My dream dash...bling bling blanngggg

There's nothing like a nice dash to complement all the nice interior work you've done on a rig. These are some of my personal favorites that I have seen online at www.pirate4x4.com.
I really like the center console design on them, it is something I would definitely like to do on my own Jeep when I get nearer to completion. I like that many of the dashes integrate into the roll cage and that the roll cages are aesthetically pleasing. Right now I have already stockpiled some of the essential Autometer gauges that are necessary for everyday trail use. So far I have a water temperature, oil pressure, voltmeter and transmission temperature gauge. Remember our little talk about the AW4's getting hot? Yeah, that's why I have that gauge. For my next gauges I will probably get a fuel, oil temperature and tachometer. Eventually when I turbo charge my Jeep I will get a boost/vacuum and pyrometer gauge. I'll top off my sweet dash with a nice www.12voltguy.com winch/switch panel. This all will probably be a year or so down the road, because gauges are expensive.... and I'm poor!

The legendary AW4 transmission...

The AW4 transmission is undoubtedly one of the best transmissions Jeep ever put into its vehicles. In its stock form the AW4 is incredibly strong, and they last forever. Toyota Supra owners love them so much in fact that they swap them in their 500+ horsepower vehicles. The AW4 is almost identical to the Toyota A340, it is produced by Aisin Warner. The AW4 does have its downfalls however, they have a tendency to run very hot which can cause issues if not dealt with correctly. Regardless their durability is what makes them a great transmission. I have personally seen them run out of fluid and have seen engine coolant run through them and they still work! I plan I swapping an AW4 into my Jeep as a replacement for the torque flite TF999. Personally, I hate the TF999. I have always had issues with them weeping fluid onto my skid plate and leaving a nice little mess for me to find the next time I was working on them. The AW4 will be swapped in along with a new transfercase I hope! For more information on the AW4 you can refer to...

http://www.novak-adapt.com/images/pics/transmissions/aw4_transmission.jpg

http://www.jeepforum.com/wiki/index.php/AW4

...And some more pictures of the carnge...

I told you Toyota's were junk! As you can see from the destruction ToTo's front end got a little special during the rock crawling event. The brakes had issues because the rig sat for so long without being run. The steering had always had some issues (small steering wheel, damn you Jed) so it was really hard to turn. In the end the crowd got some good laughs and the front end got ripped out of ToTo. It will soon be linked and locked with fully hydraulic steering.

Did that just happen?

Another great occurrence at Vermonster4x4 was Larry Quick's monster truck flip. Unfortunately I had to leave before this event took place, but luckily there were plenty of people to catch it on video. Check it out...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq6I2MlHwro

Vermonster4x4 Spring Carnage

This is a Toyota "truggy" (truck/buggy) that my brother brought to the Vermonster4x4 competition this past weekend. He was trying to beat TJHooker's record through the rock garden... so needless to say things got a little interesting. His first pass that I was present for he went so fast through the beginning of the course that he shot off the course and was eliminated for that round. After I left my brother apparently sheared off the front axle pinion and was left with only two wheel drive. When he tried to reverse out of the predicament he was in he snapped both front leaf springs and essentially "ripped" the front end out. You can see some of the carnage in the pictures below. New plans for the front of ToTo... links and coils.

Transfercase: The plan...

The plan for my transfercase is to get a brand new Stak Monster Box or a Stak D300 style case. These cases are really strong compared to the Dana 300 I am running now and have the ability to be clocked differently depending on the drivetrain I'm running.


It will be a while before I can afford to purchase one of the cases... they have a premium price tag of around $2,500. College payments and credits cards will have to be paid off first of course.

Rockwells? Hooray!

The plans for my Jeep have changed dramatically. I will detail the changes over several different posts so I can keep everything organized. Basically, I am going bigger and I am taking the Jeep off the road permanently. I will be taking two front axles from military 2.5 ton 6x6 trucks like this one...


The axles are 2.5 tons Rockwell axles. These axles have literally been used in military trucks forever and have remained essentially the same. The reason for going with these axles over the 1 tons is they will be easier to make drive shafts for, they are MUCH stronger so you can run bigger tires, they have really nice clearance and lots of other bonuses I'm sure I'm forgetting to list. In case you have never seen a Rockwell axle here is what they look like...


Rockwells scream BEEF. In fact they are so full of beef they weigh around 700 pounds a piece. All that weight comes with 6.72 gears though which makes it easier to tote them around. Overall...I'm pretty excited to be converting over.

14 Bolt disc brake conversion

The drum brake to disc brake conversion is really simple on 14 bolts. Sky-Manufacturing makes a bolt on disc brake bracket for the conversion. I choose Sky in particular because they design their bracket to not use the bolt spacers that many other companies use, instead Sky actually bends their bracket correctly for the right depth. The rotors, calipers, pads and hardware are from the front of a 1976 Chevy K2500. Disc brakes are really nice instead of drum brakes because they self clean and are easy to maintain. Servicing the drum brakes on a 14 bolt requires a lot of removal and is ultimately a waste of time. Anytime the rig goes through mud the drum brakes would need to be cleaned. With disc brakes service is very easy and there is little to no need to clean them, except on the extreme occasion. The whole swap is very simple to do, removing the drum brakes is the hardest part. Overall I probably spent around $200-300 on this conversion several years ago.

Tour De Rocks

These are some pictures from Tour De Rocks (TDR) in Washington, NH. TDR is a wheeling event that challenges the competitors to journey through a variety of different trails, each worth varying amounts of points each. The event is timed and the team that scores the highest within the shortest time wins. Needless to say my brother and I did not win, we were surprised we even made it there! We had spent the previous night finishing up many of the individual parts of the Jeep just so we could get it running and functioning. The tires were borrowed from a friend and the motor was on borrowed time (bad rod bearing). We actually completed quite a few trails before we blew a front u-joint and had to be towed out. In the process of getting towed both front springs were broken. The Unimog almost flipped over trying to get us out.

Some disassembly required...

This is the 1985 Chevy K30 truck we cannibalized my 1 ton axles from. Sometimes things don't come apart as easily as you think they are going to. There was only 1 cab mount still holding on this beast and we ended up flipping the whole truck over trying to pull the cab off. Why yank the cab you ask? Well we didn't want to torch the cab mount because it was literally right on top of the gas tank. The reason for pulling the truck apart here was because the tow dolly we had was so small that the weight of the full size truck was killing it. We had 60+ PSI in the tires and they were still buckling under the weight, not to mention they were getting very hot! After all the work of tearing the truck apart we managed to get it home in one piece so we could begin the swap into my Jeep!

In a world of gray...

Jeeps can be colorful too!