Maine Northwoods Tread Lightly® 4x4 Cache Rally

[The G Team]

depending on what stefs doin on saturday, i was thinking about getting in a day of caching up that way. perhaps maybe we could drag a few other cachers into it and do some bangor caching (after pizza of course)

Hey, we need to do another off-road run soon! The Jeep has got a few upgrades since last we met and there are more in the works.

If you go to Bangor, by all means do the Stone House--it is a great cache location and a good little workout for the Jeep.

[Haffy]

Heck I could do that with my Geo.

[The G Team]

Actually, I was thinking about the *other* cache further up the hill, up thru the blueberry field--I think the last bit would be more of a challenge. Even Brad didn't take his Vue up ;-)

[Hiram357]

Yeah, someone posted a pick of their ford excursion up there... if that thing can make it I'd put money down on Haffy's geo beating it up there.

what'd ya upgrade on the Jeep mike? I got my new 4wd hardware bible in the mail the other day, and i'm pretty sure I've got the chrysler 8.25 in it.

i got a new track bar today, and a hi-amp battery (gettin ready for the winch)

[Sudonim]

I did those two in my Outback. The stone house was one of my favorite caches.

[The G Team]

Yeah, someone posted a pick of their ford excursion up there... if that thing can make it I'd put money down on Haffy's geo beating it up there.

what'd ya upgrade on the Jeep mike? I got my new 4wd hardware bible in the mail the other day, and i'm pretty sure I've got the chrysler 8.25 in it.

i got a new track bar today, and a hi-amp battery (gettin ready for the winch)

Yup, you def have the Chryco (lucky!).

I have the front receiver installed, and it came out very nice.

Yesterday we installed a new 3 core all steel radiator and removed the rear sway bar (this *really* frees up the rear axle for flexing. Jeep actually removed this at the factory as part of the "Up Country" package, so it is Jeep endorsed).

Today we changed plugs, wires, dist cap, rotor button and coil. Wow were the plugs bad--gap was probably close to .070 (supposed to be .035)--it's a wonder the poor thing was running at all.

I have the Aussie locker in hand, but am having second thoughts about installing it in the D35. We are planning a trip to the junkyard to scope out Explorers for a nice 8.8" rear with disc brakes and possibly 4.11 gears to match the 31" tires I'm going to (of course, have to do the lift at the same time).

We are heading to VT tomorrow camping and will hit the 4x4 Jamboree in Essex Junction--should be fun. I'm hoping there will be some vendors there as I need a full exhaust and cat--looking at Borla stainless, but muffler and pipe is around $369 and cat another $150 to $250 depending on which one. Might just do a Dynomax--they look nice and are considerably cheaper (not stainless, though).

I'm looking at the 3.5" Old Man Emu lift that comes with all new spring packs and nitro shocks, as well as front swaybar quick discos. I think that and some 31x10.5x15 BFG Mud Terrains would be just about right.

[Hiram357]

Yup, you def have the Chryco (lucky!).

I have the front receiver installed, and it came out very nice.

Yesterday we installed a new 3 core all steel radiator and removed the rear sway bar (this *really* frees up the rear axle for flexing. Jeep actually removed this at the factory as part of the "Up Country" package, so it is Jeep endorsed).

Today we changed plugs, wires, dist cap, rotor button and coil. Wow were the plugs bad--gap was probably close to .070 (supposed to be .035)--it's a wonder the poor thing was running at all.

I have the Aussie locker in hand, but am having second thoughts about installing it in the D35. We are planning a trip to the junkyard to scope out Explorers for a nice 8.8" rear with disc brakes and possibly 4.11 gears to match the 31" tires I'm going to (of course, have to do the lift at the same time).

We are heading to VT tomorrow camping and will hit the 4x4 Jamboree in Essex Junction--should be fun. I'm hoping there will be some vendors there as I need a full exhaust and cat--looking at Borla stainless, but muffler and pipe is around $369 and cat another $150 to $250 depending on which one. Might just do a Dynomax--they look nice and are considerably cheaper (not stainless, though).

I'm looking at the 3.5" Old Man Emu lift that comes with all new spring packs and nitro shocks, as well as front swaybar quick discos. I think that and some 31x10.5x15 BFG Mud Terrains would be just about right.

wow, you've been busy! sounds like it needed it though, I'm gettin close to redoin my exhaust too, i'm startin to get small leaks around the manifold, I'd like to find some way to split the pipe and do a dual exhaust, but there's not a whole lotta room under there, (and the new muffler i got last year is already dented and beat to smitherenes... i have no idea how that happened though, must be stefs driving habits) How much was the steel radiator? ya gotta let me know how that works out for ya, i'm tryin to get the jeep to run a bit cooler (once the lift went in and all the other mods it's been slowly creeping up) I'm going to ohio next week so I'm gunna browse around Summit and 4WD Hardware (the Summit of Jeeps!) and hopefully find a nice dual fan setup so i can take the clutch fan off.

and i've been lookin at some exploded diagrams of the rear end of my jeep and i don't think it has a rear swaybar... somethin they possibly just left out of the newer models?

[The G Team]

I'm pretty sure they ALL have swaybars (though I've been wrong before). You need to remove the wheels to get to the bolts--it is a 1/2 thick or a bit more bar that goes up over the driveshaft and exhaust and bolts up by the shocks. Perhaps they took it off when they did the lift? The front one in necessary, but the rear one really limits the axle travel.

With the AC on max and the Jeep ideling I was hitting 230 or more--now it sits a hair under 210, right where it should be. I haven't done any crawling yet with the AC on--that will be the real test. Oh yes, we fixed the vacuum leak, so the AC/Heat control is now working, as is the cruise control.

Got the radiator from www.radiatorbarn.com--I think it was like $179 or so delivered--it is their best one--all steel and 3 core (OE is plastic tank and 1 or 2 core). I would also like to go all electric--I found a good write-up on it on Jeep forum. I have dual electrics on my Bronco and it works well--you can even switch em both off for deep water crossings (not that I'd do that with the Jeep).

I don't think anyone makes a dual exhaust for the 4.0--I doubt it would do much anyway--not like a V8.

Oh yeah, the Aussie Locker is only $229 and $20 shipping--it looks pretty beefy--your axle would handle it with no problem (29 spline wonder that it is!). Check out www.aussielocker.com. I had a question and the company president personally called me back to answer it.

Too bad you guys are busy this weekend--the 4x4 Jamboree thing looks like it should be a good time--mud runs, monster trucks and all that.

[firefighterjake]

HEY DAVE1976 . . .

Some other folks are having problems viewing the PP Slideshow and I know you said you figured out a way to make it work.

Is there any way you could post a thread here for interested folks so they can view the show . . . I guess no one could get them to work today at the Event. I would hate to think all of my work was for nothing.

[d’76]

Ok, I will share my wisdom...

I had to save the file to my hard drive and then right click the file and change the open with to power point and change the file type to .ppt

I cant garrentee that it will work for everyone but remember that it is a huge file and for those of us running norton it will scan automatically. I think this is when we got stuck at the meeting today. I let mine finish the scan. It took a couple of minutes. This file is about 300 meg. It will take awhile to scan so be patient. The wait is worth it. If this doesnt work I will check tomorrow and see if there are other ways.