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Out with the old (most of the jeep is gone)

Dean — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 02:41:10 +0000

Today my old jeep body, frame, and roll cage left on a trailer bound for Kansas. The new will be the Jim’s Garage chassis which should be here at the end of January. Look at how empty the garage looks!

Teardown time!

Dean — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 19:48:40 +0000

I’ve finally decided that I’ve gone as far as I can with the full body and original Jeep frame. I started disassembling the Jeep so I can start building a tube chassis onto which I’ll put the same drivetrain, suspension and axles. First I pulled the hood and fenders, then removed all of the wiring and the dash.

Pretty good street rod look going in the picture below

Then we pulled the body tub off .

Then I pulled the transfer case, transmission and engine.

And this is what someone needs to buy, along with the tub and roll cage. A one of a kind Jeep frame, complete with all four-link brackets attached. Engine mounts for SB Chevy, and a custom exhaust from manifolds to the back of the jeep.

GoPro HD Hero2 Camera

Dean — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 16:17:41 +0000

I’ve had great success with my GoPro HD Camera over the past year. We’ve shot plenty of footage and you know what will be better? Getting a new GoPro HD Hero2 camera! Follow the link below to get your own GoPro HD Hero2 camera.

GoPro HD Cameras

Trip to the Cliffs, Nov 19th, 2011 – Part 2

Dean — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 13:19:06 +0000

Last post was the pictures, and this is one is for the videos. I had forgotten my gopro camera on this trip, so everything you see was shot from cell phones. Not the greatest quality but it did work. I made a video of each rig that was on the trip, just pieced together clips from the day. I think the two funniest parts are Scott moving a tree off the trail (by ramming it with his jeep) and half way through my video, I put my jeep on its side. The back-story is that we had watched a side-by-side (UTV) run up and down the hill and he flopped it on its side at least once. I didn’t want to be outdone.

Trip to the Cliffs, Nov 19th, 2011

Dean — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 16:43:45 +0000

I was awoken early on Saturday by a text from Scott saying there was no waffle maker. I thought it was a joke as I had asked the night manager when we checked in if they had a waffle maker. I don’t like breakfast much, but I do like waffles, so when I travel I tend to stay where I know I can get waffles for breakfast. They weren’t joking! I went down to check, and sure enough, nothing but a toaster and a few frozen waffles sitting there. Not a good start to the morning.

We headed outside to the parking lot, where we watched Chris repair his rear driveshaft while the jeep was on the trailer. Then we headed to the park. Remember me saying the Cliffs always has mud? Well, today was completely different. It was actually pretty dry, with lots of leaves on the ground. The parking lot was cold, just like the day before, so we quickly got down a trail into the woods where it warmed up. Here are a few of the pictures from that trip.

Too bad no one else had a camera, we led the group and Scott must have been directly behind us, because I can’t see Chris or Nick anywhere!

Trip to the Badlands Offroad Park, Nov 18th, 2011 – Part 2

Dean — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 15:12:11 +0000

At lunch time, Chris went to a local junkyard to grab parts for his broken front driveshaft. That happened in a pile of rocks in the quarry by the Purgatory sign. Thanks to Nick for bringing Subway sandwiches for lunch! We were the only ones in the parking lot that day, and I wish we were not. If we had more vehicles, maybe the wind would not have been so strong. It was so windy you had to hold onto your camp chair until you sat down or it would blow over. We ran all over the park that afternoon, ending up at a pile of cement. There is an area where the cement trucks back in, and dump and washout their trucks. The pile is now 20-25 feet tall. The bottom half is solid, and looks like old broken up sidewalk. The top is loose cement which is the consistency of loose sand. We had so much fun on this. The only casualty was Chris breaking his rear driveshaft. After that we packed up and while we fueled up, Chris went back to the junkyard to get parts for fixing his rear driveshaft. As the Badlands Offroad Park was now closed for the weekend, we decided to drive to Morris, IL. This is only 10 minutes from the Cliffs Insane Terrain park. We made it to Morris by 6:30pm and after cleaning up at the motel, headed across the street for some Pizza Hut. A few beers and Day 1 was in the books. Below are another couple of clips from that day. The undercut at the top of the hill worried me, as it was much taller than my rear tire!

Trip to the Badlands Offroad Park, Nov 18th, 2011 – Part 1 – Quarry

Dean — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 14:09:50 +0000

November is usually cold and windy in the midwest. This weekend was no exception. We left Friday morning at about 3am from Elkhorn, hoping to get to Attica, IN by 9am. We planned on staying at the Attica Family Campground, adjacent to the park. We rolled in just after 9am, and checked in with the campground. That’s where we got the incredible news that the Badlands Offroad Park was going to be closed this weekend! How is this possible? Well, it turns out there are people that will pay $150 each to run around in the freezing cold (on foot) through water, mud, and up and down hills. The park was closed for the Tough Mudders! We pleaded our case with the park, and they said we could wheel the park today, Friday, until 4pm as long as we didn’t destroy any ribbons, course markers etc. Good enough. We basically had the park to ourselves. We had four rigs, and saw only one other truck and trailer in the parking lot. Below are a couple of clips from climbing walls in the quarry. I got a little over-zealous with my rig. In June this year, I broke the upper four link off my rear axle. This trip I went right back to that wall, and climbed it without issue. So, having conquered that I wandered off to a wall I’ve never tried. Well, I finally lost a tire on that one, but winched myself up and out and put on the spare.

Genoa City mud bog 2011

Dean — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 19:01:47 +0000

I had a blast at the Genoa City mud bog. Here are my two runs. The first went well, and I got first place in the 35″ tire class. The second run, with the 44″ Boggers, started out well. However, I hit a really big hole full throttle and snapped an outer stub shaft in the front axle. With only three tires turning, I managed to make it to the end, for a third place finish in that class.

Sorry for the bad quality video in the first one, I got it from a friends cell phone.

Trip to the Badlands Offroad Park, Saturday July 2nd, 2011

Dean — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 19:26:10 +0000

So, before the pictures, here was the idea. Everyone took their spouse that weekend, and we were going to let the women drive around. Well, like all of my plans, there was a flaw. I broke my jeep in about an hour before Kim could ever get to drive it. After that we stayed all day, went out and had dinner. Kim and I left late that night due to a horrible storm, we weren’t going to spend the night in a tent in that storm! Mike and his wife Wendy left as well. Chris, Nick, Dan and his wife, and Scott and his wife stayed and got to wheel the next day in some really high water in some places.

Trip to the Cliffs Insane Terrain, Sunday, June 12, 2011

Dean — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 18:56:26 +0000

There was a lot of mud, but when isn’t there mud at the Cliffs?