Last weekend my family got the chance to run the famous Alpine Loop with the Creeper Jeepers Gang.    We all had a great time seeing the beauty of the alpine tundra and enjoyed the company and hospitality of the Creepers.

 

In January, our family moved to Durango, CO so that I could start a new job.   Living in the Four Corners area has some nice advantages, like the fact that Moab, UT is now only 3 hours away.    This past weekend, one of my Jeeping dreams came true as we got to make our first trip out to Jeep Mecca.    We only had time to scratch the surface of what Moab has to offer and I’m sure this will just be the first of many trips to come.   

Moab is truly a beautiful and unique place and is hard to describe with words.   Pictures don’t do it justice either….but regardless, here’s our photo trip report.

(click pictures to enlarge)

Sunday morning started out with exploring Arches National Park.  We bypassed the main park entrance and entered via Willow Springs trail so we could search for the fossilized dinosaur footprints.

After a fantastic lunch at Milt’s Stop N’ Eat (Moab’s oldest restaurant), we headed to the Sand Flats Recreation Area to play on the world famous slickrock.    We didn’t have a lot of time left, but we made the most of what we had.

 

 

 

Unfortunately after running the first shorter half of the trail, it was getting late and we needed to hit the road back to CO.   The good news is that we are now the proud owners of an annual pass to the Sand Flats Recreation Area and can pick up right were we left off on our next trip out.

 

Last week I got to work in Montrose, CO., which is only 36 miles north of Ouray.  Working so close to the Jeep Capitol of the World, Summer and I took the opportunity to spend a long weekend in the mountains.  We enjoyed some of the local trails and soaked in the amazing scenery, while the kids enjoyed some time with their grandparents and cousins in DFW.

 

On Thursday, we drove from Abilene to Santa Fe, NM.  I had never been to Santa Fe before, so we explored the town a bit that evening and enjoyed a tasty dinner at Tomasitas Restaurant, which offered amazing green chile dishes.

(click pictures to enlarge)

 

Friday morning, we left Santa Fe and headed north toward Pagosa Springs, CO.  We stopped in Pagosa Springs and ate lunch at Kip’s Grill before continuing on toward Ouray.

 

Saturday was our first day to ride trails.  We ignored the old adage of saving the best for last and decided to tackle Black Bear Pass and Imogene Pass first.   Both Black Bear Pass and Imogene Pass run from Ouray to Telluride, but the last few miles of Black Bear are one way.  We took Black Bear over to Telluride, walked around town and enjoyed a good lunch at Smuggler’s Brewpub and then took Imogene back to Ouray.

 

Sunday was our last day to ride trails, so we made the day count.  We left Ouray on Engineer Pass and went up to the summit.  After enjoying the views, we backtracked down to County Rd 2 and headed over to Animas Forks ghost town.  At Animas, we enjoyed a sack lunch from Timberline Deli.   After looking around a bit, we headed back to Ouray via California Pass, Hurricane Pass and Corkscrew Gulch.   After resting for a bit and enjoying dinner at Buen Tiempo, we finished up the evening soaking in the stunning views from Yankee Boy Basin.

 

We headed to Montrose on Monday morning so I could start working, but we enjoyed one last surprise when we arrived.  After checking in with the utility, they sent us out to see the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.  The canyon was just as stunning as the San Juan Mountains.  The Gunnison River drops at an average of 95 feet per mile, compared to the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon dropping about 7.5 feet per mile, so the Black Canyon is truly an unspeakably deep, imposing hole in the ground.

 

Summer and I have been blessed to go to some amazing places over the last 13 years, but this was my absolute favorite trip.   I’m counting down the days until we can head back to the San Juans.

Last week my water pump started leaking coolant through the weep hole.

After reading a bit on water pump replacement, the general consensus seemed to be that this was normal with the age of my TJ and that replacing it with a genuine MOPAR pump was best.

I called my two local dealerships to check prices on the pump.   The first dealer quoted me $186 and the second quoted me $220.   Those prices were just for the pump…

After a good laugh, I checked prices online and ordered the pump, thermostat and gaskets from http://moparonlineparts.com/ for $169.      I was a bit hesitant to order from their site without any good reviews to go off of, but I figured the savings were worth a shot…..and once the parts arrived in perfect shape, I will definitely be willing to order from them again in the future.

Since I was going to have everything apart, I also picked up a new drive belt.    The radiator hoses looked good, so I left them alone.

Installation of the pump was quite a pain and I made a big mess….so no pictures or write up of the work.   Regardless, it all worked out perfect and the leak appears to be solved.

