Ok.. I am aware that this is not surf related but I know there are a few Jeep owners on here. I recently bought a new wrangler. I was told that parts are cheap and repairs are quite simple, but was wondering if there are any resources or sites I could use to help me through repairs or modifications I may want to make myself down the road. Any other do-it-yourself jeep owners out there that may be able to help me out?
jeepsunlimited.com will keep you busy for a while there are clubs nationwide as well...i think theres one nearby called eastern shore jeeps?? depends how much you want to mod it, jeeps unlimited is pretty tame but will offer tons of reading info...
The guys in here know their sh!t. http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/ I've used them for many repairs. Quadratec is your new bible. http://www.quadratec.com/
get yourself a good repair manual too, they are invaluable... and will tell you how to do almost anything to your Wrangler, step by step, with pics. Just out of curiosity, what type of wrangler did you get?
Lol...if I were him, id stay away from this one. What do you have Matt? I had a tubed out comp tj on tons up until last year when I sold it.
jeepforums.com is the absolute best place. there are tons of 'how to' threads with step by step repair/upgrade and some very knowledgeable mechanics (pay attention to a guy named jerry bransford). quadratec is great but will drain your wallet quickly. a couple of things to be aware of for jeeps: death wobble--you'll get this at some point and you'll know it. the thing will want to vibrate apart at a certain speed. there is no one fix but i've found that a tire balancing and alignment usually fixes it. heater core--sooner or later this will go bad and you'll get the puddle of anti-freeze on the passenger side floor. the fix is a cast-iron mother-f&cker but doable. the stealership will charge major bucks so DYI is the way to go. 0 oil pressure--the pressure sender on jeeps goes out frequently and will freak you out since your gauge drops to 0 and the 'check gauges' comes on. It helps if you have a mechanical gauge it helps to put that on for piece of mind. 99 percent of the time a new sender fixes your issue. my advice is to get on jeepforums and get your checkbook ready since the number of cool mods you can do is HUGE.
yeah jeepforums is a good resource. I miss my wrangler. I had a sick one a few years ago with tons of mods and aftermarket stuff on it. My insurance company totalled it when they towed it from the side of the road in four wheel drive. It was completely destroyed by the time it got to my mechanic... Idiots... boy do I miss her though... Anyway, the BEST help I ever got with my Jeep was simply by posting some Craigslist ads looking for free advice or cheap assistance. The first time, I had some serious alignment issues from off roading. Something happened and i couldnt even make a left turn. The whole turning radius was off and something broken. Long story short, all these Jeep enthusiasts emailed me back immediately and told me what had happened. And one of the guys just emailed me and said hey man, bring her down to my house in coronado and Ill look at it for you. 30 minutes after I got there, the dude not only fixed the problem in ilke 30 seconds, he conitinued tuning teh thing up for me and being just generally awesome... he didnt want any money. I still left him a $20... But the point of the story is that there are a TON of jeep enthusiasts, and if you are really in a jam with one, you would be surprised how much these guys know how to do. They are basically building jeeps in their free time, so any problem to a non motor head such as myself is childs play to them... Pretty cool community if you link up with the right guys. They are super helpful just in general... Good luck,.
Yeah i found that too. Another thing is to get a vision of what you want to do and then do that. don't start small and work your way up. go right to the size lift and tires you want. Just be careful and talk to jeep people to see what is involved. For example, depending on your engine (4 or 6) you reach a certain point where if you want to get a tire size or bigger you will have to re-gear which is pretty expensive. that is 33 inch for the 4 cylinder and 35s for the 6. Btw--I've found that the best way to carry boards is to peel down the rear window and slide you board in between the front and back seats so it hangs out the back. that's for shortboards tho.
i dont own a jeep, but coming from a family whos dad has fixed a valve spring on a ford explorer, currently working on fixing a head gasket on a 97 saturn and who did a engine haul on a ferrari, yes i said ferrari those haynes books for cars are well worth it. as my dad has used it to fix the valve spring on my explorer and is using it to fix the head gasket on the 97 saturn. so if you wanna learn to do stuff fo out buy one of those books for your car and you will be glad you paid the money for it.
Yeah Cargo room was my #1 complaint about the wrangler. It was sick, and since I only shortboard, it was never really an issue, but Jeeps are bouncing, especially when lifted, so I always had a really sketchy setup while driving with board loaded. Even out the back window, and I had a hard top, the boards are pinned up against the back frame and I was alwasy afraid of cracking baords going over bumps etc... sh**, I dont even know how you would move a longboard in a wrganler. I guess strapped to the top... Or get the newer extended cab wrangler... Those look sick too... Anyway, just saying, caryying boarsd or anything in a jeep sucks. period/
www.delawareja.com I think that's the delaware jeep association website. They have a forum on there. Picked up quite a bit of stuff for my wrangler real cheap and they're always willing to help. Just don't start talking about politics on there unless you're related to W.
i just bought my first jeep a few weeks back & cargo space is one of the main reasons i went w/ the grand cherokee instead of a wrangler. that, & the ride was nicer...i drove cross country in a wrangler back in 2005 & by the time we got to san diego, i was pretty much over it. my @$$ hurt for a week.
yeah a wrangler ride is an acquired taste! You can get it decent with the right lift but you have to work at it. If ride comfort is a huge issue, I would not recommend a lift.
2010 sahara unlimited-manual Thanks again to everybody for all the input. Wasnt sure if I should even post this here, but certainly glad I did.
If you don't have any passengers, transporting surfboards is easy in a wrangler... I leave the back seat out, and installed some foam padding in key board-dinging areas.... then when i surf i just push the passenger seat all the way forward, and stack boards in the long space thats created by doing this (from the dashboard, over the front seat, and back to the tailgate) It's fast and easy, just like tossing them into the back of a truck. I can drive around with my 10'6'' windsurfer, two shortboards, and any sailing/surf gear i need with this setup.
Ok. helps to know the year and model. The JK is a little bit different from what most people are used to and the TJ is super easy to work on. I suspect the JK may be a bit more difficult to wrench on but alot of stuff is pretty easy with patience and a good manual. Quadratec is starting to get some very sick stuff for the JK too. If yours is a 4 door check out the xenon flat flare. I saw a JK 2 days ago with a 6 inch lift and those flares and it was insane.
stop making me drool. I dont have the $ to do any more mods on mine but yeah ive seen the new jk stuff and it looks good!
