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Grampa’s Jeep in the dark |
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smfulle 
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Sponsor Member Joined: 16 Sep. 2010 Location: Ogden, Utah Status: Offline Points: 6141 |
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 Topic: Grampa’s Jeep in the darkPosted: 20 Jan. 2020 at 6:03am |
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Jpet came out to Utah to ride with me in Grampa’s Jeep at the Winter 4x4 Jamboree atSand Hollow near Hurricane, Utah. Jeff ride copilot and did the camera work. We had two rides scheduled. The first one on a 7 of 10 rated trail called Double Sammy in the dark of Friday evening. We didn’t make the 2nd one scheduled the next morning. If you watch this video you’ll see why.
If you can’t it through all of it, the carnage for Grampa’s Jeep starts at about 21:20. I’ll post the rest of the story later. |
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jeeper50
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Posted: 20 Jan. 2020 at 1:49pm |
 Sucks that the spindle bolts pulled out of the knuckle, guess it's time for a the shouldered bolt mod to the knuckles... food for thought for all of us. Great video Stan Good to know that the audience thinks your untized bearing came apart. He He
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Belleview ol skool winch soon. '48 CJ2A 283 V8 sm 420 granny low, tera low D18, overdrive,lockers Texan at heart,Alabama by retirement |
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JeepFever
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Posted: 20 Jan. 2020 at 2:10pm |
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That video is so cool !! Love the lighting. The obstacle did not look any worse than ones that Gpa's Jeep has done hundreds of times, the studs finally got tired. Same thing happened to Wilson years ago.
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athawk11
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Joined: 18 Jan. 2012 Location: Arvada,Colorado Status: Offline Points: 4151 |
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Posted: 20 Jan. 2020 at 5:10pm |
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Wow. Night time wheeling brings a whole new perspective. Very Cool!
Really interested to find out how you got off the mountain. Did you have a spare knuckle? Drill, tap, bigger bolts?
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1- 1946 CJ2A
2- 1949 CJ3A |
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JeepFever
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Posted: 20 Jan. 2020 at 6:06pm |
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I was wondering on the repair also . . it went a good distance on rough terrain.
When it happened to Wilson, we were lucky, we had finished most of the tough part of trail, The spindle pulled loose in a downhill, left-hand turn. We put the studs back in, best we could, (seemed like only holding on by a thread) .. winched over the last obstacle. Then drove out in 2-wheel low, with the front brake line pinched off with Vise-Grips. Curious to hear the rest of Stan's story!
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smfulle
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Posted: 20 Jan. 2020 at 6:34pm |
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After the initial break, we tipped the jeep on it's side as seen in the video above. The brake hose was pinched off with vise grips and the vise grips were zip tied to the axle. The brake pedal got hard and we had 3 wheel brakes.
Of the 6 bolts holding the spindle on, only 4 would tighten down. We got it put back together and hoped for the best. If you watched the video to the end you can see that our hope was in vain. The top of the Double Sammy trail is no joke, It's not anything we haven't done before, but with your spindle hanging on literally by a few threads, it just couldn't take it. We broke right in the middle of the trail with a half dozen jeeps behind us that couldn't get by and two more big groups coming the next morning with probably 20+ jeeps each, we had to get Grampa's Jeep off the trail some to let other jeeps pass. I tried driving with the three remaining wheels while dragging the knuckle on the rock. No good, couldn' get any control to make it go where we wanted it to. We tried pulling it with another jeep. No good. GJ just pivited on the knuckle and blocked the trail even more. Finally we just called for as many guys as could fit around GJ and lifted it off to the side of the trail. First front, then back, then front, then back until we had it out of the way. This was about 9:30 pm. I called a friend, Kevin Boren, who had taken Jeff and I on a ride last spring before our big week at Sand Hollow to help us get a lay of the land (recorded in the youtube video "Grampa's Jeep and Friends @ Sand Hollow). I hoped he might know a local that had a spare knuckle. He didn't so I told him Jeff and I would drive that night to my house in Plain City, 5 hours away, get my spare knuckle and come back in the morning and try and fix it enough to get off the trail. We hitched a ride on another jeep to the parking lot and were just unhooking my trailer to get started home when Kevin called back and said "I don't want you to drive home tonight. I''l come out and we'll get you off the trail." Kevin knows the story of my sleeping at the wheel and was worried for me. He also was the scheduled leader of a trail ride for the Winter 4x4 Jamboree in the morning at 8am. Kevin came in his XJ and off we went to figure out how to get a three wheeled CJ2A off of a really gnarly trail with minimal tools and equipment. Here's a picture of the rescue vehicle.  |
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Nothing Special
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Posted: 20 Jan. 2020 at 6:54pm |
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Wow! While damage like that is always a possibility with our hobby it still sucks when it happens. I'm looking forward to the rest of the story (and also to getting the time to watch the entire video in a location where I don't have to have it muted like I do at my desk at work over lunch)
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smfulle
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Posted: 20 Jan. 2020 at 7:09pm |
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We got to Grampa's Jeep and talked and thought a bit before deciding to try to jack Grampa's jeep up with the floor jack Kevin had wisely thrown in his jeep. Then with a ratchet strap hooked into the D-ring on the right side of Kevin's bumper and run down around the axle on GJ to hold the axle off the ground, along with a couple of smaller ratchet straps cinching the axle up to the frame to keep it from hanging down low. We also placed an old tire that Kevin had brought along between GJ and the XJ to try and keep any damage from the jeeps kissing to a minimum. We proceeded to move up the trail. We were closer to the top than the bottom and once out of the trail at the top you can run down the sand dunes to the tunnel under the road and out to the pavement so we decided to go up rather than down.
