Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Mountain Trip Forthcoming! Supply run...
My dad and I are going to take a trip to the Arkansas mountains this weekend (that's the current plan anyway). I decided to take this opportunity to stock up on some things I'd been meaning to get. I got some towel seat covers (these guys) (in yellow of course) that I wished I'd had a couple weeks ago while at the beach. I also got some other little things: a flashlight, a fire starter thingy, fire tinder thingies, a tow strap cuz you never know, a rain poncho to make the single one I currently carry around an official set of two, and a "space blanket" (glorified thermal blanket that doubles as a tarp, seat cover, tons of stuff) to also make the one I have a set of two. I had an REI gift card and I also got an emergency medical kit with it. I hope I have a place to put all this stuff! These are things I've been wanting to have available to me, the type of things I'd know I'd kick myself for not having if I got stuck out somewhere while adventurin'. I'm planning on taking "the good camera" on our trip as well (maybe, "Jeep security" being what it is - non-existent - I might not) so maybe I'll get some good shots. To Adventure!
Friday, August 7, 2015
Grille and Insert
Since going to Topless Day I've had a couple (quite a few...) projects I've wanted to do with the Jeep. "The Jeep" is officially a.k.a. "The Colonel" now by the way, his name being Colonel Mustard. One such project was bed lining the grille with truck bed liner and painting a mesh insert to match the yellow body.
First of all, I'm inept at these sorts of things so I didn't really know what to look for. I bought a grille from CARiD.com (this guy) (I didn't want to screw up my factory grille) and a mesh insert (this guy). After I ordered I thought to myself... how am I going to paint these things? I started looking for info on how best to do it myself, specifically for the insert, and found that people actually HATE this particular mesh insert. Oh well. That's what I get.
The grille was pretty perfect. It came as just a big ol' piece of black plastic totally unfinished and a little scratched up but I didn't care, I was going to bed line it anyway. The mesh insert came powder coated black. I started looking into where to find color-match paint and how to prep/prime the powder coat for painting. I fell in over my head pretty quick, and perhaps I didn't look in the right places, but it seemed that for a spray kit to accomplish such a task was about $60 (this is just for painting the mesh insert). I'd also read that it might be possible that I'd need two cans of paint, possibly of primer as well, and if I bought 2 kits that'd be $120! I started re-thinking the whole project...
I ended up taking the mesh insert to Maaco to see if they'd paint it for me, and if so how much they'd charge. Long story short, they charged me $80. Then I took the grille to a bed liner company and they only charged me $50 to bed line it. All in all I got a professional paint job of the mesh AND the bed-lined grille for the $120 I thought I might have to spend on paint for the mesh alone! I call that a score, and my takeaway is that sometimes it's NOT cheaper to "do it yourself". Please don't try to convince me otherwise, I'm lazy.
After I picked the stuff up and got it home, I started really looking at it as I prepared to put it all together. The Maaco paint on the mesh was already chipping. I'd heard Maaco isn't the best in the world, but I figured it was just a little mesh piece, not a whole bumper or something, give them a shot. But yep, the paint was scratching off. Mostly on the back though, so that's good. I thought once I got it attached it would be ok unless a rock jumped up and hit it or something, and in that case I can probably just use touch-up paint. The bed-lined grille looked amazing.
Attaching the mesh to the grille was a beast of a job. Well, kind of, I'm sure it could have been worse. You have to bend these bars over the mesh and drill holes into the grille in a couple difficult places. The locking nuts for the little bolts were tiny and difficult to manipulate with your fingers in some of the tight places they were supposed to go. It took quite a while and I almost really messed it up (drilling fail), but in the end I got it done. I did notice though that there's a plastic part on the grille that inserts into the body of the Jeep and it broke a little. It's still attached but it was cracked. Hopefully that won't become a problem.
The last hurdle, I didn't realize it when I took the grille in to get it bed-lined, but there is a rubber weatherstrip on a Jeep grille's top where it meets the hood. If I'd realized it and thought about it, I would have had the bed liner guys tape off that part or something so I could get a good, flat place to stick the weather strip on. But, oh well. I ended up sanding the heck out of it. I got it to stick really well actually! Yay!
Anyway, sorry for the long post, maybe I'm just trying to make up for lost time! Here's a bad picture of the final fruits of my labor and cash.
You can also see my name sticker on the side there. The bubbles all worked themselves out by the way, I hadn't mentioned that to y'all yet I don't think. It looks great!
Jeep wave count: Still coming...
First of all, I'm inept at these sorts of things so I didn't really know what to look for. I bought a grille from CARiD.com (this guy) (I didn't want to screw up my factory grille) and a mesh insert (this guy). After I ordered I thought to myself... how am I going to paint these things? I started looking for info on how best to do it myself, specifically for the insert, and found that people actually HATE this particular mesh insert. Oh well. That's what I get.
The grille was pretty perfect. It came as just a big ol' piece of black plastic totally unfinished and a little scratched up but I didn't care, I was going to bed line it anyway. The mesh insert came powder coated black. I started looking into where to find color-match paint and how to prep/prime the powder coat for painting. I fell in over my head pretty quick, and perhaps I didn't look in the right places, but it seemed that for a spray kit to accomplish such a task was about $60 (this is just for painting the mesh insert). I'd also read that it might be possible that I'd need two cans of paint, possibly of primer as well, and if I bought 2 kits that'd be $120! I started re-thinking the whole project...
I ended up taking the mesh insert to Maaco to see if they'd paint it for me, and if so how much they'd charge. Long story short, they charged me $80. Then I took the grille to a bed liner company and they only charged me $50 to bed line it. All in all I got a professional paint job of the mesh AND the bed-lined grille for the $120 I thought I might have to spend on paint for the mesh alone! I call that a score, and my takeaway is that sometimes it's NOT cheaper to "do it yourself". Please don't try to convince me otherwise, I'm lazy.
After I picked the stuff up and got it home, I started really looking at it as I prepared to put it all together. The Maaco paint on the mesh was already chipping. I'd heard Maaco isn't the best in the world, but I figured it was just a little mesh piece, not a whole bumper or something, give them a shot. But yep, the paint was scratching off. Mostly on the back though, so that's good. I thought once I got it attached it would be ok unless a rock jumped up and hit it or something, and in that case I can probably just use touch-up paint. The bed-lined grille looked amazing.
Attaching the mesh to the grille was a beast of a job. Well, kind of, I'm sure it could have been worse. You have to bend these bars over the mesh and drill holes into the grille in a couple difficult places. The locking nuts for the little bolts were tiny and difficult to manipulate with your fingers in some of the tight places they were supposed to go. It took quite a while and I almost really messed it up (drilling fail), but in the end I got it done. I did notice though that there's a plastic part on the grille that inserts into the body of the Jeep and it broke a little. It's still attached but it was cracked. Hopefully that won't become a problem.
The last hurdle, I didn't realize it when I took the grille in to get it bed-lined, but there is a rubber weatherstrip on a Jeep grille's top where it meets the hood. If I'd realized it and thought about it, I would have had the bed liner guys tape off that part or something so I could get a good, flat place to stick the weather strip on. But, oh well. I ended up sanding the heck out of it. I got it to stick really well actually! Yay!
Anyway, sorry for the long post, maybe I'm just trying to make up for lost time! Here's a bad picture of the final fruits of my labor and cash.
You can also see my name sticker on the side there. The bubbles all worked themselves out by the way, I hadn't mentioned that to y'all yet I don't think. It looks great!
Jeep wave count: Still coming...
Saturday, August 1, 2015
Mobile!
I'm sitting at a coffee/taco shop experimenting with mobile blogging. So far so good. I'm not sure be told you yet, but I got a new grille and mesh grille insert for the Jeep. My goal was to get the grille sprayed with truck bed liner for rugged durability (and to look flippin sweet as Napolean would say) and to paint the mesh the same color as the rest of the Jeep.
