Trailhead Tire Deflators

August 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment

For the last ten years on my key ring, a set of the tried and true tire deflators from SUN performance. Screw them on and monitor there pressure in intervals until I am at the desired tire pressure. Did not think much of them other than: “How easier can you get?” Then I recently got a set of Trailhead Automatic Tire Deflators for a gift.

WOW! What have I been missing with the extra time all these years? These things are amazing and took me getting a gift to realize, DOH!

Before it would take 15 minutes on average to air down and monitor all four tires. This [Read more...]

Filed Under: Cherokee, Four Minute Review, Jeep, Wheel'in

Iron Rock Off Road HD Track Bar Cherokee / XJ review

August 16, 2010 By 1 Comment

When I started with my XJ I had a Rusty’s Off-Road Track bar which used a standard Tie Rod End that you could get off any auto parts store shelf. I found that setup just did not work well with an XJ over 3″ of lift as I was replacing Tie Rod Ends every 6-8 months, typically after a summer of wheeling trips.

Then I went to the Rubicon Express Track bar, RE1600 that utilizes a Rod End. Worked much better and only replaced the Rod End once in a little over a year of owning it. Couple weeks ago I came across some noise from my front end only to discover my OE track bar bracket had cracked and the bolt wobbled out.

Alright time to try something different I say and started to look around at all the many setups available. I had a wish list: I wanted it beefy, would use poly bushings that would be cheaper to replace than Rod Ends, or flex joints, and of course included a new double sheer bracket for the frame end.

I came across this company, Iron Rock Off Road. A fairly new company to me, I had not heard a whole lot about them, other than me searching on the net finding posts on some forums criticizing them for being so new and different. However they had some pretty interesting products on their web page for many a Jeep model, including a HD track bar for $189 for my XJ.

“Interesting” as I thought to myself, every company had a starting point sometime in there development right?

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Cherokee, Four Minute Review, Jeep, Mouth'in, Products

JCR Offroad Cherokee/XJ upper 1/4 panel armor

August 15, 2010 By 1 Comment

On my quest for something to protect my upper quarter panels and to match my lower quarter panel armor. I came across a company that appears to be improving on others ideas, JCR off-road.

There have been other companies who have made upper quarter panel armor and seeing them in person I found they looked good on the vehicle, but either very expensive, or the use of thin material and not quite the fit I was looking for.

JCR Off-road had started to make their own version for XJ’s a year or so ago and I waited a while to here some feedback on them.  Hearing some good feedback from fellow XJ owners about them I decided to move on them and ordered me up a set.  For $170 for a set with tail-light protectors plus $30+ shipping they were around $200. They also offer for another $110 full tail-lights as well, but I wanted to keep the electrical and lighting OE and simpler.

They have a couple weeks fabrication delay as they make them on the spot. Two weeks after I ordered them they arrived on my doorstep. Very impressed!

Looking at their pictures on there website they changed the top part of the guard by adding another 1″ of material bent in to match the curve of the XJ body. That is a BIG bonus as working with fabrication in the past this adds structural strength to the guard. Now why they do not update the pictures of their product on the web-page I do not know, because it is an improvement over other brands and a good selling point.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Cherokee, Four Minute Review, Jeep, Mouth'in, Products, Wrench'in

Best upgrade I almost forgot to do! Fuel Injectors!

August 5, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Little back story here; I purchased a ’90 Jeep XJ two years back to replace my aging ’85 CJ-7. Bought the Jeep with a rebuilt lower end on the motor and over the last two years I have slowly upgraded and tweaked everything you could think of from suspension, armor, to engine upgrades as in cooling system, air intake, exhaust, performance plug wires, etc.

The one thing I failed to think of was the injectors which were probably the ones that they stuck in the motor when it was assembled in 1990, and if not they looked old. I decided considering what feels like I should get more out of my motor and that my fuel economy is for crap, is to replace the injectors.

So priced them out at auto stores at $60+ each, or $360+ for all six, ouch!

Looked around on the net and found these guys on ebay; PRECISION AUTO INJECTORS .

They recycle by [Read more...]

Filed Under: Cherokee, Four Minute Review, Jeep, Mouth'in, non Jeep, Products, Rigs Tagged With: , , ,

Aussie Locker Part 3; Final testing and the real world experience.

May 20, 2009 By Leave a Comment

If you read my Part #1 and Part #2 of the Aussie Locker experience you will know I had recently installed this brand locker in my rear Dana 44 axle on my Jeep and was wanting some real world experience with them before I gave my final verdict.


To do that, I had waited to have [Read more...]

Filed Under: Jeep, Products, Wheel'in, Wrench'in Tagged With: ,

Poor Boy Fab Shop; Custom Control Arms w/ Ballistic Fabrication Products

April 30, 2009 By Leave a Comment

I have been lurking on Ballistic Fabrication’s website  for some time now and been pretty impressed with the products they offer.

