El Jeepe!

AgentOrange76

Adventurer
I think for all you are looking for, your rack selection is very limited. Smittybilt has a very affordable rack but I won't touch their products with a 10ft pole, the rack also is not the most functional. Please bear with me. I have to recommend Gobi if you are looking at a rack that is foldable even though it's something you would rather not spend that kind of money on. I personally love mine and Gobi's build quality is comparable to ARB's IMO. As far as increased wind noise from adding my rack, I found minimal if not zero added noise. Gobi's design is meant to compliment what little aerodynamics our TJs have. That being said, Gobi's design hinders your windshield operation. Yes, you could buy a hardtop for that kind of price and strap a kayak up there but bear warning of how flimsy hardtops really are. I wouldn't dare strap my nearly 13' 98lb fishing kayak on top of my hardtop without fear of cracking the fiberglass. I honestly believe that Gobi by far offers the best rack for TJs and is really going to have the most operations you are looking for, the price is expensive but definitely worth justifying. Because you plan to run the KC's, the Ranger design would be your only option, although the Stealth design is better clearance wise. Aaaand Gobi is a 100% drill free, besides my special case. This is just me giving you my input on a product I've been running for nearly 2 years. A good cheaper option might be Kargomaster but I'm very unfamiliar with their product's functionality. I'm honestly not sure there is a rack available that meets everything you want.

I've done 10 hour commutes multiple times to and from school with my kayak mounted on my roof rack and had minimal increase in noise, normally the noisiest thing is the straps catching the wind at a funny angle. Surprisingly, I've cruised 85 mph easy with the kayak up there (And before anyone tries pulling crap about no business driving that fast in a Jeep, hop on a Texas Interstate and find out for yourself) and never have issues with crosswinds and such. As far as visibility goes, you get used to it. I don't have a photo of what it looks like from the driver's seat, but I'll snap one this Saturday for you.

On a different not regarding the rubbing, it might be time to consider a small lift. Not sure how old your springs are, but regardless they are likely sagging some from the winch weight. Stock springs are not entirely designed for heavier weight. That all being said, you could also spend $50-$80 and slip in a .5"-1" body lift and call it good or do a small budget boost.

Thanks, stuff like this is exactly what I'm looking for. With regards to the suspension, I've already got 2" puck spacers above the factory springs, so I'm sure the factory springs are sagged out but at least they have new shocks that match the new ride height to help them out. Suspension is definitely something I will do and get a real setup instead of spacers, but probably not in the immediate future. I can't stand body lifts but if I do a tummy tuck waaaaaaay down the road I would need a small one....

As for the rack-wind concern is not a big deal, after all with this new top this is the first time I've been able to listen to the radio on the freeway! Also, what are aerodynamics? ;) It appears I may have overestimated the factory hard top strength, I guess I've been spoiled from seeing all Jeff's awesome fiberglass work. The most it would need to support would be an Old Town Discovery 146 Canoe but for out here it would be a kayak a couple feet shorter. Gobi looks like an awesome product, I'm glad its working out for you. Nothing is off the table right now, just trying to get as many opinions and options and experiences as possible and weigh it all out. Thanks for sharing!
 

SilicaRich

Wandering Inverted
I can't stand body lifts but if I do a tummy tuck waaaaaaay down the road I would need a small one....

I agree. However, if you do decide to do a tummy tuck in the future you might consider taking a look at Rokmen's .5" body lift (probably the route I'll go). It is minimal and hardly noticeable and works with their high clearance skids. For the immediate future, it may not be a bad idea for the price and extra tire clearance.

I'm pretty sure Jeff's hardtop designs are reinforced with some sort of steel mesh making them far stronger than stock. I would personally love one of those but would likely be unable to run it with my rack...but that's why we have professional fabricators;)
 

AgentOrange76

Adventurer
Last weekend I was able to escape the city on a rare weekend that we didn't have a football game. A few guys on here were planning a ride up to Richland road up in Boone so I figured I'd take a weekend up there and see my brother and the mountains and the leaves. The weather finally felt like fall. I'd never driven that road before or explored much around Boone, so it was cool to be able to see some stuff up there and drive the Linville Viaduct and stuff like that. Definitely cool to meet some new people too. The leaves were what I would probably call peak. It was still green down in the valleys but bare on the mountaintops with a bunch of color in between. Very pretty for sure. The trail was more technical than I was expecting but we ran 2 stock 4runners through with no issues. Can't wait to see more of the area soon!
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Parkway was loaded down with leaf lookers but I didn't want to get too lost out there and there were still some quiet places to be found.

