I've been working on a new head-unit & switch combo for the past few weeks, and yesterday was the first test fit. It looks pretty good and fit very well, although it didn't play any sound. It's no problem though, just a switch set to the wrong setting - I think. We'll see when I do the final install this week. :-)

View the Jeep > Projects > Alpine IDA-X100 HU and Switch Panel folder...

The 2008 Jeep Jamboree Schedule was published earlier this month. Melanie and I were looking forward to booking the Vermont and Maine Jeep Jamborees. Unfortunately, the Vermont Beer Festival and the Vermont Jeep Jamboree are both on the same week-end! So we had to choose one or the other... Last year's VIP experience at the Vermont Beer Festival was really excellent and we were hoping to do the same this year. JP also came up from South Carolina for the Beer Festival, which made it all the better. Hopefully we can convince JP to attend the Vermont Jeep Jamboree instead. :-) It's a long drive though, so we'll see. If anyone else would like to join us, the Vermont Jeep Jamboree is July 18-20 in Killington Vermont, and the Maine Jeep Jamboree is October 3-5 in Bethel Maine.

I had a hell of a time finding winter tires I liked, but finally bought some US made Toyo M-55s. I had to drive down from Montreal to the US to pick them up, but it was well worth it since the US made M-55s are pinned for studs. These tires are used extensively by commercial fleets and working pickup trucks out west and up north. They easily last 80k or more and many owners sipe them. There are siping machines that exist, but there none in Montreal, so I had to hand-sipe mine. Hand-siping also does a better job, supposedly, because you can stay away from the edges of the lugs. Automated siping machines are just a big cork-screw cutter that cuts 1/2" wide sipes along the tread circumference.

We went to get our first snow tires yesterday in Champlain NY (JS bought them from a place in the US and had them shipped to a warehouse in Champlain - literally on the border line). Yep we could not get those snow tires in Canada - TOYO's 33 inches M55 studed. In Canada, they only have the studeless version. We did not wait at all to pay the Duty on the tires. They are quite heavy 60 pound each. Now we are missing 2 wheels before we can have these installed.

View the Donnett's Pepper Pete folder...

On Saturday, three of us met in Terrebonne to run a Jeep Trail along a Hydro line. The trail is known to be mostly sand and water, with some mud here and there. Melanie and I were driving our green 4-door JK with 33s and 3" lift. Matthew was driving his stock red 2-door JK with 32s and FabFour bumpers. Steve was driving a black 2-door JK with 35s, 3" lift with pucks, and 1" body lift. This is a trail that can be done by smaller 4×4 stock vehicles, but last Saturday, this probably wasn't the case. It had been raining for several days, and the weather was dipping well bellow 0C at night. This meant the ground wasn't absorbing much water, and most of the water holes had a good 3/8" of ice covering it. When we got to expanses of water that we couldn't go around, we stopped and tested the depth with our rubber boots. We took some risks based on guestimates of depth, and were pretty lucky generally. We took our time and tried to be careful. Matthew calculated our average speed for the day at around 2.2km/h. :-) All of our Jeeps survived, although we all have to check and/or change fluids in our diffs, t-case, trans, etc. Steve has some problems with his ESP, and has difficulty turning to the right. Hopefully it's just electrical and not too serious. Unfortunately there aren't too many pictures of our Jeep, because we were in front. When possible, Melanie would try and tip-toe around and take a picture, but often the water holes were just too big to walk around.

View the Jeep > Off-Road > 2007 > 20071117 - Jeep Trail in Terrebonne folder...

The Event

Last September 27-30 we attended our first Jeep Jamboree in Bethel Maine. It was the 18th annual Jamboree for Bethel. There were over 130 Jeeps of all kinds and 250 + people. The types of Jeeps varied widely - Willy's, Army Jeeps, CJ's, TJ's, YJ's, Jeep Cherokees, JK's 2 and 4 doors - Sahara, X's and Rubicon .... and 1 Jeep Liberty. Doug and Jodie Wilson are the organizers of the Bethel Jamboree. Many thanks to all the land owners who allowed the use of their land for the trails, all the trail guides who accompanied us and prepared the trails before and after, the lunches were prepared by the local school ... The whole weekend went very smoothly - at least from a participant standpoint. Our experience was great and yes we will be back next year to the event. THANKS to all.

Enter Last week we installed the new horns and skid plate, finishing the front bumper. It took a while, but looks pretty good. Once I have the new "Heavy Duty" coils up front, I'll calibrate all the lights.

