Jeep Performance Improvement Ideas
I have always loved El Caminos. My first car was a 67 El Camino. But I gave it back to my dad after only a couple weeks driving it. I just could not keep up with its thirst for fuel. And that was at mid 70’s pricing.
We still have that El Camino. It has been slowly working its way up[ the project list for a rebuild.
This one looks like a pretty nice basis for an El Camino Project as well.
Renting an inflatable water slide for a kid’s birthday party.
This year for her kid’s birthday party, Jennifer decided to do something different. Since her two boys have birthdays just a few days apart, she always has one party and makes it a big event. In the past she has rented a recreation center with a swimming pool. However; keeping track of a bunch of kids at a public pool gets to be a big chore.
She put out a call for inflatable toys and found one of my friends had an inflatable water slide for rent. I really did not know what to expect when I offered to help pick it up and set it up in her mom’s back yard. I was kind of expecting a little backyard toy.
I have known Dave for years but I had never been to his house. I just see him a few times a year at various sports car events. We found his house on the side of Fort Mountain after only one turn around. We made it up his steep winding drive way to the site of a former amusement park called Frontier land. His workshop now occupies the concrete slab where the old dance hall was located.
He had to move his Bulldog Mack fire truck from in front of the door so I could back up and get the water slide. He has a lot of cool big boy toys.
When I saw, the size of the package, I was glad we had brought the Suburban and not the Jeep. It took three of us to work the heavy roll of fabric and vinyl into the back of the truck. Then we had to find places for the blower, water hose, power cord and stakes needed to make it work.
We made it down off the mountain at dark and I decided to store the slide in the Suburban overnight and set it up the next day. Dave had told us it would take about 45 minutes to set up. I decide to allow a couple of hours.
We got to the site a couple of house before the party was to begin. I found I could not back the Suburban all the way to where the slide was to be set up. Jennifer’s step father however did have a large wheel barrow that was strong enough to carry the slide. We slid it out of the truck and onto the cart.
It took a while to unroll the huge slide. I was amazed at how big it actually was. Once we had it rolled out and power cords run to it, I fired up the blower. The structure soon towered over the yard. I then realized we needed to install the steps which Velcro in place. Dave had explained the procedure but without having seen the device, I did not really comprehend what he had said. I am pretty sure we should have installed the steps before we aired it up. It turned out the piece was not just the steps but the sliding surface as well. We eventually worked it into position but we could never really secure the Velcro properly.
We also learned that the plastic got very hot in the sun very quickly. We hooked up the water spray and the slide cooled right off.
The kids started playing on it right away not waiting for the official start of the party. They did not care if the pool at the end was not full or that the steps still needed to be adjusted. I eventually had to run the kids off to reattach the steps and slide surface. I switched off the blower and let it sag so I could get the parts to line up better. However since the yard was not exactly level, we lost most of the water from the pool when I shut of the blower.
The kids loved it anyway. “Best Birthday party ever!” was the cry repeated over and over as they climbed and slid tirelessly. The only way to get the off the slide nearly an hour after the party was over was to shut off the blower and let it collapse under them.
I elected to let it drain and dry overnight before picking it back up. Thankfully Dave offer to come and help pick it up. He dropped his pickup near my house and we took my little red trailer to load it.
We were able to work the trailer back through the flower garden near the site of the slide. Dave showed the proper way to fold and roll up the slide and with three of us working together we got it collected pretty quickly. I am sure without his help it would have taken much longer and not been in nearly as nice a roll when we got done. That thing is heavy.
We loaded it on the tilt bed trailer and I was able to back my Jeep through the maze and hook to it. We loaded all the parts on the trailer and took it back to his waiting pickup.
It was easy to back the trailer up to his tailgate and flip the roll over into the truck bed. That was much easier than trying to slide the roll into the back of the Suburban.
I was sure glad that I had my little trailer back and with new tires to carry the load. It really saved the day.
