New Tires On

I installed the new tires last week. I was originally planning to put them on after the lift was installed but that will not likely happen until the end of next month. They was too long to wait to put some miles on the new tires.

Swapping them out alone in the drive way turned out to be a bigger pain than I expected. My plan was to keep the stock tires and run them most of the time and then switch them out before a trip. That is still the plan but it is getting more likely the new tires will just stay on.


Between the new rack and the new tires the jeep is a lot more noisy. As you can imagine the noise is worse with the tops off. It sounds like a billion angry bees.

The Jeep drives great with the new tires and I think it looks amazing. I can't keep Kathy away from it.

Garvin Wilderness Roof Rack Install

Last weekend I installed my Wilderness Rack from Garvin Industries. I ordered this rack about a month ago but just got around to installing it. I was actually planning to wait on this install until after the lift install but I needed the space in the garage.

The rack was delivered in three large, and heavy boxes.

It took me about an hour to unpack all the parts and then another hour to read through the installation instructions. Then I needed to inventory all the parts and organize. In all it was about 2 hours of work before I could even start the install.

Let me say that the instructions for this product are top notch. The key to this install is to take your time and read the instructions carefully. You will be drilling holes in your Jeep and this is the last thing you want to screw-up. The only deviation I made from the instructions had to do with the install of the rear supports. The instructions call for removing both taillights at once. I preferred to do one side at a time.

The picture below shows the passenger side taillight assembly removed. The is needed so that you can gain access to the backside of the rear fender. There is lots of stuff that will be installed on the inside. The only thing to know about this step is that you only need to remove the inner two screws to remove the taillight assembly. The outer screws do not connect to the body and do not need to be removed.

Now we are getting into the stressful part - drilling holes in the body. I don't know about you but I spent lots of money on this thing and the idea of drilling holes in it freaks me out. You only get once chance to do this right so take your time. The first thing I did was put some blue painter's tape over the area where the holes will go. This protects the area as well as giving you a place to draw the guide lines for the holes. The instructions include good diagrams for how to locate the holes. Remember, measure twice, drill once...I measured three times.

Once the measuring is done it is time to drill. You will start with a 1/8" pilot hole and then drill out the 3/8" hole. You will only do the rear two holes at this time (see below) and then you will use the bracket as the guide for the third hole.

You can see in the picture below why you use the bracket to locate the third hole. It seems almost like it is in a random location. At this point you might be tempted to start installing the top bracket. I know I was high on the excitement of drilling holes that wanted to get to the next step. Don't do it. You will just be wasting a lot of time. You need to drill the holes for the bottom bracket because you must install both the top and the bottom at the same time. There is a connector bracket that goes inside the fender as some other parts that ties the top and bottom together. There are about 22 parts that need to be installed at the same time and if you forget one you get to take it all apart. I think it took me three tries to get all the parts in the correct order installed. A little more time reading would have prevented most of my troubles.

Once you have installed all the bits you should have something like the picture below. I tried to get pictures of the internal stuff but they did not come out. Follow the diagrams in the instructions and you will be OK.

Once the brackets are installed you can put the taillight back on. This part of the process took me about 4 hours but it really should not have taken more than 1 to 1.5 hours. The drilling part stressed me out and then not reading the instructions carefully for the bracket install cost a lot of time.

Here is the up-right installed on the passenger side. No dings or scratches...a job well done.

Now it is time to move on to the driver's side. This side poses the additional issue of the fuel filler and the license plate bracket.

Both the taillight assembly and the factory license plate bracket must be removed. The factory license plate bracket will be replaced by a new bracket that mounts onto the vertical support for the rack. We will talk about that later. Once you have these parts removed you will have lots more stuff to work around inside the fender. This should not be an issue but it does get in the way.

Drilling the holes is the same as the other side but reversed. The fuel filler makes this seem harder but it not. In fact, the bracket install on this side took only an hour as I now knew what I was doing.

Here we see the driver's side support installed. The supports are so complicated because they are actually huge hinges. The entire rack can be lowered by swinging it to the back of the Jeep. This allows for the installation or removal of the top without having to remove the rack completely. It is a nice feature but you might need as extra hand when it comes time to install these supports. There are several washers and bushing that are installed at the same time and this tricky while holding a heavy metal bar.

In this picture you can see the top of the rear support. For the hardtop install there is a big rubber bumper that you install on the support to prevent contact with the hardtop.

Because the rack is hinged you need clearance for it to move. The factory license bracket would be in the way of this so the kit includes a new bracket that mounts to the rack support. The hardest part about this is wiring the new light, or so I thought. There is a cover plate for the big hole in the body where the license plate wiring goes. Take your time here and plan out how you want to connect the wiring. I used the pigtail from the factory bracket to connect the new light. The problem was that the plug did not fit through the hole in the cover plate and I did not find this out until after I crimped the wires. I had to cut the cover plate to allow the wire to get through. Again, it I had taken a bit more time and thought it through I could have avoided this.

Once the rear brackets and supports are installed it is time to move to the front. The front supports mount to the windshield mounting points and are very easy to install. New bolts are included. This is an area where another set of hands is very helpful. You do not want to drop this heavy bar through your windshield.


