with project shock/u bolt clearance. Much cleaner look with much stronger parts. What spurred this on was noticing my “temporary” spring plates were deforming.

Ignore the plasma marks. I cut the shock stud off for my “temporary” new upper shock mounts. I say temporary as eventually I want to run the longer rear shocks. I just don’t want to run them bad enough right now to replace the fairly new existing shocks.



First up is disassembly. Removed shock and pulled old U bolts.


Then install new parts. Cut excess u bolt off.


Spent some time with my angle grinder to make a shock mount out of 1.5” square tubing. Looked great, welded together. Immediately noticed I welded the stud on the wrong side. Get grinder out again. Cut off parts and weld to correct side…. Normal fab stuff at least for me.

Now the end result and comparison to passenger side.

 

[sdsupilot]

As always with my projects, I needed some custom parts. I wanted a skid on the bottom to help retain the u bolts so they can’t move if I hit a rock with them. There are factory options, but I am using 2.5” square U bolts with 2” springs. Reason being is I wanted 5/8” U bolts vs 1/2” so I needed the width as 5/8” are not available for 2” springs. So I used some 2.5” .250 wall square tubing cut to cradle my springs. This will also allow me to use my new setup with 2.5” wide springs if I switch in the future.

Here are the parts I gathered up. Will probably use the axle tie down clip on the rear though.




Factory option I could use if I switch to 2.5” wide springs.

 

[John N]

As always with my projects, I needed some custom parts. I wanted a skid on the bottom to help retain the u bolts so they can’t move if I hit a rock with them. There are factory options, but I am using 2.5” square U bolts with 2” springs. Reason being is I wanted 5/8” U bolts vs 1/2” so I needed the width as 5/8” are not available for 2” springs. So I used some 2.5” .250 wall square tubing cut to cradle my springs. This will also allow me to use my new setup with 2.5” wide springs if I switch in the future.

Here are the parts I gathered up. Will probably use the axle tie down clip on the rear though.

View attachment 105601View attachment 105602View attachment 105603


Factory option I could use if I switch to 2.5” wide springs.View attachment 105604

I need to do this on mine.

 

[93_Fummins]

Looks great! I think that's about as clean of an option as you can get on the bottom clearance. Very nice!

 

[sdsupilot]

I need to do this on mine.

There has been some interest in this. I will probably make a separate thread for this with a parts list and drawings.

Looks great! I think that's about as clean of an option as you can get on the bottom clearance. Very nice!

Thanks but this was also your idea! I might have you help me with the parts drawing. Make it more readable.

 

[sdsupilot]

Finally had enough time to dive in and work the passenger side. Learned some things from the drivers side.

Yesterday I cut the old shock mount off the frame and welded my new one in place.


Today I made sure I had everything I needed, then took it apart and put it back together. I didn’t do any welding until I had the u bolts in place to see how everything fit.


I had much more complicated ideas on how to make it “better”. In the end simplicity won. Just an average day working in the driveway.

Tacked it in place then took to the bench to straighten up and weld. I capped the ends, should be plenty strong.

I let it cool down then painted it.

Installed and stepped back to admire the new setup.

It really turned out even better than I had planned. There is still plenty of room to take the differential cover. Everything is clean and clear. I did have to grind both the new top spring plate and u bolt cradle that is cast into the 44 so they fit properly. I could make a tweak to the plans, but for my setup I feel it’s optimal.

 

[sdsupilot]

We were able to test the new setup this past weekend at Byrds Adventure Center near Ozark Arkansas. Really neat place with all kinds of options for activities. They even have 2 landing strips and a restaurant.

They asked what vehicle I had for registration. After I told her she said the last time they had an 8 was for an event.

I took few pictures as we spent most of the time spotting. It was a smaller park but above average difficulty. I would guess that we could only run half the trails without winching. We played with winches more at Byrds than anywhere I can remember. Beautiful area though.


This was at the base of a waterfall.

Between the rocks.

Picture the kiddos took.


They had a rock garden. The scout has a tougher time than the TJ. It’s just much larger and less maneuverable.

Frosty morning when we headed home.

The faithful tow pig hit a milestone that I promptly missed as well.

Mostly done with wheeling for the year. Now is time to start planning on upgrades. First thing is either redneck ram or PSC steering. Also kind of regretting 35” tires…. Probably should have just jumped to 37s. Eh, is what it is.

 

[sdsupilot]

The new setup did great. Shock mounts and improved clearance were noticeable. Only issue was the project I didn’t get to.



When I swapped the rear I tried these aftermarket mounts with the stock CJ upper. The mounts just hang too low. I got hung up a couple times. Once well enough to gouge the rock. I have the parts, just need to take the time to outboard. At full flex in the rear I still have almost 6” clearance from the wheel house to the tire.

 

[sdsupilot]

Finally finished the rear shock mounts. Wow what a difference. Less body roll and “wobbling” from the wind. Should have done this from the start.

Took the shock studs off the factory front shock mount.



Next I did some cutting and drilling. Nothing exciting just some 1/8” wall 1.5” square tubing.



Sanded down the frame and fitted in place. I used some basic shock mounts on the axle tube.



Mounted the shocks and did a flex test. At full compression I still have lots of room inside the wheel well. Getting mighty close behind the tire.





Nice and clean on the bottom now… except for those low hanging brake calipers.