New trailer tires from eBay
I guess when you live in the country; you get excited by small things. My little red trailer has seen a lot of use over the years; mostly by people besides me. I have used it to help friends move furniture, my son has used is for a mobile coffee bar and it has hauled plenty of lawnmowers and other small bulky items. It makes a good substitute for a pickup truck.
The bed is made from a sheet of 4 by 8 plywood so it is about he same size as a pickup truck bed. The bed also tilts making loading and unloading easier. It has 4.80 by 12 tires on four lug wheels.
I have not seen my trailer in a while because my son has had it. He left it at my Dad’s place because the tires would no longer hold air. They had gotten in pretty sad shape with a lot of dry rot although the tread was still good. The leak turned out to be the valve stem. I had just let it set because it was always used more by other s than by me anyway.
When my Dad offered to buy tires so that we could use it again I quickly accepted the offer and began tire shopping. My first stop was Tractor supply. $57 each for the little tires sounded sorta steep. And I would still have to mount the little buggers. At one time they had tire and wheel combos cheaper than just the tires but that was a long time ago.
I shopped my other favorite stores, Northern Tools and Harbor Freight. They had similar prices. Still more than I thought the little tires should be.
I began searching ebay and found the tires at a more reasonable $42 each including shipping. But I decided to do a little more searching because buying the tires still meant that I would have to mount them. I have had bad experiences with little tires in the past. I much prefer mounting big heavy Maxxis mudders on my Jeep than fooling with the little trailer tires.
I found an auction for tires and rims for not much more money. I le the first one slip by and the second one went for more than I wanted to pay. But I was finally able to buy at less than $55 each. I had not noticed in the first auction that a hub was also included in the deal. When the packages arrived, I found that both wheels had a brand new hub attached.
I asked Dad to bring the trailer to me so that I could change them in my shop. I did not realize how bad the one tire leaked. He said he had to stop and air it up eight times on the way to my house. Good thing he had thought to bring his air tank. I had never bought a spare tire for the trailer.
I put the back of the trailer on the lift and raised it up enough to get the tires off the ground. I had forgotten that the wheels are held on by lug bolts rather than studs and nuts. I seriously considered putting on the new hubs I had just gotten because they had studs and nuts. But after spinning around the old hubs and feeling how smooth they ran, I just decide to put the new wheels on.
I had a bit of trouble getting the holes lined up since the trailer hubs don’t have an alignment pin like Volvos do. I finally learned to spin the hub cap and hold the wheel to line up the holes and get one bolt started. After that the others went in easily. With all eight bolts in and snug, I set the trailer down and torqued the lugs to 70 ft lbs.
I then began looking for a place to mount the one good tire for a spare. I still have not decided yet. Putting it on the tongue will interfere with the tilt mechanism. Putting it on the side with prevent loading wide items across the top of the rails. For now I will just leave it in the deck and move it around as needed.
I am looking forward to loading up some scrap metal and taking it to the recycler. It is nice to have my little trailer back home and with new shoes too.
[phpbay]trailer tires, 10[/phpbay]
Working on the boy’s Jeeps
Front end alignment and window seals.
Both my sons were in town this holiday weekend. And when they are in town it always means a little time spent working on their Jeeps. Actually it was Megan’s Jeep, but Scott was the one working on it.
Her front tires were showing some abnormal wear on the inside edges. That is an indication that they ere toed out. We used my JCW toe gage to quickly determine that they were indeed toed out. I showed Scott how to loosen the two clamps o the end of the tie road and adjust the toe setting. We set it just slightly toed in since she has a 231 transfer case. I set mine at zero since I have a 242.
Will came in later and we finally took the time to fix his driver’s side window. He has been missing the rubber strip that guides and seals the window since he bought the truck. We rummaged through our parts Jeeps until we found one that was still flexible and fit to reuse.