After 9 hours in my 108f garage I had finished installing all of the mounting brackets and supports for the rack but I was spent. The next morning I got up early and built the basket. This process took about 2 hours. Make sure you use thread locker on all the bolts for this step. Another thing to watch for is the torque on the bolts holding down the ribs. It does not take much to snug these down and the instructions make it clear that over-torque will damage the rib and are not covered under the warranty.

It will definitely require two people to get the basket on the top of the Jeep. There are only six bolts to attach the basket to the supports and for these I did not use any thread locker.


This rack is very study and rugged and should last as long as the Jeep. The install was harder than I expected but well within the capabilities of a novice mechanic. It does not seem to add any significant noise to driving and it is mostly invisible from inside the Jeep. I think it looks fantastic!

I hope you find this useful and interesting. For more information on this rack checkout the Gavin Industries website.

I purchased mine from Quadratec.

New Tires

I picked up the new tires today. These things are cool. These are the BF Goodrich Mud-Terrain T/A KM2 in size 255/80 R17. They are a little more than 33" tall. Just about 1" taller than stock. I can't wait to get the lift installed and try these out.

And So it Begins...

Everyone knows that if you are going to use a Jeep for what it was meant to do you are going to need to spend money on it. I certainly knew this before I bought mine. So with this in mind it should not be too surprising that I have made my first purchases on the never ending road of Jeep upgrades.

Soon after I got my Jeep I started window shopping for all the cool stuff that is available. Wheels and tires are an obvious area where upgrades are common, and in my case, necessary. My Jeep came with 17" wheels but it only has street tires. I have already mentioned in a previous post I that I have already tested the limited of the stock tires. I have been doing a lot of thinking about the tire situation and I came up with three, mostly useless ideas. The only idea of the three that I liked turns out to be one I am pursuing.

My plan is to have two sets of wheels and tires - one (the stock set) for daily driving and highway use, and one set for off-road and Jeep adventures. From the moment I first saw them I wanted a set of AEV Pintler wheels. I think these are the best looking wheels out there and they seem to be popular with serious off-roaders. The price, over $200 each, meant I was very unlikely to go this route. In fact, I have already set my mind on another set of the stock wheels when I found a set of Pintlers on craig's list. These wheels have already seen some serious trail time and have a but of rock-rash but they seem to be functionally sound. At nearly half off the price of new it was a deal I could not pass up.

This one is almost perfect.

This one has a little rash around the edge but no dings or dents.

This one is in the worst shape with a large scrape.

More rash...

The last one is also in excellent shape.

In addition to the wheels I found a good deal on a set of Spidertrax 1.5" Spacers from a guy on the Arizona Virtual Jeep Club forum. These will come in handy after I install my planned lift. It is a must have when running the stock wheels and a lift. I am not sure if they will be needed when running the AEV wheels but I will try it out and see.

So with the first few hundred dollars in purchases behind me I feel ready for more. I think I will head over to Discount Tire sometime this week for a set of BF Goodrich Mud Terrain T/A KM2. Yeah, those'll do.

Bixler Saddle and Clover Spring

To celebrate our 22nd wedding anniversary Kathy, the girls and I spent three days adventuring in central Arizona. The first day, May 2o, 2011, was spent fishing at Lynx Lake and is a topic for another post. The second day we planned to drive up to Williams, AZ and hike the Bixler Saddle trail to the top of Bill William's mountain. This is a hike I have wanted to do for a long time but the need for a high clearance 4wd vehicle killed those ideas. But we now have this cool Jeep so I figured this was our chance.

Set off early and found the Devil Dog exit from I-40 easily and set off into the woods. FR 108 is nicely maintained but I knew FR 45 would be rough. A couple of days before there was a huge storm that dumped lots of rain and snow across northern and central Arizona. Turns out this would be an issue all day.

We quickly made a wrong turn and ended up taking the round about way to FR 45. We did find the road (I think) and it was in pretty rough shape. The jeep was doing great over the slick rocks and muddy ground. I, however, was getting nervous.

The scenery was amazing. In the picture below you can see Bixler mountain and the we were looking for the trail head to the left of the mountain.

The road got steeper and muddier the farther in we went. I finally got to the point where things did not 'feel' right and I decided to turn around before we got in over out heads.

My street tires where loading up with mud and I was starting to loose traction. The jeep does not look bad in the pictures. I was actually surprised that there was no mud on the body.

I am convinced that turning around was the right thing to do. We were alone and not sure we were actually on the right road. If we had gotten stuck it would have meant walking out for help. I am sure a more experienced driver would of had no trouble getting to the trail.

Once things dry out up there or I get some new tires, we will be back. Once we turned around we drove into Williams to try the Bill Williams Mountain Trail. This was lots easier to get to as the trail head is right next to the ranger station and the road is paved.

The trail is only three miles to the top of the mountain, but as you can see, there is 2200' of elevation gain. I knew this would be tough. We set off and things looked good at the beginning.

The trail soon got steep and rocky. To make matters worse there was lots of mud. I guess this should not have been a surprise.

Once we got to the Clover Spring trail head we decided that there was no way we would make it to the top of the mountain. We had traveled about a mile and it had taken an hour and we were nearly out of gas. The Clover Spring trail is an easier trail and it looked dry.

Once we got to the spring we stopped for a rest and a snack. The scenery was beautiful and the weather was perfect. Going back down was much easier but the muddy spots were a little trickier.

We were all very happy to be back in the Jeep at the end of the hike. It was a great day.