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Awesome quick little getaway and the Jeep was a champ the whole time. Only complaint is it's basically impossible to get in the back with the window in when its cold out. My crates are too tall and the top did't want to cooperatate being cold and stiff so I ended up climbing through the passenger side to access things out of the back.

This has got me thinking of a mini overland trip on the way back from school and taking a few days to bomb around the forest and camp on the way back. There was also a high altitude trout lake on the parkway that got me thinking about the boat. Man, I want to have my kayak out here so bad but I really don't want a roof rack....
 

AgentOrange76

Adventurer
Asheville to St. Louis...and back. What could possibly go wrong?

Last week I undertook a big road trip to help a buddy of mine move back to North Carolina. I know there are many vehicles on God's green earth, and almost all of them would be better suited to a 9+ hour road trip both ways carrying the contents of an apartment in the back than a Wrangler. But my brother's truck decided that I wanted to let the inside of the transmission see what it was like on the outside and spit it's contents all over the road in Boone. If anyone here is local and interested giving a petty nice Dodge D150 a home, let me know, I'm sure he would appreciate it. So with our family a vehicle down it was up to Jeep to carry the torch and save the day. Rather than just bomb out and back on the freeway, we decided to make a road trip out of the journey and see some of the sights in the backwoods of Kentucky and follow Daniel Boone National Forest on the way back. We hoped to see Red River Gorge, Natural Bridge, and Cumberland falls all while taking 2 lane paved, gravel and 2 track trails all the way down and primitively roadside camping. This would be my first attempt at electronic navigation as well as the first long range excursion I had personally undertaken in the Jeep.

The trip started innocently enough with an uneventful 4 hour commute home from school. The jeep even seemed happy; she didn't throw any hissy fits in the form of engine codes, and even the shift knob stopped its obnoxiously loud rattling 2 hours into the trip. Things were looking up.

I had every intention of changing spark plugs and oxygen sensors (the source of the codes) the night before the trip. Yes, the night before. I had only just rolled in from Raleigh that afternoon and was leaving for Missouri the next morning. The parts were waiting for me at the house, but between unpacking from school and loading for the trip I was pretty busy. Besides, I never seem to see my family anymore, and that is more important. I slept in my own bed that night for the second time this semester. Only one thing had me a little worried about the trip, but I figger if it stops leaking then I'm in more trouble than if it keeps oozing. New development from the rear end on the way home from school:

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Our planned route:
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Full trip report coming. Heater broken? Yep. Ice storm in St. Louis? ********** in the middle. Rain to ice coming through the tent fierce as hurricane Matthew? Gotta love it. Do you ever remember the uneventful things that go exactly as planned? Better question, do they ever get told around campfires or dinner tables? This trip will.
 
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AgentOrange76

Adventurer
Asheville to St. Louis...and back. What could possibly go wrong?

I finally have some time now to put together a little mini trip report of our little adventure moving my buddy back from St. Louis to Asheville, NC. Back at school from break now and there's no snow worth here mentioning but enough to keep me from doing anything in the worst snow vehicle ever made. And no, it's not the Jeep.

This is the story of a couple good friends that decided to go camping and off-roading with the contents of a small apartment aboard. That turned out to be the least adventurous part of the trip.

The trip started out uneventful enough. Its hard to drive through the gorge on I-40 without hopping off at my usual favorite spot, but I had a 9.5 hour road trip ahead of me and needed to pound the miles on. Before I left I repositioned my tow strap so I could access the reclining lever, and that was the best decision I made the entire trip. I would have loved to have cruise control, especially with I being a manual it has no dead pedal, so you kinda sit kinda funky and your back kinda hurts after a while, but hey, its no GT car. I hate electronics anyways. I made it a point to stop at every welcome center and grab a map. The rest of the trip was broken up by fuel stops, because not many things stop that Jeep except a gas station. I think I filled up 3 times on the way up there, and at one of the stops I saw this sketchy outfit that was using wrecked cars to tow wrecked cars.....I got out of there in a hurry before one of those suckers let go.... The biggest obstacle on the way up there was the lack of a heater. It really wasn't even that cold, the temperature was barely below freezing. As such I didn't really bother layering up real good or anything, but it was the exposure that got me. With the complete lack of a heater, freezing temps sitting down not moving for over 9 hours got pretty dangerous, and I absolutely froze my cojones off. I've only been that cold one other time in my life. When I got to his place around dark I just shivered in front of the fireplace for a half an hour. The sunset that night was gorgeous though, the deepest reds and purples I've ever seen, and it lasted forever.

