daily doubler build

[Bray D]

Sorry Brett, I just saw this. I've been through all of this so much that I'm over it at this point. Going over and over what happened and what I should do is just adding more stress to my life and I don't think fighting it will get me any where.

Regarding the previous stops, I definitely brought up the point that it was loaded like I drive it every day; he insisted we unload it to measure it. "It needs to be an unloaded vehicle."

I pushed back on the level surface thing too last year. He wanted to measure it in a gravel parking lot. I told him it was far from a level surface, so he followed me to a parking lot to measure it up. This time we were in the garage of the station, which was pretty level.

Was he harassing me? Yes. Do I think he knows what he's doing (harassment or otherwise)? No. I'm not looking to get him in trouble, nor do I want my truck with a target on the tailgate. I'll pay the ticket and be done with it. I've probably had it coming after all these years of running around.

I did, however, implement a solution. My bumper is now 4" off of the ground:

2000 Volkswagen Golf GLS, 5 speed 1.8L turbo, 87,500 miles. I ran up to Chicago in a rental car last weekend, handed over a wad of cash, and drove this baby home while getting 30mpg. Definitely a bitter sweet weekend, but I think it's a step in the right direction.

I'll now be able to save money in fuel and wear components (tires are under 100 bucks a piece!). Insurance only went up $7.30. The truck will stay fresher for longer, and I'll be able to take my time with future builds. It opens up opportunity for bigger non-wheeling trips with buddies as well (snowboarding and mountain biking out west, etc). All good stuff.

The truck is and will remain plated. I plan to drive it to work weekly and it'll be driven to and from the trail. I have no immediate plans to change anything, but the gears are turning now that I have a DD, of course.

It's time to turn the page to a new chapter. I look for it to be a good one. The future is still bright for the rig.

 

[kris97ranger]

No.... thats wrong. At least here. Its no different then being overweight they cannot have you empty it to measure it has to be as it was being driven. Otherwise id have dumped half my weight before i hit the scales and avoided alot of overweight tickets.

As for the dd... i dunno how to feel. Lol

 

[RockRanger]

All downhill now that you have a DD. Just wait till you get a trailer and a tow rig next. I have been working on getting my ranger more streetable and am enjoying driving it around.

 

[96firephoenix]

good solution.. funny thing, in IN it's illegal to sell a car without a bumper... but not to drive one.

 

[036speed]

A 2000 with only 87k on it!? How old was the last owner? haha

Nice move as you already know. I love when my friends get "gas sippers" to save a few bucks and then tell me the car payment. SMH. Defeats the purpose. I have always had cheap DDs until I had kids. Now I have a safe, cheapish DD haha. However, if my wheelin' rig was as streetable as yours, it would be hard NOT to drive it... My next rig will be able to cruise the highway.

The best part, you can keep your truck out of the salt! That is if IL uses salt. Since you can drive, you will be just fine skidding around in the snow with that little guy.

I look forward to seeing what happens from here.

 

[Bray D]

I definitely wasn't going to take on a car payment. That doesn't make any sense. I stretched myself a bit paying cash, but it felt good to know that once I paid for it, that was it. No additional bills rolling in each month.

The guy was in his upper 30's. The car used to be his brothers and he acquired it when his bro upgraded. He rides his bike to work, so he only used the car on the weekends and such. Worked out pretty well for me.

It's a Chicago town car though, so it's got its fair share of scars. The grey hides it well, and it suits me perfectly. I'm not tempted to dump a lot of money into because it's super nice or any thing like that. There's a few maintenance things I'd like to do to bring it up to my quality standards, but other than that, I think I'll be content just driving it.

I'm looking forward to the snow (IL uses salt, btw - LOTS of it). The ebrake still functions great.

 

[-Nathan-]

Sorry to hear about your troubles Bray. Unfortunately, that's also why I decided to buy a tow rig, and keep my Ranger as a wheeling rig. Cops around here started getting really picky and harassing people, so I called it. Future plans for the Ranger??

-Nate

 

[Bray D]

No huge plans for the truck at this point, though I have been pondering ditching the coils/shocks in favor of an air shock/coil over setup. It would clean up the front end and give me more room to mount an air bump. Simply pondering at this point. I'll keep rocking the coils for now.

Anyways, the truck is getting freshened up for the 2015 wheeling season.

