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What am I up to today? :LOG:
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Author:  PALiftedKK [ Wed Sep 06, 2017 8:37 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: What am I up to today? :LOG:

Ive been very busy with the KK recently. I have gotten nearly 100% of the electrical rewired for the trailer and in cab controls. Installed a 6 pin plug for the trailer, not really thrilled with it since it is a baby small connector and I expected it to be just as large as my trucks connector... smaller pintle hitch installed as I bought a 15 ton pintle instead of an 8 ton pintle. waxed the rig. took it off road the next day.... haha. cleaned off the over spray from the reverse lights. replaced both front rotors and all brake pads. oil change. rewired the trailer harness to accept reverse lighting as the tail light housings have 4 light bulb sockets. 2 are mandatory to run legally, the other 2 are black out lights. I used both sockets for reverse and function better then nothing.


I think that's just about everything.


heres the day of my camping trip as she sits as of 9/2/2017. I am still having loads of issues of tig welding the aluminum... to further get the build back on track I have been thinking about letting a shop finish the tent frame as that is all that is holding up quite literally the whole build.

Image

Author:  lfhoward [ Thu Sep 07, 2017 5:53 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: What am I up to today? :LOG:

Sounds like you've been busy! Your KK is higher and has new wheels and tires since the last time I saw it. Congrats! It looks great paired with your trailer.

I moved during the summer, so not much to report in the Jeep and Trailer department. I bought spark plugs, air filters for the engine and cabin, and some cleaning supplies for a well earned tune up and detail back in June, but haven't had time to do it yet. I just got my solar panel mounted to my trailer last weekend finally. My trailer failed inspection though on account of rusty water-contaminated wheel bearings and non-functional brakes. So I have my work cut out for me. I need to save up about $500 before I can do anything about it. (Moving does empty the bank account!)

Good luck learning to tig weld! Sounds like it is a bit frustrating at first. I decided to stay away from welding and everything on mine is bolted to the frame. Once yours is done though, it should last forever.

Author:  GordnadoCRD [ Thu Sep 07, 2017 6:29 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: What am I up to today? :LOG:

There are some epoxies and urethane adhesives out there that are stronger and have advantages over welding. Particularly when it comes to vibration, or flex induced stress such as in a wind storm. They may not be as aesthetically pleasing as a weld, but I can't imagine the attachment points of a tent frame being show points.

Author:  PALiftedKK [ Thu Sep 07, 2017 7:01 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: What am I up to today? :LOG:

lfhoward wrote:
Sounds like you've been busy! Your KK is higher and has new wheels and tires since the last time I saw it. Congrats! It looks great paired with your trailer.

I moved during the summer, so not much to report in the Jeep and Trailer department. I bought spark plugs, air filters for the engine and cabin, and some cleaning supplies for a well earned tune up and detail back in June, but haven't had time to do it yet. I just got my solar panel mounted to my trailer last weekend finally. My trailer failed inspection though on account of rusty water-contaminated wheel bearings and non-functional brakes. So I have my work cut out for me. I need to save up about $500 before I can do anything about it. (Moving does empty the bank account!)

Good luck learning to tig weld! Sounds like it is a bit frustrating at first. I decided to stay away from welding and everything on mine is bolted to the frame. Once yours is done though, it should last forever.


Thanks Lauren! I've found out that our surge breaks are awful... I'm planing converting the surge breaks over to electric over hydraulic. You have a lot more granular breaking vs the primitive surge breaks. Stick with the break shoes as converting to the disk brake loses you the option of hydraulic brakes; at least that's the case with my M1101.

I've welded as much as I can on non load bearing aluminum. I have 2 load braces under the diamond plate designed for around 500lbs worth of tool boxes, equipment, and extra storage. 70% of the work left to do is on the tent frame. Once that is done with I can asses my solar panel and battery storage box.

Also, check your brake actuator. I got my trailer with the shaft bent and was unable to put pressure on the brake cylinder. Like a $30 part if that's the problem.

Author:  lfhoward [ Thu Sep 07, 2017 8:14 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: What am I up to today? :LOG:

Thanks for the tip about the brake actuator. I had mine apart a while back and discovered that I need a new master cylinder. (Forgive the thread jack but here are some photos.) I replaced the blown shock absorber and that helped tone down the clunk of stop/starts.