Well shoot. Foods here. As I'm typing with my little thumbs here I realize I want to post pics along with all this anyway. I'll try to update later. :-)
Well shoot. Foods here. As I'm typing with my little thumbs here I realize I want to post pics along with all this anyway. I'll try to update later. :-)
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Bubbles and Other Troubles
So I proved once again that I don't know what I'm doing. I put on my vinyl name stickers last night and I was most concerned about getting it straight. You've got this really long and narrow string of letters, it was a bit awkward to put on (didn't want to remove all the backing at once), maniplutaing this little plastic ruler to keep it straight... And we finally got it on for better or worse. We measured again and it was pretty straight! Vinyl stickers are surely removable, but I don't think they'd be salvagable in any way so this was one of those "do it right the first time" moments which I hate and am notoriously bad at. But it was straight and looked good. VICTORY!
Then we took the paper backing off. O.O D'OH! I didn't even think about bubble prevention! What's wrong with me!?
WAH!!!! IT'S SO BAD!!! I feel so stupid. I mean, it looks "ok", but I just feel like this all could have been prevented if i was smarter about stuff. Why do I attempt these things on my own?
Anyway, from far back enough it looks pretty decent.
I've read that sometimes the little bubbles will work themselves out over time, and if all else fails I could resort to the push-pin fix, but dangit. Even if I do work them out with brute force it's still not going to be as perfect as I want (I'm a bit of a perfectionist). I wish I could do things right the first time and just have them come out awesome. Such is life I suppose.
In other news, check out the sweet angry eyes I also put on the headlights (pictured above, you can just make them out)! It looks GREAT! It's also ILLEGAL! :-| I think, I'm not sure. I didn't even think about checking up on the laws before putting them on because, seriously, they're not a safety hazard. My headlight light distribution is fine. But they're not so great I want to pay fines for having them. I can't find a straight answer, but Texas law states something to the effect that you can't have a cover obscuring the headlight. Does that mean an inch or less on the top corner? I don't know. Apparently so, at least in some other states from what I've since read on the interwebs. I'd rather not find out the hard way. So now that I've 3M-tape-stuck the heck out of these things to my car, I'm going to have to try to pry them off probably. At the risk of getting a ticket, I'm looking for a cop at a convenience store or something that I can just stop and ask if it's ok. And since I can't find a single Texas site that says definitively if Angry Eyes are legal in Texas or not (maybe I'm just missing an obvious site?) I might be the only site on the entire internet that can give you a straight answer on that once I ask. I'll be sure to post what they say. Perhaps from my jail cell, but I'll post it.
Jeep Wave Count: Still haven't tallied it. I will. Eventually.
WAH!!!! IT'S SO BAD!!! I feel so stupid. I mean, it looks "ok", but I just feel like this all could have been prevented if i was smarter about stuff. Why do I attempt these things on my own?
Anyway, from far back enough it looks pretty decent.
I've read that sometimes the little bubbles will work themselves out over time, and if all else fails I could resort to the push-pin fix, but dangit. Even if I do work them out with brute force it's still not going to be as perfect as I want (I'm a bit of a perfectionist). I wish I could do things right the first time and just have them come out awesome. Such is life I suppose.
In other news, check out the sweet angry eyes I also put on the headlights (pictured above, you can just make them out)! It looks GREAT! It's also ILLEGAL! :-| I think, I'm not sure. I didn't even think about checking up on the laws before putting them on because, seriously, they're not a safety hazard. My headlight light distribution is fine. But they're not so great I want to pay fines for having them. I can't find a straight answer, but Texas law states something to the effect that you can't have a cover obscuring the headlight. Does that mean an inch or less on the top corner? I don't know. Apparently so, at least in some other states from what I've since read on the interwebs. I'd rather not find out the hard way. So now that I've 3M-tape-stuck the heck out of these things to my car, I'm going to have to try to pry them off probably. At the risk of getting a ticket, I'm looking for a cop at a convenience store or something that I can just stop and ask if it's ok. And since I can't find a single Texas site that says definitively if Angry Eyes are legal in Texas or not (maybe I'm just missing an obvious site?) I might be the only site on the entire internet that can give you a straight answer on that once I ask. I'll be sure to post what they say. Perhaps from my jail cell, but I'll post it.
Jeep Wave Count: Still haven't tallied it. I will. Eventually.
Monday, July 13, 2015
My Gosh...
Whoever is checking this blog, I'm sorry. I went on vacation for a week, and then work decided to blow up on me once I got back. In fact I'm still too busy to post adequately, so I won't even try. But I wanted to let you two or three know that I AM still here and I WILL be posting again once the dust settles a bit more. Items to discuss...
- Got my foot pegs on, they're pretty cool with minor complaints.
- Just got my COL. MUSTARD name sticker, I'll try to get some good pics of the application.
- Got some angry eyes for the headlights. Kind of on the fence about them, eventually they'll make more sense (coordinate with my eventual spare cover, you'll see eventually I hope), but I'm still excited.
- Got some tail light covers with little Jeep emblems on them.
Think that's it. And honestly that's a lot. haha Still no lift, I kind of gave up on it for the time being. My next big purchase will probably be soft doors so I don't have to lug 160 pounds up two flights of stairs anymore (during the summer anyway...).
Jeep Wave Count: Continue to climb, and I AM making note of it (never stopped), but I'll need to count it up still. BAD blogger.
- Got my foot pegs on, they're pretty cool with minor complaints.
- Just got my COL. MUSTARD name sticker, I'll try to get some good pics of the application.
- Got some angry eyes for the headlights. Kind of on the fence about them, eventually they'll make more sense (coordinate with my eventual spare cover, you'll see eventually I hope), but I'm still excited.
- Got some tail light covers with little Jeep emblems on them.
Think that's it. And honestly that's a lot. haha Still no lift, I kind of gave up on it for the time being. My next big purchase will probably be soft doors so I don't have to lug 160 pounds up two flights of stairs anymore (during the summer anyway...).
Jeep Wave Count: Continue to climb, and I AM making note of it (never stopped), but I'll need to count it up still. BAD blogger.
Monday, June 15, 2015
Foot Pegs, JUST too late...
I recently had the doors off for about a week, but just put everything back on in anticipation of a lot of rain we're suppose to be getting. Wouldn't you know, the next delivery day after I put it all back on I got my foot pegs. :-/ For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, when you take the doors off your Jeep one of the most amazing pleasures in life is to cruise around with your foot hanging out of the car, preferably bare foot at highway speeds. You can get foot pegs to rest your foot or leg on that hook onto the door hinges. Like this...
Just set your foot on it and away you go! So I'm glad I got them, but now there's rain in the forecast for the rest of the week. Next week I'll be in Florida (probably won't be posting btw). After that who knows? So I'm not sure when I'll be able to use them. Oh well.
In other news, my wife and I almost ate it. We were driving home when we passed an unkept dirt road that I've always wanted to explore. Keep in mind what I said above, it's been raining here quite a bit lately. But it looked pretty flat and mundane, so we decided to check it out and I didn't bother with 4 wheel drive. It was all a mistake, and almost a BIG mistake. The dirt was more like quick sand it turned out with all the rain we'd been having. I lost nearly all traction after about 20 feet. I don't exactly have mud tires (far from it) and they got absolutely CAKED with mud. So we're in 2 wheel drive, and then traction control started kicking in. It keeps you from giving too much gas and spinning the tires, and it resulted in us traveling at about 1 mph, slipping left and right, steering wheel did no good, we were barely missing trees, almost slid off a little hill slope that probably would have rolled us had we gone over at the wrong angle, it was a mess! haha I wanted to pop it into 4WD but didn't want to take my foot off the gas long enough to do it. We made it to a paved alleyway - FINALLY - and decided we'd either never try mud again (I'm not interested in mud tires) or at least put the thing in 4WD before trying even boring looking dirt roads after 2 weeks of epic, flooding rains.
