Hiya all

[Ebolla]

I used to be a member here about 7 years ago give or take a year back when I had my XJ.

Now I have a WJ and am back plus if everything goes right I will be back down in AZ for my future job!

Anyways except for running 265/75/16's on a stock lift (minor rubbing mostly in the rear by the way) the WJ is completely stock.

Something I have noticed is a SEVERE lacking in offroad performance parts for the WJ.

Anyways nice to be back. Hope to talk to you all soon.

[Jdemonto@Airpark Jeep Sales]

Welcome back

Jason

[arczech]

Welcome aboard

[My Green Jeep]

:worthless:

Welcome to the jungle :willy_nilly:

[cosninocanines]

Welcome Home!

[Ebolla]

Well I would do a pick but right now with the price of gas up here in vegas I keep my driving down to a minimum.

Although I am running Big-O MT's 265/75/16 on a stock lift (32" tires). Minor rubbing up front only if I go to lock on turning and some rubbing on the back side of the rear fender wells under full compression.

I am hoping to get a used 2" budget lift to hold me over until I can get a lift kit.

I am looking at the 6.5" long arm kit. Here is a picture of a WJ with it installed.
http://images.marketplaceadvisor.channeladvisor.com/hi/67/66933/rkwj65xfplusla_01-jeep.jpg

The only company I have found with one for sell is Rock Krawler (http://www.rockkrawler.com/)

Of course I don't plan on going over a 33" tire but I want lots of flex.

[Ebolla]

ok so I found 2 different companies making a 6.5" LA Lift for the WJ.

WJ 6.5 X FACTOR PLUS LONG ARM SYSTEM (http://www.rockkrawler.com/pages/catalog/index.php?r_itemID=70)
and then
6" Long Arm Suspension Lift (http://www.claytonoffroad.com/get.doc.aspx?qs=LD:Item%20Spec%20Sheet&l=partId!make!model!modelEx&p=PD-WJ60!Jeep!Grand%20Cherokee!WJ)

Has anyone ran these? Can anyone give any feed back as far as on road and off road usability goes?

I am thinking of one of these combined with a 2-2.5" BB to give me 8.5-9" of suspension lift total.

Hope to hear from you all soon and thank you in advance!

[AZG23]

welcome back....

what are your views on carry a firearm in a national park..?? on second thought..nevermind! Dont answer that...;)

Alot has changed here since even I joined...so its like a whole new place. Again, welcome back!

[Ebolla]

Well I will be posting pictures in a couple of days. My jeep is good and stuck. Trying to get it out with another jeep winching and I broke my front axle. Scared the crap out of me.

Basically dropped down into a saddle on the side of a mountain and was to close to the edge. The trail gave out and my jeep started sliding side ways. Couldn't get it back up onto the trail so I swung the front end to where it was pointing down slope to get the wife and son out without risk of rolling.

Thankfully since I have it registered with my insurance as a Recreational Vehicle they are going to cover the recovery and repairs minus my 250 deductible. Recovery was going to be 800$ but then when they got there and say I described the situation to a T, there was no way they could do it with 1 truck.

Saddest thing is they are going to use a Hummer as an anchor so they can get their winch truck stuck to get me out then use the Hummer to get us both up the hill.

So tomorrow I will post up some pictures so you can see. But for now here is a visual.

Jeep is pointed downhill with the rear about a foot higher than the front.
The UPSIDE rear tire is completely off the ground.
The DOWNSIDE front tire is on rock that is slowly breaking up and is braced with a 2x4 currently.
The whole rear is supported by the DOWNSIDE portion of the tow hitch receiver.

It would take very little pressure from the UPSIDE to roll the jeep down the hill at this point which is why the recovery team is going to use multiple vehicles.

On another note.... I got a call today from the officer who responded to my call for help yesterday. Apparently someone with a FJ Cruiser got stuck on the actual trail itself, blocking the trail from any vehicles being able to go across it. They were calling to see if it was someone trying to help me out.

Yesterday when trying to recover the jeep myself with the help of a couple other jeepers, one of them almost rolled off the trail after just getting stuck themselves. They were in a TJ with a 4" lift, 35's, lockers front and rear. They had a hard time getting out of that saddle and had to ride high up on the UPSIDE of the trail to even traverse it themselves. They could not get enough traction to get me into a more stable spot much less get me unstuck.

Anyways 10 am tomorrow I will be meeting up with them again to try and recover the vehicle. They are going to use a F250 anchored to the Hummer to winch it up onto the trail via Blocks anchored into the side of the mountain. It will be a LONG day.

I don't know if I will be able to get a video of the actual recovery as my wife may have to leave to go to work (she will be at the base of the mountain about half a mile away using the zoom on the camcorder to get a close up view). But either way I will have pictures as well both before they start the recovery and during.

[terron gregg]

i like the screen name kinda like the disease

[AZG23]

whoa...from an introduction to this..?? dang man...what part of the valley..?

[allek@t]

Welcome!

[lancetkenyon]

whoa...from an introduction to this..?? dang man...what part of the valley..?

Vegas. Welcome to the Carnage Zone.

[Wayco]

Wow, sounds like you got in a little too deep for a WJ. Can't wait for the pic's. We all live for stuff like this.
Welcome back to the forum, we have plenty of spots where you can get into trouble here...... :D

[AZXJ]

Welcome Back!

We can help you out with the RockKrawler kit on the WJ.. We won't do the Clayton kit.

Dave
480-288-4213

[Ebolla]

Well here is an update. Pictures are forth coming once my wife gets home and gives me the cord for the camera.

Today, wow what a day. Got out to the meet spot with Silver State Towing at about 10 am. Owner showed up in his H2 very confident that the jeep would be out in less than an hour..... 4:30pm rolls around.... Total carnage done. 400 lb boulder slammed my left front bumper almost tipping the jeep over as it was being used as an anchor to get previously mention H2 unstuck after it blew it's lockers.
Blew 1 winch on the jeep(total motor sieze)
Blew 1 winch on the H2, sounds like the gears shredded, but did get the H2 into a position so it could muscle it's way back onto the trail it slid off of.

Right now, I have to say, I have a LOT of respect for jeeps and their tenacity at avoiding the roll over. My WJ is at about a 45 degree angle with the uphill side rear tire off the ground. And it stayed put when that boulder hit the front bumper, most likely due to it being a glancing blow but still. I was scared myself at about a 20 degree camber but my god it just will not let go.

Anyways I got a couple of pictures from the bottom of the mountain so you can see the start position. you can see the top of the jeep from the bottom to give you an idea when you are looking at it. That white roof is a FJ that got stuck yesterday and unstuck today.

I also have pictures showing it in it's current position from before the boulders broke loose and rolled down the hill.

I even have pictures of the H2 stuck.

Not sure what they will bring out tomorrow morning but at this point at least the uphill front tire is on the edge of the trail. Just that broken front axle is making the recover far more difficult that it should be.

On another note. The guy who helped me Sunday when I initially got stuck, screwed up his jeep trying to help me. He is going to let me know when he can get it on a lift and I am going to head down to help him out any way I can with fixing his TJ.

I will say this though. I now see why TJ owners like the the rear end relocation kit. When he came down the same hill I had come down as easy as eating pie, he got major air under the rear end twice. First time wasn't bad but the second time was bad enough that his front bumper was so close to the ground I thought it would catch and flip him.

Should have pictures up in about 3 hours depending on how tired I am. I may end up putting them up tomorrow but I will get them up no later than tomorrow night.

Oh and to answer the question about where. Bat Cave mountain SW side of Vegas near FT Apache and Maule. One of the TJ's friends lives down at the base and I hear he has some really nice pictures with a high zoom lense. I can't wait to see them myself.