mmmlafayette
New member
It seems we spend our lives in search of..... The perfect girl (or guy)..... The perfect job..... The perfect vehicle..... The time to write about the perfect vehicle..... The time and patience to figure out how to enter anything in this website.
I have been fortunate. I do have the perfect girl! I am mostly retired now, but had some really good jobs. None were perfect, but they weren't bad either. The perfect vehicle? Well, you can be the judge of that now that I have a cold, it is cold and going to snow outside and I now have the time (maybe not the patience) to put some of the info about my search for the perfect off-road, highway capable, expedition vehicle I could "afford" to put together in this forum.
It started with an 06 TJ Unlimited Rubicon. I added a Full Traction 6" long arm lift, Superior Chrome Alloy axles, Tom Woods driveshaftsGarvin bumpers, Warn powerplant, Zenon fenders, 31.5 gallon GenRight gas tank, 35" BFG AT on ATX wheels and ended up with:
I was a bit worried about the low pinion diffs so I added the AEV diff protectors and an oil pan protector as well:
Now I needed some equipment to help with the expedition part of the plan, so I added a bed: (thanks to Mark and the Grey Mouser for the design)
Here is what it looks like all packed up from the rear: (This is packed for a 7 day trip through the Maze District, Beef Basin and back up Lockhart Basin last May)
I mounted an IPad using a mount from TOOKOOL in order to be able to easily track our progress (or lack of):
All in all, it was meeting my needs, very capable off road, comfortable exploration vehicle and, for the most part, good on the highway. But, going up hills, or even against the wind, was a bit of a stretch for the 4 liter. An going over Eisenhower and Vail Passes it was a 4300 RPM 53 mph slug. Even with the 4:88 gears (it is an automatic and it weights almost 5,000 lbs) it just was painful. So, my perfect wife and I thought about buying a truck and a trailer. Then thought we might as well get a camper for the truck. Then we added all this up and choked. I said, "You know, it would be a whole lot cheaper to just put a V8 in the Jeep". And that is how that was sold.
I am a GM fan so went with Novak Conversions, they found me a 6.0 liter LQ4 and a 4L60-E transmission with 10 miles on it. They include everything needed to drop it in, including wiring and adapters to be able all the gauges and equipment. And I ended up with this:
I needed some gauges to monitor oil and transmission temperatures:
And a new cover for the shifter. I also wanted to be able to more easily tell what gear I was in so found a gear position indicator from Dakota Digital and put it above the console. You can see it indicating O for overdrive:
So for so good. It goes 75 mph down the interstate very comfortably with no problems with hills or head wind. It goes over Eisenhower and Vail Passes with the cruise control set at 65 and it only locks up in overdrive on the steepest of hills. On a trip to Moab it seemed to get the same or slightly better gas mileage.
So, is it perfect? Right now it is (at least for me), but I am sure (as my wife will tell you) I will find something else that it will have to have. I will let you know.
Hope this was worth the read.
I have been fortunate. I do have the perfect girl! I am mostly retired now, but had some really good jobs. None were perfect, but they weren't bad either. The perfect vehicle? Well, you can be the judge of that now that I have a cold, it is cold and going to snow outside and I now have the time (maybe not the patience) to put some of the info about my search for the perfect off-road, highway capable, expedition vehicle I could "afford" to put together in this forum.
It started with an 06 TJ Unlimited Rubicon. I added a Full Traction 6" long arm lift, Superior Chrome Alloy axles, Tom Woods driveshaftsGarvin bumpers, Warn powerplant, Zenon fenders, 31.5 gallon GenRight gas tank, 35" BFG AT on ATX wheels and ended up with:
I was a bit worried about the low pinion diffs so I added the AEV diff protectors and an oil pan protector as well:
Now I needed some equipment to help with the expedition part of the plan, so I added a bed: (thanks to Mark and the Grey Mouser for the design)
Here is what it looks like all packed up from the rear: (This is packed for a 7 day trip through the Maze District, Beef Basin and back up Lockhart Basin last May)
I mounted an IPad using a mount from TOOKOOL in order to be able to easily track our progress (or lack of):
All in all, it was meeting my needs, very capable off road, comfortable exploration vehicle and, for the most part, good on the highway. But, going up hills, or even against the wind, was a bit of a stretch for the 4 liter. An going over Eisenhower and Vail Passes it was a 4300 RPM 53 mph slug. Even with the 4:88 gears (it is an automatic and it weights almost 5,000 lbs) it just was painful. So, my perfect wife and I thought about buying a truck and a trailer. Then thought we might as well get a camper for the truck. Then we added all this up and choked. I said, "You know, it would be a whole lot cheaper to just put a V8 in the Jeep". And that is how that was sold.
I am a GM fan so went with Novak Conversions, they found me a 6.0 liter LQ4 and a 4L60-E transmission with 10 miles on it. They include everything needed to drop it in, including wiring and adapters to be able all the gauges and equipment. And I ended up with this:
I needed some gauges to monitor oil and transmission temperatures:
And a new cover for the shifter. I also wanted to be able to more easily tell what gear I was in so found a gear position indicator from Dakota Digital and put it above the console. You can see it indicating O for overdrive:
So for so good. It goes 75 mph down the interstate very comfortably with no problems with hills or head wind. It goes over Eisenhower and Vail Passes with the cruise control set at 65 and it only locks up in overdrive on the steepest of hills. On a trip to Moab it seemed to get the same or slightly better gas mileage.
So, is it perfect? Right now it is (at least for me), but I am sure (as my wife will tell you) I will find something else that it will have to have. I will let you know.
Hope this was worth the read.
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