There was still plenty of challenging climbs and tight turns to negotiate with such a crazy marriage of jeeps. We did pretty well for a bit then at one spot the knuckle dug into the rock and the strap broke where it was rubbing across the edge of the bumper. We tried dragging with a strap to a better spot for reattachment but the knuckle was jammed hard into the rocks and Kevin was on a steep spot and only spun tires. So we had Kevin back down and we jacked GJ of the rock while he was hanging on a steep slope and we were trying to stand on the sand covered slick rock slope and work. It was quite the circus with several falls, the worst being this fat old man. But no real damage done to human bodies and we got married back up and off we went. Jeff walked along in the dark giving direction and taking video. I don't know how he didn't fall and break his neck. I sat in GJ and applied brakes on the down slopes and spun the tires on the steep upslopes to help Kevin get us up. We finally got to the top of the trail, down the sand dunes and through the tunnel by about 3:30 am. Getting the GJ on the trailer was another trick. 1st we tried backing up the ramp while still attached to Kevin's Jeep and him backing his jeep at the same time I backed GJ. That's when the last strap we had to attached the jeeps together broke. So we used the floor jack on the pavement to raise the knuckle up off the ramp enough to back up a little, then reset the jack, then back a little, then reset the jack. Kevin had also brought along an old piece of metal shelving that we placed under the knuckle so that if it hit the ramp or the trailer deck it would have smooth metal to drag on. After a bit we were able to move the jack to the trailer deck and get GJ backed onto the the trailer in a safe to travel spot. No video of the trailer circus, but here's the video of the last part of the climb out of Double Sammy with the strap holding up the axle and pulling us along. |
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chasendeer
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Posted: 20 Jan. 2020 at 7:53pm |
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One more epic story to tell around the camp fire!!
Jay
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athawk11
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Posted: 20 Jan. 2020 at 7:57pm |
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Really creative and effective approach. That was a long night.
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1- 1946 CJ2A
2- 1949 CJ3A |
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bkwudz
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Posted: 20 Jan. 2020 at 8:21pm |
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Nice recovery Stan, you need to write a book about GJ adventures
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jpet
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Posted: 20 Jan. 2020 at 8:59pm |
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Stan may have been a little rattled that night (or morning), and we were both tired but after some rest and reflection, I had a gr8 time!! Sure, taking a locker stocker thru Double Sammy is a challenge, but real jeepers do it on three wheels while dragging their knuckles!! Good times!!
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CJ2A #29110 "General Willys"
MB #204827 "BAM BAM" "We do what we can, and we try what we can't" |
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Stev
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Posted: 20 Jan. 2020 at 9:22pm |
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Nice recovery!
If anyone has access to the old Vernco site. Carl had a detailed description of upgrading early steering knuckles to fix this potential problem.
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Stev
1946 CJ2A Trail Jeep (The Saint), 1948 CJ2A Lefty Restored |
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smfulle
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Posted: 20 Jan. 2020 at 9:25pm |
Not the adventure we had planned, but still a great adventure. It’s things like this that bring friends closer together and make them brothers.
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jeeper50
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Posted: 20 Jan. 2020 at 9:46pm |
Heck the rescue was even better than the first video, great use of straps, etc to get GJ back to the truck! Wonder if Matt from winder towing could have performed as well as your team!! I would love to see the upgrade too
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Belleview ol skool winch soon. '48 CJ2A 283 V8 sm 420 granny low, tera low D18, overdrive,lockers Texan at heart,Alabama by retirement |
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Jw60
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Posted: 21 Jan. 2020 at 12:46am |
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I did the knuckle upgrade, since my ol plow jeep had some stripped knuckles I'm not sure if I have any pics. But I think I have the part number for the bolts somewhere. Biggest issue is access to a mill and lathe. Spot face the inside of the knuckle, i had to outsource this. Then turn the head of the button head bolts down to just clear the casting and be well seated where spot faced. I ran everything down then cleaned up any issue areas. Add some "ain't never coming loose" locktight to the bolt where it will be in the knuckle then run it down for good those might want to back out if you don't lock them down. When dry grind the heads of the buttons down at 3 and 9 just enough to get full sweep of the knuckle again.
Edited by Jw60 - 21 Jan. 2020 at 12:50am |
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BD1
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Posted: 21 Jan. 2020 at 3:13am |
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I love the GJ videos! Stan, what is the drive train in Grampa's jeep? Considering it's age, and how you use it, it seems to be holding up remarkably well.
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BD
'47 CJ2a, Shiny on top! '55 CJ5 project |
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smfulle
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Posted: 21 Jan. 2020 at 4:24am |
Hey BD, Thanks for the kind words. GJ is a mostly stock CJ2A. Mods are Lock Right lockers in the stock axles, Tera Low gear set in the transfer case and a T90c transmission in place of the stock T90a. I also have a little extra armor bolted on underneath. If you have a bunch of time to kill, here’s my build thread. |
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jpet wrote: