The Triple Threat Grand Cherokee (2003 WJ)

[jeepgc]

Excellent pics as per usual, great read, made my lunch break fly by. Thank you.

 

[theksmith]

One of these days I'm going to get stupid and try my LR3 on the 'con. It's just too close.

I'll be sure to give everybody plenty of head's up so they can plan to not get stuck behind me!

that's a pretty small vehicle which would be a plus. does it have a locker or limited slips?

 

[theksmith]

Excellent pics as per usual, great read, made my lunch break fly by. Thank you.

haha, thanks! when i used to have a normal office job i used to read this forum and JeepForum all the time at work too

 

[zelatore]

that's a pretty small vehicle which would be a plus. does it have a locker or limited slips?

Small? Well, sort of. Compared to say a full-size at least. It does have a super-tight turning radius; better than a JKU; nearly the same as a standard JK.

It's hard to measure it against traditional solid axle rigs. Not much articulation, but the air suspension tries to mimic solid axles in it's movements. The IFS/IRS does mean I don't have pumpkins hanging down, but my exhaust is the low point at the rear. Otherwise I've got nearly a full belly pan of skids because it's nearly impossible to lift these more than a couple inches combined with 32" tires.

Factory rear and center lockers. The front is managed by the computer's traction control, which actually does a really good job. The computers also control the action of the lockers - no manual control. Occasionally annoying, but when you select the right program it does pretty good.

There are plenty of guys in the club who've done the 'con with Discos/RR Classics/Defenders, but I don't know if any of them have tried it with the LR3/4. They're only now getting down to the price point where people are willing to risk the body damage. The LR3/4 will never be a serious rock crawler platform, but in milder stuff they're quite surprising.

I haven't had mine long enough to take that risk myself yet. But like I said...give me a year or so and I'll do something foolish!

 

[jeepgc]

haha, thanks! when i used to have a normal office job i used to read this forum and JeepForum all the time at work too

Ha, not all the time k, only er... At lunchtimes.

Thanks for sticking it to me about the normal office job ☺

 

[Lecoq]

I haven't had mine long enough to take that risk myself yet. But like I said...give me a year or so and I'll do something foolish!

We had a guy come on one of our trail runs with an LR3. He did really good on technical hill climbs and descents. I'm hoping to see a trip report involving an LR3 on the Rubicon soon.

 

[theksmith]

from a little trip last saturday, some other pics here: http://offroadpassport.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3747

 

[piratexpress1369a]

nice shot

 

[theksmith]

for anyone following my carputer stuff, i've rewritten the Steering Wheel Interface Android app to be more flexible, reliable and use a bluetooth OBD2 dongle instead of USB. the new project is called Car Bus Interface and available here (still open source, MIT license): https://github.com/theksmith/CarBusInterface

the quote the README:

The primary use case is for those with an Android based tablet acting as a carputer who wish to have their steering wheel mounted factory stereo buttons control the Android device (adjust volume, change media tracks, etc). However, you could have the Android device respond to any message that is broadcast on the vehicle's bus - from a window rolling down to having reached engine operating temperature.

 

[theksmith]

last weekend we had our annual Offroad Passport party/camping/trail-ride event up at the Cinders OHV area near Flagstaff, AZ. picture thread is here...

i only took a single pano since i was leading - and when back at camp for the evening i was drinking. a lot!

a couple pics taken by dzJeepChic:

we had a bone stock (except for skid plates) new grand cherokee with us, he did just fine in the cinders with his fancy traction control (pic by CAVU2)!

and for any ham geeks reading - i added APRS using my tablet and Kenwood TM-V71A with a new Mobilinkd bluetooth TNC: http://theksmith.com/adventures-out...linkd-bluetooth-tnc-android-tablet-aprsdroid/

 

[piratexpress1369a]

that is a cool link for the ham radio setup ...is it still line of sight with the sat's?

 

[theksmith]

that is a cool link for the ham radio setup ...is it still line of sight with the sat's?

you have to be able to reach a local repeater for APRS to get a msg to the internet where people back home can watch your location (on http://aprs.fi) - so IMO it's not as useful as a satellite based messenger like Delorme or SPOT. it is a free service though, just part of the HAM community supported stuff.

the neat part for me was if you're in a group of hams or meeting up with one, then as long as you can reach each other with the radio then you can see exactly where each other is through APRS... so if you and i were both hams with APRS and trying to meet up somewhere in the CA wilderness, you could easily see make a wrong turn on the map 10 miles away and then just radio me to say "wrong trail, turn around!"

 

[piratexpress1369a]

wow now that is outstanding ..but i don't think that i can upgrade to a new ham radio ..for now i will stay with my HR 2510..one of these day i will have to get my ham license and stop being a pirate radio lol

 

[jeepgc]

for anyone following my carputer stuff, i've rewritten the Steering Wheel Interface Android app to be more flexible, reliable and use a bluetooth OBD2 dongle instead of USB. the new project is called Car Bus Interface and available here (still open source, MIT license): https://github.com/theksmith/CarBusInterface

the quote the README:

Excellent work k!

 

[theksmith]

busy bleeding money as the jeep tries to kill me...


tie rod and a TRE came apart, fortunately i heard a noise before it completely separated and pulled into a parking lot. then the wheels went opposite directions and so i got towed home. the TRE threads were trashed and it slipped right out of the tie rod.

fixed that, then went ahead a did valve cover gaskets for the third time. also put in rebuilt injectors while i was in there, i've had them sitting around for a while (about the only thing that didn't get replaced with the engine when i got the rebuilt one). new PCV and breather valves and hoses. can't figure out why this thing won't seal on the valve covers for more than a month. i put RTV on them this time.


then went to degrease everything and found my front axle tube is cracked nearly in half (07 JK rubi axle with internal sleeves).