Disassembled:
Image

Rusty master cylinder:
Image

Old shock vs. new:
Image

I've read about converting to electric brakes and a new axle ($$$!) but decided to stick with the mechanical hydraulic setup for simplicity. If it worked for the USMC (stamped on my trailer when I got it), it's tough enough for anything I could put it through. :P

Author:  PALiftedKK [ Thu Sep 07, 2017 8:23 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: What am I up to today? :LOG:

10/4! I'd hate to throw a new axle under mine... huge waste of money. I also meant to say hydrolic over electric brakes. That should quiet the pintle hitch down quite a bit and with the best possible braking power.

Author:  lfhoward [ Thu Sep 07, 2017 8:26 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: What am I up to today? :LOG:

PALiftedKK wrote:
10/4! I'd hate to throw a new axle under mine... huge waste of money. I also meant to say hydrolic over electric brakes. That should quiet the pintle hitch down quite a bit and with the best possible braking power.

I'll stay tuned to see how you do it. My trailer is never really "done" so it could be a good mod down the road.

Author:  PALiftedKK [ Thu Sep 07, 2017 8:37 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: What am I up to today? :LOG:

lfhoward wrote:
PALiftedKK wrote:
10/4! I'd hate to throw a new axle under mine... huge waste of money. I also meant to say hydrolic over electric brakes. That should quiet the pintle hitch down quite a bit and with the best possible braking power.

I'll stay tuned to see how you do it. My trailer is never really "done" so it could be a good mod down the road.



Haha. You'll be waiting quite a bit. My battery storage box will be close to the last thing. The braking unit I'm getting will be housed in the box. I do not have the box yet as the tent frame as stated is holding the whole build up. The box I get depends on how much storeage space I'm able to get under the tent frame and holes and wires need to be run the same day as the box gets welded in... it's a cluster you know what, but it will be well worth it since there is not one close to my design features in the world in an all in one trailer for off reading. I'm still excited about this build!

Author:  PALiftedKK [ Mon Jun 04, 2018 10:11 am ]
Post subject:  Re: What am I up to today? :LOG:

Took the KK and trailer for a 600 mile trip to western PA then VA yesterday. Western PA was verry hilly with the route I took. Highest the temps got was 220 briefly in 2nd locked for the engine and 208 for the trans. Trailer pulled really really good. Massive flooding in northern West Virginia. Went through several towns that had the roads destroyed and driveways missing. Went through a few water fordings with the rig and she didn't feel a thing. Jeep and trailer weighed out to be 5k lbs and some change with the trailer being almost 2k lbs. I currently do not know the tounge weight but so far I've deaigned the trailer to maintain weight around the axle. Plans to take the rig offroading all this week!!! Happy trailing y'all!! :CAMPING:

Author:  PALiftedKK [ Mon Aug 20, 2018 6:15 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: What am I up to today? :LOG:

Installed an intercooler on the jeep last week. Intake temps before hand were 170° and I tow alot with the jeep now as I prepare my M1101 for 2020 Alaska trip. So that being said I was loosing what I believe to be a boat load of horsepower. So I installed a 4" water to air intercooler. It's 15" long so it was almost the same size as my previous straight 4" intake tube. I had a 0.5 gallon water pump on hand but that proved incapible of holding low temps so I bought a 3 gpm pump and low and behold I started seeing results! Intake temps now are in the range of 15°-25° hotter then ambient. Now the install still isn't finished as I have a flow restriction that will be taken care of hopefully soon. Also, this mod is 100% stand-alone and not at all connected to the engine radiator as the intake has it's own radiator now. Once this mod is 100% complete I expect to see temps 5°-10° hotter then ambient from my 500 miles with this mod.

Author:  PALiftedKK [ Tue Apr 23, 2019 7:16 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: What am I up to today? :LOG:

Removed the solar panel on the jeep yesterday. She looked naked... new light bar being put on soon as well as flexible solar panels totaling 260 watts. A frame based solar panel was nice for easily mounting accessories to it but the maintenance of tightening the bolts and nuts was exhausting, plus I always worried when I hit the highway that the panel would fly off... well it was on for 5 years and never flew off so that's a plus! I'm dearly going to miss the look though but it's time for an improvement in lighting power as well as solar output!!

