Jeep World

George Washington National Forest 4wd

2005-08-30T11:04:00.000-04:00

GWNF4WD

I've recently joined the Yahoo! group GWNF4WD - short for George Washington National Forest 4 Wheel Drive. The GW is my favorite place to go camping and wheeling. The trails there are generally not that challenging, but the scenery in excellent. Expect to see many GW trail writeups here. I'm new to the group, so not much to report yet. I found out about the group through the 4x4 Icon CD, written by Paul P. It is a huge (650MB) collection of trail ride writeups, mods Paul has made to his TJ, and, the good part, tons and tons of GPS info. Most of the writeups are available at 4x4Icon.com, but you need to buy the CD to get the GPS info.

Jeep Patriot to be unveiled Sep 12

2005-08-27T15:23:00.000-04:00

Keep your eyes out for yet another upcoming offering from Jeep. The Patriot is being billed as a 'compact 4x4', with pricing in the high teens-low twenties to appeal to younger buyers. It will replace the Liberty. According to DC, It will also feature 'all-new Jeep off-road technology,'no word yet as to what that is supposed to be. Jeep will also roll out the Compass, which looks like a cross between a Chevy Blazer Extreme and a Dodge Neon. Coincidently, the Patriot and Compass will most likely be manufactured in the same facility as the Dodge Caliber, which will be the replacement to the Neon.

2007 Wrangler Pics Here...

2005-08-26T21:37:00.000-04:00

Rockcrawler.com has posted some spy shots of the upcoming Jeep TK, which will be replacing the TJ in 2007. Highlights include an integrated rear 2" receiver hitch, and possibly a flatter belly pan. Front shots of the possible five door model (see below) indicate that the marker lights have been moved back below the headlights. The control arms look like they are made from DOM tubing or similar, just like many current aftermarket arms. This would be a nice improvement in strength over the current stock stamped steel version, but may get downgraded for actual production. Also expect to see the 4.0 L inline six to be replaced with the 3.7L V-6, which is used in the rest of the Jeep lineup. Many may scoff at the idea of a V-6 in a Wrangler, it would do to remind them that V-6's were found in flatfenders and short nosed CJ-5's up until 1971. It looks like the tailgate and removeable doors are here to stay. And, as promised, there is still a solid front axle. Other than the motor, there isn't a great deal of change from the TJ, Jeep fans can rest easy.

Mega-Wrangler

2005-08-26T14:09:00.000-04:00

Looks like fans of the Jeep Rescue may get what they want. Shown here is a test mule for the upcoming five door Wrangler. Same TJ styling with a few updates, note that the marker lights are back underneath the headlights where they belong. But 5 doors? The idea is not without precedent, the 1997 concept Jeep Dakar featured 5 doors, and a 15" longer wheelbase than the current TJ. That sounds closer to the dimensions of the current LJ. What I'd really like to know is, what will the powerplant options be? Current rumor is that the 4.0 is going to be replaced by the 3.7L V-6. With that motor, this monster will be grossly underpowered. Hmm, a HEMI might remedy that. I say don't hold your breath on that one.The other question is where does this fit into the market? Is this supposed to be competition for the Hummer H3? I'm sure that the H3 will be a tad more luxurious than a stretched out TJ, so the soccer-mom set probably won't be very interested. But with gas prices getting higher every day, is bigger really the way to go? DC, are you listening? Where is the Gladiator? Why don't you give us what we want? Look at any Jeep forum on the web, people invariably ask for two things: the Jeep Gladiator to be produced, and for the HEMI or common rail deisel from the liberty in the TJ/LJ/Rubi/whatever. Simple.

Website is Up!

2005-08-26T09:29:00.000-04:00

My Family / Jeep website is finally up and running. Check it out at
http://www.chrislawlor.com/Jeep/jeepindex.html

My broken ass website

2005-08-25T09:22:00.000-04:00

I finally figured out what happened to my other website, which is hosted with Webhostingboy. Apparently the server it was on failed catastrophically, wiping out all the accounts on it. They've half-fixed the problem, but I still can't log in with an FTP client, which means I can't upload much of anything. So the Jeep part of the site is down still but there is hope. Oh well, what do you expect for 84 cents a year.

A new, tough-as-nails rear axle

2005-08-24T16:57:00.000-04:00

As you may have read on my other jeep website, The rear axle of my CJ has been shot for some time now, after a failed attempt to fix it on my own. The bitch was trailered to my new apt in Sterling, and has been sitting in the same parking spot forever, immobile. After weighing the options, I decided to order a whole new axle. If you're going to get a custom axle made, you might as well go with the good stuff. The only downside is that the gears had to match the front, as I didn't have enough cash to re-gear the front end as well as replace the back end. That's ok, the 3.55 gears are pretty good for the street with the 35's.

The install was done over the course of a saturday. The only problem encountered was that the hole in the spring perch was too small to fit the centering pin on the springs, a little grinding solved that problem easily enough. As I didn't have a very good jack, I had no good way of measuring for the compressed and drooped length for the driveshaft. I think that it is a little too long, but it rides just fine on the street, so its ok for now. I'll be sure to check it thouroughly before taking it on the trail.

I can't wait to get this off road. I've only 'froaded it once since the lift has been on, and that was only on some some trails behind the Oceana air base in VA Beach. Now, with the locker, this thing is gonna be a monster. Well, to me anyway. Now that the weather's cooling down, its time for a camping trip to the George Washington National Forest.

2005-08-24T16:55:00.000-04:00

The housing is v-notched for extra weld strength. Those welds are about 1/2 in across. The tubes are also welded at the inside of the housing. Tubes are 3.25 inches in diameter. This thing is a freakin monster, it weighs a little less than 300 lbs

2005-08-24T16:54:00.000-04:00

This is the new Currie 9 inch. Some vital stats: high pinion, extra heavy duty housing,35 spline shafts, 3.55 gears, Detroit locker, explorer disc brakes, 2 inches wider than stock.

2005-08-24T16:52:00.000-04:00

The old AMC 20. Any one need the 1 piece shafts?

2005-08-24T16:51:00.000-04:00

The new axle..finally in its new home

2005-08-24T16:48:00.000-04:00

This is the companion flange, a much stronger setup than the wimpy stock straps. See how the adapter completely encloses the u-joint.

2005-08-24T16:46:00.000-04:00

This is the axle as it shipped...note all the surface rust. The little tabs inboard on the spring mounts are for the brake lines

2005-08-24T16:45:00.000-04:00

The (almost) complete install. U-bolts still need to be cut and re-torqued, and paint needs a lot of touch-up

First Post

2005-08-24T15:04:00.000-04:00

Welcome to Jeep World! The idea for this blog is to be a repository of any thing related to Jeeping, whether it be a good trail story, how to install something, product reviews, or anything else you might think of. I'm not really sure how this whole blog thing works at the moment, so I suppose we could consider this a trial. I'll welcome any constructive criticism you might have, as well as any ideas for future posts or topics. Send email to me here.