JeepN95YJ
Adventurer
Just got back from Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, and Kentucky!
Originally my plan was to spend about 5 days running the KAT (Kentucky Adventure Tour). This was to be a family vacation consisting of 3 days on Norris Lake, a day or two in Gatlinburg, TN, then working our way north east up the KAT beginning in Jellico, TN, and finishing up in Slade, KY.
As they say, plans change. We were having a great time and ended up spending a little more time at the lake, a little more time in Gatlinburg and a little less time on the trail. We ended up doing about 200 miles on the KAT and had a blast.
Checking out damage from last year’s fire above Gatlinburg.
This bridge was fun to cross. It is located about 2 miles in to the Porters Creek Trail in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park.
I put about 1200 miles, total, on the little Jeep during the week and it performed offroad even better than expected. On road, however, I experienced a few challenges.
Backstory! I bought this jeep last year with 189,000 miles, blown head gaskets, a busted radiator and dropped valve seats. I made the repairs and have since completed numerous aftermarket add-ons and custom changes. Prior to this outing I only had about 500 miles on the Jeep. Build thread here.
I don’t mind a little vehicle drama on a trip. I try to be prepared and roll with it if anything goes wrong. The first racing-heart moment occurred before we even left town. Since Norris Lake is only about 4 hours away we decided to leave later in the afternoon so that my wife could get in a full day of work. Construction traffic made to 5-minute trip out of downtown Cincinnati take over an hour. Sitting patiently, trying not to get ran over by the new Street Car I noticed the temperature gauge was pushing 260 degrees. I spent the entire hour shifting from Drive to Neutral and boosting the RPMs to keep things cool. Once we were on the road temps returned to normal.
It was pushing 11pm when I got off the highway to make my way to the lake. Rain and traffic had kept things interesting. I hadn’t noticed on the interstate but the new headlight housings I had installed were shining brightly into the sky. I couldn’t see anything on the wet, winding roads to the lake…and the overheating problems were coming back.
I suspected the thermal clutch on the mechanical fan. It hadn’t given my any problems in the first 500 miles. Also, I hadn’t yet installed a fan controller on my auxiliary electric fan. I decided the easiest solution to my overheating problem would be to wire up the electric fan, temporarily. I wired it directly to the battery and used a fuse to turn it on and off as needed. This worked perfectly until about the 5th day when I got a Low Coolant indicator on the overhead. I put in about ¾ of a gallon of anti-freeze. Apparently, the high temps on the first day had caused an air bubble in the cooling system. I think the bubble burped on the highway causing the low coolant message. My overheating issues were non-existent afterwards.
We took Highway 25E to 321 to and from Gatlinburg. Hwy 25E intersects the KAT in Middlesboro, KY. This is also where the visitor center is for the Cumberland Gap National Park. We decided to start here rather than in Jellico, TN. We were using the GPS tracks provided by Jeff Stoess.
(continued)
Originally my plan was to spend about 5 days running the KAT (Kentucky Adventure Tour). This was to be a family vacation consisting of 3 days on Norris Lake, a day or two in Gatlinburg, TN, then working our way north east up the KAT beginning in Jellico, TN, and finishing up in Slade, KY.
As they say, plans change. We were having a great time and ended up spending a little more time at the lake, a little more time in Gatlinburg and a little less time on the trail. We ended up doing about 200 miles on the KAT and had a blast.
Checking out damage from last year’s fire above Gatlinburg.
This bridge was fun to cross. It is located about 2 miles in to the Porters Creek Trail in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park.
I put about 1200 miles, total, on the little Jeep during the week and it performed offroad even better than expected. On road, however, I experienced a few challenges.
Backstory! I bought this jeep last year with 189,000 miles, blown head gaskets, a busted radiator and dropped valve seats. I made the repairs and have since completed numerous aftermarket add-ons and custom changes. Prior to this outing I only had about 500 miles on the Jeep. Build thread here.
I don’t mind a little vehicle drama on a trip. I try to be prepared and roll with it if anything goes wrong. The first racing-heart moment occurred before we even left town. Since Norris Lake is only about 4 hours away we decided to leave later in the afternoon so that my wife could get in a full day of work. Construction traffic made to 5-minute trip out of downtown Cincinnati take over an hour. Sitting patiently, trying not to get ran over by the new Street Car I noticed the temperature gauge was pushing 260 degrees. I spent the entire hour shifting from Drive to Neutral and boosting the RPMs to keep things cool. Once we were on the road temps returned to normal.
It was pushing 11pm when I got off the highway to make my way to the lake. Rain and traffic had kept things interesting. I hadn’t noticed on the interstate but the new headlight housings I had installed were shining brightly into the sky. I couldn’t see anything on the wet, winding roads to the lake…and the overheating problems were coming back.
I suspected the thermal clutch on the mechanical fan. It hadn’t given my any problems in the first 500 miles. Also, I hadn’t yet installed a fan controller on my auxiliary electric fan. I decided the easiest solution to my overheating problem would be to wire up the electric fan, temporarily. I wired it directly to the battery and used a fuse to turn it on and off as needed. This worked perfectly until about the 5th day when I got a Low Coolant indicator on the overhead. I put in about ¾ of a gallon of anti-freeze. Apparently, the high temps on the first day had caused an air bubble in the cooling system. I think the bubble burped on the highway causing the low coolant message. My overheating issues were non-existent afterwards.
We took Highway 25E to 321 to and from Gatlinburg. Hwy 25E intersects the KAT in Middlesboro, KY. This is also where the visitor center is for the Cumberland Gap National Park. We decided to start here rather than in Jellico, TN. We were using the GPS tracks provided by Jeff Stoess.
(continued)
