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Hi Frank! Nice to “meet” you and welcome back! @WILL E frequents Bulldog on the weekends. He might be out there too!

It's been a while and a lot of major life events has kept me away from this group, but I finally am ready to get involved! I no longer have the 4Runner, but recently picked up a 2004 WJ that I'm itching to get out in the dirt.

Excellent! I’m bringing a “new” USMC winter sleeping bag shell. If you put your bag inside it’ll give you 20 more degrees warmth. It’s Gortex so it breathes . You can use it if you want. See you in Wickeberg Mick

Oh I’ve got a pretty good Northface sleeping bag, it’s good to 30. The rain appears to have stopped and I woke up today and said “ you love that trail, don’t be a sissy”. I think I was just tired and cranky last night because I just flew in from a biz trip. I’ll see you Saturday and I’ll be camping. Looking forward to it . Sherri

Sherri, I have a brand, new never used goose down sleeping bag, in a heavy military gortex shell thats rated well below zero. Got it for my wife “just in case” but she’ll never use it. We/she would be happy to see someone get some use from it. You’re welcome to borrow it, At night we’ll have warm fire. OR Since the majority of the ride will be on Saturday. You could skip just the camping Sat nite. On Saturday afternoon we will be crossing SR 60, at Morristown, just 10 minutes north of the 303. We could take a break there and get you “aired up” in a parking lot and then you could head out and still get most of the ride in. You would be on a four lane straight to the 303 at Suprise. It would be great have along, Mick

Sad Kris. It seems to be a trend with the chain stores in my recent experience. Just out of curiosity, did you check on the range of products from Rock Auto? I’d be reluctant have a radiator shipped but sometimes I use their range of prices as an indicator of chain store quality expectations.

Mick, I’m going to have to bow out because the temp has dropped below my comfort/equipment level. I was expecting it to be in the 50’s when I signed up. I need to get most more equipment to be comfortable in 40 degree nights, which I will do, but for now I hope everyone has a great time and I’ll catch you again when I’m better prepared. Sherri

Hi Ryan! Nice to meet you as well. Thanks for tagging WILL E...looks like I won't have to go it alone. :)

4th time's the charm, right? the original radiator lasted like 5 years. then 2 Autozone radiators only lasted 6 months each - their lifetime warranty is only useful if your time has no value! back to OEM this time. at least i've got it down to just over 2 hours now!

Thanks Diane! It's a bit of an older rig that rattles and squeaks a lot, but I am loving the WJ so far.

Thanks for the invites! I was actually planning to join the Vulture run this Saturday, but had forgotten about my sons soccer game. I may just do a quick shakedown run through Bulldog Canyon this weekend to make sure it's trail-worthy before venturing too far outside of the valley.

We'll be there as well, sign us up for the easy trail and desert.

come on the run this weekend: or maybe our holiday party the first weekend in Jan:

Hi Frank! Nice Jeep! Friends of mine who have WJ's absolutely love them. Glad to see you're back out on the trails!

For Ryans post above:

Sign me up for Tater Salad

The Weiner Mobile was in Uranus to get some fudge. 🤣

We'll be there! We can bring the buns (just let us know the total when we're a few days out) and we'll bring cookies and chips & homemade salsa. Is this the same trail as the night run we did? (This is Ann Marie asking LOL)

welcome to the club - i look forward to meeting you and your wife! there's no camping for this event, it's just a day run / party. we're usually done by somewhere around 3pm to 5pm (depending on the turnout) and this year the trailhead is less than 30 minutes from I-17 & Carefree Highway.

Just joined last month and would like to attend the 1/6 event. Are small RV's OK for the camping part? there are two of us, the wife will prefer the easy 4x4. As for Potluck most likely Vegan Desert.

I’ll have Bobbie along so put me down for easy.

Easy route Terry and Me We will bring the chips

2 of us, we will bring anything you are short on. TBD

actually the 10 plate turned out to get plenty hot. originally i had it plumbed into the heater core lines and later found out those don't flow coolant until the thermostat opens at 190* (and on cold start it actually takes a while to reach that temp if you're just idling). it's now plumbed inline with the oil cooler instead, which always flows coolant. so now even when the engine is just starting to warm up the exchanger works and everything is fine. the only problem i still have is that the water in the tank itself gets hot, especially on a slow crawl type trail in the summer - just from the exhaust and transfer case and everything else shedding heat underneath the rig. so even with the thermostatic mixing valve the water can be a little too hot sometimes. i have only insulated one side of the tank (next to the exhaust), but one day i may get around to trying to insulate the entire tank and see if that helps.

Option #1, baked beans.

Johnpa plus one, moderate, plates, cups, knives

SonoranWanderer (Woody), CAVU2 (Kevin), Offroadfun (Jack), and Scott and Kim Miller met up with me in Mammoth Friday Nov. 10th to hike to the storied Redfield Cliff House. Thanks to everyone who decided to join me in this endeavor. The hike was well worth the effort with stunning views and scenery, but make no mistake, it was no walk in the park. The trail was overgrown, rocky, and washed out most of the way. Luckily, everyone made it home safely with no broken bones or dislocated joints (joking, kind of). :) Here are a few photos from the trip: Almost there: Enjoying the views from camp: We were treated to some orographic clouds the next morning: The following pictures were taken as we descended into the canyon: Kevin looking back at me and laughing because I am old, fat, and slow: :) Continued:

Added my first Duck to Bumble. My Daughter gave it to me. She was so excited to have found a "Bumble Duck" to match the Jeep. And we found a plush Bumble at Hobby Lobby in the Xmas aisle.