The next day we had reserved for packing everything up and poking around St. Louis, as I had never been. I was eager to get downtown and see the arch, but my buddy wanted to show me this other place first, so we loaded his dog in the back of his Tacoma and headed over to a local park. Turns out it was an old lime quarry and you could see the remains of the baking and transportation process in the short time we had to explore the area. There were also a ton of caves around the area, some of which I would presume were fairly big because they had walkways leading in but they were fenced off.
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You can fit a surprising bit of junk in an old Toyota pickup and a little Jeep.
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We then dropped the dog off and headed off to go see the city. We didn't have much time because we had to pick up his sister around 5, but we cruised downtown and saw the ballpark and the state capitol building, along with some other neat buildings, like the now abandoned VFW building along the interstate. My great uncle was an architect and I've always loved old buildings. We parked downtown and headed out to the arc. There was construction all underneath and around it, and the tours to the top were closed as such, so that was kind of a bummer, but we still got to walk right up to one side so that was really cool. It's hard to believe looking at it that the arch is as tall as it is wide, mostly it just looks really really big. If this trip did nothing else for me, I got to see a really neat city that I likely otherwise never would have visited.
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Here's where things got nasty. We hopped back in the truck after poking around town to head back and pick up his sister from school. We left around 4 o'clock from downtown as a slight drizzle was falling. We took a wrong turn getting back on the interstate, so we got off and were navigating our way back to get on the proper ramp and we stopped for a light, except we didn't stop. The abs intervened pretty violently but did nothing to slow our slide into the middle of the intersection. Luckily the intersection was empty. We gave eachother the oh ******* look and got ourselves out of the intersection and underneath an overpass to evaluate the situation. The weather forecast said to expect freezing rain to develop overnight, but based on the sheet that was already on the road behind us we called b.s. on that, and the thermometer on the truck told us we weren't crazy. We decided sheer traffic flow on the freeway would keep the ice melted and cautiously rejoined traffic. We made slow but steady progress for about 5 miles before traffic slowed to a crawl before grinding to a halt. Progress was made in feet. Save the clutch. Wait for a traffic to inch forward. slowly let the clutch out and the tires bite. Idle 50 ft. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. After a couple hours had passed but not a couple miles we decided to try for a secondary. We inched our way over to the other side of the freeway to find the far right land empty. Score. We hopped over and promptly slid right towards the guardrail. Choice words were said before our slide was halted once again. Saved by the rumble strips. Our saving grace then provided the necessary traction for the rear wheels to crab up the ramp one divot at a time until we reached the top and the exit ramp only to find it shut down. All the accidents were happening on the exit ramps as cars slid down them and they had them all shut down and work crews out shoveling salt onto the road by hand. The car in front of us snuck through a gap and the crew waved at them and they didn't crash and die, so we snuck through after them. We took a poor exit choice however, and there was no way back onto the interstate were previously on, nor were there any through roads. We scouted ahead on foot and found the road lined with cars with no headlights or brake lights on, camping it out for the night. If we didn't want to do the same, we would have to find another way out. We ended up backtracking ton the interstate back towards the city and finding a route home on the salted secondaries. Why they didn't salt the primaries I don't really know, but we were just happy to get back in one piece. Total time was a little over 5 hours to travel 23 miles.

That night we made another command decision. We had to get the Jeep heater working or we couldn't leave until the temps stayed above freezing. No heat was more than me just being cold. It was no defrost in icy conditions. The return line for the heater was ice cold, so we flushed the heater core as best we could in the freezing cold and bled the system as best we could too.
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When dad replaced the cooling system years and years ago we put water in it instead of coolant. It rusted out pretty quick, and I think that's a big reason the core clogged so bad, but what's done is done. We got the heat going enough to defrost and even produce warm air up to the second speed, so tomorrow when the roads were clear we would begin our journey back.
 
