bigwalton's new Jeep: "The Colonel" - 2018 Rubicon Recon JKU
- Thread starter bigwalton
- Start date
- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
It will be for sale. It’s in winter storage now.
- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
Today’s the day! Dealership opens at 8 and I made it here yesterday looking like this on the plane
Then, thanks to spring break causing EVERY rental car to be booked out of the Phoenix airport, I bummed a ride with an exceptionally generous @FlagJeep in his sweet Power Wagon up to Cottonwood. All he’d let me do was buy him Mexican food as thanks!
between the time change and excitement, I fought through wanting to get up at 3:30 and managed to get past 5. Now the countdown to pickup!
Then, thanks to spring break causing EVERY rental car to be booked out of the Phoenix airport, I bummed a ride with an exceptionally generous @FlagJeep in his sweet Power Wagon up to Cottonwood. All he’d let me do was buy him Mexican food as thanks!
between the time change and excitement, I fought through wanting to get up at 3:30 and managed to get past 5. Now the countdown to pickup!
- City
- Ware
- State
- MA
I'll be waiting.
- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
I meant more and better of the Jeep only, of course!Picture of awesomeness, well the Jeep anyways.
- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
Yes, the wife and kid come out next Wed and I have a couple installs and some shaking down to do between now and then.
- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
First fix. AEV tire carrier was well out of alignment and shook/rattled. A nut on the stop had gone missing. Should have been locknuts from AEV. More better now.
Picture makes it look like the arm isn’t sitting flush on the stop, but it is. There’s one more worn spot that has the gap you see.
The turnbuckle that pulls it in was at least a quarter inch too long.
Also found some of the rattle I thought was this thing was the stock jack loose in its cubby. Grabbed some shop towels at the part store to jam in there. Mucho better now.
Headed back toward Phoenix now to meet up with a buddy and plan the attack from here
Picture makes it look like the arm isn’t sitting flush on the stop, but it is. There’s one more worn spot that has the gap you see.
The turnbuckle that pulls it in was at least a quarter inch too long.
Also found some of the rattle I thought was this thing was the stock jack loose in its cubby. Grabbed some shop towels at the part store to jam in there. Mucho better now.
Headed back toward Phoenix now to meet up with a buddy and plan the attack from here
- City
- Rochester
- State
- Mi
So Awesome Eric! Cant wait to see where you guys go, enjoy the adventure
- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
Almost took a recommended back road trip from Cottonwood back to Phoenix but I figured it was better to get the thing out on the highway to see if this plan was going to work right out of the gate.
It runs great, holds inclines fine and even has plenty of passing power if I want it. Tracks straight and the suspension is supple, I might even adjust the shocks a touch stiffer, actually. There’s no real body roll, but it just feels like it could use a bit firmer ride on the whole.
Fridge and dual battery setup works (the remote display in the A-pillar is just badass.) figured out all the switches and all the lights work.
The front roof rack mount right above my ear is loose and I hear it over any bump, that’s getting fixed as soon as I get my hands on a ball end Allen driver tomorrow.
After an hour on the interstate through a couple thousand feet of elevation change, I detoured to check out Lake Pleasant NW of Phoenix. Pretty lake, lots of people out enjoying the nice weather. Might try camping here with the girls the night they fly in.
Every time I walk to the driver’s side, I marvel at how damn clean this thing is underneath.
I made it to Verne Simons place. He wrote for JP Magazine and now FourWheeler and is an old friend from my NC days. I’m stoked to have some time to hang out with him again after all these years. We (meaning me while Verne drinks beer and makes fun of me) will be doing the installs on The Colonel and maybe some other fun things.
We did dinner driving his Roxor and we even played in a little dirt on the drive back.
It runs great, holds inclines fine and even has plenty of passing power if I want it. Tracks straight and the suspension is supple, I might even adjust the shocks a touch stiffer, actually. There’s no real body roll, but it just feels like it could use a bit firmer ride on the whole.
Fridge and dual battery setup works (the remote display in the A-pillar is just badass.) figured out all the switches and all the lights work.