Rig is looking great man! Night and day difference from the last time I saw it!

my existing pump and sprayer nozzle work well for showering or rinsing off muddy feet. but due to the pressure buildup from the on-demand pump, the setup wasn't great for getting just a small amount of water for something like wetting a toothbrush. it would also waste a lot of water if i locked the sprayer in the ON position for the common task of washing my hands. so, i've added a rear faucet that uses an additional much smaller water pump that is activated with a switch (instead of being on-demand). the swing faucet itself is meant for a wok or other commercial grill. the photo above shows it swung out to fill a kettle, and below is the "stowed" position. i use a small piece of velcro to keep it stationary so it doesn't end up rattling against the rear window. it's mounted to some of my existing contraptions (the spare tire hoist and ham radio antenna bracket). with the tailgate closed you can barely see it tucked in behind the spare. it will also swing out past the tailgate for washing hands or to rinse something when the slide-out tailgate table is deployed. the new tiny 12v pump was mounted inside the tailgate, behind the interior exhauster vent. a 3/16" I.D. silicone hose runs down to the same water tank used for the shower and connects to the existing line with a brass tee. the pump activation switch was placed on a new switch panel i created on the tailgate vent. the faucet switch is a 3 position, ON/OFF/TRICKLE... "ON" runs the little pump at it's full 12v rating which is pretty low-flow but can still fill a pot quickly enough to not be a PITA. the "TRICKLE" feature drives the pump via a 5v DC voltage adapter so that it flows even less. this setting is perfect for rinsing hands without wasting water.

a couple minor tweaks... leaky flush tee the Dorman flush tee i had installed as a fill/bleed port at the new high-point in the system was leaking a tad. i didn't like that plastic thing when i got it and had already purchased a metal replacement from For Seasons but just not gotten around to installing it. leaky part: replacement: too hot! after idling for a long time or doing a slow 4-low rock crawl type trail and then using the water, i was still getting an initial surge of scalding water. i talked about trying to insulate the supply line to prevent this before: that attempted solution was obviously not working out, so my new idea was to re-run the supply line from the tank out along the edge of the Jeep, away from the hot "tunnel" area. then route it up inside the passenger fender as far away from the engine as i could realistically get it. i'm not sure if this is the final fix for the too-hot water - i still need to test it on a hot day after a long slow crawl. other than those 2 minor things, the water system has been working great so far.

hot water! i sketched out a plumbing diagram for the whole system (just the fill-hose and breather line aren't shown): an under-hood photo showing the heat exchanger which is spliced into the heater core return line. i might should have gone with a 20 plate exchanger. the 10 plate isn't efficient enough to heat up the water to an acceptable shower temp *until* the engine gets to around 180*. the only problem with that is the JK's 3.6L takes a good 15 minutes to get that warm from a cold start if it's just sitting still idling. the heat exchanger is just zip tied on, but that seems to be holding it in place just fine. for reference, the bottom (passenger side) aluminum line in this "before" photo is the heater core return. i disconnected the rubber hose coming to it near the firewall to splice in the heat exchanger. one item not shown in the diagram above is the coolant bleed/fill valve that i added. since all of this new stuff is higher than the radiator fill, air bubbles would be trapped in the lines without some way to bleed from the highest point. the thermostatic mixing valve was placed under the front wiper cowl next to the pump. it's not something that would need to be adjusted often, but i can access it with the hood open if necessary. when water sits in the heat exchanger for a while, it can reach the full engine operating temp (over 200*). so the thermostatic mixing valve is needed to provide a consistent "warm" output, regardless of how hot the engine is or how fast/slow the water moves through the exchanger. it does this by dynamically blending the cool tank water with the hot water from the exchanger. another issue i encountered: because the "cool" line coming from the tank runs above the engine/trans/t-case, the water inside it was heating up to the point that that the mixing valve couldn't do its job and i was getting a brief initial pulse of scalding water from the sprayer. the solution was to insulate the cool line where it ran through the tunnel. i used common foam pipe insulation tubing and then wrapped that with aluminum duct tape. one final thing to note is that i have some "straight" and some tapered/conical thread fittings. these shouldn't normally be mixed, but can be made to work just fine in this low-pressure application... for any joint, if the female side is a straight thread ("pipe"/IPS/G/BSP/"shower") then use a rubber washer and if the female side is tapered (NPT), use teflon tape. shopping list for this part of the project: 10 or 20 Plate Heat Exchanger with 1/2" MPT ports 1/2" Thermostatic Mixing Valve (2) 1/2" FPT to 3/8 Barb fittings (2) 1/2" IPS 14" Braided Supply Lines 1/2" M-M-F Shower Tee/Diverter 5/8" Barb Union fitting (2) 1/2" FPT to 5/8" Barb fittings ~3ft of 5/8" Heater Hose 5/8" Heater Hose Flush Tee 14mm & 20mm Spring Band Hose Clamps ~6ft 3/8" Pipe Insulation Tubing 1 Roll Foil Tape

Please remove me from the attendee list. Maybe next time. Mike