Category: Jeep

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New trailer tires from eBay

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]

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Working on the boy’s Jeeps

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.

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Peterbuilt Hot Rod

While waiting in line to get stickers on our Jeep for the Great Race, this awesome Peterbuilt hot rod pulled up behind us. Unfortunately it started to rain and hail so, I did not get to learn much about it. It was powered by a twin turbo diesel of some kind.

The front axle was aluminium and someone mentioned he found it in a pile of scrap aluminum. The front suspension is like an over sized T hot rod with radius arms. He maintained air brakes on all four wheels however.

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Off road in Vermont

Wheeling in Vermont

While pre running the course for the last day of the 2011 Great Race, I looked up and saw two Jeep Wranglers in a yard close to the road. I then noticed the blonde woman standing beside one. I then saw the Opal Justice stickers and I knew it had to be my Facebook friend Sue. I had never met Sue, but we banter on Facebook almost daily.

I stopped in the road and quickly backed up and rolled down the window. She knew we would be in the area and we were hoping to meet up after the rally. Neither of us had any idea that the route would take me past her home.

She met us at Hemmings in Bennington after the event. She and her husband invited us to go run a trail with them.

The next morning, we set out to meet her. We got a bit confused with Dorset and East Dorset but managed to make it to our rendezvous point just a few minutes late. Keith couldn’t make it, but Sue led us up a very interesting trail.

I was surprised when we turned off the paved road that there was a sign that said ”TRAIL.” We climbed up what looked like an old rail road grade. The trail was rocky and slightly washed but Janice’s stock XJ made it fine even loaded with three people and our luggage.

At the top of the hill, Sue led us to the coolest place I have ever been in a Jeep. We got to drive inside a cave. We parked with our headlights illuminating a deep pool of green water. The cave was formed by marble quarrying.

We spent some time hiking in the cave and exploring the cuts in the rocks. Sue told us of some of the many parties she had had in this cave over the years including her wedding celebration.

Sue took a more adventurous path out of the cave. She then led us to an overlook where we could see the entire valley. Next, we followed her up a challenging climb so that we could look down a shaft to the area where we had just been inside the cave.

After touring the top, we went back down and picked up her friend Lisa. Her Jeep was in need of repairs so she tagged along with Sue. We then took a trip across the ridge line toward the next town. This trail was very narrow and I was concerned I might get a scratch or two but I made it just fine. Only one rock scraped the cross member, but only gently.

At the end of the trail, we popped out in a working marble quarry. There were huge chucks of marble waiting to be transported down the mountain. The mine entrance was gated but we waked down to see the huge steel door that seals the entrance to the mountain. This is possibly the largest marble tunnel in the world.

We were somewhat concerned that the lower gate might be closed since no one was working at the quarry site and that we might have to re run the trail to get out. However, the gate was open and we were able to get started on our way back to Tennessee.

The short wheeling run was a great way to meet some friends and to end our long trek north. I have always wanted to drive a Jeep into a cave and now I have. Thanks Sue.