MotleyCrawlers

Proposed 2014 Jeep Schedule

April 23th – April 27th	Moab
May 16th – May 18th	New Mexico (Leave after work 5/15)
June 4th – June 6th	Grand Junction (Rock Junction)
July 24th – July 27th	South Dakota (Leave after work 7/23)
August 15th – August 17th	Buena Vista
September 5th – September 7th	Montrose

WarthogX suspension overhaul

About 6 weeks ago I made a comment to Aaron, "I should go grab Phil's Jeep and link it for him", since he kept breaking the leaf springs and orbitals in them. This comment got back to Angela and I received a phone call. Angela and I discussed first about just fixing the broken springs which led to the idea of upgrading to a four link. Angela wanted to get Phil excited to go wheeling again and thought a four link front suspension would be the ticket, since it would drive much better. With out much coaxing we then decided to do a complete suspension overhaul, to make it even more fun Angela wanted to do this with out Phil knowing. Let the games begin! We started the project with not only me and Angela lying to Phil about what was going on, but we brought nearly everyone that knows Phil into the game. I was able to give Phil a story about a friend of mine out here in a shop that could weigh and arch springs to balance the suspension which would make it work and not break, he bought the story and I went out and kidnapped the WarthogX. Angela said he bought the story hook, line, and sinker. I started on the Jeep with the front axle, cut off all the perches, spring mounts and cleaned up the axle tube. I then built the link mounts with builder parts from Ballistic Fabrication and Curry Johnny Joints from Summit Racing. I spent a weekend building a truss out of a 6' stick of 3/8" x 3.5"flat. I built the links out of 2" x .250" DOM with 2.63" Johnny joints. Got some 6" TJ lift springs and burned it all in. No turning back now. I ran in to a couple of minor problems on the front, starting with the skid plate requiring to be modified and once I started on the upper link mounts, the exhaust had to be cut off. Keep in mind during this entire time, Angela and I kept telling Phil stories on how the project was going and had our other friends engage in conversations leading Phil down this road of deceit. Once the front was done, 3 weeks later, I started on the rear. The rear had its own issues, starting with having a massive gas tank skid plate in the way. I had to do some refiguring on the anti squat calculator. I finally ended up going from a 32.5" lower link to a 39" link, had to lower the entire upper link, as well as shorten the truss 2" to clear the tank, drop the axle side of the lower link to keep my separation, but my final anti squat was about 95 percent. Welded it all up, used a 4" TJ front coil and the suspension was complete. At this point I had sent Phil pictures of a set of new leaf springs that were at Rockstar Kustomz when I stopped in to pick up some of the parts for this coil conversion. This was too fun. Now that the suspension was done, Angela wanted to get the paint fixed from some trail damage. I had been soliciting several painters during this project,I could not get any one to paint it in time for the reveal, so I went and bought the paint and learned how to do two stage paint one afternoon. As you all know I am not a painter but it looked ok and helped our budget out. On Saturday, Phil and Angela came out to pick up the WarthogX, Angela and I were both worried Phil wouldn't like it. As Phil walked up the driveway, I had his Jeep staged and all twisted up with a coil spring hanging right out in front. It didn't take long for Phil to notice there were no longer leaf springs on either end. After he walked around and under the Warthog several times he gave us his seal of approval which was a relief to Angela, she has to live with him, I don't. I think it took about 15 minutes before he noticed the rig was reprinted. Thanks to all of our friends for helping keep this overhaul a secret and leading Phil down the dark side. Now the only thing Phil has to do is upgrade the drive lines to CV shafts and we are good to go.

Rock Junction 2013

Well Rock Junction was an amazing event! Matt, Jen, and the girls headed up and wheeled Die Trying in Montrose on Thursday. Aaron, Steve, and Ed arrived in town Thursday afternoon just in time for the BBQ at Wally's house. It was great to meet up with Dane and Vicky as well as meet a lot of new people in the wheeling community. Friday the group headed out to 21 Rd with Dane leading and 10 vehicles total. We had everything from TJ's on 35's to crumpled up Toyota buggies. The trail was awesome and everyone did great. The only minor delay was on Dane's Jeep. Vicky was coming off one of the obstacles and had a pretty good drop off onto the point of a rock causing the inner bead on his front tire to bend back and the tire to lose all air. After some quick trail repair with a 3lb sledge we were back on track and finished the trail no problem. The trail is amazing with a bunch of alcoves that you drive through and even one on a little side road from the trail that leads back to a big cave where we all parked on the hill and lined up the whole group. The vehicles look like little Tonka toys in the sand box!

