Then I went to the Rubicon Express Track bar, RE1600 that utilizes a Rod End. Worked much better and only replaced the Rod End once in a little over a year of owning it. Couple weeks ago I came across some noise from my front end only to discover my OE track bar bracket had cracked and the bolt wobbled out.

Alright time to try something different I say and started to look around at all the many setups available. I had a wish list: I wanted it beefy, would use poly bushings that would be cheaper to replace than Rod Ends, or flex joints, and of course included a new double sheer bracket for the frame end.

I came across this company, Iron Rock Off Road. A fairly new company to me, I had not heard a whole lot about them, other than me searching on the net finding posts on some forums criticizing them for being so new and different. However they had some pretty interesting products on their web page for many a Jeep model, including a HD track bar for $189 for my XJ.

“Interesting” as I thought to myself, every company had a starting point sometime in there development right?

So I called them with some questions and after receiving a gentleman on the other end that was eager to answer all my questions and pointing out the track bar itself is a 1.25 SOLID bar (apparently I can not read or I need glasses as it is in the body of the text describing the product), but I was now very interested. Specially telling me it was in stock and could get to my door for $200–so I ordered it.

This was Tuesday, I received on Saturday, four days later on a weekend with no extra charges.

Sunday comes around and I gather my tools and my new assistant wrencher;

Took about half an hour to pull off my old RE1600 and frame bracket. Then pulled out the new Iron Rock Track Bar all the way from the package. I got to say it looked good, very well put together with a very clean cut fabricated bracket and nice clean welds on both items. The track bar was beefy, felt a lot heavier than my old Rubicon Express track bar. The adjustable frame side bushing I was also impressed with the amount of thread they give you for adjusting.

Took another half hour to bolt up and set the track. SEXY!!!

The Good: The price at $200 delivered to my door, in four days and on a Saturday. Who can complain about that? Compared to other brands out there, this one is beefier than others at the same price range. The customer service at Iron Rock Off Road was very pleasurable and was part of my decision to go with them. They offer a great guarantee on their product…………..so should I go purposely break it to test out the guarantee?

The Bad: Unlike my Re1600 there is no outward bend from the axle and I worry I am going to smack the front differential cover upon compression of the driver’s side tire. Awe shucks, I guess I have to go wheeling to test that out, huh?

The Ugly: Hmmm nothing really, how about the fact I get his bad boy on and haven’t had a chance to go wheeling yet? I guess also my head when I came up from installing this thing smacked it on my front hook off my winch. Hurt a lot, in fact in writing of this I remember the sheer pain that I felt upon hitting it, it is a psychological thing……………. or how about mom’s face when she saw how dirty and greasy my assistant wrencher was after helping me and explaining to her it is a: “Jeep thing”, she didn’t understand……………..

There have been other companies who have made upper quarter panel armor and seeing them in person I found they looked good on the vehicle, but either very expensive, or the use of thin material and not quite the fit I was looking for.

JCR Off-road had started to make their own version for XJ’s a year or so ago and I waited a while to here some feedback on them.  Hearing some good feedback from fellow XJ owners about them I decided to move on them and ordered me up a set.  For $170 for a set with tail-light protectors plus $30+ shipping they were around $200. They also offer for another $110 full tail-lights as well, but I wanted to keep the electrical and lighting OE and simpler.

They have a couple weeks fabrication delay as they make them on the spot. Two weeks after I ordered them they arrived on my doorstep. Very impressed!

Looking at their pictures on there website they changed the top part of the guard by adding another 1″ of material bent in to match the curve of the XJ body. That is a BIG bonus as working with fabrication in the past this adds structural strength to the guard. Now why they do not update the pictures of their product on the web-page I do not know, because it is an improvement over other brands and a good selling point.

The Good: Reasonably priced for the quality you get. They fit perfect, they were a cinch to align to the vehicle, and they look good! Thick  material unlike others brands use of thin gauge metal.

The Bad: They are heavy and takes two people to install: one to hold the guards, while the other aligns it up and marks the holes. They are too pretty and like a new pair of shoes you cringe when you scratch them up but that is what they are there for. Go figure…….

The Ugly: The bolts JCR supplies are raw metal, If you forget to paint them they will instantly rust in the first week. Nothing to do with the guards, but getting to the bolts on the driver’s side guards is a PITA! Need a long armed person with child like hands to get to them as the gas filler and all the electrical on that side is like sticking your hand in a snake hole filled with glass shards sticking out of the sides. Ouch!

