On our way out to visit the in-laws for Thanksgiving this year, my family and I decided to take a quick detour and do a little exploring around the Ibex Springs/Mines Area in Death Valley National Park. Located in the southern most corner of Death Valley, this area is located just north of Baker and easily accessible from Highway 127.

Leaving the pavement at Harry Wade road, we made our way over to Saratoga Springs and then turned east making our way over to the Ibex Sand Dunes. I should mention that there is a sign at this point indicating that “deep sand” is ahead and that a high clearance 4×4 vehicle is recommended. And, although this road is anything but difficult, I certainly wouldn’t drive a Honda Accord over it. Anyway, when we got to the dunes, we discovered that direct access to them was closed off and if you want to see them up close and personal, you’d have to hike about a mile from the road to get to them. No big deal to me but time wasn’t on our side that day so we decided to continue on to the spring and mines.

Now, where the road leading up to this point was nothing worth writing home to, the stretch of road leading to Ibex Spring/Mines was another story altogether. Thanks to the abundant rains we received last year, this trail was severely rutted and washed out in multiple locations along the way. In fact, the very first washout you will come across is large enough and challenging enough that I’m quite sure it would keep most visitors from venturing any further. However, this is probably the most difficult obstacle you will come across (unless you’re in a Jeep and then it’s nothing more than a speed bump) and if you are so inclined to traverse it, the rest of the way is easy by comparison.

From what I’ve read, the mines in this area were established back in 1882 and silver, lead bearing ore and then finally talc was extensively mined on and off until the 1970’s. During this time, the Lost Buthane Mining Company established a small mining town next to Ibex Springs itself and much of the structures still stand there today in deteriorating but otherwise good shape. The parking area of this ghost town has several plaques erected containing information about the area and a metal enclosed stand opens up to reveal a registry that you can sign. This area is surprisingly lush with tall grasses and palms and if you take a short walk up the hill behind the homes, you should be able to find a small wooded shed that houses a water filled well.

Due to the lack of daylight, we decided to make this ghost town our last stop for the day and just spent our time exploring the miscellaneous cabins and surrounding area until the sun went down. But, you can be sure that we will be back again.

It’s been a long time coming but I’m happy to announce that LoD has finally released their new Xtreme Duty Jeep Bumper Tire Carrier! Just like their Heavy Duty version, this bumper/tire-carrier comes powder coated black, is secured with 6 bolt points, has an innovative stainless steel slam latch, adjustable tire mount and two D-ring mounting points. However, unlike its younger brother, the new Xtreme Duty version is made out of 3/16″ thick steel, has a 1.25″ greasable hinge, integrated hitch receiver and a Hi-Lift Jack mount. The best part about this new bumper is it’s price. Keeping ih line with their goal of manufacturing high quality products and at a price you can afford, LoD will be selling the Xtreme Duty Bumper/Tire-Carrier for only $399 + shipping and handling.

To see my complete installation write-up and more photos, please click on the 4×4xplor.com link below:

LoD Xtreme Duty Jeep Bumper/Tire-Carrier Write-Up

So I went outside to rotate my tires today like I always do every 3,000 mile and like I’ve always done over the past six years since owning my Jeep. A simple routine event that should have taken no longer than 15 minutes to do… that is of course, assuming you can remove the damn lug nuts without snapping them off.

As it would seem, the last time I took my Jeep into 4 Wheel Parts to have the tires balanced, the stupid tire jockey must have used an impact wrench to tighten my lug nuts or maybe set his torque wrench to a ridiculous 200 ft. lbs. of torque! No joke, these things were on so tight that I had to use an extreme amount of leverage to remove them and on several occasions, I swore I was going to snap a wheel stud. And, as luck would have it, I eventually did. Shit!!

Fortunately, I was able to limit the breaks to just one stud on the driver side rear axle. A quick trip to Napa Auto Parts and $2.50 later, all was good again. I’ll tell you though, it’s experiences like this that have driven me to do virtually all my own maintenance work and God only knows that if I had the means to install/balance my own tires, I would!