Jeep Wave Count: Still coming...
 | ||
| http://www.skidrowoffroad.com |
In other news, my wife and I almost ate it. We were driving home when we passed an unkept dirt road that I've always wanted to explore. Keep in mind what I said above, it's been raining here quite a bit lately. But it looked pretty flat and mundane, so we decided to check it out and I didn't bother with 4 wheel drive. It was all a mistake, and almost a BIG mistake. The dirt was more like quick sand it turned out with all the rain we'd been having. I lost nearly all traction after about 20 feet. I don't exactly have mud tires (far from it) and they got absolutely CAKED with mud. So we're in 2 wheel drive, and then traction control started kicking in. It keeps you from giving too much gas and spinning the tires, and it resulted in us traveling at about 1 mph, slipping left and right, steering wheel did no good, we were barely missing trees, almost slid off a little hill slope that probably would have rolled us had we gone over at the wrong angle, it was a mess! haha I wanted to pop it into 4WD but didn't want to take my foot off the gas long enough to do it. We made it to a paved alleyway - FINALLY - and decided we'd either never try mud again (I'm not interested in mud tires) or at least put the thing in 4WD before trying even boring looking dirt roads after 2 weeks of epic, flooding rains.
Jeep Wave Count: Still coming...
Friday, June 12, 2015
SPIDERWEBSHADE
So I've bought a few things for the Jeep so far, but nothing has been as satisfying (yet) as the new SpiderWebShade. This thing is awesome! For the uninitiated, it's a mesh cover you elastic-band to the top of your Jeep to give you some shade with the top down. Behold...
The temperature difference in full sun is remarkable. I mean, don't expect a 20 degree difference, but it really is very nice compared to full sun. The main complaint I've heard about these things is that it doesn't feel like you still have the top off; the SpiderWebShade still "feels like a roof." Well, yeah kinda, but not really. You can see through it (see the trees in the second pic?) and it feels very "open air" (the doors being off probably helps that I guess...). My wife said it felt like being under a camping pavilion or something. haha
Anyway, 3 big cheers for this thing. Easy to install, good lookin, and functional. Don't expect it to keep the rain out though! It started raining (kind of hard actually) and the water came through like nothing was there. It was actually kind of nice.
Another story: The other day I was runnin TDDO (top down doors off) and it started raining H-A-R-D. I can't recall ever being out in rain this hard, I couldn't see anything through my windshield with the wipers going full blast, the wind was ridiculous whipping me all around, it was nuts! Thankfully I was on the highway and managed to keep up about 50+ mph and didn't get too wet. Mostly I had water blow in from the sides. I didn't get much from the top. If I'd slowed down another 10mph I'd probably still be swimming though.
Jeep Wave Count: I'm keeping up, really, I just need to review my dumb notes. I'll post it eventually.
 |
| Outside |
 |
| Inside |
Anyway, 3 big cheers for this thing. Easy to install, good lookin, and functional. Don't expect it to keep the rain out though! It started raining (kind of hard actually) and the water came through like nothing was there. It was actually kind of nice.
Another story: The other day I was runnin TDDO (top down doors off) and it started raining H-A-R-D. I can't recall ever being out in rain this hard, I couldn't see anything through my windshield with the wipers going full blast, the wind was ridiculous whipping me all around, it was nuts! Thankfully I was on the highway and managed to keep up about 50+ mph and didn't get too wet. Mostly I had water blow in from the sides. I didn't get much from the top. If I'd slowed down another 10mph I'd probably still be swimming though.
Jeep Wave Count: I'm keeping up, really, I just need to review my dumb notes. I'll post it eventually.
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
More Stuff - Cab Cover
I told you. I told you. I can't save money. :(
Other side of that coin: I got some AWESOME STUFF!!!!@#WEFQ#$^WA%H#%
I finally, FINALLY pulled the trigger on a yellow SpiderWebShade. This guy. I of course don't have it yet to show you, but this is a pic I totally pirated off their website (not my Jeep):
The coolest thing about them in my opinion (aside from the fun colors) is that you don't have to remove it to put the top back up. So now I'll essentially have a yellow headliner all the time! Yay yellow!
Before I tell you my next purchase, let me 'splain. Rain was in the forecast for Wednesday, but it ended up raining (pretty hard actually) on Tuesday. I currently have the top down and doors off and I didn't feel like scrambling to put them all back on, it's supposed to be pretty clear for the rest of the week. Anyway, I had another option- get a cab cover. I'd been wanting one since Go Topless Day anyway (keep sand and possible rain and junk out of the Jeep overnight), but now I wanted one RIGHT AWAY. So I went to 4 Wheel Parts (I'll probably post on them later) and got one. But I broke my rule, it's made by Stupidbilt. I would link to it, but I'm not completely sold on it yet and don't want to lead anyone astray.
Overall it fits pretty good, and honestly if I didn't have doors-off removable side mirrors or running boards it would probably fit perfectly. As it is though, the mirror brackets prevent the side of the cover from completely covering the doorway, and the rails limit my bottom bracket placement options. The end result is a gap between the cover and body at the doorway.
So this cover will keep the rain out of the big areas I'm pretty sure. The fabric itself is rated as "water resistant", not "water proof", but man, it's pretty thick and plasticy. That said, it probably won't be a bad idea to hit it with some water sealer for tents or something. Also, without the top on, the middle of the top of the cover sags down quite a bit. I could totally see water pooling. I think if it came down to it I would put the top up, put the cover on, and at least have protection over the open windows and the majority of the doorways.
That said, look at that gap! Again, it's not really the cover's fault, it's the mirror bracket placement and there's not much to do about it. Perhaps I could move the mirrors to the lower position (the bottom two bolts in the pic), but I played with that when I first put the mirrors on and it didn't work extremely well. I don't want to just remove them all together, even "temporarily". It's not a HUGE gap, and it is a Jeep after all... The cover is really more of an emergency flooding mitigation tool anyway, I didn't expect an airtight seal or anything. But what about that eyelet hole? Seriously? What's that thing all about?
Jeep Wave Count: Still need to tally. :-/
Other side of that coin: I got some AWESOME STUFF!!!!@#WEFQ#$^WA%H#%
I finally, FINALLY pulled the trigger on a yellow SpiderWebShade. This guy. I of course don't have it yet to show you, but this is a pic I totally pirated off their website (not my Jeep):
 |
| http://www.spiderwebshade.com |
Before I tell you my next purchase, let me 'splain. Rain was in the forecast for Wednesday, but it ended up raining (pretty hard actually) on Tuesday. I currently have the top down and doors off and I didn't feel like scrambling to put them all back on, it's supposed to be pretty clear for the rest of the week. Anyway, I had another option- get a cab cover. I'd been wanting one since Go Topless Day anyway (keep sand and possible rain and junk out of the Jeep overnight), but now I wanted one RIGHT AWAY. So I went to 4 Wheel Parts (I'll probably post on them later) and got one. But I broke my rule, it's made by Stupidbilt. I would link to it, but I'm not completely sold on it yet and don't want to lead anyone astray.
Overall it fits pretty good, and honestly if I didn't have doors-off removable side mirrors or running boards it would probably fit perfectly. As it is though, the mirror brackets prevent the side of the cover from completely covering the doorway, and the rails limit my bottom bracket placement options. The end result is a gap between the cover and body at the doorway.
So this cover will keep the rain out of the big areas I'm pretty sure. The fabric itself is rated as "water resistant", not "water proof", but man, it's pretty thick and plasticy. That said, it probably won't be a bad idea to hit it with some water sealer for tents or something. Also, without the top on, the middle of the top of the cover sags down quite a bit. I could totally see water pooling. I think if it came down to it I would put the top up, put the cover on, and at least have protection over the open windows and the majority of the doorways.
That said, look at that gap! Again, it's not really the cover's fault, it's the mirror bracket placement and there's not much to do about it. Perhaps I could move the mirrors to the lower position (the bottom two bolts in the pic), but I played with that when I first put the mirrors on and it didn't work extremely well. I don't want to just remove them all together, even "temporarily". It's not a HUGE gap, and it is a Jeep after all... The cover is really more of an emergency flooding mitigation tool anyway, I didn't expect an airtight seal or anything. But what about that eyelet hole? Seriously? What's that thing all about?
Jeep Wave Count: Still need to tally. :-/
Monday, June 8, 2015
Latest Purchases!
Well, I don't have them yet, but I did pay for them and they're on the way!
1) Foot pegs. I like running doors off and have been disappointed in the "fun" level of my foot/leg placement options. So I picked up these guys.