This comes off the news that the site was redesigned also.  It now incorporates all old LUVMYJP.com content also.  Maintaining both with fresh content was a PITA.  Ok not really that much of a PITA.  I didn’t actually do it most of the time.

Welcome to TrailDriven.com

Other than being hung, Thursday was pretty awesome.  I spent the day with the guys from White Roof Radio.  We saw new products, Minis, old friends, new friends, and of course booth babes.  If you don’t know about White Roof Radio click on over to iTunes.  In the podcast catagory “Automobile”…their show is consistently top 10 in the US.  Todd and db(Don Burnside) are great down to earth dudes.

The three of us spent the day meandered our way through North Hall, Central Hall, and Wheels and Tires.  <placing tongue in cheek> The booth babes were clamoring Todd all day.  “Todd can I have a picture with you?”  Todd was a good guy about it, but I could tell by the end of the day it was wearing on him.  Folks, celebrity status is not all it cracked up to be.  db on the other hand did a nice job of “dressing himself down”.  A few recognized him, and he was gracious to those fans.

Seriously fellas thanks for hangin with me.  I feel like I made some life long friends yesterday.

I am uploading some more pictures now. Some of the photos are a buddy who has a podcast about Mini Coopers called “White Roof Radio”. Consistently in the top 10 in the Auto category in iTunes. He has a thing about pictures with the booth babes. You guys don’t mind, right?

I’ll be reviewing a new product just released this week called GoPro. Full 1080P resolution sport camera. LINK There are some pictures in my photo galleries. That thing is almost as cool as boobies.

Would the auto manufacturer that received a bailout from the government please stop with the capitalist advertising slogan?

During the beginning of 2009 General Motors was one of the largest recipients of the government auto bailout. This bailout saved GM from certain bankruptcy. They explained to us how an out of control, ever expanding dealer base was draining the car company. GM told us how many UAW workers would laid off if the company was left to fail. They worried us with the thought of an “American Icon” closing it doors.

The past few weeks have seen General Motors vehicles advertised on TV under the slogan “May the Best Car Win”™. How ironic? A slogan that asks for competition. It asks for a fair fight. The TV ads pit GM cars against imports from Toyota, Honda, even Mini. More ironic is the fact that these manufactures did not take or even need any of the bailout money. Why did they not need bail out money? They were already winning.

The key to capitalism is competition. The product that most people judge as the best will “win”. If we had let “the Best Car Win” eight months ago General Motors would have lost.

The one thing I failed to think of was the injectors which were probably the ones that they stuck in the motor when it was assembled in 1990, and if not they looked old. I decided considering what feels like I should get more out of my motor and that my fuel economy is for crap, is to replace the injectors.

So priced them out at auto stores at $60+ each, or $360+ for all six, ouch!

Looked around on the net and found these guys on ebay; PRECISION AUTO INJECTORS .

They recycle by rebuilding old injectors and flow matching them into sets for you at a great price!

I caught a sale for $107 for a set for my ’90 XJ and their service was super fast. USPS Priority mail, ordered on a Wednesday and received that Friday. Only two days shipping! The package was air formed for protection and had 1-6 marked on the caps on each injector. I received a slip with my invoice with these same corresponding numbers that showed what flow they were rated at.

They even included O-rings so I did not have to buy them from the auto store. Took all of an hour to install and started it up.

Wow! The Jeep started up faster, went to a smoother idle fast, and when took for a test drive! Yep the old injectors were dirty dirty and hurting my performance!

This is simple, those little injectors can make a huge difference in the way your 4×4 runs and these guys at Precision Injectors are awesome!

I am recycling, I got a matched set of injectors by flow rate for my vehicle at an incredible price, oh I forgot to mention they carry a life time guarantee!!!  ………..sorry I failed to mention that. (Big smiley)

I got the time and opportunity recently to use Ballistic’s Flex Joint in a set of custom fixed lower control arms I built for a fellow wheeler on a budget and was really impressed with their quality.  Similar to the Rubicon Express Flex Joint but with a machined housing eliminating the snap ring on one side, and $10 cheaper than the Rubicon Flex Joint. (this is a picture of Ballistic’s Heavy Duty Flex Joint I used in that project)

A little jealous after making those, I decided to do something for myself using some Ballistic products. I didn’t really need a new pair of control arms as I already had a nice pair of TOMKEN’s, but what the hey!

I was also going to go green and recycle. As you are now saying to yourself, what?