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AgentOrange76

Adventurer
The next morning we set out on our first attempt at a long range "overland" style trip. We set our sight for the northernmost ranger station in Daniel Boone NF and planned to pick up maps once we got there that we hoped would point us to some gravel roads and thus primitive camping. In other words we had no plan. Turns out the ranger station was nowhere near where we wanted to be and our "plan" to camp along the route of the Kentucky Adventure Tour was shot, but we got lucky. Arriving waaay later than planned, we found some maps at the kiosk and a promising gravel road. Promising indeed, we rolled in at dark and explored the area a little bit before setting up camp. Dinner that night was grandma's homemade hash brown soup that I had packed. The weather was actually decent for a change, around 58 and cloudy. It wouldn't last. We crashed early that night, unsure of whether burn bans were still in effect in that region.

Around 1:20 that morning all hell broke loose. It started pouring buckets, and then the wind started. It was savage wind, and while we were in a protected site, the trees above us made very unpleasant sounds very loudly all night. And the rain. Oh my gosh. I haven't seen that much rain since standing in the middle of Hurricane Matthew for the NC State football game. You know how when your rainfly touches your tent its over? Well, I staked this baby out good, and we weighted down the packets for even more insurance. Turned out it didn't make a difference. The rain came right through the rainfly. It was straight savagery. Needless to say we got wet. Very wet. And then the temperature dropped 30 degrees, and everything inside and out froze. We broke out of our tent that morning to survey where we landed the night before, and found the small creek we forded last night 3 feet higher. A ranger stopped by and asked us what we were doing out there, wondered if we were hunting. Looked at us crazy when we told him we were camping. We got confirmation the burn ban was still in effect and were reassured we hadn't camped illegally. We cooked eggs from our chickens that morning, but that was it. Truth be told we were pretty miserable and we set off after the creek had fallen to salvage the day. We didn't even bother repacking anything, it was too wet and or frozen. Anything soft got chucked in the Jeep and we set our sights towards Natural Bridge.
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Natural Bridge lay about an hour out, and the drive there was really pretty and scenic. We stayed on Kentucky two track over the next couple days and it beat the heck out of driving on the interstate. There were so many cool things to see and the roads were fun to drive. Roads like that are definitely my preference. some ways in we hit NF and dropped down a very steep road with a cool bridge and even a former railroad tunnel to drive through!
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We got to Natural Bridge and took the short hike up to it. It wasn't what I was expecting, mainly because what I was expecting to see was actually Natural Arch. I didn't realize they were two separate things until then. It was really cool though to get to walk across it though, and we had the place to ourselves. Apparently my parents got my little brother wedged in the rock crack you have to squeeze through to get to the top while he was in the baby backpack many years ago.
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AgentOrange76

Adventurer
A couple more from the Arch:
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Because I'm a rock nerd
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Around when we hit the railroad tunnel is when I realized we were actually following the KAT, part of our original plan. Around this time I got news from my buddy that we would have to cut the trip short because some things had come up. We had originally planned to follow the newly found KAT south towards Tennessee and see Cumberland falls and Natural Arch and camp another night, but we decided to head out together.

I should probably tell you about this fella I was helping move. He has a name, but no one calls him by it. He made the mistake of wearing a space shirt to Spanish class once, and now and forever he is known by Uranus. Its even his CB handle. St. Louis is a long was from Asheville, but he's the friend that would drop everything to help you out, and it was the least I could do for him. He's an odd fella, I don't know why he drove his old '87 pickup all the down there when he could have just taken his Tacoma, but whatever. Its a cool truck though, he bought it from my best friend when he had to sell it to get something more suitable for the long trips to college and has since done a crapload of work to it, mostly saving it from the onslaught of rust.
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Anyway, we saw a 4x4 section of the KAT that led in the general direction we needed to go to get back home, so we thought, why not? Turned out it was really knarly with some big honkin rock ledges. Dad said it looked like Tellico. I said I didn't want to destroy my Jeep 6+ hours from home. Turning around was the only logical decision, and the Yoder got some 3 wheel action getting out and he eventually had to pull cable because it was so sloppy. At this point we left the KAT and started making our way back, but that wouldn't be our last dirt road, and we wouldn't see another highway for 3 hours. That's the way to see America. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. When we did meet highway, we hit a beautiful patch of rime ice at the Tennessee border. At the NC border we hopped off the interstate to get a last dirt fix and we took gravel up and around Harmon Den through some thick nasty fog that really slowed us down. The Jeep had behaved real nice up to that point, but that's where it decided to throw an engine code and I didn't have the power to pull 5th the last 40 minutes home. I hate electronics.
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AgentOrange76