Running Zerex G-05 HOAT coolant.

My parents came to visit for Addie Kate’s 2nd Birthday, which happened to fall on Labor Day weekend.  I took advantage of having dad in TX to install a Banks Torque Tube header on the Rubicon.

Installing the header was a frustrating job.   Pulling the factory parts off was easy enough, because there were workable shots at each one of intake/exhaust manifold bolts.   But, once we started putting the Banks header on, those same paths we had used to reach the bolts were closed off by the nice smooth flowing tubes of the header.   The engineer who designed the header for Banks was obviously way more focused on smooth flowing tubes for unrestricted flow than on allowing the installer to properly torque the bolts holding the header on.   On some of the bolts, we just had to tighten them down as best we could and didn’t even try to torque them to spec.

The project took the greater part of a day, including a lunch break and a run to town for additional tools.   But, the end result was well worth it.

The Rubicon has a noticeable extra spring in it’s step when you put your foot into it.  And the exhaust has a nice low rumble.   I actually expected the exhaust to be a bit louder, but that’s nothing a Banks muffler won’t solve….

Here’s a couple pics I snapped with my phone during installation.

Yesterday afternoon I got time to change the oil, clean the air filter and work on fixing the attachment points for shackles on the front bumper.   The previous owner had welded bushings into the Warn bumper tabs to accommodate pulling the TJ behind his motor home.   But in doing so, he had made the attachment point holes to small for a shackle to fit in.   I used my handy dandy Dremel tool and solved that issue by making the holes larger.

Here’s a couple of pictures of the Jeep from our Rancho Colorado camping trip in April.

A couple of weekends ago, I finally got to install the Vanco Big Brake kit upgrade on my Rubicon. I ordered this kit as soon as I bought my Jeep because the stock single piston calipers were severely underpowered and struggled to stop the 35 inch tires.

The install of the Vanco kit requires you to completely remove the front axle shafts in order to replace the stock knuckles holding the calipers in place. The Vanco kit includes an upgraded knuckle, calipers, pads and rotors for a 1998 Ford Explorer 4×4.  I was really impressed with the quality of the parts included with the Vanco kit….but not the installation instructions.

Vanco left out a few really simple details in the installation instructions. The most important missing piece of info was that the new calipers should be installed on the right and left sides when standing in front of the vehicle. I incorrectly assumed that Right and Left markings on the calipers would have been oriented from behind the wheel. So, I installed the calipers upside down on the wrong sides of the axles.

This tiny little detail kept the brakes from bleeding the air out of the system. My friend Jeff was helping me with the install and neither one of us thought to reorient the calipers. We worked for several hours trying to get the brake system to hold pressure before taking a stab at the problem by installing a new master cylinder. When the new master cylinder didn’t help, we called it a night and I turned to mrblaine on JeepForum for help. mrblaine helped Vanco design the kit originally and he immediately pointed out our issue.

The next day we flipped the calipers, bled the brakes and the Rubicon was back on the road with increased stopping power. I’m very impressed with the Vanco kit. The most notable difference over the stock brakes is the ability to modulate braking power. With the stock brakes, I would apply pressure to slow down, then try to apply more pressure to stop quicker and nothing else would happen. There wasn’t any more braking power to apply. With the Vanco kit, the braking pressure is extremely linear in that the harder I push, the faster I brake.

There was one more small problem after install in that my axles continued to leak diff fluid. This was never an issue before the install, so I decided to have Ellis Auto take a look at my axle seals. Sure enough, they were going out and needed to be replaced. Ellis fixed the seals up and now the Rubi is better than ever.

After some research on JeepForum, I found a solution to my speedometer and odometer being out of whack due to my larger tires and 4.88 gears. A couple of Jeep guys had installed the HealTech Electronics Speedohealer to correct their speedometers, odometers and transmission shift points. For the price, this seemed like the best solution. So, I ordered the healer on ebay and decided to give it a try.

My friend Jeff helped walk me through the install and taught me to solder in the process. I had to splice the speedohealer into the speedometer signal wire before it entered the Jeep computer and provide the healer with switched power. I ended up wiring the unit directly into the wiring harness by the computer under the hood. Install was simple and straightforward and I couldn’t have asked for a better result.

After driving a bit, I was able to dial the speedohealer in and correct my speed, odometer readout and shift points. Overall the Rubicon drives much better now that it is shifting at the appropriate times.

I added the Warn Grille Guard to my front bumper set up to add a little extra protection and because I like the looks. Install was simple with only four bolts and a little loctite.