I am a pack rat and save stuff I probably could throw away, but end up storing it. However I always find a way to use it somehow, as for an example I had my old long arms off my Coil Over setup on my CJ-7 that has been on my garage floor for 2 1/2 years now, and I have been wondering what to do with them.

Perfect opportunity for this new project I say, and cheaper too!  These old arms had a weird poly bushing I could never find a replacement for and the original place I got them from went out of business. The Other end used 3/4″ rod ends and the arm itself was beefy as you can see in the pics below they are 1.5″ DOM .250 wall tube sleeved in 1 3/4″ .100 wall tube.

I was going to be scrapping the poly bushing side and then re-use the other end where the 3/4″ Left Hand Rod Ends were. I was also going to do these comp style were I use a Left and Right Hand joint on each side of the arm to do fine adjustments. You just loosen the jam nuts and turn in either direction to shorten or lengthen. Which is nice to have for the fact that 99% of the after market control arms you can buy you have to remove one end of the control arm entirely from the bracket just to adjust the length.

I had (1) Right Hand Tube insert for the other side so I only needed (1) more of those and then instead of the regular flex Joint I was going to use Ballistics’s Forged Flex Joint! These things are pretty beefy and I can get them with a 3/4″ shank to use in my recycled arms. (Read the specs on their website, the tensile strength listed is 8x the strength of a medium grade rod end, WOW!)

I decided I was going to go with (2) right hand Forged Flex Joints on one end, and then (2) of their new Forged Poly joints on the end. These are similar in many ways to the flex joint, but with a poly bushing to coincide with the flex joint in a control arm combination.

Having to wait a week and a half in anticipation for the parts to show up I was not disappointed when they arrived as I was drooling all over them. You can see the size difference when they are compared to a typical 3/4″ Rod End.

So to get started I first made myself a jig on my work bench to get the proper length. I needed to figure out how much of the actual tube I needed with the joints, jam nuts, and tube ends all put together. I matched the stock control arm length of 15.75″ that is on a XJ/TJ. These arms with the Ballistic Joints can be adjusted outward up to 18″ or more! The shank on these joints are really long compared to a regular Rod End. Once I got my measurement I then cut and drilled holes for the plug welds for the two new tube ends, but before welding them together I pre-assembled to make sure everything was correct.

Once I made sure everything was were it needed to be I welded it all up, then wire brushed, painted, and assembled. Check out the nice beauty shot to the right!

Now it was time to put these bad boys on my XJ! I removed my old TOMKEN Control Arms and you can see there is a little difference in the size of the flex joints. The Ballistic Forged Flex Joint is a little bigger than the Currie Johnny Joint used in the TOMKEN arms.

After I got them installed they definitely look better in my opinion than my TOMKEN arms. I was not particularly fond of the bend in the TOMKEN arms as the primary purpose for that is to help clear the back of the coil/shock bracket when the axle flexes downwards and I had already cut out the back part of my brackets, so I did not need that feature. The straight arm is cleaner looking, and stronger. FYI; yes when you bend tube it stretches one side weakening it in the process. (Go ask an engineer)

Definitely my taste, and I love the Ballistic Fabrication Skull! (Hey I have an obsession with skulls, Skully get it?)

I definitely like Ballistic’s Forged Flex and Poly joints. They are very high quality product in every way. I almost hated using them, they are so pretty. A minor thing I like is they use silver zinc coating, which is not that big a deal, but most products out there use the gold colored stuff, the silver looks a lot better in my opinion.

I have had some drive time on these new arms and I noticed they do not transfer as much of the road noise my TOMKEN control arms did. I think the poly material Ballistic uses in their poly busings is softer than the TOMKEN arms.

The only complaint I have is the position of the grease zerks. They are in a spot that I know will get broken off, but I had no alternatives for if I flip the joints to position the zerks to the topside, I would not be able to get a grease gun in the tight spot. Even if I replaced the zerks with 90 degree versions.

I would have liked to have gone with the overkill of the 1.25″ shank instead of 3/4″, but then that would defeat the purpose of recycling DOM material and also would have cost me more. Example for 2″ .250 wall DOM tube is running $15-$18 a foot, and tube ends for 1.25 are about $17 each. The project as is, recycling my old arms only cost me $150. If I would have went with the 1.25″ stuff; I am not recycling and it would have cost me about $240.

I am not too worried about the strength of the 3/4″ shank. I ran 35″ tires on my CJ-7 with locked axles front and rear for 6+ years with 3/4″ Rod Ends and never had a problem. Time wheeling with these arms will reveal any problems or defects. So look for an update in the future as I will get myself a season of wheeling in and do a 6 month review in the making of Ballistic’s Products!

