Wolfpack Alpha - 2014 JK Build Thread

[X-plorenow]

Saw a cool beaver. We parked right next to the beaver pond and he was just swimming laps. Couldn't care less about us being there.





We also saw tons of Moose including two Mothers with little Babies. Was at night and didn't get any pics.

 

[X-plorenow]

Went through a pretty deep water crossing.



It got deeper than I expected pretty quick.





But all ended well.

 

[X-plorenow]

Well for those who have an eagle eye above and have been following this thread you can see I have made a change. Mama got some new shoes!







Love how they look. Couldn't be happier! Have some more to share shsortly as I have made a ton of progress finishing up the storage system. Will try and share over the weekend.

 

[X-plorenow]

Made some recent cockpit changes:


The SPOD has been around. The new addition is the Inreach Mini. The axle failure in the woods really hit home. We were lucky that even though it happened in the woods, it was only about a mile in and we had a weak cell signal. We go to some really remote places. Most of the North Maine Woods has no cell signal. And we can be hours away from civilization. If anything happened we would have to self-rescue or hope to get seen by one of the active logging operations. It has been on my list for a while but after the rear axle / spacer failure it became a priority. It is hardwired to the fuse block. I will share more pictures shortly.



Also added a 67 Designs mount. I love the new version on a "rail" where you can shift where you want the mount and can add up to three mounts. I really cool change they made. Made a great mount even better.

 

[X-plorenow]

Well, I don't know what's going on but I have had too many crazy events in the woods lately. This weekend we were out and about as usual when I started down a pretty muddy trail that turned out to get pretty overgrown. It was a pretty tight trail so I did a three-point turn (ok maybe a 9 point turn), and during one of those turns I backed into a tree but didn't think anything of it.

About an hour later we got out a lake to check it out. I went out back to check to see if I had any damage from the previous incident, and I was surprised to find this:


And yes, if you scroll up a spare tire used to be attached to that Titan Fuel Tank. It sheered clean off:



I went back to the scene of the crime and couldn't find anything. We were driving about a half-mile down the road and my wife spotted in the brush right off the side of the road. It must have weakened and then finally given way when I hit a bump or something. It ended up taking a ride home on the roof rack. And yes it was as fun as you would expect to get it up there:

 

[X-plorenow]

A quick follow-up. I do want to give a shout out to Titan. I emailed them on Monday and let them know what happened. I got a response by end of the day apologizing and asking for some pics and my address, and by today they had sent out a replacement part. I was very pleased with their quick response and the outcome so far, assuming I get the new part. Thank you Titan!

 

[X-plorenow]

I finally got a chance to put the replacement Titan tire mount on. Once I got the tire down from the rack and got the mount of the tire I could fully see the damage. Looks like the welds broke clean off.



This is what it should have looked like:


The lug bolts come unmounted and you have to pick your bolt pattern. They give you multiple templates in the directions.



Pretty straight forward and all done.

 

[X-plorenow]

Got a new present yesterday:



I have known my ball joints were starting to go but have just been putting off the project a little bit. Have a little shimmy in the wheel and some death wobble just here and there, but time to finally get this done.

Nice packaging:



These things sure are beefy:



More to come, stay tuned!

 

[Septu]

Was just reading your build thread. What are your plans (if any) to deal with the weight of the Titan Tank when full? I had that installed on my last jeep with the Moryde heavy duty hinges and those (with a heavy 35" spare) struggled with the weight (was always having to lift the tailgate when closing it. I haven't put the TT on my current jeep as I'm still stock and fear what that weight would do to my stock hinges.

 

[X-plorenow]

Was just reading your build thread. What are your plans (if any) to deal with the weight of the Titan Tank when full? I had that installed on my last jeep with the Moryde heavy duty hinges and those (with a heavy 35" spare) struggled with the weight (was always having to lift the tailgate when closing it. I haven't put the TT on my current jeep as I'm still stock and fear what that weight would do to my stock hinges.

Hey Septu, stock works OK for now but I will need to do something. Still trying to decide. Possibly a full rear bumper and tire carrier. More likely the Teraflex hinge and either stock rear bumper or aluminum as I am not looking to add a lot more weight.

 

[Life_in_4Lo]

Wow, lucky that Titan piece didn't let go on the road! Looks like no penetration on the weld all the way around.
Is that how you see it?
Glad they squared up with you quickly.

 

[X-plorenow]

Wow, lucky that Titan piece didn't let go on the road! Looks like no penetration on the weld all the way around.
Is that how you see it?
Glad they squared up with you quickly.

Yeah, looks like no penetration. I am no welding expert but pretty sure if properly penetrated it shouldn't be able to rust under the weld . The tank itself was still mounted solidly at least. The tank mounts on the stock spare tire lugs. It then has an insert that mounts on the backside that best way I can describe it adds a hitch mount that the spire tire mounts to.

The old mount from the beginning looked like it was sagging with the tire on it. This one looks more like I would expect, hopefully I have more luck with it.

And yes, I give them props again, Titan was very responsive, just asked for a couple of pictures, sent the new piece quickly, and gave me a return label so I could send the damaged piece back so they could examine it. Very happy with the service.

 

[X-plorenow]

Ball joints all done. Can't claim the credit this time as I had the dealer do them. I have been slammed with work and haven't been able to get to them. I had done them on my last Jeep and it wasn't too bad, just needed to get it done as my death wobble was starting to get bad.

Seems like they did a good job, looks clean.

 

[X-plorenow]

Some cool shots from this weekend's Shenanigans:







Not always the most reassuring out on the trail:



Nor this:

 

[X-plorenow]

Got to a couple of small projects done recently. First up, EZ Overland Trail Table.






Was a relatively straight forward install but had to get creative. The provided hardware is nutserts they want you to install with a bolt. They are pretty big and I couldn't get them to work.

Thankfully I had a rivnut gun. The provided hardware was too big for my tool so I had to use the biggest I had. Ended up working fine.



I have been using this for a few weeks now and it is fantastic. Makes life so much easier. I love it, and highly recommend it. Very high quality.