2) Soft top boot. I also like putting the soft top down and, mostly just for looks, I got this guy. Well, not only for looks. When you put the soft top down, the fabric hangs into the trunk space. You have about 2 inches of storage space before you have to start messing with the fabric to move it out of the way. Not too bad, but when you're loading an arm-full of junk at 1am in a dark street (no trunk light) it's kink of a pain. This boot wraps around the fabric and zips shut, so I'll essentially have more easily-accessible trunk space while the top is down. This as opposed to what I've read anyway about the Smittybilt boot (this stupid guy), and we all know how I feel about Smittybilt anyway. So here's the Rugged Ridge awesomeness (fingers crossed) that I picked up:
So there you have it. So much for my lift savings... Honestly though, there's a heck of a lot more I want that I could have bought and didn't, so I consider it a victorious savings day! ...Right?
Jeep Wave Count: Need to tally, not sure. :-/
1) Foot pegs. I like running doors off and have been disappointed in the "fun" level of my foot/leg placement options. So I picked up these guys.
2) Soft top boot. I also like putting the soft top down and, mostly just for looks, I got this guy. Well, not only for looks. When you put the soft top down, the fabric hangs into the trunk space. You have about 2 inches of storage space before you have to start messing with the fabric to move it out of the way. Not too bad, but when you're loading an arm-full of junk at 1am in a dark street (no trunk light) it's kink of a pain. This boot wraps around the fabric and zips shut, so I'll essentially have more easily-accessible trunk space while the top is down. This as opposed to what I've read anyway about the Smittybilt boot (this stupid guy), and we all know how I feel about Smittybilt anyway. So here's the Rugged Ridge awesomeness (fingers crossed) that I picked up:
So there you have it. So much for my lift savings... Honestly though, there's a heck of a lot more I want that I could have bought and didn't, so I consider it a victorious savings day! ...Right?
Jeep Wave Count: Need to tally, not sure. :-/
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Window Tint
I think I've wiped out on the blog here. My intent was to update every Mon, Wed, Fri, and I still hold to that as being ideal, but I've had trouble making it happen. It's kind of been like a New Years resolution. I think about 1 month of having kept up more or less as planned is actually pretty good.
I will continue to post though, and my new commitment is at least once per week on no particular day. For this week's installment, I got my windows tinted! Here's the guy putting it on.
Not my best photographic work ever, but you can see him working on the passenger side window. The driver side had already been done. I don't have any good pics of what it actually looks like now but I'll try to get one up.
I generally like it ok. I do have a couple... not complaints, just mentionings. whatevs. The total cost for both front windows was under $40, so you kind of get what you pay for and honestly they look just fine. That said, my "mentionings":
Still saving for the lift...
Jeep Wave Count: 58
I will continue to post though, and my new commitment is at least once per week on no particular day. For this week's installment, I got my windows tinted! Here's the guy putting it on.
Not my best photographic work ever, but you can see him working on the passenger side window. The driver side had already been done. I don't have any good pics of what it actually looks like now but I'll try to get one up.
I generally like it ok. I do have a couple... not complaints, just mentionings. whatevs. The total cost for both front windows was under $40, so you kind of get what you pay for and honestly they look just fine. That said, my "mentionings":
- The color is grey. Perhaps that's ok, but the tinted window kits for the rear windows I've seen online for Jeeps look like they come in amber. I do intend to eventually get a tinted window kit for the back windows, and if they ARE in fact amber (and they might not even be) I'll have grey up front and amber in back. That's dumb.
- There are tiny pieces of dirt that bubble out the tint film. They're really REALLY small and toward the lower corner of the driver side (that's all I've discovered so far anyway), but still, I want PERFECTION! haha Well, I did only pay $40 so I'm not going to complain really.
- They're not as dark as I'd hoped. There are laws that govern how dark tint can be, and I believe the law is 35%. I was told my tint is 31%. So it COULD be a smidge darker, but oh well.
Still saving for the lift...
Jeep Wave Count: 58
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Got Money...
No you can't that away from me. NIN kick, sorry.
My birthday recently passed and I got some buckaroos. I'm trying to save it for a lift (IT'S SO HARD!!!) and I'm about half-way there. But I'm getting to the point where I'm like "well, maybe if I just spend a little..." So I'll probably be broke by this time next week. With no lift.
One thing I think I'm going to go ahead and do is tint the windows. Another thing I might like to do is get some light-weight full doors for highway-travelling to places I'll ultimately want to take the doors off at. Like Topless Day for instance - all the rain and junk kept me from leaving the doors at home and driving all the way to Galveston. If I'd had the light-weight doors, I could have just thrown them in the back once I got there.
Anyway, sorry for the boring posts. This is just kind of my Jeep diary and perhaps someone is able to find amusement in it. haha
In other news we recently visited Austin during the crazy floods and rain storms. We managed to stay pretty dry actually, we didn't get flooded at all. But other places in the city did. The only flooding I actually got to see was at Barton Springs pool. First is a picture I found on the web from about the same angle, second is the one I took this weekend.
Crazy. On the way home the rain finally stopped for a while and the sky looked nuts. I've seen red skies in West Texas during and after dust storms, but this was just after rain. I'm not a scientist, I don't know why it looked this way. haha But it looked like you had amber-tinted glasses on or something.
Anyway, that's not Jeep stuff, just interesting. To me anyway.
Jeep Wave Count: 54
My birthday recently passed and I got some buckaroos. I'm trying to save it for a lift (IT'S SO HARD!!!) and I'm about half-way there. But I'm getting to the point where I'm like "well, maybe if I just spend a little..." So I'll probably be broke by this time next week. With no lift.
One thing I think I'm going to go ahead and do is tint the windows. Another thing I might like to do is get some light-weight full doors for highway-travelling to places I'll ultimately want to take the doors off at. Like Topless Day for instance - all the rain and junk kept me from leaving the doors at home and driving all the way to Galveston. If I'd had the light-weight doors, I could have just thrown them in the back once I got there.
Anyway, sorry for the boring posts. This is just kind of my Jeep diary and perhaps someone is able to find amusement in it. haha
In other news we recently visited Austin during the crazy floods and rain storms. We managed to stay pretty dry actually, we didn't get flooded at all. But other places in the city did. The only flooding I actually got to see was at Barton Springs pool. First is a picture I found on the web from about the same angle, second is the one I took this weekend.
 | |||
| http://www.texasoutside.com/bartonpool.htm |
 |
| May 25, 2015 |
Anyway, that's not Jeep stuff, just interesting. To me anyway.
Jeep Wave Count: 54
Friday, May 22, 2015
Crystal Beach Go Topless Day 2015 - Pics!
Ok, sorry it's taken so long, been really busy at work n junk. Here are some pics from Topless Day 2015 at Crystal Beach!
We left on Friday afternoon to head to the beach. I took the back seats out for the trip (first time for that!) and we managed to get quite a bit of stuff in the Jeep with plenty of room to spare!
As we headed to Galveston it started raining. I really wanted to take top down / doors off for the trip so we wouldn't have them to mess with on Topless Day, but rain was in the forecast (we were only hoping it wouldn't rain all weekend!) so we left it on. We did have to keep the doors on (didn't want to try to lay them in the tent or anything once we got there) but we did manage to take the top off. Anyway, on our way into Galveston we had a lovely rainbow to greet us!
I thought this was funny. Our Garmin showed us as being in the water (we were on the Bolivar Ferry).
We started seeing Jeeps in Galveston and many more once we got to the Ferry. We stopped for some last minute supplies and saw some tricked out Jeeps at the store as well. We started getting excited! So we finally get to the beach and ... nothing. Well, nothing much anyway. A few Jeeps here and there cruising up and down the beach, but not the huge spectacle we expected. We drove down a ways, decided there was nothing going on, then turned back and headed the other way looking for a good camping spot - one that was flat and fairly far from the water. Then, we, uh, found it!
We found the party. These pics don't really do it any justice at all, it was absolutely nuts. Jeeps parked on top of Jeeps, people standing around getting wasted, you had to be really careful not to run over anyone! To my knowledge no one did get run over for the entire event, which is both good and a little surprising.
We made our way through the madness and down a little ways and found a great camping spot. We set up our tent, again as always while in the dark (though we had a lantern this time!), and built a fire. We were better prepared on that front as well (as opposed to my last beach camping post).