Until then, Happy Wheeling!

One of the things I had not address yet was my upper control arms which the OE versions are not known for their incredible strength, but now the time had come to address their deficiency.

I had two options; build my own or buy something off the shelf.

Option one; Fabbing up my own would be cheaper, but my problem is this. It is very hard now a days to do any sort of fabbing work on a short time frame simply for the fact with a child under two and the wife half way along with our second child, almost impossible.

Option two; I found myself tied with which to choose, as there are many brands on the market that are all really the same just different style flex joints and if they are adjustable or not. Definitely wanted something adjustable even though “4.5 of lift according to many charts show the upper arms stay the same length as stock.  Then there was the cost, OUCH! (Your kidding right, you want that much for a set?)

I found a perfect moment, Rough Country recently re-designed their controls arms to use a Johny Joints style end instead of their old style which copy Tera Flex’s original design. This was simply 1/2 the arm was  male threaded and screwed into the other 1/2 of the arm that was female threaded. Creating the adjustability and a lot of unrestricted flex.

Now in my personal opinion I really like the idea behind the old style Tera Flex arms simple because you have no restrictions on the twisting of the arm unlike a flex joint’s limited 32-35 degrees. There is a drawback with the design. You have to keep grease packed nice and tight in the arm threads or they will eventually wobble and become loose creating a popping clank sound.

I called Rough Country and since they are a big supporting vendor on NAXJA board they give you a great discount as well. Called the main contact person through the board and asked him since they are releasing the new designed X-flex arms if they have any of the old design laying around and to my joy they did. Got a set shipped to my door for around $115, which is a killer deal! (even cheaper than fabbing my own.)

Took me all of a couple hours to install them and the biggest issue  was while I was replacing the arms I figure I would replace my bushings in the axle end as well. That was a nightmare! Suggestion for anyone planning on doing that just take apart the front axle, coils, trackbar, etc.  Will save you cuss words and a lot of headaches ahead of time.

I did find a quirk that didn’t really effect me in the end though. Screwing the arms down to the recommended length of “15 for the height I found the arms had bottomed out. In other words making the twisting flex useless for one direction. So backing them back out a 1/4 of an inch would fix that but now my upper arms are at “15 1/4 instead of “15.  I really didn’t have a choice in the matter as I would like to use the full potential of the twisting flex the arms were designed to do.

Since installing them three months ago I have managed to get several hundred miles on them and I have noticed that my street ride seemed to improve including responsiveness to turning the wheel as everything felt really tight and smooth. The 1/4 more in length has not affected anything that I can feel.

Now to the wheeling to which I managed to get a couple trips in as well. I have had no issues and now my axle definitely likes to twist and flex but created a minor problem as now I get an increase in noise on the coils as they drop farther down the upper stem and bump stop. I also have lifted a wheel now, as I bottomed out my shock.  I will have to look into  a fix for that and also make sure I follow my monthly routine of packing grease in the arms along with all my other grease able parts.

Overall I am very pleased with them and the fact I got such a killer deal  made it a definite BIG BANG for my buck!

So far my experience with the Aussie Locker has been pleasant, everything has been as expected and experienced no issues. This continued with swapping out the carriers as I found a local Denver guy that does Ring & Pinion work out of his garage and comes highly recommended by many. He goes by the online persona 87xjco and you can find him on NAXJA.org or on the colorado4X4.org boards.  He cut me a pretty good deal to reset the Ring Gear as it turned out my luck was with me again. I will explain here soon but first you might ask why didn’t I try it myself? 1.) I do not have the experience or time to learn this and gears setups can go really wrong if not done right. I did not want to take a chance on my daily driver. 2.) to make the job easy on yourself having the special tools is a must, and they are expensive and I am broke.

So here is how it went down; Arrived at 11am at his garage. Break free the lug nuts on the rear wheels and jacked up the back end with blocks in front of the Jeep, putting the transfercase in neutral. Pulled the wheels, then the drums, and then yanked shafts partially out only to free up the carrier. Yanked the cover drained the fluid, once done 87xjco slapped on a case spreader and checked the current setup. Everything was nice and tight and no apparent excessive wear. He pulled the carrier and started to remove the bearings and the Ring Gear.