We first tried to simply pull the strip out. However we found it securely attached to the vent window frame. The vent window frame is held with three torx screws. Two accessible from the top with the door open and one that requires the door panel trim to be removed. We found even with the screws out, it was still pretty stuck in the channel. Scot had to pull hard to tilt the frame out of the door channel.
With the vent window frame removed from the door, we found that it is attached to the rubber strip with a rivet near the bottom. I pulled the strip off the rivet.
To reinstall it in Will’s Jeep, we first had to remove the entire old strip. It was hardened from age and cracked into tiny pieces as we pulled it out. We had to remove the door trim panel to access the bottom part of the strip. Once the channel was clear, I was able to slide the strip into place by pressing it down between the window and the vent window frame. I used dish soap to lubricate the strip so that it would slide into the channel.
Once the strip was in place there seemed no need for the rivet. It stayed in place and did not try to move with the window. He now has a nice quiet window. It will make his drives back and forth to School a bit more pleasant.
A Summer Road Trip
On the first of June we loaded up our Suburban with three adults and three children for a trip to Sante Fe, Texas. The trip was close to 900 miles each way.
Just before the trip, I serviced the Suburban’s AC. It was blowing nice cold air from the front vents but the rear air just blew hot air. I had not been able to get the line at the rear expansion valve off and I had hoped I would work without flushing, but I guess it did not. So the front seat passengers had to freeze to keep the rear cool. The temperature was near 100 most of the trip.
To keep the younger passengers entertained; we had a variety of electronics on board. We had two inverters running to power the video system, laptop computers, phone chargers and even a Wii. I really can’t imagine making the trip in a vehicle smaller than the Suburban. In fact, I was wishing it was bigger at times.
The big truck is very comfortable to drive on the interstate. We took I75 to I24. Then we took I59 across three states form one end to the other. At the end of I59, we took I12 across Louisiana. We met up with I10 and then took the 18 mile bridge across the swamp. We finally dropped off I10 in Texas and then followed the coast to take the Bolivar ferry.
The ferry was a very interesting ride. The DOT operates ferries 24 hours a day across the Galveston bay. These ferries are huge compared to the ones I have ridden hear on the east coast. They hold about 40 cars each. Once loaded on the ferry, we got out and toured the ship and watched the dolphins play in the water as we crossed the bay. It was a nice break in the trip.
While in Galveston, we visited the beach. Beach parking along the sea wall is parallel parking spaces. This was a challenge for me with the Suburban especially since it was loaded so that I could not see out he back window. The first time I parked, I was lucky enough to find a double spot so I could pull in forward and then back into place.
The next day, I had trouble finding a spot big enough for the Suburban. All I found was a single spot by the toilets that made backing in easier. However backing in from the high traffic Seawall Boulevard was still scary. I needed a spotter to get it not the space completely.
The next trip to the beach, I drove on west of the city and found a place where we could park on the sand for free. There were places on the east side but there was a $8 fee and they were extremely crowded. The place on the west beach was very nice and I was able to back the Suburban right up to the beach so we could access our towels and cooler easily.
The big GMC ran well and got about 16 MPG. It developed a hick up at about 65mph on the way down. I am guessing that the trouble is a dead spot in the throttle position sensor. When it started to hick up, al we had to do was speed up or slow down to get it to smooth out. It also had a similar hiccup when idling in the heat in traffic in Galveston. Sometimes it felt as if it was going to die at traffic lights but it would always keep running.
On the way home, the hiccup smoothed out but after refueling, it would bog down when trying to accelerate back up to interstate speed. It was like some sludge got stirred up refueling and it took a while to settle back out. The Suburban has a 42 gallon tank so it was quite a distance between fuel stops.
We saw some crazy things while driving 2000 miles. The two funniest were the bra on mile marker 110 in Mississippi and the pig snout sticking out of the livestock truck somewhere in Alabama.
We were all missing our Jeeps by the time we got home. But the extra space of the Suburban was really nice on the long road trip.