I got the time and opportunity recently to use Ballistic’s Flex Joint in a set of custom fixed lower control arms I built for a fellow wheeler on a budget and was really impressed with their quality.  Similar to the Rubicon Express Flex Joint but with a machined housing eliminating the snap ring on one side, and $10 cheaper than the Rubicon Flex Joint. (this is a picture of Ballistic’s Heavy Duty Flex Joint I used in that project)

A little jealous after making those, I decided to do something for myself using some Ballistic products. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Cherokee, Jeep, Mouth'in, Products, Wrench'in Tagged With: , , ,

Rough Country Old style Upper Control Arms; a review 3 months in the making.

April 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

When I first got my XJ I had initially installed a simple “3 lift kit as at the time I had a limited budget to lift so I had chosen to do fixed lower control arms and keep the uppers stock so I could do full leaf springs. Well almost two years later and I sit at “4.5 lift now. I have been swapping out parts here and there to slowly accomplish my ultimate master plan.

One of the things I had not address yet was my upper control arms which the OE versions are not known for their incredible strength, but now the time had come to address their deficiency.

I had two options; build my own or buy something off the shelf.

Option one; Fabbing up my own would be cheaper, but my problem is this. It is very hard now a days to do any sort of fabbing work on a short time frame simply for the fact with a child under two and the wife half way along with our second child, almost impossible.

Option two; I found myself tied with which to choose, as there are many brands on the market that are all really the same just different style flex joints and if they are adjustable or not. Definitely wanted something adjustable even though “4.5 of lift according to many charts show the upper arms stay the same length as stock.  Then there was the cost, OUCH! (Your kidding right, you want that much for a set?)

I found a perfect moment, Rough Country recently re-designed their controls arms to use a Johny Joints style end instead of their old style which copy Tera Flex’s original design. This was simply 1/2 the arm was  male threaded and screwed into the other 1/2 of the arm that was female threaded. Creating the adjustability and a lot of unrestricted flex.

Now in my personal opinion I really like the idea [Read more...]

Filed Under: Cherokee, Four Minute Review, Jeep, Mouth'in, Products, Wrench'in Tagged With: ,

Poor Boy Fab Shop; The $15 winch remote fix.

March 22, 2009 By 1 Comment

In the last ten years of owning two different brand winches I have used them collectively 11 times. If you do the math that is 1.1 times a year, not a lot huh? Either I am lame and take the super easy trails and bypasses or I am just that good not to get myself stuck. What is funny though, I only used it on myself once.

So it sucker punched me when my current winch remote failed on me with such little use. My wonderfully reliable Mile Marker 9500si came with a remote that was made of a soft rubber material and looked like it could be really abused……….WRONG!

Here is what Mile Marker’s Remote looks like. (Excuse the crappy pics, my 7 seven month old Kodak is out for repair, and that is another article.)

In the last three years I have used this Mile Marker in some tough spots and it has worked flawlessly each until the end of the last pull. I was re-spooling the line when it cut out on me for a brief second and I had to press the remote a little harder.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Jeep, Products, Wrench'in Tagged With: ,

Aussie Locker Part 2; Carrier Install / Initial Driving impressions

February 17, 2009 By Leave a Comment

So if you read my Part 1 post, I got through the initial assembly of the Aussie Locker into the carrier. To reflect I had a factory Trac Lok in the Dana44 and since the Aussie Locker will not fit into a Trac lok case I had to get an open carrier to put it in. So for most people putting an Aussie Locker into an open axle the install will be easy. For me because I have to switch carriers I now have to have the Ring Gear reset, basically half of a Ring & Pinion install.

So far my experience with the Aussie Locker has been pleasant, everything has been as expected and experienced no issues. This continued with swapping out the carriers [Read more...]

Filed Under: Cherokee, Jeep, Mouth'in, Products, Wrench'in Tagged With: , , ,

Aussie Locker Part 1; Assembly

February 8, 2009 By 1 Comment

Okay so  I decided that trying to afford ARB lockers or any other selectable locker was not in the range of my budget and to keep the budget under control I was only going to lock the rear.

I also wanted something that was very simple. For example in my last Jeep I had a Detroit Locker in the rear and I loved the thing! Awesome offroad, the street driving took a while to get use to, definitely had its quirks but was pretty much indestructible. However a Detroit was even out of my budget range. This leaves me with  “Lunchbox” style lockers, which in general simply replace the spider gears, so they are pretty affordable.  Several brands on the market, pretty much all the same save construction and minor design differences.

I have been reading nothing but good things about Aussie Lockers for a couple years now. They are priced just right  at around [Read more...]

Filed Under: Cherokee, Jeep, Products, Wheel'in, Wrench'in Tagged With: , , ,

Skully got his wife a new Jeep……possible projects? YES…..