I know this might sound a little crazy, but I swear, stop lights hate my Jeep. Seriously, I’m convinced that if it were up to them, they’d never let my Jeep through an intersection or allow it to make a left turn. In fact, the only time these stupid lights make an exception and let my Jeep go is when other cars are present. Now, I know you’re probably thinking that I’m just an impatient guy and that I’m exaggerating about the amount of time it takes for a light to turn green and, what can I say, I am an impatient guy. However, what I’m talking about here is that if I’m the only vehicle at an intersection, the stop light will NEVER turn green!

No joke, I have literally sat at an intersection almost 10 minutes waiting to make a left turn before finally giving up. Sitting there, I’ve watched cross traffic pass in front of me, stop for a their red light, watched the cars on my street go, stop when their light turned red, watched the cross traffic go again when their light turned green and then repeated the process three more times!! Frustrated, I finally had get out of my lane and go straight with the rest of the cars if I had any hope of going anywhere. And believe me, this is no isolated incident. In fact, this happens to me all the time. I don’t know if it’s the Jeep’s shorter wheelbase, wider tires, weight or what. I have tried positioning myself to make sure my tires made good contact with the sensor pads in the street. I’ve tried to straddle the sensors thinking maybe that would do the trick. And, I’ve even tried rolling forward and back to see if that would trigger the lights to turn green. In the end, nothing seems to make a difference.

I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, or maybe it’s just a Jeep thing that I don’t understand.

It really is hard for me to believe, but six years to the day, my 2000 Jeep TJ Sport became an official member of the family. Since that time, it’s gone from being a humble little stocker on 30″ tires to being a nicely lifted off-road machine. As a daily driver, I’ve been able to rack up over 110,000 miles on the odometer and much to my surprise, the only things to go out on me so far have been the water pump, radiator, seat track release cable and that’s about it. Need I say, it’s holding up even better than I was expecting it to.

Anyway, for the year to come, I’m planning to re-gear to give my Jeep back the pep it lost when I went to bigger tires. Of course, along with the new gears, I’d really like to install a pair of ARB’s too. And, depending on how my budget looks, I sure would like to grow my Jeep a little more with a Full Traction Long Arm Kit… and… and… is there ever an end?! Yeah, that’s what I thought.

Happy Birthday Jeep!

Okay, so I just got back from the 2005 SEMA show in Las Vegas, Nevada and let me just say that this thing kicked ass!! To be perfectly honest, this was my very first time at SEMA and I really had no idea how HUGE this thing really is. Even though I spent one entire day there, I was barely able to scratch the surface of all there was to see. Fortunately, I’m pretty sure I was at least able to cover the entire Off-Road exhibit hall and a better part of the Tires,Wheels and Performance hall. Cutting corners here and there, I even got a chance to check out some of the action on the proving grounds outside.

So, on to the big questions, what was hot and what was not. Well, what was hot was the all new AEV converted Jeep Commander at the Mopar display. No joke, this thing was like an XJ on steroids and surprisingly impressive to see. Another real looker was the AEV Jeep Brute at the Hi-Lift display. Certainly this was nothing new to see but I always find myself drooling over it. What else was hot were the Warn two story Display with conference room on the second level as well as the Huskyliner Texaco Gastation props.

As far as products go, I have to say that I was really impressed with the all new Superior Axle & Gear/JC Fab Full Floating Rear Axle Kit. Designed with the “backyard mechanic” in mind, this kit is available in 30, 33 and 35 splines, includes new axles, hubs, rotors, drive gears, bearings, spindles, inner lock nuts, outer lock nuts, spacers, thrust washers, retainer rings and caps. Two features about this kit that really peeked my interest was 1.) its ability to retain the use of your stock braking system and 2.) the 7/8″ spindle plunge depth with double O-Rings that apparently provides more than double the strenght of a stock spindle. Believe me, if I had a Rubicon rear end, this kit would be high on the to do list. For more information about this awesome full floating rear axle kit, be sure to pick-up a copy of this months 4 Wheel Drive and Sports Utility Magazine where you’ll find a great write-up on it.

Another product I thought was pretty cool was the Bestop Roofrack. Apparently, it was introduced last year but won’t be available for sale until some time early next year. What I really liked about this roof rack was it’s versitility, ability to accept Yakima and Thule products and best of all, the modular basket system (3 in total) which have been designed on rails to slide on and off with ease. This of course makes loading and unloading of the individual baskets virtually effortless. Unfortunately, the entire setup can be quite pricey when all is said and done, but I suppose you can always just buy one basket and add more as you need or can afford them.