Adventurer
A couple more pictures.
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At the end of the week I had put nearly 1500 miles under the Jeep. While it wasn't the first long range trek the Jeep has taken, it was certainly my first on my own. Did everything go according to plan? Heck no. Did stuff go wrong? You bet. Would I do it all over again? In a heartbeat. Its the stuff like this that you remember. I'm already itching to get back; the KAT has so much more than the bit I saw, and that's only the beginning of the longer trips that are sure to follow. Maybe next time we'll do it right, but I'm not counting on it. Either way it'll be a blast.
 
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AgentOrange76

Adventurer
A couple day/weekend trips from over Christmas break:

Parkway cruisin'

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Tennessee backroads

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Approaching appropriate levels of 'Murica

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AgentOrange76

Adventurer
A couple maintenance things:

Changed spark plugs and front 02 sensor. Have the rear one as well but decided its actually impossible without dropping the skid, and the last time I did that I had to beat it back into place with a sledgehammer. Didn't get a picture of the plugs, they were pretty nasty, mostly from grease. It may be working on a head gasket, who knows. Either way, replacing the upstream o2 sensor fixed the engine code light. This has to be a really early model 2000 because I'm finding a lot of '99 parts on it. In 2000 they went to 4 o2 sensors, I still only have 2. They also went to a 20 gal tank. I have the big tank but only a 15 gal gauge. I can drive for about 50 miles once the needle bottoms out before I start getting sketched.

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Here's a picture with my grandfather's old factory wheels. Thinking about getting ahold of them and painting them a real nice satin black and throwing some nice wheel spacers on it. If quadratec offered the cheap ($279 for 5) bullet hole steelies in matte and with 4.5 inch backspacing I'd go for those, but only because they don't offer any 5 spoke with that backspacing for near that price. Whaddya'll think?
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AgentOrange76

Adventurer
Some changes have happened with vehicles. I currently don't have the Jeep right now. My brother's truck decided to take a massive dump up in Boone while he was at school and puke tranny fluid everywhere at a rate that made it undriveable. The tranny had all new seals and a torque converter by a transmission shop in Arden, but the dude was a butthole and very uncooperative the first time his workmanship failed, and that was the day after it left. This happened some months later and it was gonna be a lot of money to get it home, and he just recently managed to sell it up there. Anyways, He goes to App State and needs 4x4 to get around town and up to the ski resorts (he's taking a skiing class for school....I ain't even jealous.....) dad needs the truck for work and 'ol orange has no brakes, so we swapped rides for part of the semester. Guess which kid has the baddest ride at school now? Oh yeah, it's Camino time.....

I'm actually pretty jacked to have the car out here. I've loved El Caminos since I was a little kid, it was my favorite hot wheels car as a kid, so when my brother bought this as his first car, it was like a mini dream come true for me. I love this thing, and I want one some day down the road. The G Body might even be my favorite....

I can do a lot of things with this thing that I couldn't do with the Jeep. I can drop the tailgate after church and tailgate on the parking deck. I can carry a boat out here cause there's a bajillion lakes in Raleigh. I can set off car alarms with the exhaust, and it's not even that loud. It does burnouts. And it drives soooooooo good. We're really not sure if its been lowered a couple inches or the shocks are that blown, but it rides like a sumo wrestler rolling in a pool of jello. Its amazing, soooo smooth. The car really isn't in great shape, nor is it fast. Its a total cruiser though, and its a driver. Not gonna lie, I would rather take this thing back in forth than the Jeep over the next 2+ years. I might try and fix it up a little for him while I'm out here too. He wants to keep it for a long time and have a built 383/4 speed combo. Oh, did I mention it has a big green rat painted on the back? Oh yeah, this thing is dope.

Ed's Rat
1981 El Camino
305 4 barrel
350 trans
Bench seat to put lazy boy couches to shame
True dual exhaust, flowmaster 40s

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If you see me around town give me a wave.
 

