So I was finally satisfied with my Jeep - well, you know. I had a good running, reliable vehicle that I could offroad with every now and then. Over the summer and early fall we didn't too much offroading, we didn't even see each other very much. However, one night H was over and we were looking for something to do - it had been awhile but I came up with the idea to offroad. I was planning on checking out the pits again but Hall said he knew of another place to go in Hanover. We headed over there and H was telling me stories about how he had sunk his Cherokee in there and how his friend Chris almost got arrested after coming out of the Hanover pits. GREEEAT, I remember thinking - I'm either gonna die, break my Jeep or get arrested - this is gonna be a great night! We finally arrived and as I pulled up to the entrance I threw on my massively bright 55 watt autozone specials :) hehehe...as we entered we came across some fairly deep sand dunes and H told me to keep moving or I'd get stuck pretty easy. The sand was very soft and I wound up spinning my tires most of the way through. As we kept going we drove across a rock field and then squeezed through a tight space between a rock and tree. H showed me where his cherokee sank but it was jut a hole with no water at the time. We drove around for awhile. It was mostly sand and rock hills. There was just one hill I couldn't make it up...it was very disappointing.

So after offroading that night, I got the bug again. I started to do some small mods to the Wrangler to make her a little more offroadable. Heres what I did first:

2" body lift
2 100 watt KCs on front bumper
tow hooks mounted to front frame
modified intake
pioneer stereo (I dunno, got sick of my old crappy CD player not working and when it did, it would skip...very annoying)
55 watt reverse offroad lights :) - switched the old ones to the rear
and little dumb (fun) stuff like wire mesh light covers, CB whip antenna, etc.

And thats about it, but its all been pretty recent so its been a fun few months. BTW: the 2" body mount only required cutting a piece of the body for the shifter to move fully into gear (very easy)...its an easy mod if you were worried about having to extend everything 2 inches.

And that was it for about 2 months. We go on these kicks where we offroad all the time and then we don't go again forever. I had been talking to JT and H online and we decided to go offroading. We all met at Halls house and piled into JTs Jeep cause I had never ridden in it before and I wanted to see what she could do. JT had never been to the pits before so H and I directed him where to go. There was more mud this time because it had rained alot so it was much more slippery and fun. JT poked around on some trails and rammed some big sand dunes pretty fast (something I would never think about doing in my Jeep cause of the hard suspension). Then he drove up to this massive mud hole and started into it. He got stuck about half way through and just started shooting mud everywhere. He threw it into 4wd High and just barely made it out...I was pissed cause there was no way I was gonna jump out into the cold mud and push his Jeep with 29" aquatreads though that knee deep hole. We made it back out okay and headed home. At the gas station on the way back we were all got out and couldn't believe how covered his Jeep was. Globs of thick, nasty mud were everywhere and he got plenty of stares on the way home.

A few weeks before that I had installed the KCs on to the front of the Jeep. I just used some wire I had laying around and hooked them up to the battery and a switch inside on the dash. I was driving around a few days later and all of sudden smoke was pouring into the cab and out from under the hood. I jumped out and disconnected the battery which stopped the blazing inferno. What happened was the power from the battery frayed on the body and ground, melting the wire and cutting through a vacuum hose under the hood. No big deal though. I cut all the burned wire out and left that hose alone - its a small one, probably doesn't do anything important, right? The next day, H and I rewired the lights with a fuse and thicker gauge wire and put tons of electrical tape around the wire where it enters the body...Since then, we've had no problems.

Sometime during the next week, JT decided to show off and buy 1 3/4" coil spacers, Rancho RS9000 with the incab air setup and a set of 5 32x11.5 BFG MTs on 15x8 Black Rockcrawler wheels. We got everything setup in two days except the air setup leaked like crazy and we never did get it to work right. He couldn't wait to take it offroad. A few days later, I was up at Bentley in Waltham visiting H and his roommate Anthony. That place is like my home away from home and I crash there way too often - I am "the guy on the couch" which they feel is some sort of room decoration - ah well. So Anthony has a nice 98 TJ 4 cyl with a light bar and fog lights and all sorts of cool stuff. He had never driven offroad really so we decided to take him to Hanover. JT brought his Jeep and we all met at my house about an hour later. Hall and Cath rode with Anthony to help him out cause it was his first time and JT and I drove alone. We were all sort of following each other through the sand and around the trails when I got stuck going over this stupid little hill. Oh well, 4wd time I guess...wait, it doesn't seem to be working. Oh great, 4wd is busted! The same thing happened to H when he had his Sahara. Stupid Wranglers!! Hall and JT jumped on the back of my Jeep to give me more traction and I eventually made it out. I didn't do much more driving, but I watched JT and Anthony drive through the mud hole and get completely nasty with mud. It was great. After we left, we went back to my house and figured out that the vacuum line that had been cut was the line for the 4wd. H came up with a great idea. We cut the each end of the line so it was flat and wrapped it tightly with electrical tape. We then used a match to flame the tape and make it air tight. 4wd has worked flawlessly ever since that neat little fix.

Over the next few days we all got together alot to work on JTs air shock setup. We wound up getting the front to kind of work but the rear just wouldn't hold. We put the manual adjusters back on for the rear so that the ride wouldn't be so soft that hed bottom out over every bump. At Halls we did our little articulation test. We put a set of car ramps at opposites sides and ends of the Jeep (front passenger, rear driver or vice versa) and drive the Jeep up them. My Jeep would barely make it with 4wd low - very embarrassing. I went home and set about pulling off the rear trac bar and the front sway bar assembly but left the front trac bar on for now. I went back up the ramps with almost no problem in 2wd. Turns out that the dealership I bought the Jeep from replaced the exhaust and when they did they put the e-brake line above the hanger, limiting articulation - grrr...I still gotta fix that. So JT and I went offroading at the Hanover pits several times over the next few weeks.

After Christmas, JT and I brought our Jeeps down to Falmouth with Hall and Regan riding along. The trails down in Falmouth are long and narrow and require more articulation than the wide, open areas I was usually used to. We played around on the trails, following power lines and maintenance routes for hours. We actually have a ton of pictures of this cause H got a digital camera for Christmas. Next time I'm over there, I'll be sure to load them all so I can post them here. On the way back home, Regan showed us a trail off the highway so we pulled off the highway and drove over a knocked down gate (always a good sign) and started driving down this really long trail. We came to an open section and there was a large hill that I couldn't get up. JT showed off and got up it no problem. My Jeep would still retain its dignity though. There was a slanted hill that went around some trees and I drove around it and started slipping sideways and tipping. H slammed it into 4wd as I steering and gassed it and we made it through relatively easily. JT wouldn't even attempt it cause we scared him so bad - I wish I had this on tape :) So we continued to follow the trail and I was leading. I got up to a gate and realized we were gonna have to go all the way back. So I started backing up to JT and Regan and pulled a J-turn to get back around on the skinny trail. As I was turning I saw two guys with automatic weapons and camo staring at us...UH OH...we're in trouble...I shut off the Jeep and they explained that we were on an Airforce Base and they had been looking for dirt bikers so it was ironic they found us or something - very stupid...anyway, they let us go and we drive home lucky to still have our vehicles with us. So thats it for now I guess...we're really starting to get into offroadin now so I'm sure I'll have many more stories soon enough for you...take it easy kiddies :)