Here is our tent set up in the daylight. We had a nice little canopy shelter we picked up that we absolutely love. It gave us a nice place to sit in the shade and watch the oncoming madness.
So what is Topless Day all about? Jeeps. It's like a parade! We sat back and watched Jeeps cruise back and forth for hours. And hours. And hours. All day and most if not all night Jeeps just parade back and forth. Here are some pics for you.
It was really awesome to see all the tricked out Jeeps. My wife and I got some ideas as to what we want to do with ours, and she's come around to concede that we need a lift! Yay! haha There was a guy selling flags and we bought one, so we did trick our rather stock Jeep out a little for the event.
It's hard to describe how many Jeeps were there. Forecasts were for 2000-4000 Jeeps. I would say there were probably about 5 miles worth of Jeeps parked really close to each other side by side in two or sometimes 3 rows. It was pretty crazy.
So in addition to watching the Jeep parade we got to go swimming, met some cool people, and generally just lazed about the beach. It was a lot of fun and we intend to go back for sure. Next time with a more personalized Jeep to show off hopefully!
Night time didn't stop the insanity. In fact it bumped it up several notches. My wife and I aren't partiers, so maybe we're not really cut out for the Jeep community because they all seem to be. And then some. They're crazy! There were several fights and drunken stupors to be witnessed. Oh, and one other observation, they enjoy horrendous music. If there's one negative thing to be said about Topless Day, it's that the music that blasts out of every other Jeep is full of nasty lyrics and, well, just sucks to be honest. There was one song in particular that you would recognize if you heard it, and it was particularly popular. We literally heard it like 20 times or more. It became a joke to us. It was the SAME SONG. Over and over different Jeeps would be blasting this freaking song! haha AHHH!!!! I had to turn on some metal every now and then to just clear my head. haha
Anyway, night time. With the night also came all the awesome lighting that people have added to their Jeeps. Crazy headlights, KCs, halos, LED illumination, you name it. It was pretty awesome. Here are some horrible night time cell phone pics.
I hadn't mentioned it yet but there was this little water channel across the "road" that you had to cross to get to "the party" and, further down the beach, our camp site. It started when we showed up to be about, oh, maybe 1.5 feet deep. There was one point when, top down, I decided to gun it through. It had increased in depth to maybe around 2 feet or so and I hit it going, well, too fast. Water shot up and POURED into the car. I mean the seats, us, the back, the carpet, the radio, everything was wet! I thought it was pretty funny, but my wife was, well, pretty upset about it. I'd gotten water all over her and she just didn't see the humor in it. Oh well. Sorry honey. :( I won't do it again.
On Saturday night one of the attractions was to either participate in or just watch people gunning it through the pit or stopping mid-way through to burn out and dig the hole deeper. People were getting stuck, people were losing axles trying to pull each other out, it was nuts. My wife and I just looked at each other and marveled at how "different" this experience was for both of us. haha More bad cell phone pics.
My wife and I finally decided we'd had about enough and made our way back to our tent for a campfire and some smores. Check this sucker out.
We went to bed at, oh, midnight or so completely exhausted, gritty from the sand, and rather sunburned as well. Time for a good night's sleep....
BOOM! WHAT WAS THAT?!?
I looked out of our little tent window and noticed that our canopy cover was, uh, gone. I got out and quickly noticed that the tide had come WAY up, all the way to the tent, had saturated the ground, loosened the pegs, and "bye canopy!" We'd just BOUGHT that darn thing! This was at about 3:30 in the morning. I jumped up and out and noticed that the canopy didn't make it too far (thank goodness). I was able to recover it. I broke it down, put it up, and tried to figure out what I was going to do about everything else. We still had out chairs, our tent, coolers, junk here and there, it was a total mess. Here's how far the water came up.
Keep in mind we started the weekend at least, oh, 100 feet or more from the waterline. The ground got saturated enough to loosen our tent pegs as well and I had to get creative to keep our tent from blowing away. Here's what my handiwork looked like after the sun came up.
Gotta love bungies! I bungied the tent to the car in 4 different places. It worked though, we didn't blow away.
Since everything was wet and half-put up anyway we decided to take out pretty early. We got everything packed up and cruised the beach a couple more times to see who was left and it was like night and day. 4000 Jeeps one day, about 50 the next. We were pretty surprised to see how well most people cleaned up after themselves. It was like nothing had happened.
Here we are on the Ferry back to Galveston.
We finally made it to civilization and ate at our favorite place in Galveston, the Gumbo Diner. We polished off a fun and eventful weekend with a huge bowl of seafood gumbo.
Looking forward to next year! Now to get a lift, bigger tires, halo lights, seat covers, a flag holder, ........
Jeep Wave Count: 54
We left on Friday afternoon to head to the beach. I took the back seats out for the trip (first time for that!) and we managed to get quite a bit of stuff in the Jeep with plenty of room to spare!
As we headed to Galveston it started raining. I really wanted to take top down / doors off for the trip so we wouldn't have them to mess with on Topless Day, but rain was in the forecast (we were only hoping it wouldn't rain all weekend!) so we left it on. We did have to keep the doors on (didn't want to try to lay them in the tent or anything once we got there) but we did manage to take the top off. Anyway, on our way into Galveston we had a lovely rainbow to greet us!
I thought this was funny. Our Garmin showed us as being in the water (we were on the Bolivar Ferry).
We started seeing Jeeps in Galveston and many more once we got to the Ferry. We stopped for some last minute supplies and saw some tricked out Jeeps at the store as well. We started getting excited! So we finally get to the beach and ... nothing. Well, nothing much anyway. A few Jeeps here and there cruising up and down the beach, but not the huge spectacle we expected. We drove down a ways, decided there was nothing going on, then turned back and headed the other way looking for a good camping spot - one that was flat and fairly far from the water. Then, we, uh, found it!
 |
| Those hammocks are hanging off a thing that connects to a tow hitch. Totally getting one of those. |
We made our way through the madness and down a little ways and found a great camping spot. We set up our tent, again as always while in the dark (though we had a lantern this time!), and built a fire. We were better prepared on that front as well (as opposed to my last beach camping post).
 |
| Better fire this time! |
So what is Topless Day all about? Jeeps. It's like a parade! We sat back and watched Jeeps cruise back and forth for hours. And hours. And hours. All day and most if not all night Jeeps just parade back and forth. Here are some pics for you.
It was really awesome to see all the tricked out Jeeps. My wife and I got some ideas as to what we want to do with ours, and she's come around to concede that we need a lift! Yay! haha There was a guy selling flags and we bought one, so we did trick our rather stock Jeep out a little for the event.
It's hard to describe how many Jeeps were there. Forecasts were for 2000-4000 Jeeps. I would say there were probably about 5 miles worth of Jeeps parked really close to each other side by side in two or sometimes 3 rows. It was pretty crazy.
 |
| Don't know if you can tell but it goes back as far as you could see - and this was just in one direction |
Night time didn't stop the insanity. In fact it bumped it up several notches. My wife and I aren't partiers, so maybe we're not really cut out for the Jeep community because they all seem to be. And then some. They're crazy! There were several fights and drunken stupors to be witnessed. Oh, and one other observation, they enjoy horrendous music. If there's one negative thing to be said about Topless Day, it's that the music that blasts out of every other Jeep is full of nasty lyrics and, well, just sucks to be honest. There was one song in particular that you would recognize if you heard it, and it was particularly popular. We literally heard it like 20 times or more. It became a joke to us. It was the SAME SONG. Over and over different Jeeps would be blasting this freaking song! haha AHHH!!!! I had to turn on some metal every now and then to just clear my head. haha
Anyway, night time. With the night also came all the awesome lighting that people have added to their Jeeps. Crazy headlights, KCs, halos, LED illumination, you name it. It was pretty awesome. Here are some horrible night time cell phone pics.
I hadn't mentioned it yet but there was this little water channel across the "road" that you had to cross to get to "the party" and, further down the beach, our camp site. It started when we showed up to be about, oh, maybe 1.5 feet deep. There was one point when, top down, I decided to gun it through. It had increased in depth to maybe around 2 feet or so and I hit it going, well, too fast. Water shot up and POURED into the car. I mean the seats, us, the back, the carpet, the radio, everything was wet! I thought it was pretty funny, but my wife was, well, pretty upset about it. I'd gotten water all over her and she just didn't see the humor in it. Oh well. Sorry honey. :( I won't do it again.