February 4, 2009 By 1 Comment

So in the effort to get my wife off the FORD kick, I convinced her to look at Jeep specifically a Commander. Why? We wanted something that can hold more than five people, has four wheel drive, and tough. We picked a 2008 Commander Sport with upgrades of; Quadra trac II,  and the 4.7L V8 (not the HEMI, I can not see my wife staying out of trouble with her lead foot.) I really was hoping for the Quadra drive system with Electronic Limited Slip Differentials. They had none on the lot, and it was not a major priority as they come normally on the Overland editions and are pricier. (out of our planned price range)

At first, I was blamed for just wanting another Jeep in the household.  After a couple days though she actually told me she likes it and wanted to know if we could lift it a little and put bigger, more aggressive tires on it. WOOHOO! ……I luv my wife.

Not the best pics, but to show it off;

commander01 commander021

I started looking into after market stuff. Wow! Not a lot yet, and Mopar [Read more...]

Filed Under: Jeep, Mouth'in, Products, Rigs Tagged With:

Poor Boy Fab Shop; XJ Ubolt/Extended Bump Stop Plates

November 16, 2008 By 1 Comment

Poor Boy Fab Shop; that’s me, Skully’s at home DIY projects! In this ever crappy economy most of us see an ever depleting disposable income. (Although I will admit if I did have the money I still like to fab my own stuff, its fun and saves money for the more expensive toys.)

For owners of any 4 wheel Drive the secret is to get as big of a tire as possible with the amount of lift you can afford. For XJ owners it can be a pain to figure out how to get the big tires under your vehicle as most lift kit makers state for XJ’s 4.5″ of lift you can run 32″ tires. Problem I find that not so accurate. I have 4.5″ of lift with 31′s and still rub in the front and rear.  The front of an XJ you can cut to yours hearts content to give yourself room. The rear of an XJ is a little more complicated being it is a Unibody and the pinch seam and lower quarter panel gets in the way. Even with minor to major cutting most still do some form of Bump stop [Read more...]

Filed Under: Cherokee, GPS, Jeep, LUVMYJP Plate Tour, Products, Rigs, Wrench'in Tagged With: ,

Bill Moore & Mill Creek, Co. 10/11/08 Wheeling Trip

October 17, 2008 By 3 Comments

While most of my fellow Jeepers went to Fall Fling as was mentioned in a previous post by JohnJohn. I was unable to attend, but did not want to stay home and do nothing. So to be one of my last trips of 2008, I hooked up with 3 other guys of the naxja.org board, and made a family wheeling event. We had wives, girlfriend, and kids all raring to go!  ………It was also going to be a snow run as 1-3 inches were predicted by noon, it didn’t happen, lying weathermen!

I really wanted to do something I haven’t done before, but two of the guys in the group voted against me and chose Mill Creek / Bill Moore combo.  We did decide not to run Red Elephant up, as it can be nasty in wet conditions. So starting Bill Moore from Empire, just after the beginning switchbacks to the top, one of us in the group started to get really sick, and ended up turning around on the trail.  (it sounded like altitude sickness.)

…..with three of us remaining we trekked on, but somehow missed our turn to Mill Creek, ending up going backwards on [Read more...]

Filed Under: Event, Jeep, video, Wheel'in Tagged With: ,

Trxus M/T’s; a review 15 months in the making

September 29, 2008 By 4 Comments

My personal opinion here; I hate tire reviews written a month after they put them on. A review for a specific tire should be written after you done wore them out.  So here is mine……….

I am a long time BFG fan. In 10 years I ran two different vehicles and four different sets of BFG’s on them. (1) Set of BFG A/T’s which are great on everything besides mud. (3) Sets of BFG M/Ts which are an all around great tire which I managed to abuse quite regularly and still got 60,000+ miles on each set. They only sucked on the street on snow and ice until I had them siped which kind of helped, but there is no perfect tire for all terrains.

Last year I had an epiphany; “How do I know if there is anything better if I have never tried them?” So I decided to try Interco’s Trxus M/T’s. I read plenty of reviews of satisfied customers who ran them and I thought I will give them a try. I bought a set May ‘07 and it is now September ‘08. They have taken plenty of abuse as I have put 30,000+ miles on my XJ in almost a year and a half and they have also been on eight off-road trails in Colorado since putting them on. [Read more...]

Filed Under: GPS, Jeep, LUVMYJP Plate Tour, Mouth'in, non Jeep, Products, Rigs, Wheel'in, Wrangler Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

West Magnolia Trail, Colorado Sept. 27th, 2008

September 28, 2008 By 1 Comment

It was so beautiful up there, the family was in love!

The trail has changed a lot though since I have been up there, which has been about three years.

I guess more of the private property has been closed off and many of the areas and trails are not accessible as they once were.  Some of the trail I remember got deeper with ruts and mud holes. Since the trail is mostly spring run off areas it will eventually be rated a 7 instead of a 3, but overall still an easy trail system.

All the times I have been up there in the past I never knew there was a hiking trail to a placed called Champion Mill. I guess they do not advertise it and it is on private property but the owners are nice to let you hike to it as long as you are responsible. I found it on the internet by accident and this made me want to go see it!  ….the power of the internet…… [Read more...]

Filed Under: Jeep, Wheel'in Tagged With: , , ,