XJlimitedx99

Around here the police don't harass us too bad about flares and flaps. I did get pulled over once by a university cop for flares, but I don't hear many people having problems. However, the inspection stations have really cracked down over the last few years. I think they are under a lot of pressure and liability these days now that everything is recorded. Nobody wanted to touched my Jeep with a sticker last time I tried (until I found the right person).

Its pretty common to find for pipe insulation (cylindrical shape with a slit to slide over a pipe), but is harder to find in sheets.

XJlimitedx99

I'm happy to report the Jeep has been being used and abused a good amount recently! Definitely a lot of clunks, bangs, squeaks, squawks, and every other noise under the sun, not to mention wires hanging from the ceiling, unidentified smells, broken plastic, flaking paint, and a sore back, but I've been having fun!




Our annual overlanding/camping/drinking trip was quickly approaching. Our plan was to get up to Nova Scotia and drive the Cabot Trail Dual Sport & Adventure Guide and do some backcountry camping. Truthfully I was a bit nervous about the plan because it was about 2000 miles roundtrip. I wasn't sure the Jeep was up for that trip, but was willing to send it anyway!

I had a few things to take care of before the trip. First was my failing wheel bearings. I replaced both front wheel bearings, and one of the front axle side u-joints. After digging out all of my parts I had quite the pile lol





I also was bored (apparently) and hadn't used my welder in awhile, so I made these jerry can holders out of some scrap I had laying around. When I envisioned them, I pictured them angling outward because they tucked into the tire carrier nicely that way. Would've given a better view of my tail lights and had a lower center of gravity, but it didn't look nearly as nice in reality as It did in my head.







The can holders turned into more of a project than I anticipated, especially considering that I'll use them maybe once a year, but it was fun. Definitely nice to not carry them inside.


Before going to Nova Scotia, I was feeling like I did not want to go there on my 35's. Its just a lot of pavement on expensive mud terrain tires, and very taxing on the Jeep to push these around. A friend of mine offered to let me borrow his 31" all terrains for the trip, which I thought would've been very nice to use instead. Well, fortunately and unfortunately, they didn't fit. His wheels didn't clear my calipers in the rear. Unfortunately because I couldn't use them. Fortunately because it looked way goofier than I thought it would






One of the last things I did before the trip was finally get a robust nav setup. Too many years I've dealt with my phone just floating around, falling off my crappy mount, stuck under the seat, etc. I moved my RAM mount off my bike and onto the Jeep, and also added a mounted tablet to my setup. I LOVE the nav setup. I have been using it even more than I thought I would. On my trip I ran Gaia and Avenza simultaneously side by side which was very nice because each app serves a different purpose so having them both available without having to toggle back and forth was great. The mounts are both sturdy enough so that they don't vibrate and nothing fell out/moved even when wheeling.







So finally after months of researching and planning to get to Nova Scotia, the time had arrived. However, mother nature had different plans. There was a hurricane blasting straight up the butthole of Nova Scotia the day we were supposed to arrive there. We watched the weather very closely for days leading up to our departure, and ultimately decided it would be irresponsible for us to go there during that time. It was a tough decision, but probably for the better.

So I dug out some of my previously made/downloaded routes and marked campsites and threw together a Vermont trip in a few days. It was a bit clunky, but we did some awesome camping and had a great week. Covered about 800 miles, many of them off pavement. Got into some pretty remote territory and places not many people go. Drank many beers and had many laughs around the fire. Jeep did awesome, for the most part. The biggest issue was I overloaded the crap out of it when we first left. These new leaf springs are certainly softer than the other ones, plus hanging a spare tire and 10 gallons of fuel off the back, 100 L of full coolers, a large EZ-up canopy, plus a ton of other gear paired with slightly aired down tires and no sway bar had my Jeep feeling really scary. Honestly hard to keep on the road at normal speeds. I ended up throwing some weight in my buddy's truck, which made a significant difference. Lesson learned there. Gotta find a way to keep some weight farther forward.













One thing is for certain, I NEED deeper gears and bigger brakes. It has to happen this winter. After asking a lot of my Jeep on this trip pushing 35's and all that weight, I am very motivated to make it happen. I've got a ton of parts laying around, time to get the Jeep back in the garage and get to work.

XJlimitedx99

TeXJ

scammer

Veeb0rg

Bots, They search forums, use keywords and then make random posts. all of their posts have spam links in em.

EvanM

What its 2014 again? Or the forumn is the scammer itself

Battle

I regret what I once typed way back then - what was I thinking!?

Also - weird.

XJlimitedx99

LOL no worries. You weren't wrong. I definitely hacked up what was a pretty clean nice looking rig. See many people go down the path that I've gone down and not seen it through resulting in the meaningless destruction of another XJ. The weird part is that my memory was jogged enough by that comment to go back and look for your comment from almost 10 years ago. Apparently you struck a chord back then haha.


That makes sense. I didn't think about the small barely visible links at the bottom of that post.