My t-case was popping last year, so I decided to tear it down to see what the deal was. I always assumed it was a loose chain popping over the gears, so I was surprised to see this:

Incredible. Looking at the extent of the wear, I probably have multiple cross country wheeling trips on the case since it failed. Not sure what caused it or when it happened.

I happened to swap out my factory case a long time ago for a lower mileage case, so I had it as a spare. I tore it down to see what shape it was in before swapping it in, and it was broken too!

That's a portion of the alum housing that holds a retaining ring. The ring was free in the case, and I simply pulled that output bearing out. It's a miracle that case didn't completely destroy itself at some point as well.

So now I have 2 broken cases. Luckily I was able to use the front half of my spare case coupled with the rear half of the case I just took out of the truck to build a useful unit. I tossed a new chain in it for good measure, built the doubler, and put it back in the truck.

I strip disc'd the frame (it was a bit rusty) and repainted everything while I was under there. The front end got some fresh RS9000XL shocks, and I replaced all of the suspension related hardware with new nuts/bolts. It's starting to look good again.

I drove it into work today. I'll go over everything once more this week, check fluids, grease joints, etc. We'll be heading down to Farmington, MO mid-day Friday for a weekend at Washita.

 

[036speed]

Those little cases can hold their own.

I am sure that was a surprise. Do you think you drove across the country like that?

 

[036speed]

I just looked up Washita. Looks like it is in Farmington MO. My dad has a place in Perryville MO which is 43 miles away. I look forward to your pictures. My little brothers (who live in STL) want to go wheeling with me someday. I need to build a wheeler first. From the FB pics I see, it would be worth the trip from Ohio.

 

[Bray D]

Do you think you drove across the country like that?

Probably so. Not only drove across the country, but wheeled Moab like that once if not multiple times. My case is clocked, so the planetary should sit in a bit of an oil bath. That much wear on something that sees essentially no load (it was the pump housing resting on the rotating shaft) that is under lubrication would take a substantial amount of time to see that kind of wear.

I just looked up Washita. Looks like it is in Farmington MO. My dad has a place in Perryville MO which is 43 miles away. I look forward to your pictures. My little brothers (who live in STL) want to go wheeling with me someday. I need to build a wheeler first. From the FB pics I see, it would be worth the trip from Ohio.

I've never been there before, but from what I see it should be a good time. I'm looking forward to a weekend on the rocks.

 

[Bray D]

The trip to Washita went well. The new chain in the case made a world of difference. It tightened up the drivetrain substantially.

We drove down to St. Francois state park Friday afternoon and settled in for the evening. We headed down to Washita after breakfast and made it onto the trail around 10:30a.

After a short time on the trail, we ran into a group of guys with small blocks and big tires. One of the guys wasted a front driveshaft, so he was towed up to the knob by a guy with stickies. Pretty impressive.

We didn't cover a ton of trails, but it was a good shakedown for the freshly rebuilt t-case. More than enough to explore if/when we return. Knocked down just over 500 miles round trip. I'll let the pics do the rest of the talking.

 

[036speed]

Looks like a great time. Motivates me a bit.

Would it be entertaining for a stock vehicle? My brother has a bone stock '10 JK.

 

[PlumCrazy]

Let's make a road trip out there when you finish the Mounty Brad. Few RBV type things and a JK should be an interesting group.

Sent from my XT907 using Crapatalk

 

[Kage]

I'm still a bit bummed we didn't get to wheel together, but that's the breaks sometimes. Looks like you had fun anyway!

Would it be entertaining for a stock vehicle? My brother has a bone stock '10 JK.

"Entertaining" would be one way to put it. While I've led a few stock JK's through the park, none of them made it through completely unscathed. At a minimum, we tell folks to have skids, tow points, and something more aggressive than street tires.

It's possible to run the 'tourist' loop through the park, but there are quite a few places that'll get you in trouble. Here is the most recent map of the park: http://www.aaronhull.com/misc/jeep/WashitaTrailMap.pdf

The tourist loop for a stocker would be Ground Pounder, Hamburger hill, to Brain Fart or Charlie Mike, up to the over watch (the knob/view). Come back down your choice of trail and going north to The Devils Playground and working your way back to the entrance from there. That loop will likely take you all day depending on how things go