On Saturday night one of the attractions was to either participate in or just watch people gunning it through the pit or stopping mid-way through to burn out and dig the hole deeper. People were getting stuck, people were losing axles trying to pull each other out, it was nuts. My wife and I just looked at each other and marveled at how "different" this experience was for both of us. haha More bad cell phone pics.
My wife and I finally decided we'd had about enough and made our way back to our tent for a campfire and some smores. Check this sucker out.
 |
| mmmmmmmmmm |
BOOM! WHAT WAS THAT?!?
I looked out of our little tent window and noticed that our canopy cover was, uh, gone. I got out and quickly noticed that the tide had come WAY up, all the way to the tent, had saturated the ground, loosened the pegs, and "bye canopy!" We'd just BOUGHT that darn thing! This was at about 3:30 in the morning. I jumped up and out and noticed that the canopy didn't make it too far (thank goodness). I was able to recover it. I broke it down, put it up, and tried to figure out what I was going to do about everything else. We still had out chairs, our tent, coolers, junk here and there, it was a total mess. Here's how far the water came up.
Keep in mind we started the weekend at least, oh, 100 feet or more from the waterline. The ground got saturated enough to loosen our tent pegs as well and I had to get creative to keep our tent from blowing away. Here's what my handiwork looked like after the sun came up.
Gotta love bungies! I bungied the tent to the car in 4 different places. It worked though, we didn't blow away.
Since everything was wet and half-put up anyway we decided to take out pretty early. We got everything packed up and cruised the beach a couple more times to see who was left and it was like night and day. 4000 Jeeps one day, about 50 the next. We were pretty surprised to see how well most people cleaned up after themselves. It was like nothing had happened.
Here we are on the Ferry back to Galveston.
 |
| sanded |
Looking forward to next year! Now to get a lift, bigger tires, halo lights, seat covers, a flag holder, ........
Jeep Wave Count: 54
Monday, May 18, 2015
Pics to Come!
We ended up going to the Topless Day event at Crystal Beach near Galveston, TX over the weekend. We pretty much had a blast! I've got pictures and stories to tell, but I'll need to get the pics off my phone first. I will be posting about this later! Stay tuned!
Jeep Wave Count: Up considerably (though I didn't count waves on the beach), need to tally it up
Jeep Wave Count: Up considerably (though I didn't count waves on the beach), need to tally it up
Thursday, May 14, 2015
To Adventure!
Sorry I didn't post yesterday. And here's another one for ya: Sorry I won't be posting tomorrow. My wife and I ARE GOING to take a trip this weekend. We'll either head to Crystal Beach for Go Topless Day (a "topless Jeep" event, not, you know, the other thing), or if it looks like it's just going to rain there all weekend we'll head out to find some trails in Arkansas. Or who knows, something else maybe. I've been looking forward to going to topless day though, there will reportedly be between 2000 and 4000 Jeeps there! That's a lot of tricked out vehicles to check out. Also beach camping! If you'll recall from an earlier post we already have the Bolivar / Crystal Beach camping sticker for the year and have been planning on going back anyway. But the mountains would be fun, too. We'll see where we end up, I'll try to take some pics, and I'll be back on Monday with a report of some sort.
Jeep Wave Count: 39
Jeep Wave Count: 39
Monday, May 11, 2015
Oil Change #1
I get a couple free oil changes from the Jeep dealer I bought from. The Jeep user's manual says the Jeep will consume oil in its early runnin' days as it distributes lubrication throughout the car, so I decided to get a free oil change at 2500 miles. By the way, I'm already at 2500 miles. I'm not sure how that happened... Seems like a lot of miles already.
I got the oil changed this weekend and the service guy said the Jeep looked perfect from a maintenance standpoint. I hope so, I haven't had it that long! haha He said that the '15 Jeeps generally only need oil changes every 5000 miles. The Eclipse people (previous car) said I could go as many as 6000, but they always put "current mileage + 3000" on the 'next oil change' sticker. So I didn't really beleive the Eclipse people. Side note, I'm dumb with cars. haha The Jeep people actually put "current mileage + 5000" on the sticker, so I guess I believe them. That's nice.
Jeep Wave Count: 39
I got the oil changed this weekend and the service guy said the Jeep looked perfect from a maintenance standpoint. I hope so, I haven't had it that long! haha He said that the '15 Jeeps generally only need oil changes every 5000 miles. The Eclipse people (previous car) said I could go as many as 6000, but they always put "current mileage + 3000" on the 'next oil change' sticker. So I didn't really beleive the Eclipse people. Side note, I'm dumb with cars. haha The Jeep people actually put "current mileage + 5000" on the sticker, so I guess I believe them. That's nice.
Jeep Wave Count: 39
Friday, May 8, 2015
Gas Data
Quick update today regarding gas mileage. First of all, the Jeep reports MPG usage, but when I calculate it myself it doesn't match. So one (or both) of us are wrong. The Jeep reports an average (over 3 fill ups so far since I started tallying this) of 17.3mpg. The average I've calculated myself is 16.72mpg. That's a difference of 0.58mpg with the Jeep reporting better than it's getting. Unless my calculations aren't based on perfect numbers, of course that's entirely possible.
Anyway, the full deets so far:
Also, my average drive time (powered-on-time anyway) per tank is about 11.5 hours.
Well, I think it's interesting...
Jeep Wave Count: 39
Anyway, the full deets so far:
| Reported MPG: | 17.3 | |
| Calculated MPG: | 16.72 | |
| Difference: | 0.58 | |
| Avg Cost/Fill: | $36.40 | |
| Avg Miles Driven/Tank: | 248.13 | |
| Avg Days Between Fills: | 6 |
Also, my average drive time (powered-on-time anyway) per tank is about 11.5 hours.
Well, I think it's interesting...
Jeep Wave Count: 39
Wednesday, May 6, 2015
Death to Smittybilt
I'm sorry for anyone who takes offense at my desire for Smittybilt to die. It's a free country.
Actually, I don't really want Smittybilt to die. I'm sure they have some great stuff. I just haven't found it. So far everything I've purchased that's "Smittybilt" has been... less than enamoring. It turns out there is a local shop with people I really like working with that carries Smittybilt almost exclusively. Sorry guys, it was nice knowing you. :-(
I did just buy a swell cell phone holder though! Not Smittybilt, but Daystar. This guy. Jeep neat-o thing #126: There is a rubber console thingy recessed into the dash. Neat-o thing 126.1: All of the little rubberized cubbies and such are completely removable, making for easy cleaning. Just pop it out, bang it out or rinse it, pop it back in. Awesome sauce. Anyway, under the rubberized dash console dealy there is a bolt. The bolt serves no purpose, it's just there. Well, that's not true, it does serve a purpose- it's for you to be able to bolt things to the dash, like a swell cell phone holder. So you pop out the old rubber dash cubby and bolt on a hard plastic piece to hold your phone. It's a little more complicated than that, but not much. Once that's done, the holder comes with a replacement rubberized piece that you pop in instead of the original rubber piece. It works and looks really great! Also, in case you are a Jeep owner wanting to remove the little bolt, after some giving up of my wallet at Home Depot as collateral to prove that I would return with the sockets that I was taking into the parking lot unpaid for, I discovered after about 5 different tries that it's a 7mm metric bolt.
Jeep Wave Count: 37
Actually, I don't really want Smittybilt to die. I'm sure they have some great stuff. I just haven't found it. So far everything I've purchased that's "Smittybilt" has been... less than enamoring. It turns out there is a local shop with people I really like working with that carries Smittybilt almost exclusively. Sorry guys, it was nice knowing you. :-(
I did just buy a swell cell phone holder though! Not Smittybilt, but Daystar. This guy. Jeep neat-o thing #126: There is a rubber console thingy recessed into the dash. Neat-o thing 126.1: All of the little rubberized cubbies and such are completely removable, making for easy cleaning. Just pop it out, bang it out or rinse it, pop it back in. Awesome sauce. Anyway, under the rubberized dash console dealy there is a bolt. The bolt serves no purpose, it's just there. Well, that's not true, it does serve a purpose- it's for you to be able to bolt things to the dash, like a swell cell phone holder. So you pop out the old rubber dash cubby and bolt on a hard plastic piece to hold your phone. It's a little more complicated than that, but not much. Once that's done, the holder comes with a replacement rubberized piece that you pop in instead of the original rubber piece. It works and looks really great! Also, in case you are a Jeep owner wanting to remove the little bolt, after some giving up of my wallet at Home Depot as collateral to prove that I would return with the sockets that I was taking into the parking lot unpaid for, I discovered after about 5 different tries that it's a 7mm metric bolt.
