Sinking Creek 4WD Association

Andrew wrote:I'd wager that your problem is that you have the antenna mounted below the roof and off center. The antenna uses the vehicle as a ground plane. Variations in positioning will change the impedance and thus the VSWR.

Put it on the center of the roof and see what happens.

I'll second that... when I move my magnetic base from the front bumper to the hood (even just the front of the hood) it works mo betta.

I'm going to buy a top-loaded fiberglass whip today, and see if that helps. I was hoping to borrow a few different styles of antenna, but nobody seems to have any!

Updates on the cb. I bought a 5' Wilson Silver Load top loaded fiberglass whip. Bolted it on and my SWR's went from mid 2's to 0.2's w/o even tuning it. Then, the other weekend while riding with some boys from Salem, the antenna mount broke. So, I'm going to re-make it out of some steel this time instead of aluminum and go from there.

Well, I got new tires a while ago, and had been running them out of balance due to the shop I bought them from not being able to balance them due to incompetence.

Anyways, I got tired of that and pried off all the weights and put air-soft pellets in the tires. 6oz was what innovative balancing recommended for my 31's. The run really smooth now. I'm happy with how well it worked. They are smoother than the all terrains I had balanced at an decent shop.

glad you had luck with those, they didnt pan out for me. I think im going to try stick on weights next. Seems that my weights that are on the lip may have been relocated not sure why haha

Terry, these bots sure have taken a liking to you......

Done some stuff here and there. Nothing major as I've had other projects and some "accidents" take up my time.

Front Class III receiver Grubb helped me build a few years ago.






Made a S/S bracket at work for my antenna on the rear gate. The steel one worked good but rusted really fast and caused me to lose my good ground. I also added the heavy duty mount to it for a little extra meat back there.





Rear seat latch relocation brackets made from 3/16s S/S to set the back up about 3" and allow me to stand my 31" spare up to open up more cargo area for use. A life saver on camping trips as well as grocery trips.

Also put a set of General Grabber AT2's on it. MUCH quieter than my M/T's and grip alot better than the all season straight treads I was running.


Plans:
OME Heavy Load rear leaves to do away with the sagging bastard packs once and for all.

Wanting to swap in a NP242 if I can find someone who wants my NP231D.

4.10 gears in the future...

Other stuff out of my budget for the time being...

Did we use a flip up license bracket for that rig, I can't recall?


When you want to wheel that thing again we need to go do some exploring up west of hales lake. Based on the topo maps there are a bunch of forest roads/trails out that way that head all the way up into Smyth county. Also the ford on FR337 (across from CC camp) has gotten pretty rough, I went out there today and didn't dare cross it in the 4runner with the snow/ice, lol.

No, I looked for a flip bracket, but never found anything that would work the way I wanted. Then I stopped wheeling all together and have never needed a front tow point...

I'm up for checking them out, just let me know when you've got the time. Gonna need a few days notice so I can clear the schedule.

OME Springs, poly bushings, and JKS Quicker Disconnects are on their way! I think I found a np242 when the guy gets back from California.

Happy Birthday to ME!!

Some stuff that's been done for a bit, but I have been too lazy to post pictures.

I got tired of my spare tire laying down in the cargo area. This always cost me alot of space and made it difficult to use the XJ for any kind of travel. So, I followed plans on Go Jeep's website ( http://go.jeep-xj.info/ ) and built these brackets to stand the back of the rear seat up and allow me to put the tire in the stock location.



The back seat is up a little straighter, but no one who has ridden back there has complained about it.



It also allowed me to move my tool box above my rear axle instead of it being against the rear lift gate all the time. This helped with handling and ride quality more than I was expecting, but my rear springs right now are soft and at the time, my rear shocks were not great either.



The high-lift is just stuck in there for the winter because of how far I have to travel to work. You never know when it will come in handy.

I also put new Rough Country RS9000 shocks on it front and rear. I'm very pleased with them so far. I've probably got near 6000 miles on them and they ride great and control body movement really well.

The XJ got new shoes in November, a set of General Grabber AT2's in 31x10.50r15. I can't say enough about how good the tires are. There is some road noise, as with any AT tire meant for real use, but the traction and stability far out weigh any noise they make. According to my records here, I've had them on for about 5600 miles and could not be happier with them. If I can get about 50K miles out of them (read reports of up to 80K on light vehicles like Jeeps) they will be the only tire I buy for it from now on.

After ~5600 miles:





Anyways, I'm hoping to put my sway-bar disconnects and new OME rear springs on sometime soon and then I'll be ready to re-gear (hopefully) by mid-summer.

Terry:

I had a set of these generals on my ford pick up. They were great. You will definitely enjoy them.

Brett

Matt helped me get my new springs and t-case installed today. I found a killer deal on a NP242 that's just been rebuilt and SYE installed with a new CV drive shaft for $150. It sits a good bit higher in the rear, but it'll hopefully settle. If not, I'll be looking to do a 5" long arm system in the front, but that's something that will come later.

It flexes much better. I didn't realize how poorly my old springs flexed.







I may put my Quicker Disconnects on tomorrow if I get a chance. I'm really looking forward to giving this thing a good work out!

Looking good Terry You gonna make it up to big dogs?