Last week-end Mike and I changed the battery to an Optima D34M (Deep Cycle 750 CCAs), and just about every connector on it. I think there are about 9 wires going to the battery! :-) We also added a 7 circuit fuse box bellow the globe box. This'll power the CB, GPS, and three gauges. Those are the three projects for this week. We're going to be busy if we're going to get everything done before next Wednesday. :-)

View the Jeep > Evolution folder...

Last week-end we installed a Garvin Roof rack on the Jeep. These racks are a little different than the typical ones you see -- they have to bolt onto the body because the Jeep Wrangler's roof can be removed completely. :-) The body panels are a little thin, so I purposefully installed some heavy steel corner guards a while back to support the roof rack. The rack also tilts back to allow the soft-top to open/close. We'll get try out that feature next spring, once we have the soft-top on there. Next Monday we're having the 3" lift kit installed, and that'll pretty much finish this project -- just a few odds & ends left, like the winch, lights, and CB.

View the Jeep > Projects > Garvin Roof Rack folder...

Phew! Mike and I added some tow-hooks to the front bumper yesterday, test fitted the winch, all while Melanie emptied and prep'ed the rear differential for a new cover (shown here). Then today I mounted the CB antenna bracket and ran the coax. You can see pictures of that install here.

View the Jeep > Evolution > 20070811 - Installing Tow Hooks and Rear Diff Cover folder...

Mike, Melanie, and I have been working hard to get the Jeep ready for the September Jeep Jamboree in Maine. The roof rack, shocks, springs, etc. should be in shortly, and last week-end we finally got to install the new bumper. We decided to install it in two steps, saving the winch, skid plate, off-road lights, and crush cans for another week-end. We're also going to replace the stock fog lights, but we'll have to fab a bracket for those, so it might take a little longer. :-) Anyway, here's our new bumper, about half-way done.

View the Jeep > Evolution > 20070804 - Installing AEV Front Bumper folder...

Mike and I installed some new rock sliders (aka rock rails) on the Jeep this week-end. They stick out 4" from the body, so they will also work as steps to access our future roof rack. Luckily Patrick lent us his garage for the day, 'cause it would have been near impossible to install these on the street. :-) Earlier in the week, I also installed an under-hood relay and fuse box and a center console switch mount to control future off-road lights, backup lights, etc. The off-road lights will be installed on our new front bumper, that should be shipping this week.

View the Jeep > Evolution > 20070728 - Installing Shrockworks Rock Sliders folder...

	Baby's Got New Shoes!

The wheels finally came in this week and I had the tires mounted this morning! I used 8oz of Innovative Balancing's ceramic beads per tire. It took about 10-12 mins per tire to add the beads - a real pain in the butt. The advantage to ceramic beads, instead of conventional lead weights, is they can't get dislodged when off-roading. It also balances the tire no matter if there's mud, snow, or ice on the wheel.

View the Jeep > Evolution folder...

I've had quite a few things in the workshop waiting to go on the Jeep, but there's only so much time in a week-end, so Mike and I have been tackling one project at a time. This week-end we changed the headlights and improved the turn signals. Mike worked out a sweet wiring diagram to turn the sidemarker lights (the orange lights on the front fenders) into a running light / turn signal combo. The new Cibie headlights also have a "city light" feature for the daytime -- a second bulb that got wired to the running lights. We also had to splice in a new connector for the H4-type lightbulb. The new headlights look really sweet and should be a huge difference. All that's left to do is align them properly before using them on the highway. I figure the local Loblaws should have a good level parking lot and wall to do this.

View the Jeep > Projects > Cibie Headlights folder...

I've created a Jeep > Evolution folder to group all the pictures we take of our various Jeep installation / modification projects. So far we've installed a partition net for the dog, added corner guards / armor, a gas cap lid, taillight guards, changed the center console, changed the muffler, and added a device to disable the engine. This week-end we'll probably change the headlights and pad the speaker bar for better sound. Still back-ordered are new bumpers, a basket-style roof rack, wheels and tires, shocks, springs, control arms, trackbars, diff covers, snorkel, compressor, and much more...

View the Jeep > Evolution folder...

	Here she is!

Here she is, our new baby; 116" wheelbase and 4347 lbs! :-)

It was raining on and off this evening, but we still managed to install the clutch lock, Husky floor mats, Raingler partition net for the dog, door sill protectors and wheel lock nuts. I don't know how people have been putting on that Raingler net, but I had to create some tie-offs for the sides. Now we gotta get the soft-top out of there so the dog can get in! :-) Oh, and the best thing, no tacky "Trail Rated" badge! Woohoo! That's the only badge I really didn't like on the Jeeps. :-)

There's already a lot of stuff in the workshop or on it's way for the Jeep, so we'll be adding / modifying stuff on the Jeep for the next several weeks. :-)

View the Jeep > Evolution folder...