Colorado JP #29

[hayabusa18]

Do the lights come in pairs of two or are they just $29 for one?

[COBrian]

Hayabusa18, that is for both lights AKA a pair.

So... went on an offroad adventure on the 5th... here are some photos.

Almost 50 Miles of off road trail. According to our guide books, The first 10 miles was basically Dirt road (rating 1/2 (out of 10)), then 12 of a rocky forest access road (rating 3), then 12 of a rougher "unmaintained" forest access road rating 4, then another 10 of a rocky mountain pass (hagerman pass) (rated 3). The guide we had said 5/6 was max for a stock wrangler, so we didn't push it, trying anything too hard.

Sadly we got no pictures of the hardest stuff, then again, where it was hardest there were NO good places to stop to get out and take pictures of each other.

[yj87jp]

Just added this to my bucket list looks like a great place to drive a topless jeep

[COBrian]

Well had a disappointing 2 weeks as far as the jeep goes.

I finally pulled the trigger on the front fog lights... Chrysler Factory Parts listed both the complete light assembly and the bracket to mount it behind the bumper instead of through the bumper.... week and a half later I am notified, they are canceling the order... "no longer available".

Over this past weekend I decide I will work on remote mounting the solenoid for my winch to make it appear more like the Ramsey. I buy the parts I think I need, only to come home and decide they are not beefy enough. Local auto parts stores stock 4 gauge battery cables, but the cables that came with my winch are 2 guage. Didn't know until I could compare them. Local Auto parts store stocks bare rolls of 2 gauge, but I didn't like how it looked (it looks like something you would put in a show car.. with CLEAR insulation. I'm sure its good wire, but I just want regular black & red, AND I dont have tools to really crimp on a 2 gauge connector. So I found a place online that will make me the cables, but now I get to wait 10 days or so for them to make the custom lengths/connectors I need. They are making me 4 cables for cost of supplies plus $10 bucks to make them... GOod deal IMO. www.remybattery.com

I guess I am glad I didn't chance the 4 gauge cables, as I called superwinch today and they confirmed to use 2 gauge cables for remote mounting.

Oh and the guy I was supposed to meet Saturday to make the lightbar, backed out... so I'm gonna have to find a new guy for that now.

On the plus side, I did fashion the brackets I needed to mount the solenoid box under the hood, and I really like how that came out.

[hayabusa18]

The superwinch is nice I have one on my jeep.

[COBrian]

Finishing up some odds and ends.

Lightbar DONE!
Front Fogs DONE!
Permanent antenna hold down DONE!

Lightbar was custom fabbed
Front Fogs are the delta 100's - Custom mounting bracket made to mount in correct location
Antenna Hold down. I used to have mine hard mounted along the windshield. (before the lightbar). It banged the top and frame a lot. I then converted to a rope tie down like military vehicles. this gives the antenna enough movement that it hardly ever bangs the top/bars/windshield.... After driving offroad with the rope tie down as opposed to the hard tie down I was sold this is way better. I decided even though not 100% accurate this was my preffered method of holding down the whip antenna. Also using a simple readily available eye bolt made this easy to do.

Extra: I also got a top cover for storing the top in a cleaner fashion. Works good and keeps the top looking nice when folded up.

Here are the pics. I am 100% with all the "details" I will be keeping my champagne paint and plastidip red for a while until I either decide to undertake painting myself or can save up enough for a shop done job.

[hayabusa18]

It looks awesome and I love how the superwinch looks without the box ill probably move my box off of mine

[yj87jp]

Looks great and if you don't mind me asking how much the light bar was to make

[cpltony]

Looks good, are you sure that antennae tie down is 'permanent' though?
I'd be worried the tie would slip off the base.

[COBrian]

The light bar ended up costing me 150 to have made. The guy who said he would do it for $100 was not including the materials, and he kept flaking on when we could get it done. So i found another fab shop to do it.
I probably could have shopped around some more and gotten it done for $100, but I was sick of messing with it, and this guy made an appointment and kept it. AND he spent at least an hour and a half getting the old windshield bolts out, as 3 of them were horribly frozen, for nothing extra, so I really felt like $150 was fair.

I have spare paracord in the glove box if anything happens to that one, so I can field repair the tie down if anything ever happens to it. Permanent as in "final solution" . However I will say this: The black square thing on my windshield frame is a wiring zip tie hold down. I was using the same cord and loop setup just with the loop ziptied to that hold down for the last 2 months. It never loosened and has been rained on and driven at over 80mph and it does fine. the first sticky back tie down failed, and I had to use a second one, but the paracord and knots never loosened.
The knot making the loop is a double figure eight knot. This knot is very strong. basically the whole strength of your rope. So that end isn't coming undone.
The knot tied to the antenna is a modifed hitch knot. Similar to 2 half hitches, but it actually has 4 wraps around the antenna. I just improvised this knot, but the way the wraps work they tighten each other, so I am not concerned about it loosening and letting the tip slip through. Since it is paracord, I could also theoretically melt that knot so it can NEVER slip, but that seems overkill.

When we went offroading over the 4th of July weekend my wife dragged the antenna through a tree and the knot stayed just fine. It took a branch off the tree with the antenna, but the knots stayed just fine. (that may be why the first stick back zip tie holder failed about a week later though, or maybe it was the rain that weekend)