AgentOrange76

Adventurer
A few weeks later I'm in love with this car....I've loved them since I was a kid but man its so much better than I imagined it could be. More people talked to me about the Camino in the first week having it here than did all semester with the Jeep. Kids lean out the window and give you thumbs ups and yell cool car, people are always honking or looking. I'm really looking at buying one, I love it that much. I love how it sounds, how it looks, how it drives. I can shoot 4 hours down the freeway and not have to stretch. Ever since I got into cars in high school I've wanted something older, I was kinda jealous because all my friends had old trucks and I still regret not buying that J10. Don't get me wrong, I love the Jeep, and if I only own one vehicle it will be an open top Jeep because there's nothing like it. But I would love to pick up a second vehicle because I love old stuff and all the character they have. Realistically looking in the $2500 range, and I'm torn between an El Camino and a full size Cherokee/Wagoneer or a 60 series Land Cruiser. There's a guy on campus with a Cherokee Golden Eagle and it's beautiful. Some reasoning:

-El Camino-
-Practical muscle car. All the awesomeness of muscle cars while still having the practicality to lead the life I like to lead. Yeah, a boat in the bed destroys the lines, but I can carry a boat and a bike and all of my gear in it.
-Comfortable cruiser
-Wicked cool
-No ground clearance/4x4, limits campsite selection/beach driving out here

-Wagoneer-
-Room for days; boat, bike, gear ect.
-It locks.
-Can sleep in the back. Amazing. I really really like this idea.
-Oozes cool.
-4x4 capability.
-If Grand Wagoneer, electrical gremlins. Not so much if standard Wagoneer, Land Cruiser, Cherokee.
-This is, in my mind, the ultimate college rig. Super roomy and practical, wicked cool, go anywhere capability. This is also what I envision being my rig if I end up in the field as a geologist.

Back to reality, I can't afford to buy a second vehicle nor pay insurance on it. But I can always dream. Back to the Jeep. Got an underseat lockbox for Christmas for when I get my ccw. Its a bestop, now my driver seat doesn't move and it was a royal PITA to install, broke a bold and all kinds of crap. took all afternoon. Gotta try and fix the seat now. Also got an air compressor and an ARB tire deflator. The compressor is a smittybuilt and the gauge doesn't read properly, so I have to overfill the tires and air them back down to where I want them which is a pain. It fills them up quick though, and I ran my favorite little trail with about 14 lbs in them and tunred an extremely bumpy low range 1 road into a very smooth low 2. Absolutely blew my mind. Best thing ever. Still waiting to pull the trigger on the Morryde tailgate hinges/jack carrier. I don't know way. Maybe I'm waiting on a sale or something. I'm really poor. The next big purchase is going to be a means to carry a boat and still keep me dry. One of two things has to happen before next semester if not sooner since a second vehicle isn't realistically in the cards right now. Roof rack or hard top. Some reasoning:

-Roof rack-
-Still have function of soft top. If I have a soft top I'm gonna use it. It's a Jeep.
-Aux lighting. Got a couple flea market special Daylighters sitting in the garage.
-Kinda ruins the classic jeep look and open air feel. I don't know why this bugs me so much.

-Hard top-
-It locks
-I can get in the back, especially in the winter.
-Quieter.
-Can't take it off at school. Big oh dear.
-Might not be the best way to support a boat.

Looking at Kongo Cages. They're low profile and cost effective. Not sure how I feel about Gobi's and the like, that's about the price of a hard top. Also looking at something like Lagrange the rack. I really don't know. Not a fan of a bunch of junk on the top of my Jeep but realize it's necessary. Any thought/advice on the hard top/roof rack dilemma would be appreciated.

Will be posting more as the weather warms up and I get the boat out more often and start exploring lakes.
 

AgentOrange76

Adventurer
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Dirtbaggin' in the ElCo. Brought it down a few questionable dirt roads all around Falls Lake looking for kayak put-ins (read: because I'm a moron and can't resist it) and found the best place so far is a road that has been covered over by the lake. Has a few sizable washouts but a careful line and the car does just fine. Oh yeah and posi. That thing rides like a Cadillac on gravel and washboards, so cush. I'm gonna be so spoiled when I go back to my shopping cart suspension. Hoping to find some cars and coffee in Raleigh to take it to. I suppose I should wash the mud off it for that?

