How would you outfit this custom LJ?

[zgfiredude]

I'd be a bit surprised if you find ANY snow up there this year.....very early warm up this Spring and no heavy late storms. The projection for I70 is without any more issues, it should be open by Tuesday. Somehow, I'm doubtful.

 

[jscherb]

When we got to the decision point for pavement vs. Hagerman Pass today (Leadville) all of the peaks in the area were in low clouds and it was raining so we decided pavement was the better choice. Independence Pass was very scenic even though it was raining very hard up there. On the west side descent there are two places on the shelf road where the pavement narrows to the point where vehicles can only pass each other at very slow speed and because of the amount of Google-diverted I-70 traffic, these bottlenecks added a half hour to the drive but even so it was very scenic.

We're planning to head east from Glenwood Tuesday mid-day and based on the lack of progress reports on the I-70 mudslides, it looks like Cottonwood Pass to Gypsum might be the best bet. I didn't bring the trail book for this section of Colorado and I can probably figure out the route using Google maps, but if anyone has a few key GPS waypoints for the trail it would be very helpful.

 

[zgfiredude]

I can't attach the gpx file I just made for you..........shoot me a private message with an email address, and I'll send it to you there.

You want to head south of Glenwood on Highway 82 just a few miles to Cattle Creek Road, and head east...that will meander up and connect into Cottonwood Pass Road and take you to Gypsum. But I can send you the gpx file if you ping me.


Message Delivered.

 

[jscherb]

I can't attach the gpx file I just made for you..........shoot me a private message with an email address, and I'll send it to you there.

You want to head south of Glenwood on Highway 82 just a few miles to Cattle Creek Road, and head east...that will meander up and connect into Cottonwood Pass Road and take you to Gypsum. But I can send you the gpx file if you ping me.


Message Delivered.

Thank you Brian!

 

[jscherb]

Since this thread is entitled "How would you outfit this custom LJ?", here's a post about how I outfitted for this expedition...

We're not camping on this trip, so all I outfitted the Jeep with were things to get us out of trouble on a trail plus some things for comfort on the trip (like the fridge). The way things are loaded most of the cargo space in the Jeep is still free. I'll share a few photos I took before leaving on the trip, maybe these photos will give someone some ideas.

Looking in the back door:

1. Battery and power panel for the fridge. This battery gets charged by the Jeep's alternator and can be used as a second battery to start the Jeep in case the main battery fails.
   
2. Compressor and related supplies (hose, tire repair supplies).
   
3. Ammo can containing the TrailVision camera system. The trails I'll be doing on this trip won't require the extra views the Trailvision system can provide, but it's in the Jeep in case I decide it will be helpful; it can be set up in a few minutes and offers a 3-camera view of the details of the trail ahead.
   
4. First Aid kit; hanging on the rear slope of the roll bar. Out of the way but quickly accessible.
   
5. (On the floor well behind the passenger seat) Hydraulic jack. Much quicker and easier than the factory jack.
   
6. (In front of the fridge) Winch/recovery bag. Includes winch line damper, ground anchor (bolts to the sand ladders), tree saver strap, snatch block, winch remote and other related gear.
   
7. (In the floor well behind the driver's seat). Tool bag.
   
8. Cool Bag hanging on the seat back. Can be used to keep drinks and snacks cool on the road and easily accessible from the driver's seat and also can be used to carry lunch on hikes to picnic spots away from the Jeep.
   
9. 35,000-lb recovery strap in a roll bar bag on the vertical part of the main roll bar hoop. Out of the way but easily accessible.
   
10. (Above the roll bars) Sand ladders. Also used as a ground anchor for the winch.
    
11. (On the swing-down Molle panel) Mostly emergency gear - a shovel, a military surplus bag with spare parts, bolts, baling wire, duct tape, etc., and the winch extension that allows me to run the winch in the rear receiver.
    

A view of the swing-down Molle panel:

A view overhead. Not a good photo, but you can see the bottom of the Molle panel in the stowed position and the two sand ladders/ground anchors on top of the roll bars/below the ceiling. Completely out of the way but easy enough to get at if needed.