Jeep Wave Count: 37
Monday, May 4, 2015
Bleck
This job thing, it just won't stop.
So I have a birthday coming up. I have asked for about $5,000 - $10,000 worth of Jeep stuff and expect to get about, oh, $0 worth of it. Items on my list:
This is just top of my head stuff. There's tons I'd like to throw on. A Jeeper buddy of mine said that JEEP actually stands for "Just Empty Every Pocket". Fr rlz.
As a fun counter-post, here's what I've actually put in so far:
Jeep Wave Count: Same (unknown) as last update, still haven't tallied the number. Sorry.
So I have a birthday coming up. I have asked for about $5,000 - $10,000 worth of Jeep stuff and expect to get about, oh, $0 worth of it. Items on my list:
- 2.5" Terraflex lift kit with shocks and springs, installed
- 35" BFGoodrich All Terrain T/A tires (crazy expensive)
- Once all that's done a custom spare tire cover (I've got ideas, but it's too soon to explain!)
- Mean looking front bumper with winch mounting space (haven't decided on one yet)
- Winch
- It would be nice to have a matching-ish rear bumper as well, possible a new spare tire carrier for the larger tire size, not sure how that'll work out
- 6.5" speakers offering a powerful Mid range (hopefully a clean replacement of 6.5" factory speakers)
- Sub (if I can find somewhere to put it)
- Sadly, probably an amp for the sub (can't I just live?) (also if I can find somewhere to put it)
- Seat covers or replacement seats
- Many options on this one
- I'm leaning toward vinyl, leather, or synthetic leather
- I don't want to stain my cloth interior with all manner of staining stuffs
- Options range from a cool Jeep towel that wraps around the seat and fastens ($30) to, like, name your price ($1500 is the highest I've seen) (and yeah right)
- Yellow SpiderShade for getting my top-down shade on
- Flat fenders
- KC lights
- BedRug interior carpet replacement
- Plastic window protector bags (for when they're off)
- Tuffy storage boxes mounted here and there
- STUUUUUUUUFFFFF
This is just top of my head stuff. There's tons I'd like to throw on. A Jeeper buddy of mine said that JEEP actually stands for "Just Empty Every Pocket". Fr rlz.
As a fun counter-post, here's what I've actually put in so far:
- Rear view mirror hanger (neeeeeed it)
- Quick-remove safari mirrors for doors-off
- Grab handles
- 2x 6.5" speakers in the soundbar offering a decent (though not incredible) amount of bass
- A few tools
- Hitch extender for my bike rack
- Awesome rubber floor mats
Jeep Wave Count: Same (unknown) as last update, still haven't tallied the number. Sorry.
Friday, May 1, 2015
Still Alive
Man, what a week. We held a conference that we hold once a year at work and it's always a beast to get through. We made it though! Now for the aftermath...
Anyway, I'm not writing anything of significanceever today, just saying I'm still here and will try to pick up posting again next week. There's still a lot of unpacking, sorting, and catching up to do today!
Jeep Wave Count: Went up, but I don't know by how much, I'll have to check my notes.
Yes, I take notes. #nerd
Anyway, I'm not writing anything of significance
Jeep Wave Count: Went up, but I don't know by how much, I'll have to check my notes.
Yes, I take notes. #nerd
Friday, April 24, 2015
The Speakers Have Spoken!!!
I was surprised to get my new speakers yesterday! After getting all the tools together and junk, I got them installed and I'm rockin in the free world. I have a fair amount to say about them and install pics n junk n stuff, but work is insane and I'll have to post it later. Speaking of posting later, next week will be even more insane with a conference my company is putting on so I don't know when I'll post next. I'd say if nothing else if I should have some stuff up by May 4th. :-)
Jeep Wave Count: 28
Jeep Wave Count: 28
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Speakers Tomorrow! (???)
Hi everyone. And by that I mean "Hi Aron". haha I look at my Views per Post and it's always 0. I figured that's because no one is reading this thing. But yesterday my buddy Aron called me out for missing a Wednesday. (D'OH!) So people ARE reading this! I guess a "view" gets logged for whatever post you might have an auto-shortcut to in your address bar (you start typing a URL and a previously visited URL auto-populates, you click it, blah blah blah), so you view an older post and scroll up to the latest, and there you have it - an un-logged post view. So who knows, I'm probably speaking to millions of people right now hanging on my every word. ..................................taco. BOOM!
Anyway, so my speakers should come in tomorrow. I'll take some pics of the installation process and give you some opinions on how it sounds. I'm hoping it's going to change my entire life. Everything I knew before about music will be shattered by the ridiculousness of these two 6.5" speakers. Prepare to be shocked and amazed.
Jeep Wave Count: 28
Anyway, so my speakers should come in tomorrow. I'll take some pics of the installation process and give you some opinions on how it sounds. I'm hoping it's going to change my entire life. Everything I knew before about music will be shattered by the ridiculousness of these two 6.5" speakers. Prepare to be shocked and amazed.
Jeep Wave Count: 28
Monday, April 20, 2015
Gas Mileage
I've been trying to track my gas mileage to get a REAL world number. The sticker, as I recall, says a '15 Wrangler gets 17mpg City, 20mpg Highway. I've noticed, not surprisingly, that what you actually see is a bit lower. I often get 15-16mpg in-city and more like 19mpg at best on the highway (over time). Right now I've got 19mg going with a good mix of highway and city, so who knows. I intend to start keeping a spreadsheet of my mileage, mpg, gas costs paid, and even driving time per tank in order to get some real numbers. Regarding drive time per tank, the Jeep offers an interesting feature I've never seen on another car (in my admittedly limited experience I suppose). You can start a timer essentially that'll continue to run until you reset it. So you can fill up, reset the timer, drive till you need to refuel, then check the timer and reset it again. Neat-o.
Anyway, all this to say that someday I'll have a really interesting post on this subject.
Jeep Wave Count: 28
Anyway, all this to say that someday I'll have a really interesting post on this subject.
Jeep Wave Count: 28
Friday, April 17, 2015
Nothing new...
So I'm trying to update every Mon, Wed, and Fri if you haven't noticed the pattern. And so far I have a viewership of 0 so I don't think anyone's caught onto that yet. haha So here we are on Friday and I have nothing much new to say. I did get my hitch extender and look forward to bolting that on this weekend some time, but otherwise I'm not going on any fun trips, nothing new is on order (except my speakers still!), no impending mods, nothing. So short and sweet today. Thanks for watching.
Jeep Wave Count: 24
Jeep Wave Count: 24
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Sound System in a 2015 Wrangler 2 Door
I ordered a hitch extension (see Just Hitched) and some replacement speakers to start beefing up my pitiful factory non-premium stereo. Apparently Kicker saw the need and put out some JK Wrangler-specific replacement speakers that don't require brackets, amps, wiring, nothin. You just pop off the sound bar speaker grill, pop out the old speaker, and pop in the new one. At least that's what I'm told/expecting... And all for under $100 for the pair! These guys.
I was looking for a sub to mount somewhere, but space is SO limited in the 2 door Wrangler. I found some interesting options but ultimately decided I didn't want to mess with amps (that would have to be mounted somewhere) and big flippin speakers (that would also have to be mounted somewhere) as I thought about having to use the cargo area, and also while thinking of what would happen to all these devices if I was to *accidentally* decide to drive straight through a river with the top down / doors off during a typhoon someday resulting in a flooded interior. ...It could happen.
