I haven't updated this thread for years. A lot has happened to the Jeep over the years. It's now a bit of a swiss army knife. It can tow our caravan, camper trailer and it can also do the tough tracks with ease depending on what tyres I fit. It doesn't overheat while towing due to the radiator, fan and billet cooler plate upgrades. It's stopped chewing through steering boxes since I did the hydro-assist steering upgrade and it's now fairly quiet to drive due to the sound deadener carbuilders kit that was installed.
Anyway here is some pics from over the years...
Oh and I also bought a LWB Sierra and built that over the Covid period. It's twin air-locked, reduction gears, full-float rear end, RUF and little 31's. It goes anywhere and is heaps more fun than the Jeep to drive.
The Flexwall at my place...
This is my favorite pic...
I also did a trip to Wombat and Cobaw in the Jeep with a couple of zooks. I wanted to take the Jeep because I just installed a Red Neck Ram Hydro assist ram and a PSC steering box. I also just replaced all the tie rod ends etc... The jeep now drives in a straight line for the first time in about 8 years. It's actually nice to drive... I couldn't be happier with the result both on the road at low/high speeds on the tarmac and also offroad aired down with Treps playing on the rocks. I still need to wrap the hydraulic lines in spiral wrap to finish the job off. I've just put some flexible electrical conduit on them for now to get me by.
The Jeep was due for some love. The highmount winch in the six years or so that I've owned it has never been apart. I've changed the oil a couple of times, but she was due for some love. While it's all apart getting all the serviceable parts replaced I decided to upgrade the top hat. KOV out of Croatia have developed a two speed top hat with an air actuated gear. Gear 1 is 17% faster than a standard highmount and gear 2 is 50% faster than a standard highmount. I'm also swapping motors over to a Road Runner Offroad 6.8 Hp Bullet motor I've had for a while. The upgraded 2 speed top hat, with the new motor, combined with some fresh batteries and the Redwinch 24v supercharge system, it should pull like a train.
Here's the new tophat...
This pic is the panel under the steering wheel. The red air switch on the left controls the 2 speed winch top hat and the black are switch on the right controls the winches air free spool.
The batteries have been in the Jeep since 2015 so I figured they were probably due for replacement. I should've checked the voltage before ordering new ones as I could've saved myself $700. The old batteries were fine after I charged them up with the Ctek.
To get to the batteries which are in an enlarged storage tub in the rear and the floor, first I had to remove the drawer system. This is a major pain to remove, so I figured while all this junk was out I should go ahead and install a Car Builder's sound deadening kit. It was a massive amount of work to install all the sound deadening. First I had to remove all the interior. Under the carpet was a lovely layer of mud, so It took me a whole Saturday just to prep the floor pan for stage 1 of the sound deadening system which is an aluminum backed butyl sheet. It took a lot longer than anticipated to install stage 1 and 2, but it's all done now and I couldn't be happier with the results. I even took the doors apart and applied stage 1 sheets to the door skins. The Jeep has the aerodynamics of a brick and that combined with big mud tyres it was impossible to have a conversation with a passenger without having to yell. Now it's pretty much just like a normal car. It drives so nice now, I'm stoked...
Stage 1...
Stage 1 inside the doors...
Stage 2... This is a vinyl backed foam noise liner light for the cabin and a vinyl backed foam noise liner heavy which is a lot thicker for the cargo area. I found that tracing the carpet outline onto the vinyl sheets was the best way to get a neat result.
I also wrapped all of the hydro assist steering lines in pvc spiral wrap. It was a dog of a job to wrap the lines as there is no room at all under the Jeep. My knuckles copped it and my forearms were pumped like pop-eye's after I finished the job. But it was well worth all the effort for the peace of mind knowing that all the lines are protected.
I also picked up a set of pretty much brand new 40 inch sticky treps on some beadlocked rims. So that's the next job to try and make them work. I'm confident they will clear in the rear no worries, but the with the front I'll have to extend by front bumpstops at least 1.5 inches to make it all work properly.
Here's a pic of a 37 inch trep Vs a 40 inch trep. They're massive...
Hopefully the next pics I upload will be some poser flex pics on my flex wall with the 40's fitted
We did a last minute Friday night trip and took both my JK and Emu the Sierra out for a play. I pretty much just let my mates drive the two rigs while i took some footage while we still had some daylight left. We all had a blast…
https://youtu.be/OuO7bFuVqtU
I finally have the winch back on the Jeep after the rebuild and upgrades. It’s got a two speed air actuated tophat. On 24 volt it’s super fast. I got stuck in a creek and it seemed like i was wedged against a big log under the water. It was a good opportunity to test the winch out. It pulled like a train. I’m very happy.
My family and I spent 2 weeks doing a lap of Tassie. We spent the first week offroading on the Westcoast with our camper trailer.
Here's a video I put together with the limited footage that my wife took.
Here's some random pics.
I'd love to go back in winter and tackle those tracks again. It would be alot harder in the wet.
This followed me home the other day... It's a stretched Suzuki LJ80 over a 1998 Suzuki Jimny chassis with coiled suspension, engine, running gear, dash, seats, etc... The body was stretched through the door/sill.
A pic I found on the net from when it was featured in 4wd Action Magazine.
After a lot of cleaning LJimny now looks like this...
I believe "LJ" stands for "Little Jeep", so it's sort of appropriate to post this content... haha...