Still in my roof rack debacle with the Jeep. Not sure I can bring myself to put one on it. In the meantime very seriously looking at maxsa innovation escaper buddy maxtrax rip-offs. They're rip-offs, but from what I've read they're about the best rip-offs, especially for half the price. They'll keep me out of trouble in the Camino, and I don't see them not being useful at some point for the Jeep. Also now looking at the Titan Trekker. Curse you sale. But I mean, that's awful close to what it would cost to mount 2 jerry cans, plus the cost of the transfer straw. Not sure. I want it, but not sure I have a use for it. At least not yet. But is it worth it when I don't currently have income? I think I'm gonna invest in a new transmission though. If it only had worn out syncros and you had to shift slow, whatever, and if it only popped out of first, grrr, but both....I dunno. We'll see. I could also get money out of it now, maybe not till if I wait till it dies. My brother pulled the doors off and ran a section of Richland last weekend, now he gets why I love Jeeps despite all their quirks.
 

SilicaRich

Wandering Inverted
Here's another solution for your roof rack dilemna. Save up for a GR8Tops Safari Top. They are expensive but are sturdy for roof storage, have multiple panels to make removing the top as easy as possible, and you don't have to ruin your vision of the classic Jeep look.
 

AgentOrange76

Adventurer
I figger its about time for another update. My short reign of terror is over in the El Camino. It's a little sad, its back to being a nobody back on campus. Who knew in only having it here two months shoved in the basement of a parking deck I would become the "Camino Kid." I still get asked about where it went even though I've had my Jeep back for about a month. I was sitting at lunch with a random guy and we got talking about cars and he was like, "do you know who drives the El Camino around here?" and I was like yooooo....... I had multiple people on various band trips this month stare at me like I was crazy when I told em I drove the Camino. I got handshakes and even a "legendary." I dunno why, its just a ratty......muscle car? Its slow as junk and its only sorta a car, but.... And I got almost as many "nice canoe!" remarks as I did about the car. You can't stop without someone saying something. Seems like fewer and fewer people actually DRIVE old cars. Yeah, there are way nicer cars out there. But ya know what? This one gets driven in the rain, and at night, and if its cold. It just goes. I put about a thousand miles on the thing bombing all over the state and its the comfiest cruiser ever. Most comfortable car in the family for sure. I wouldn't hesitate to hop in and drive it across the country. The Jeep? I'd think twice. I got spoiled. I miss driving a classic. I need one soon. I could rant about this all day. I love the crap outta that thing.

Anyways. This month has been real busy. Tomorrow will be 10 states this month. First to Myrtle Beach for the Women's basketball ACC tournament, then a couple days off and straight back on a bus to Brooklyn for the Men's tourney. Home for a couple days (and it even snowed a couple inches!) and then back to school to turn around and get on a plane for Austin for the Women's NCAA tourney. Spent 5 days there including a side trip to San Antonio. Was nice to be there in nice weather, unlike the first time. Austin was really weird with the SXSW festival going on. Ate at a bunch of bomb diggity restaurants along the way, had a great time. I'm not a city guy, but hey, if they're gonna "pay" me to go by golly I'll go have a good time. Good to see it this way when I might not ordinarily see it on my own. I hate to blame stuff on the refs, but our women got shot in the back over and over in both tournaments. They were good, they should have gone places. Our men just blow. We have a new coach now, we'll see if things start looking up next year.

The beach was surprisingly pretty in Myrtle with the water mirroring the sky.
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New York was really cool to see, I liked it more than I thought I would. The 9/11 memorial and museum will tear you up though.
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The Texas Capitol building was super legit. I'm a total sucker for cool architecture. The Alamo is just cool. They also had Davey Crocket's gun which was pretty much the coolest thing ever. They were also having a parade on the riverwalk in boats for St Patrick's day. That was pretty awesome.
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Got my Jeep back, had to try and find some snow! Turns out we got more on our deck than in Pisgah. The woods are always really pretty though, and it was good to be back in the mountains.
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Tomorrow will be state number 10 in March. I'm going on a 2 night geology camping trip in N GA/SW NC to study geomorphology in the Blue Ridge range, focusing on the Cullasaja river. I'm pretty stoked.
 

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