lifted Jeep – The Jeep Guru

Lost and struck

Late one afternoon last week I decided to make a test run on Scuffy to see how the new tie rod worked. It was really dark when I headed into the woods behind the barn. I had not run this trail in a while and I don’t think I have ever run it at night.

This trail consists to two intersecting loops. I had started at the far loop and was looking for the intersection of the trails to head back up to the barn. Right before the intersection there is a gully that has to be crossed. Somehow; in the dark, I crossed the wrong gully just before the intersection. I thought it seemed a bit steeper but I was not sure until I ran out of trail just a few feet up the bank. I managed to get turned around, but in the dark, I was not sure where I was.

I decided to walk up the hill to get my bearings. As I walked up the hill in the dark, I saw a light and started walking toward it. As I got closer I realized from color of the light, this was the light from my neighbors house and not from my barn. Suddenly I heard my dog Smash barking as he had been waiting for me by the barn. I turned and walked toward the barking. Soon I made it to the driveway not at all where I expected to be. I thought I was behind the barn when I got lost but I came out in front of the barn.

I went in and got a flashlight. Then Smash and I went back to look for the Jeep. I had thought about leaving it in the woods for the night but since the trail I was one runs along the property line, I considered the possibility that I might have been on my neighbors property instead of mine. As I walked down the hill, Smash took off in a different direction. I shined my flashlight over where he was and saw the reflection of my Jeep glint through the trees.

Smash knew where the Jeep was before I did. Thanks to Smash I took a much shorter route back to the Jeep than I did coming to the house.

Once I looked around and had a good laugh about what I had done, I was able to easily get back to the trail and drive back up the hill to the barn. The new tie rod worked well too.

On Friday when Jennifer came to visit, Janice told me to show her where I got lost because she was still laughing at me for getting lost in my own woods. I made a quick run around the trail in Scuffy and let Jenny laugh at me for getting lost.

As Jenny was getting ready to leave, her son Caleb wanted to see the spot also. I had already put Scuffy away so I took him in Jenny’s Jeep Princess. Just like Scuffy her Jeep has a three-inch Rough country lift, a Lock Right Locker and Maxxis Bckshot tires. The big difference being that hers has 31” and Scuffy’s are 33”. That two inch difference turned out to be more critical than I imagined.

I stopped on the trail to show Caleb where I got lost. Then I proceeded to cross the gully just before the trail intersection. The gully has gotten a bit deeper due to the recent rains and was still a bit mushy on the bottom. Unlike Scuffy, Princess also still has her stock front bumper and air dam. I entered the gully gently so as not to stuff her bumper into the far side of the gully. My fatal mistake was not powering on from that point. I was a bit concerned about hitting her back bumper as the rear wheels dropped into the gully.

It turned out my concern was valid. As I dropped into the gully, the rear bumper hung on the bank and held both the back tires up out of the mud just enough to keep them from getting traction. Working the front back and forth just got me more stuck. Eventually, I gave up and Caleb and I walked back to the house. We had no trouble following the trail in the daylight.

Jenny and I went back in Scuffy to pull Princess out. I expected a quick tug on the strap would have her free. It took quite a bit of maneuvering in the tight confines of the trails. After scraping a couple of trees and popping off a piece of trim, I finally got the strap hooked up. Jenny fired up Princess and Scuffy tugged. Scuffy went sideways and Princess stayed stuck.

I backed up and gave it a bump, but Princess stayed stuck. I bumped harder and slid sideways into a tree. Princess stayed stuck and maybe dug in a little deeper.

Now that it was dark, we decided to try the winch. It took even more maneuvering and running over some small trees to get Scuffy into a position to use the winch and be able to brace on a tree.

The winch slowly extracted Princess from the gully and she started up the hill on her own. However, just a few feet up she stared to spin again and slipped sideways. I rerigged the winch cable and pulled again. The angle was not quite right so the cable bound up in the side of the spool. I had to stop to respool the cable.

By this time Janice had called to see what was taking so long. She suggested that we just leave the Jeeps and let Jenny and the boys stay the night. We tried one last pull and got Princess up to the point where the two trails intersect. She should have been able to drive out at that point but for some reason not visible to us in the dark, she just went sideways into the tree instead of out onto the trail. Scuffy was blocked in by the trees and could not move until Princess was out of the way.

We gathered up their luggage and hiked back to the house. Also in the dark since one of her boys had stolen the batteries out of her flashlight.

Where the two Jeeps slept after getting stuck

The next morning, Jenny was feeling ill, so while Janice took care of her, I went down to check on the Jeeps. I strapped Scuffy to a tree and cranked him up to respool the winch cable.

After surveying the situation I saw why Princess was stuck. Her rear tire was against a root and the root was pushing her against the tree instead of letting her go up the hill. It did not help that her Maxxis Buckshots were still at full pressure.

I simply backed up a couple of feet and gave it a bump over the root and drove up the hill. Hunter and I then walked back down and drove Scuffy out as well.

I built these trails as a training ground to develop my off roading skills in a relatively safe environment. They sure served their purpose this week as I got to practice winching, rigging and various driving techniques to recover Jenny’s Jeep.