As far as suspension systems go, nothing there was more impressive to me than the Full Traction Long Arm kit. A complete bolt on replacment suspension system for your Jeep, this long arm kit is designed with a 4 link front axle mounting and a true long arm rear 3 link setup that has an upper triangulated bar pivot on a high-misalignment uni-ball joint. If you’re concerned about the strenght of this kit, the lower trailing arm assemblies are made of 2″x.250″ wall DOM tubing and all the bracketry is laser constructed out of 1/4″ plate steel. To top it off, the new transfer case skid plate will pull up your tummy effectively giving you 1.5″ of clearance over the stock skid. I’ve had my eye on various long arm kits for some time now and after getting a close up look at this kit, I’m quite sure it’s what I will be installing on my TJ… that is of course, once I can find the funds to do it.

Last but certainly not least, I really liked the new MasterCraft folding and reclining seats. Like all their seats, these were functional, designed to accomodate a harness, built exceptionally well and looked great. I think the only other thing I would have liked to see in them was some kind of lumbar support adjustment knob like their other seats have. But, they were still comfortable just as they were and I sure as hell wouldn’t mind having a set.

Okay, so what wasn’t hot right? Well for one, the wall to wall bling-bling useless bolt on or stick on crap that really seems to be just about everywhere else. What else wasn’t hot? The seriously lame, slammed to the floor Jeep Commander with its 20″ chrome wheels or the new Toyota FJ that many people seemed to be going ga-ga over. I’ll be honest, I really like the old FJ40’s and there was a really nice display of them outside, but this new “toy” was incredibly huge, had IFS and was just down right fugly, BLAH!!

While I was at SEMA, I had one person tell me that if you were to walk down every isle of the convention and see every single exhibit, you would have to walk approximately 62 miles. Need I say, next time I’m going to need a day or two more and a pair of good walking shoes

Click here to see more SEMA 2005 pics

Well I finally did it. After six years of driving around with a hard top (or no top), I finally bought a brand new, still in box, complete with hardware, 2004, OEM, Black Diamond Sailcloth Soft Top with tinted windows for my Jeep TJ. The best part is, I found this top listed in my local Recycler and paid a grand total of only $495!! Apparently, the guy selling it had already sold his Jeep and his wife was determined to get it out of their garage. Fortunatly for me, I was just lucky enough to be the very first person to call on the ad.

Anyway, I had always heard all my Jeep buddies tell me how quite the Sailcloth soft tops were and how a few even thought they were quieter than their hard top. And, after driving my Jeep to Las Vegas and back over the weekend traveling at speeds of 75-80 MPH, I am happy to report that all these claims are in fact, TRUE!! It really is quite amazing. Granted, the sounds emanating from trucks or motorcycles next to you can be heard a bit louder, the over all loudness from the wind is significantly less.

Need I say, if you are looking to replace your old soft top or want to quiet down your ride, I would highly recommend you picking up a Sailcloth Soft Top. In case you didn’t know, Bestop manufactures OEM Sailcloth Soft Tops for Jeep so if you already have all the hardware, you can pick up a Sailcloth Replace-a-Top (clear windows) without half-door upper skins for about $495. Or, keep an eye out in your local Recycler or on eBay. There’s always a good deal to be found on either place.

I know a lot of people think I’m crazy but I can honestly say that I own the vehicle of my dreams. In fact, I have two of them. Now I will be the first to admit that these vehicles are anything but luxurious. They offer little in the way of creature comforts. They have very little trunk space and have a limited passenger capacity. They can be quite noisy at high speeds, have the aerodynamics of a brick and burn gas like there’s no tomorrow. If you haven’t already guessed by now, I am the proud owner of a 2000 Jeep TJ and a 1981 CJ7.

Unlike any other vehicle I know, a Jeep is built to be challenged, to tackle tough roads and to conquer difficult obstacles. They are designed to grow and become more capable than the day they were made. What they lack in appearance they make up in functionality. Their small size forces you to pack light and carry only what you really need. And, with the roof and doors off, they open themselves up to the world around you allowing you to experience it to its fullest. They are in fact more than just a vehicle that’ll transport you from point A to point B… more than just a fashion statement to make you look cool…

More than just a Jeep… it’s a way of life.