At the last minute and based on the forecasts for rain, I put two more sand ladders on the roof rack. Just in case the rain causes deep mud on the trails these could be helpful.

The winch is in the front winch receiver in this next photo and the rack is on the roof to carry a second spare (spare won't be on the roof until the day before the trip because Jeep won't fit in the garage with the spare up top). It's a fairly short trip, scheduled pretty tight, so with an extra spare I won't have to lose time trying to get a flat fixed or tire replaced if something goes wrong.

On long high-speed runs on the interstate when the outside temperature is high, the winch in the position above can cause the engine to run about 10 degrees warm, so usually I carry the winch in the rear receiver for the highway runs:

When the highway portion of the trip is over the winch can go back up front - for local and trail driving it doesn't affect cooling (I never bothered moving it when I got to Colorado - the trails I was doing weren't going to require much departure angle, so I just left the winch there - you can see the winch back there in some of the trail shots).

Also hanging on the spare is my trash bag; it's got a plastic bag inside it for trash and I've also put a pair of boots in there in case I have to do any recovery in the mud. I also use the bag for recycling on trips - I'm obsessive about recycling plastic containers when I'm at home and it bothers me to buy a bottled drink on the trip and have nowhere to recycle it so I put all of the recycling in the trash bag and it goes in my recycling bin when I get home.

All that was left to load after these photos were taken were a few bags with clothes and other personal items and maybe a small bag for non-cold food items, but there's more than enough cargo space left for that.

 

[jscherb]

To head east and avoid the closure of I-70 in Glenwood Canyon, we took Cottonwood Pass (Thanks again Brian!). It's a great alternative for when the interstate is closed in the Canyon. It's about 27 miles from the Glenwood area to Gypsum, and maybe 1/3 of it is paved. The rest is a fairly smooth dirt road, and since it was raining pretty hard today when we drove it, this was the result:

There's about a mile of shelf road towards the Gypsum end that's too narrow for two ordinary road drivers to easily pass (those of us who do trails would have no trouble passing there), so the county had flagmen at each end of the narrow section.

Definitely will keep the data for the pass in the GPS for possible future use.

 

[pith helmet]

Since this thread is entitled "How would you outfit this custom LJ?", here's a post about how I outfitted for this expedition...

We're not camping on this trip, so all I outfitted the Jeep with were things to get us out of trouble on a trail plus some things for comfort on the trip (like the fridge). The way things are loaded most of the cargo space in the Jeep is still free. I'll share a few photos I took before leaving on the trip, maybe these photos will give someone some ideas.

Looking in the back door:

1. Battery and power panel for the fridge. This battery gets charged by the Jeep's alternator and can be used as a second battery to start the Jeep in case the main battery fails.
2. Compressor and related supplies (hose, tire repair supplies).
3. Ammo can containing the TrailVision camera system. The trails I'll be doing on this trip won't require the extra views the Trailvision system can provide, but it's in the Jeep in case I decide it will be helpful; it can be set up in a few minutes and offers a 3-camera view of the details of the trail ahead.
4. First Aid kit; hanging on the rear slope of the roll bar. Out of the way but quickly accessible.
5. (On the floor well behind the passenger seat) Hydraulic jack. Much quicker and easier than the factory jack.
6. (In front of the fridge) Winch/recovery bag. Includes winch line damper, ground anchor (bolts to the sand ladders), tree saver strap, snatch block, winch remote and other related gear.
7. (In the floor well behind the driver's seat). Tool bag.
8. Cool Bag hanging on the seat back. Can be used to keep drinks and snacks cool on the road and easily accessible from the driver's seat and also can be used to carry lunch on hikes to picnic spots away from the Jeep.
9. 35,000-lb recovery strap in a roll bar bag on the vertical part of the main roll bar hoop. Out of the way but easily accessible.
10. (Above the roll bars) Sand ladders. Also used as a ground anchor for the winch.
11. (On the swing-down Molle panel) Mostly emergency gear - a shovel, a military surplus bag with spare parts, bolts, baling wire, duct tape, etc., and the winch extension that allows me to run the winch in the rear receiver.

