Seen threads like this on other sites and even this one but this one is for the Cali bunch. It's nice seeing what people do to there rigs and actually get to wheel with them too!!
After about killing myself trying to get my 35” spare back on the tire swing and the fact I don’t want to get another hernia, I’ve had 3 in the last 5 years, I have been thinking of a way to lift my spare using a winch of some sort. So I buy a 2000 LB, 12VDC ATV winch with a wired remote and start kicking around ways to make this work.
So I get together with a fellow club member this past Saturday and we kick a few ideas around and before you know it we were cutting steel and welding parts together, it’s good to know people that were machinists before they retired, that and he can weld.
The first thing we did was cut a piece of receiver stock and weld it to the tire swing, then figure out how tall of a piece of 2” stock we would need, then we added another piece of receiver stock to the top of the upright in a “T” and cut another piece of 2” for the arm above the tire.
Then George asks “how were you going to mount the winch?” So we kick a few ideas around and decide on a piece of ¼” flat stock welded to the end of the arm and we also decide to make the winch removable by using keyhole slots! How cool is that?
We get everything cut, drilled, keyholes made and welded together then it’s on the lathe to make the buttons for the keyhole slots. George take a piece of aluminum round stock and puts it in the lathe and a few minutes he has made the buttons and we bolt them to the winch and test fit it to the mounting plate, perfect fit.
Now I put all the parts together, mount the winch, connect the remote and run the leads to the battery and give it a test, and it works perfectly! No more lifting my spare! Woo hoo I am very happy.
Here are a few pics showing the parts and how it looks all together, so what do you think? Thanks for looking!
Well Monday night after work I found myself with a little bit of time so I finally wired up my backup lights. I never hooked them back up after I did the aw-4 automatic transmission conversion from the ax-15.:iamhappy:
I beat some dents out with a large hammer and started messing with a hitch rack I bought to get all my camping gear out on our trips. Any thoughts on lights and license plate after I load this thing with camping gear? Think I'll get hassled in our great state?
I beat some dents out with a large hammer and started messing with a hitch rack I bought to get all my camping gear out on our trips. Any thoughts on lights and license plate after I load this thing with camping gear? Think I'll get hassled in our great state?
I doubt you'll get hassled I see lots of rigs going north on 395 with same type of setup with camping gear, suit cases, lots of coolers with no extra lights and blocking license plates.
Question, do you have trailer lights on your Jeep? If yes then how about a cheap set of trailer lights mounted to the rack and connected to the trailer light plug using the 4 wire flat connector?
Or you could get the mounting bracket and light that moves your license plate to the spare tire? It all depends on how high you will stack stuff on the rack of course.
I just did some deferred maintenance I have been putting off. Checking all the torque stripe nuts and bolts to make sure things still line up and some things needed lubing from the last trip thru the water. Other than that my mod money is going to the kids right now.
This week I put on a 2013 premium soft top on my 2012 JKU and also installed a Q-tec rt side mirror. These replaced the ones I damaged after this.:jawdrop::nonono:
Special thanks to Balius79 and Jeepin Jesse for selling me some parts!:thumb:
I made a bracket and relocated my third brake light. Got rid of the extra wiring. Painted with rustoleum truck bed liner to match the tire carrier. Still looking for fuel tanks to finish the rack above the tire. Then I spent a few hours rotating my driveshaft in the rear to no avail. I still have vibes at 60 miles an hour plus.
Nothing special this week, cut back the factory rock rails in prep for even larger tires going on next week at JeePerformance. Was way easier than expected and took about 30 min. total.
Just got back form JeePerformance were I had them put on a set of BFG MTs in 305/70/17. Needed just a little more ground clearance than my A/Ts in 285/70/17 could offer. Ended up with ~ 1" more ground clearance under the diffs and rock rails.
Interestingly the overall tire width increased by 1/2" but the tread width/contact patch decreased by just over 1/2". The numbers on paper showed the tread width the same. Not that I care, just thought it interesting. Gotta play with the PSI a bit over the next few days to find the sweet spot as these are E rated tires and a bit bouncy at 35 PSI.
Also had them ramp the Jeep to check the bump stops. With the 2.5 RC lift I am running there was no rubbing up front and very very minor in the rear so I had them install a 2" bump stop. Re-ramped it and BINGO perfect.
Thanks Stan and the crew at JPI for putting up with my OCD when it comes to my Jeep's workings.
In the last 3 weeks. Dynatrack 44 Pro rock front housing.Eaton lockers front and rear, 538 gears, New track bars front and rear, Front controll arms, 3 New shocks they were leaking, Chome molly axles front and rear.
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