Author:  PALiftedKK [ Fri Jul 05, 2019 9:59 am ]
Post subject:  Re: What am I up to today? :LOG:

Jeep has been doing ok for a while. Having some severe mpg issues that may be catalytic converter issue. Rpms surge by 150-200 rpm going up hill, brakes seem stiffer but aren't causing any added resistance to the final drive power as checked by a temp gun. I do have a recent whine noise only when I'm on the throttle but my suspicion is the transfer case. Going to grab a new set of rubber late this year due to my MTs wearing extremely unevenly as they have aged and a bad shock has destroyed one tire already. Gonna roll with a bad shock till the new tires, I'll be grabbing fully adjustable shocks and make the jeep run like a Cadillac hopefully one day! Switched to full synthetic oil for my trip out west almost a month ago. Had 6k miles on that oil and it looked exactly the same as conventional oil at 3k miles. I will stick with full synthetic oil and run it till 5k miles. Jeep still is reliable as can be at the moment! Just mpg issues are a tad alarming as it's not anything user replaceable to my knowledge (meaning spark plugs or coil packs). Hope this is just a glitch because a 7mpg hit across the board is a pretty serious issue. Hope it's nothing serious honestly and just a bad purge valve. Haha.

Author:  lfhoward [ Fri Jul 05, 2019 12:59 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: What am I up to today? :LOG:

Hey glad to know you’re still here and the Jeep is still kicking. :thumbsup: I hear you on the naked Jeep thing as I have my roof rack and sliders off for powder coating at the moment. Removing the Rola roof basket restored about 2 mpg and I think I’ll be able to hold onto most of that with my new ATH rack. Sorry to hear your Jeep is not doing so hot in the mpg department. Have you checked for stored codes on your scan gauge? I’m thinking a bad oxygen sensor could be the cause and it would be a lot cheaper to fix than a cat issue. I’m at 161K and no hints of cat problems so I’d be surprised if yours did. But I have had one bad O2 sensor a little while ago.

Author:  PALiftedKK [ Wed Jan 22, 2020 11:19 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: What am I up to today? :LOG:

No progress on the rig since my last post. Still has a few CELs. Steering issue popped up recently. Rear end or transfer case bearings are pissy.

Here's where the jeep and I stand; she's a keeper for sure. But not several grand worth for being daily driven and taken off road. In the next few years I'll need a whole new wire harness for the engine and trans due to several spots on the wires insulation chipping off.

Purchase in the next 6 months is a Chevy 3L 1500. I test drove it a few days ago and dang did it drive like a Cadillac!

I fully intend to trailer the jeep to trails in the future but as of now she'll only be covered for the minimum required. New truck will be my daily with an occasional KK trip to work for the year of 2020.

It's not a good bye to me but more of feeling unsafe in the rig traveling 300 miles or more.

Also, Fords trucks, shift like poo poo...

Author:  PALiftedKK [ Thu May 05, 2022 9:28 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: What am I up to today? :LOG:

Long time no posts, but man has thumper been through a lot since my last post. I'll be short but the highlight would have been my ATS 42RLE and Copilot as of recently. It was far from an easy click and buy purchase to say the least. Thumper will hit 110k miles in 2 weeks and still going strong engine wise. Now having a performance trans I'll be regearing to 4.56s later this year. The trailer build is nearly complete and all that is left is a small bit priced around $5k. Non performance related door and dash speakers were replaced with infinity speakers and alpine amps. Still am rocking the abused home theater subwoofer though. Lol. Injectors replaced this time last year around 96k miles. I'm definitely leaving a lot out but I dreamt high with this jeep of mine from day 1 and she now is one of the most capable rigs out there (short of having 4.56s). I still wonder here time to time as I still do get lost on occasion.

If you OGs forget what my jeep used to look like, insta is kkthejeep. It either got better or worse :-)r

Author:  lfhoward [ Mon May 09, 2022 8:33 am ]
Post subject:  Re: What am I up to today? :LOG:

Wow, glad to hear your KK is still going strong and you still own it! Just checked out your instagram photos — she still looks great! I had forgotten you were rocking an ATH rear bumper. Lucky, as you can’t buy those anymore. (The front winch bumpers are still being made.) Your trailer looks great too. I’m surprised we haven’t seen each other out on the road given we are in generally the same area.

Where are you going to get your regear done? I have been looking at doing mine at Locked N Loaded Fabrication in Collegeville. Joe has done some welding work for me on my offroad trailer, and I was super impressed with the quality of his work and the caliber of the modified Jeeps that come out of his shop! The other place I have looked into for a regear is Globex Performance in Toms River NJ. They also have a dedicated gears guy, so would for sure do it right. Both shops above have good price points as well, compared to some others in our area.

Also got to say I love what you’ve done with your M1102 trailer! It has come a long way! I also am running lithium batteries in my trailer now, with beehive heating pads on a thermostat so I can charge them in the winter when the temperature drops. I love having the extra amp hours capacity and shedding the extra weight and space that lead acid used to take up.

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