The front roof rack mount right above my ear is loose and I hear it over any bump, that’s getting fixed as soon as I get my hands on a ball end Allen driver tomorrow.
After an hour on the interstate through a couple thousand feet of elevation change, I detoured to check out Lake Pleasant NW of Phoenix. Pretty lake, lots of people out enjoying the nice weather. Might try camping here with the girls the night they fly in.
Every time I walk to the driver’s side, I marvel at how damn clean this thing is underneath.
I made it to Verne Simons place. He wrote for JP Magazine and now FourWheeler and is an old friend from my NC days. I’m stoked to have some time to hang out with him again after all these years. We (meaning me while Verne drinks beer and makes fun of me) will be doing the installs on The Colonel and maybe some other fun things.
We did dinner driving his Roxor and we even played in a little dirt on the drive back.
- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
Side by side and they’re street legal in AZ. Has to be somewhere that allows those. They do here.
- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
Yesterday was mostly a preparation day to dive into things today. (I had day job crap all morning) I got the OBA bench work done and started planning my wiring for it given that I have the sPOD switch setup.
I don’t like their suggested wiring plan, so I made revisions. They also don’t give a schematic for dual compressors.
I didn’t want to run the switched power all the way back under the Jeep to the pressure switch in the tank, so changed it to a ground switch. Already need to ground the compressors at the frame near the OBA setup, so this is much simpler. (Ignore the weatherpack comment, I missed that they pre-terminated the compressor positive wires with spades.)
It’s a little overkill/redundant to use the sPOD feed to switch on another relay but the fuses Kleinn provides for the compressors are fat slow-blow 30A units on 10 ga wire and I’m not up for testing the power handling ability of the sPOD when I have to wire a second relay anyway.
One interesting thing I found is that the dual battery setup has nice positive and ground bus bars to attach accessories but they only used the ground bar. None of the existing stuff is attached at the positive bus.
Kit components, I only considered 100% duty cycle rated compressor kits.
Laying out wiring.
There will be more today
I don’t like their suggested wiring plan, so I made revisions. They also don’t give a schematic for dual compressors.
I didn’t want to run the switched power all the way back under the Jeep to the pressure switch in the tank, so changed it to a ground switch. Already need to ground the compressors at the frame near the OBA setup, so this is much simpler. (Ignore the weatherpack comment, I missed that they pre-terminated the compressor positive wires with spades.)
It’s a little overkill/redundant to use the sPOD feed to switch on another relay but the fuses Kleinn provides for the compressors are fat slow-blow 30A units on 10 ga wire and I’m not up for testing the power handling ability of the sPOD when I have to wire a second relay anyway.
One interesting thing I found is that the dual battery setup has nice positive and ground bus bars to attach accessories but they only used the ground bar. None of the existing stuff is attached at the positive bus.
Kit components, I only considered 100% duty cycle rated compressor kits.
Laying out wiring.
There will be more today
- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
It. Is. ON.
Work (seems to be) basically done. Now have on board air and the steering is BEEFY and all straight. The SteerSmarts is just insane.
Some tidying up to do on the air system wiring tomorrow with some more shakedown driving and then it’s time to get things going proper when my girls get here Wednesday
Work (seems to be) basically done. Now have on board air and the steering is BEEFY and all straight. The SteerSmarts is just insane.
Some tidying up to do on the air system wiring tomorrow with some more shakedown driving and then it’s time to get things going proper when my girls get here Wednesday
- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
Trail tested the Jeep today and fully deployed everything. Weather wasn’t great or I was thinking of camping in it tonight. Probably best that I didn’t, I have everything set for the girls to get here tomorrow and hopefully that makes the morning stress free.
Some of y’all will know Verne Simons. He got the photos of me and the good one of the Jeep on the trail.
Got my 4 Wheel to Heal stickers on tonight.
Some of y’all will know Verne Simons. He got the photos of me and the good one of the Jeep on the trail.
Got my 4 Wheel to Heal stickers on tonight.