[Jblankster]

bump for updates


and i vote for a removeable roll bar. i mean hell you already have no air bags

[ggerdsen]

Those fenders look great man!!!

[Jblankster]

okay i saved most of them to a public photobucket i made. feel free to edit this onto the first post if you want.

http://s560.photobucket.com/albums/ss50/Jeeper04/

[tatooweeny]

Originally Posted by Jblankster

bump for updates


and i vote for a removeable roll bar. i mean hell you already have no air bags

Why don't I just get rid of the seatbelts, too? My family already thinks I went over the edge doing this this to my Jeep! Besides, I just got some cool Vietnam era cargo netting, and it fits perfectly between the cage sides. But a removeable one would be cool, for when I'm just driving around town. I would need to have a racing seatbelt style harness though. Hmmm.

Still nothing new about the dash. I think I got a little burned out about the whole thing. I'm waiting for some inspiration to hit me upside the head again. Things I've finally got around to doing include: A fire extinguisher & mount, A highlift jack mount, Upgraded toolbox mounts, & more weatherproofing stuff. Plus I temporarily mounted my CB radio again.

Oh, I also finished my bridge plate & mount, so I'll take a couple pics of that soon. And I'm ready to mount my external radiator overflow tank as well, plus another 24 volt horn. I'll post again soon. Thanks everyone.

[Floof]

If you ever need any help hit me up. PM me if you want my cell, I'm always up to learn new things and I live right by that retirement home I see your jeep at every now and again =)

[RoughRider0923]

Nice Very Nice Congrats

[jstreet]

makes me want to go take my wheel flares off

[2006_Sport]

consider this thread subscribed...AWESOME JEEP!!!...im a huge army supporter (since i wasnt able to join) and come from an army family and what you did is great

[TreyMR2]

Dang, I went threw the whole thread earlier, really like the project. It would probably take me a sec to notice its a TJ at first glance. Lol

[jrb470]

Wow! Unbelievable!
Very Nice Job!

[tatooweeny]

Got myself into quite a pickle yesterday (Friday the 13th, no less! lol). I was in Nevada near Mount Como when my cousin and I came across a "sticky" situation.
I'll have a couple of pics and the story posted tonight. -Jake

[xBlackBettyx]

I love this Jeep. It's my favorite on the whole forum so far. Keep up the good work.

[tatooweeny]

Okay, here's what happened. My cousin and I were restless and wanted to find someplace to wheel near Tahoe. The snow was still too deep (4 my wimpy a$$!) to access the Rubicon, so we headed over the summit to the high desert plains of Nevada, only 45 minutes away.


One of the access points. 4 feet deep snow!


Another Rubicon access point. The snow plow created a nice "ramp" to climb over the gate, which from the looks of it someone accomplished.



It was around 2:00 when we got there (we took our time) and had fun on all access trails in the foothills of Gardnerville.
(see map). http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=38.940051,-119.744453&daddr=&geocode=&hl=en&gl=us&mra=dme&mrcr=0&mrsp=0&sz=13&sll=38.947127,-119.682312&sspn=0.064216,0.232773&ie=UTF8&ll=39.043719,-119.530563&spn=0.256513,0.931091&t=p&z=11

We pretty much had the place to ourselves. I wasn't too concerned with breaking down; the town was close enough to walk back to get help if needed.

[tatooweeny]

It was close to 5:00 when we decided to stop and head back to Tahoe for some food and drink.



We found what looked like an access road heading towards a lake (Artesia), thinking it would be faster than backtracking through the trails. Besides, the daylight was dissappearing, so it made all the more sense to stick to a larger grated dirt/gravel road for utility trucks and campers.


The grated road we ended up taking is somewhat visible at the bottom of this foothill. That's the mountain range in the background we eventually had to drive through...

We pushed on, totally relying on the GPS, which by the way was loosing battery power. An hour later, both phones had no service (my phone battery died), and my camera's batteries went bye bye as well. I was starting to think the worst. We had 5 gallons of water, but no food (just pretzils). It probably gets to be 15 degrees at night here, but if the worst had happened, I did have a nearly full tank of gas to keep us warm.

The access road was starting to get patches of snow/mud in places. Really sticky, sticky stuff. We thought about turning back, but now we were something like 4 hours into it, and knew we had to be be closer to 95A. Besides, it was an adventure! By the time we reached the next set of mountains though, we had covered 13+ miles of trails, which by the way had completely turned to a tenacious mess of muddy clay and snow in what seemed like 1/2 mile long sections! I never thought a stock jeep with 33" BFG's (All terrains) could handle so well in this. I remembered that I was in 2nd gear, 4WD High @ 2500 rpm for most of the way, giving me the best movement through the mud. I must have been moving only a couple of miles an hour though, because it took FOREVER to get out of those mountains. The deeper ruts I avoided (seemed like 3' high), and whenever patches of snow appeared on the ground, I took it. There were times when I felt the jeep sinking down, but I would keep turning the wheels side to side and it would suddenly 'Jump' up and out. I was really worried about the mechanicals overheating, but my cousin was the gauge watcher, plus helped in navigating me around random obstacles like large rocks, cars in the mud, ect.

That's right, we even came across a stuck Subaru or japanese car knee deep in mud while manuvering though that stuff. Don't ask me how it got there, but it's there. (please, someone find it and get a picture for me!) Talk about finding a prize in a bowl of Cocoa Pebbles! I felt bad cause I couldn't stop to see whether or not anyone was inside crying (I was inches away from plowing into it)

After the strenuous task of driving through that mess without losing hope, darkness set in and the GPS batteries were so low that we decided to turn it off to preserve what we had in case of an extreme emergency. (Note to self: bring extra batteries next time.) It was so dark out that you really couldn't see much more than a few hundred yards ahead, and at this point had no clue as to where we were, or where we would end up. Every now and then my lights would 'flash' the snow on the mountains, giving us a bearing on where we were headed. Once I started driving across cow grates, I knew we were on the home stretch. We ended up coming out near the town of Wabuska, where we caught 95a up to Hwy 50, eventually heading down to Carson city, and on to South Lake Tahoe. Yes, we still stopped at a Casino and had a couple drinks and gambled a bit. (Didn't win anything)

Anyways, perseverance and luck was on our side a bit, and we managed to find civilization, where we vowed to return to this area when the weather gets hotter to retrace our steps. My only wish was that I had gotten at least one pic of the muddy trails for all those "If you don't have a pic to prove it, it never happened!" folks out there, but my mind was hellbent on getting my jeep (and us) out of danger. But just in case you have any doubt, I do have some pics of the aftermath! heh heh -jake

[DeerTarget]

Glad that ended well for you guys. Thanks for taking the time to post that. Super photos & story!