After another great BBQ at Jeff Bates house we headed to the fairgrounds on Saturday for the off road show and swap meet. There were appox 70 vehicles there on display, a nice little crawling course to entertain the crowd, and about 35 vendor booths showing off the new gear in the sport. Aaron, Dane, Matt, Ed, and Steve all ran the crawling course with only Ed having a minor issue which caused him to get towed off. After a short repair to the fuel line Ed was up and running again. After the event Steve, Ed, Aaron, and Dane headed to Billings Canyon and ran the whole trail in just under 90 minutes! Nothing like flexing out the suspension before heading to dinner!

Check out the pics in the Rock Junction album and put it on your calendar for next year!

Buena Vista- May 2013

Hey gang, check out the photos I uploaded from this weekend. Gallery of all pics is on the right side of the page. Here are a few highlights:

Buena Vista 2013 Trip Pictures

Aaron just uploaded his pictures of our trip to Buena Vista this past weekend to the web-site!  You can access them to the right or by clicking HERE!

 

Enjoy!

Information about Rock Junction Registration for May 29-31, 2013

Rock Junction is a 3 day event, held May 29-31, 2013, preceeding Grand Mesa Jeep Club's OffRoad Show on June 1st. Each day will feature several 4x4 trips, from scenic to challenging, to a mix of both. Each night features a BBQ where everyone gets together and rehashes the day's adventures. We've expanded our list of trails and available spots, so it promises to be bigger and better than ever.

Click the link to Download Rock Junction 2013 Registration Form. To see the Trail Guide and Ratings,Download Rock Junction Trails and Ratings

They prefer to receive the registration forms by email this using the Microsoft Word version of the form (.docx), but if you need to print your form and write in/mail your information, use the .pdf. which you can Download Rock Junction 2013 Registration Form printable form using this link.

The registration cost for the entire event is $40 for the vehicle/driver and $20 for each additional passenger. This pays for the BLM permitting, the insurance, and the cost of the BBQs.

Please mail your payment to:

Grand Mesa Jeep Club
Attn: Rock Junction
PO Box 4915
Grand Junction, Colorado 81502

Be sure to indicate that your payment is for Rock Junction.  Email your completed registration forms to [email protected].

Special thanks to Dale Znamenacek, Grand Mesa Jeep Club Vice President for providing the above information about the event. 

Wheel on friends...Looking forward to seeing everyone on the trail!

Watrthog Xtreme Featured in Crawl Magazine!!

Our buddy Tim Magee pulled off another great photo shoot of another Motley Crawler rig in the January/February 2013 issue of Crawl Magazine!!

Warthog Xtreme is featured in all of his glory in a beautiful 8-page spread that is in itself a work of art and a tribute to all of the blood, sweat, tears, money and teamwork that went in to the beast!  He may not admit it out loud, but a saw a tiny tear drop from Phill's eye as he held the article in his hands.  I know better than anyone how much heart, soul and love went in to this rig and to see it receive the accolades and recognition to be in a magazine was a testament to Phill's dream.

I'm so proud to ride First Officer...and sometimes Captain of the dream Phill has made a reality for our family!  Please support Crawl Magazine by picking up a live copy but for the sake of preservation, below is a preview!

All copyrights and publishing belongs to Crawl Magazine and Tim Magee.

Download Crawl post

This Guy Was In Crawl Too...

Finally got Aaron's pictures posted as well from Bugsy's Crawl photoshoot last summer at Penrose.  Check out the full article post and Download Aaron !!

2013 Trip Calendar Meet-Up - Changed to February 3rd at 11a

Whew!!  After too much deliberation, we are finally confirmed for Sunday, February 3rd at 11a.  Business meeting only...in and out then on to football!

Kids, as always are still welcome.  If you'd like to join the group via Skype, please let me know and we'll get everyone wired in!

See Facebook to RSVP or send a note to me at [email protected] .

**Please note, [email protected] no longer works.

Alternative Ways To Wash A Jeep

Waterfall Exit

The waterfall isn't exactly the exit of Hal Johns, but it was our exit and our goodbye to this damn trail! The Green Bug and Beaker made it out gracefully so we left on a high note.

I'm fairly certain WX will be upgrading to 35 spline and our hat is now hung for the season while we price parts, so the Lollars will not be making the Grand Junction trip. I think Matt & Jen are still planning to go and I'm not sure on Witty's.

I have to give my own personal shout out to Chey, Tori & Joss. You girls were awesome! There was alot of hot trail wait time and I'm proud to call you my little wheeling buddies. Start saving your penny's girls, because it's pretty easy to see you are the next generation of The Mötley Crawlers!!