While he was messing with the Ring Gear I cleaned up my nice Crane Cover and the surface of the axle waiting for him to get everything to go back in. He set the new carrier with my Aussie Locker into the axle and put on the yellow marker paste and ran it through, PERFECT! he said. Which translated into meaning everything lined up beautifully and he did not have to play with it any more.

So he battened down the carrier and the cover while I reassembled the axle shafts, drums, and tires. We finished around 12:30 so it took only 1  hour and 30 minutes and I was expecting 3 hours worth of work. Woohoo!

I had previous experience with a full locker with my old CJ-7 as it had a Detroit Locker in the rear axle. So I am very familiar with all the quirks they have to offer; clanking, clicking and the infamous “Locker pop” which is when you go around a corner and power it out and the rear end makes a loud BANG causing your rear to jerk around. So driving away and putting 60+ miles on it I was surprized in many ways. Aussie Locker claims that with an auto tranny the banging backlash noise and “Locker pop” are not as severe as with a manual tranny and so far this is true as my CJ-7 was a manual and my XJ is an automatic and I have yet to experience any backlash noise or “Locker pop”.  The Aussie Locker from what I have read also claims to be quieter than most full traction lockers, but I definitely hear the Aussie Locker a lot more than with my Detroit Locker. It could be after 8+ years with my CJ-7 I got so use to the noise I tuned it out and don’t remember really hearing it and I have not had a vehicle with a locker in it for over a year now, so this might be the case. Aussie Locker stated there is a break in period of 200 miles then it will quiet down. I will reach that pinnacle soon so we will see. However in the mean time Part 3 will be the most important, but it will be awhile before I can get to it as the sole purpose for buying the Aussie Locker in the first place is for wheeling. So stay tuned in the near future when I can get some trail time in with this locker. (There is an obstacle on a trail that really isn’t that hard but I got hung up last year because my Trac Lok failed to deliver. I want to go back and beat it into submission for the simple fact of retribution.) More to come!

At first, I was blamed for just wanting another Jeep in the household.  After a couple days though she actually told me she likes it and wanted to know if we could lift it a little and put bigger, more aggressive tires on it. WOOHOO! ……I luv my wife.

Not the best pics, but to show it off;

I started looking into after market stuff. Wow! Not a lot yet, and Mopar accessories are ridiculously over priced. Looks like I am going to have to make some stuff.

I did find that for a measly $400-$500 (including install and alignment) you can lift it 2-2 1/2 inches, keep the factory ride, and put on 265′s which is like a 31 1/2 tire, so not too bad. There is a 4″ kit with a lot of work that has to be done, including altering your Electronic stability Control system. Those kits are around $2000+ not including the install and alignment. Ouch!

So for now I am going to work on the 2 1/2 inch lift kit, 265/70/17 BFG A/T, rocker guards, roof rack, rear receiver, skid plates, front tow hooks, and a simple brush guard. (Not really going to wheel it where my XJ goes, but there are plenty of places to go Off Road safely with it that won’t freak out the wife by scratching the paint.) Did find a good looking front winch bumper. Get Lost 4×4

More to come…………….

For me it was the Grand Wagoneer.  I have never owned one, but boy I have always wanted to.  When I was in High School a would have given my left nut for a Grand Wagoneer.  Any color would have worked…just as long as it had the faux wood paneling.  Dang I love that.

Now that you know some history here is a good link.  Check out these incredibly restored units.  God gosh, if I had cash.

What was your first Jeep love?

[site link]

I was search around a few weeks ago for my brother in law.  I was looking for an inexpensive XJ for my Niece.  I came across a great little site.  The site shows eBay auctions for salvage title and other wrecked automobiles.  What a great place to find a new Trail Builder.  I will be searching there if I ever feel the need to build a Trailer Queen

[site link]

This may have been around a while but it’s still worth posting.  Above is just one photo showing Jeep’s 2007 advertising campain in Denmark.  Click the jump link to see the rest of the photos.  Great idea.

I’m not sure it would fly here in the US.  Too many people would be upset about it.  The above image alone would leave the left front tire in a flower bed.  Inranging the tree hugging community.  What do you think?

[site link]

Hopefully this new update will spark some interest and allow some users in.  The forum software has some great tools.  I don’t even run banner ads on it, yet.

Thanks and enjoy the forums.

I am a long time BFG fan. In 10 years I ran two different vehicles and four different sets of BFG’s on them. (1) Set of BFG A/T’s which are great on everything besides mud. (3) Sets of BFG M/Ts which are an all around great tire which I managed to abuse quite regularly and still got 60,000+ miles on each set. They only sucked on the street on snow and ice until I had them siped which kind of helped, but there is no perfect tire for all terrains.