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Wrenchfest in Kentucky

{This article appears in the April 2010 issue of Jeep Action magazine. Photos my Matt Gibson.}

Imagine taking a bone stock Jeep and installing a 4.5 inch lift with taller springs; replacement controls arms, longer shackles and a transfer case drop. Add a custom fabricated bumper and winch mount, front and rear lockers and trimmed fenders for clearance. Now imagine doing all that in one weekend.

That is exactly the transformation that Matt Gibson made to his Jeep in a friend’s backyard garage in Kentucky.

Matt is no stranger to organizing big events as he is the organizing force behind the Kentucky Derby Festival and Thunder Over Louisville. People who only know him from his day job often have no idea how he spends his adventure time.

Matt began by securing an appropriate work space. His friend Neal Hoover offered up a nice two bay workshop equipped with compressed air, a welder and plenty of space to work.

Next, he made the call to his friends on the Yahoo Groups XJlist for some wrenching help. This diverse group has had many off road adventures together and experience working together from many a trail repairs, but they had never done a project like this one. About a dozen members traveled from up to eight hours away to join the fun and help Matt get his rig built.

The main reason that it was possible to build a Jeep so quickly was that Matt already had all the parts he needed except for the front bumper and Winch mount installed on his old faithful XJ Red. Red however was now suffering from severe rust damage and a weakening engine. Rather than continue to patch Red, Matt elected to take over his wife’s white XJ which had just been replaced by a larger SUV.

The transformation began on Friday with the group helping Neal clear his own projects from the shop to make space for the two Jeeps. His custom J truck was moved to a safe place at a neighbor’s house for the weekend and his off road XJ took up watch in the muddy yard after being used to load the J truck on the trailer.

Once the two XJ’s were on jack stands, Evan Purser who traveled form North Carolina began work on removing the front axle as a unit. This would swap the locker, Currie steering, lift springs and control arms with just six bolts or so. So began the good plan violently executed as the control arm bolts were all very rusted. However, as another team set to pulling the front from the white Jeep Evan and his team powered out the rusty bolts and had the axle on the ground and ready for transplant before the mid evening pizza break.

Mike Strawbridge and his son Scott who drove from Tennessee began work removing the rear axle assembly. The front spring bolt was rusted solid and even cutting into the floor to access the nut did not release it. They finally had to cut the bolt to extract the spring.

On Saturday morning Adam Olukalns, also from Tennessee, began work on fabricating a new bumper and winch mount. After a few mock ups he and Brian Klotz took over the picnic table as a cutting and welding surface and began their art work.

Matt’s brother Mitch brought doughnuts and coffee for the group before he, Neal and Wayne set into wrenching on the rear axle of the white Jeep.

Matt kept the group organized with complete list of tasks to be done on a white board in the shop. He tried getting involved with the wrenching as much as possible but he was always called away for a decision on the Jeep or for other organizational duties.

The rear leaf spring bolts on the white Jeep proved just as stubborn as the red Jeep and the floor had to be cut as the nut broke loose in the unibody. Soon however, both rear axle assemblies were on the floor ready to be swapped.

At lunch break Neal took every one next door to see his project custom J Truck. The body was fresh back from the paint shop looked great as the group pushed it out into the sun shine for viewing. Matt’s wife Allison supplied plenty of chili and hot wings for the group to eat and kept the food coming the entire weekend.

One the lifted axles were in place under the white Jeep, Mike and Scott set the red jeep on the stock axle even without the benefit of bolts to hold it in place. They put some spare wheels on it and pushed it out side. This made space to move the bumper fabrication process inside.

Once inside, Adam began giving welding lessons as he practiced his art. Frosty, a local, welded up the rear floor that had been cut and Mike installed the transfer case drop removed from the Red Jeep.

Work Continues on the white Jeep — Work continues on the white Jeep

Having so many people working in close proximity proved the team work of this diverse group who mostly see each other once or twice a year. The only resource that became a scarcity was the 220V outlet that had to be shared between welder and the air compressor. The group quickly worked out how to let the compressor run to fill the storage tank and then swap back to the welder.

Josh Purvis began trimming the fenders for extra clearance after Scott removed the stock fender flares. The result looks better-than-factory

By late Saturday night, most of the list was checked off on the white board. Even his snorkel made the move and was hooked up to the intake.

Sunday morning, Mike and Scott loaded up the left over Red Jeep parts to be used on other XJlist member Jeeps. In the shop, final details were made to the bumper and trimmed fenders.

The steering was reconnected, seat covers installed and brakes were bled and by early afternoon, Matt was able to drive the Jeep out of the garage. Before the test drive Neal showed the group how to align the front suspension and the Jeep drove perfectly.

Being able to build an off road ready Jeep in one weekend was made possible by careful planning and having a great group of friends working together to make it happen. Many of the group commented that this weekend working together was one of the most fun times they have had as a group. That says a lot considering the adventures this crew has undertaken over the years. Working as a team to accomplish a goal and seeing the result drive away was very rewarding. Rewarding not only to Matt, but to all those who worked to make it happen.

We all look forward to seeing the new white Jeep on the trail soon.

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Tag: lifted Jeep

Lost and Stuck in woods

Wrenchfest 2010