A view of the swing-down Molle panel:

A view overhead. Not a good photo, but you can see the bottom of the Molle panel in the stowed position and the two sand ladders/ground anchors on top of the roll bars/below the ceiling. Completely out of the way but easy enough to get at if needed.

At the last minute and based on the forecasts for rain, I put two more sand ladders on the roof rack. Just in case the rain causes deep mud on the trails these could be helpful.

The winch is in the front winch receiver in this next photo and the rack is on the roof to carry a second spare (spare won't be on the roof until the day before the trip because Jeep won't fit in the garage with the spare up top). It's a fairly short trip, scheduled pretty tight, so with an extra spare I won't have to lose time trying to get a flat fixed or tire replaced if something goes wrong.

On long high-speed runs on the interstate when the outside temperature is high, the winch in the position above can cause the engine to run about 10 degrees warm, so usually I carry the winch in the rear receiver for the highway runs:

When the highway portion of the trip is over the winch can go back up front - for local and trail driving it doesn't affect cooling (I never bothered moving it when I got to Colorado - the trails I was doing weren't going to require much departure angle, so I just left the winch there - you can see the winch back there in some of the trail shots).

Also hanging on the spare is my trash bag; it's got a plastic bag inside it for trash and I've also put a pair of boots in there in case I have to do any recovery in the mud. I also use the bag for recycling on trips - I'm obsessive about recycling plastic containers when I'm at home and it bothers me to buy a bottled drink on the trip and have nowhere to recycle it so I put all of the recycling in the trash bag and it goes in my recycling bin when I get home.

All that was left to load after these photos were taken were a few bags with clothes and other personal items and maybe a small bag for non-cold food items, but there's more than enough cargo space left for that.

enjoyed following you on your trip. i would really like some sand ladders like those. i have been travelling all my life without such, but getting lucky. i have looked into the gp treads for the levelling ability, as our new thing is sleeping in the jeep. https://gotreads.com/how-they-work/ i love mulit-use items. but the sand ladders would serve mulit purposes as well, as demonstrated by your land-anchor winch test way back. i dont see a US source for them online. do you have an idea where you found those?

 

[jscherb]

I got my sand ladders at OKOffroad: https://www.okoffroad.com/stuff-sandladders-aluminum.htm

They're useful just as sand ladders for getting out of sand or mud, but I've done two mods to them to make them more useful...

First, I added bolt-on reinforcements so then can be used for bridging. The ditch at the side of the road in this photo doesn't rate a bridge, but there are crevasses in places like Utah where bridges can be useful.

I described the bridge mod earlier in this thread: https://expeditionportal.com/forum/...fit-this-custom-lj.46300/page-42#post-2008600

And as you mentioned, I also modified them to serve as ground anchors for the winch. I built a bolt-on anchor point that can be carried in my recovery bag and attached to a sand ladder when needed:

And it works very well:


The ground anchor mod was inspired by some Land Rover products; I started posting about the idea in the Land Rover Ideas thread here: https://expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/land-rover-ideas-for-jeeps.218029/page-9#post-2833287 and it continued over a number of pages as I developed the idea and the final hardware.

 

[pith helmet]

very good. i appreciate it!

 

[zgfiredude]

To head east and avoid the closure of I-70 in Glenwood Canyon, we took Cottonwood Pass (Thanks again Brian!). It's a great alternative for when the interstate is closed in the Canyon. It's about 27 miles from the Glenwood area to Gypsum, and maybe 1/3 of it is paved. The rest is a fairly smooth dirt road, and since it was raining pretty hard today when we drove it, this was the result:

There's about a mile of shelf road towards the Gypsum end that's too narrow for two ordinary road drivers to easily pass (those of us who do trails would have no trouble passing there), so the county had flagmen at each end of the narrow section.