Last year I had an epiphany; “How do I know if there is anything better if I have never tried them?” So I decided to try Interco’s Trxus M/T’s. I read plenty of reviews of satisfied customers who ran them and I thought I will give them a try. I bought a set May ‘07 and it is now September ‘08. They have taken plenty of abuse as I have put 30,000+ miles on my XJ in almost a year and a half and they have also been on eight off-road trails in Colorado since putting them on.

The good; I have beat them, bashed them, ground them against rocks, trees, curbs…….and they still have integrity to the sidewall and never punctured them. They were great in the snow and ice last winter and other than frozen icy streets, they still got me traction. They look cool; I get lots of compliments on their design. Plus the first 6 months they were quieter than my BFG M/T’s

The Bad; Referencing above; eight wheeling trips since mounting them and I have slashed and missing chucks of tread. The rubber they use is really soft; I believe that is what has led to this chewed up effect as I never had this bad of a problem with my BFG’s. The Trxus M/T’s only come in 31×10.50×15’s and then jump to 33×12.50×15, I would like to run a 32×11.50×15 next……….

The Ugly; I repeat only 15 months of being on the Jeep and they only have 25% tread left, I think that I will have to replace them by end of the year, so no where near the mileage I got out of my BFG’s. Oh and now, they are LOUD, louder than my BFG M/T’s, sounds like I am running paddle tires on the street!

Overall I enjoyed these tires; they have done me more good than bad. However even being one of the cheapest aggressive M/T’s out there, the price to purchase them every 1 ½ years will cost me more in the long run than getting some good high mileage set of BFG M/T’s again……………… although I heard Cooper STT’s are a great tire and they have a 32×11.50×15’s?

UPDATE: added some more pictures

Thanks to Chris and all the guys and gals with Edge Offroad.  I’ve known Chris for years and it was really nice to get out with him and his crew.

We all ran Jenny Creek backwards today.  I had never run it that way before.  Great change of scenery.  The JK did great, only used the lockers once. At the end of the day I got a little high centered on the exit/entrance.  I pushed the locker button and was off.

This was the first trip for me on rig with 17″ wheels.  I’m use to 15″ rims.  They get aired down to 15psi or so.  The BFGs on the JK worked very well at 22psi.

On the way back down Rollins Pass I developed a knocking noise…NOT FROM MY HEAD, from the Jeep.  I could not for the life of me figure out what it was.  It would only knock during suspension movement. After I got home I aired up and pulled out the “creeper” to try and find the knock.  It sounded like a rock had gotten in the frame and was bouncing around in there.  I looked everywhere, nothing.  I am chalking it up to the D-ring in in the rear receiver hitch.  i was probably getting more noise than i am use to out of it.  The knock  has a huge frame to reverberate the sound.  In my unibody XJ I never heard it.  I guess the fast speeds on the way down the dirt road loosened up the screw and allowed it bang.  I hope that was it.

All in all the JK performed excellent.  It is so nice to trail something that doesn’t creak, squeak and smell like diff oil.  The JK is very capable and comfortable.

More pictures

Forum Thread Discussion

I am looking for tech writers & link posters. Topics include anything to do with Jeep, 4×4, Wheeling, new products, camping, etc. If you see a link and want to post it please use this forum area. I’ll do the work and post it on this front blog page.

Once you start posting a few ‘news’ articles I’ll give you a user ID to post your links, tech and news on the front page. Become a Contributor by post some sweet off the wall

links and products. The goal here is to make this a true user based Jeep Site where users decide the daily blog content. The first of it’s kind.

Popular Mechanics says that a cotton ball smeared with Vaseline or ChapStick is “a foolproof fire starter.” The Vaseline works as your fuel, and once you get the Vaseline-soaked cotton ball lit, the flame should continue to burn under pretty much any condition. The Popular Mechanics article is rather light on details, so I also found a post on the Survival and Equipment weblog detailing how to make single-use petroleum jelly candles using cotton balls, petroleum jelly, and aluminum foil. You will, of course, still need a flint or match to get the cotton ball started

Today I’ll be doing some updates to the front page so bare with me until it’s done. So some of the link may not be working. to get to the forum click the image to the left if you can’t find the link during the updates.

The BIGoffroad site is also getting some updates over the next few weeks. I hope these updates will make each site easier to update therefore make more updates possible.

Enjoy, JohnJohn