Definitely will keep the data for the pass in the GPS for possible future use.

When I came through mid-afternoon, it was pouring rain and some Hail! But aside from the washboard sections.......I HATE washboard, it was fine. Glad you made it and glad I could help.

 

[jscherb]

Another outfitting for this trip detail...

The night before I left for this trip I decided that the fridge battery had reached the end of its useful life - it wasn't keeping a charge as long as it used to when running the fridge. I bought it from Walmart in August 2018 (35 months ago) and it's one of their deep cycle marine batteries, less than $100. Didn't have time to get a new battery before leaving the next morning so I decided to stop along the way. It turned out to be a very short deviation from the trip plan - there was a Walmart right at an exit in Erie, PA so I stopped there, disconnected the old battery and brought it in to exchange, picked up a new one, connected it and was back on the highway in 16 minutes. The cost was about $82. The battery was long out of warranty (I think their marine batteries carry a 1-year free replacement warranty) but $82 for a 3-year life is fine with me.

I have no doubt there are better batteries on the market, but the price and the convenience of being able to replace a battery pretty much anywhere in the country in a few minutes when under warranty makes Walmart the right choice for me.

I use Walmart batteries for the main starting battery for all 3 of my Jeeps for the same reason.

 

[jscherb]

A couple of maintenance items to take care of when I get home - the 4wd light in the dash isn't illuminating so I'll have to troubleshoot that. Also it sounds like a pinhole leak has developed in the front section of the exhaust. I'm due to replace the front catalytic converters because I've been getting a 0431 code from time to time (Warm Up Catalyst Efficiency Below Threshold - Bank 2), so hopefully the leak is in parts that will be replaced, but anyway I'll fix it when the cats are swapped. With about 195,000 miles on the clock, I don't feel too bad about needing to replace the cats.

Speaking of maintenance, before the trip I had some maintenance done on the LJ at the dealer. I went down there one day in the pickup to check on the progress of the work on the LJ and they had a red Gladiator on the lot so I couldn't resist taking a few photos.

I like mine better, now way I would ever consider trading it for a Gladiator .

 

[jgaz]

now way I would ever consider trading it for a Gladiator .

Agreed, yours just “looks” better, at least to my eye. But then I’ve always be a sucker for the TJ AEV Brute.

I’d like to see yours alongside this concept.

I spent quite a bit of time at 2019 SEMA looking at this in person and really liked it.

 

[jscherb]

Agreed, yours just “looks” better, at least to my eye. But then I’ve always be a sucker for the TJ AEV Brute.

I’d like to see yours alongside this concept.
View attachment 675091
I spent quite a bit of time at 2019 SEMA looking at this in person and really liked it.

I studied it at SEMA too. I like it a lot, but storing the spare in the bed really limits its use as a practical pickup. I'm always hauling things in my truck and the spare in the bed would be a problem for me.

Or this: https://expeditionportal.com/forum/...factory-hardtops.127687/page-293#post-2770840

I designed mine with the spares on the side to make the bed useful and because I was designing it to be a modern version of the classic Willys pickup but if I were building a JK or JL-based pickup I'd make the bed a little longer so the spare could be stored underneath like the Gladiator.

 

[jscherb]

I had ordered a book about the railroad over Rollins Pass that we explored on the recent Colorado trip but it didn't arrive until today. Here are a few "then" photos from the book paired with "now" photos from our trip...

From about 100 years ago, the trestle at Riflesight Notch. Notice the tunnel underneath - the tracks on the trestle loop around and go through the tunnel.

Since then, the tunnel has collapsed.

Another view of the trestle:

And 100 years ago, in this photo you can see the track below that goes through the tunnel. It looks like a snowshed is under construction at the approach to the tunnel, this would be to prevent snowdrifts from blocking the track.

Comparing the today's ruins with photos of the past is a big part of the fun of exploring these places. I haven't gone through the book in detail yet, but if I find other then and now photo pairs I'll post them.