So I'll try out these Kickers and see how it goes. They should have better than paper-cone-bass-response, and I believe, if I like them, that a second set will work to replace the in-dash speakers as well. If I get 4 of 'em jammin maybe I won't feel like I even need a sub anymore. I don't need to levitate, I just need something more than rattle when I crank it.
Jeep Wave Count: 22
I was looking for a sub to mount somewhere, but space is SO limited in the 2 door Wrangler. I found some interesting options but ultimately decided I didn't want to mess with amps (that would have to be mounted somewhere) and big flippin speakers (that would also have to be mounted somewhere) as I thought about having to use the cargo area, and also while thinking of what would happen to all these devices if I was to *accidentally* decide to drive straight through a river with the top down / doors off during a typhoon someday resulting in a flooded interior. ...It could happen.
So I'll try out these Kickers and see how it goes. They should have better than paper-cone-bass-response, and I believe, if I like them, that a second set will work to replace the in-dash speakers as well. If I get 4 of 'em jammin maybe I won't feel like I even need a sub anymore. I don't need to levitate, I just need something more than rattle when I crank it.
Jeep Wave Count: 22
Monday, April 13, 2015
Doors Off!
My wife and I picked up some quick release side mirrors for doors-off (these guys) and pulled those suckers off! I'd been wanting to do this ever since I bought the Jeep, but didn't have the opportunity until this weekend. We had 1 day on Saturday of nice weather before an oncoming week of rain so I stripped it while the strippin was good! And as we pulled up to our apartment after a day of doors-off at about midnight I thought to myself "Man, I really should have taken a picture while the sun was up". Oh well. No pics this time.
So how was it? In a word, windy. My wife might say "cold" or "terrifying". I guess sitting in a door-less car on sharp-ish turns at speed takes some getting used to. I thought it was a blast! I honestly have to say that THIS is what driving should be like all the time. I had my shoes off with my foot hanging out enjoying what felt like a really high speed dune buggy ride or something. I told my wife to try sticking her foot out saying that it felt good, and she said "yeah, it'll feel great when your foot gets knocked off!" haha, no sense of adventure. It was pretty awesome, though my facial hair (kind of long right now, at least 6 inches off my chin) did keep whipping me in the face on the highway. If I do doors-off again (and yeah, you know I will) I'll probably end up shaving or at least trimming it. Hair hurts when it slaps your eyeball at 70mph apparently, who knew?
The doors are a lot heavier than I thought they'd be, and I expected them to be pretty heavy already. Not surprisingly heavy, but more than I thought. We live in a fairly small town home apartment (2 story) with hardwood on the bottom floor, so I had to carry the doors out from the street, up some stairs to our landing, into the apartment, then up another flight of stairs to the carpeted 2nd floor. I got a bit of a workout. Than in reverse that night to put them back on before the rain hit. Oh how I pine for a garage...
We're planning on going to Go Topless Day at Crystal Beach in May (info here!) and I plan to strip the thing pretty bare for that. I'll be taking off the top (maybe removing it altogether rather than just letting it down), take out the back seats, take off the doors, all of it! That'll be a fun weekend that I'll need to get pics of.
Jeep Wave Count: 22
So how was it? In a word, windy. My wife might say "cold" or "terrifying". I guess sitting in a door-less car on sharp-ish turns at speed takes some getting used to. I thought it was a blast! I honestly have to say that THIS is what driving should be like all the time. I had my shoes off with my foot hanging out enjoying what felt like a really high speed dune buggy ride or something. I told my wife to try sticking her foot out saying that it felt good, and she said "yeah, it'll feel great when your foot gets knocked off!" haha, no sense of adventure. It was pretty awesome, though my facial hair (kind of long right now, at least 6 inches off my chin) did keep whipping me in the face on the highway. If I do doors-off again (and yeah, you know I will) I'll probably end up shaving or at least trimming it. Hair hurts when it slaps your eyeball at 70mph apparently, who knew?
The doors are a lot heavier than I thought they'd be, and I expected them to be pretty heavy already. Not surprisingly heavy, but more than I thought. We live in a fairly small town home apartment (2 story) with hardwood on the bottom floor, so I had to carry the doors out from the street, up some stairs to our landing, into the apartment, then up another flight of stairs to the carpeted 2nd floor. I got a bit of a workout. Than in reverse that night to put them back on before the rain hit. Oh how I pine for a garage...
We're planning on going to Go Topless Day at Crystal Beach in May (info here!) and I plan to strip the thing pretty bare for that. I'll be taking off the top (maybe removing it altogether rather than just letting it down), take out the back seats, take off the doors, all of it! That'll be a fun weekend that I'll need to get pics of.
Jeep Wave Count: 22
Friday, April 10, 2015
E-Wave
Another hobby of mine is board gaming (total addict) and I'm active on boardgamegeek. I posted a call out to Jeep owners and got a reply with a picture of a Jeep wave. In the pic, the driver is obviously waving at another passing Jeep, but heck with it. I'm counting it. An e-wave.
Jeep Wave Count: 18!
Jeep Wave Count: 18!
Just Hitched
When I bought my Jeep, part of the deal was to get a hitch installed at a later time. The sales guy and I agreed on a "hitch". After I left the dealership, I started wondering what that meant. Just a"hitch", or the wiring for a trailer as well? I called my sales guy about it and he said it would just be the hitch, not the wiring as well. I was bummed. I mean, you discuss getting a hitch with someone and you just kind of expect the wiring is part of that package. I tried to just get over it, I could have wiring installed later.
To set the stage for the next part of the story, first of all I'll say that my sales guy was really nice and I liked him a lot actually. He did his job well and he was really cool and forthcoming about everything I got it in my mind to discuss. I do think he was new to his job and he wasn't the most knowledgeable in the world about the Jeep he was selling us. I know that just comes with time. For instance, the Jeep Sport comes in one of four packages- the 33b, the 34b, the 33s, and the 34s. The "b" means "base" I guess, standard no frills, and the "s" means "Sport S". "Sport S" means bigger wheels (16" base, 17" 'S') and some leather in the interior (steering wheel and shift knob), probably along with some other interior things that allow for other options. The 33 and 34 indicate a Standard or Automatic transmission. Point is, these are all things I understood going in. It was a mystery to my sales guy. Gone are the days when you can talk to a professional that knows more than you do apparently. :-/ Great guy, but hard to work with a little. The whole dealership was kind of like that - every department.
So I finally called to get an appointment to get the hitch installed. Got put on hold. Hung up, tried to schedule through the web. Got a call from the dealership a few hours later. The guy on the other end, I kid you not, told me it was a beautiful day for a drive in a brand new Jeep, when was I going to come by and check one out? This as I sat on my bluetooth talking to him from within the Jeep I'd just bought from them a week ago. He was all, "...oh yeah, you bought the yellow one, right?" Yep. Where's my hitch? I thought he was calling about the hitch appointment, mentioned that, and he said he'd help me with it. He put me down for Thursday.
Wednesday rolls around and I called to verify my appointment. After numerous minutes on hold and being transferred between about 3 different departments, I finally found out the appointment never got made. :-| So I scheduled it for the next day as planned. I asked to talk to someone who knew what I was going to get (hitch AND wiring?), got transferred a few times, people didn't know what they were talking about, who I was, what I wanted, it was maddening. I finally talked to a parts guy that seemed to know what he was talking about and he indicated that "hitch" did indeed mean wiring as well. Well, at least there's that. Score.
I took the Jeep in for my appointment and let the dice fall as they may. The dude I left the car with was kind of short with me. Gone are the days of professional courtesy as well I guess. About 3 hours later I got a call telling me the Jeep was done, and I asked the guy if I got the wiring, and if so if it was a 4-pin or 7-pin set up. There's another story with that debacle, but I digress. It's a long, un-amusing, and similar story. Anyway, he said he had no idea, he didn't really know about that stuff. ?!? Really parts guy? You don't?
Whatever. I went to pick it up, and Lo! A hitch - with wiring! It's 4-pin, but that's ok. I'm not sure I'll ever need the 7-pin anyway.
I was so excited I tried to put my bike rack on as soon as I got home from work. I haven't been able to use the rack for years since I traded in my XTerra for the Eclipse. I popped it on... and, well, hmm...
Just an inch or two off! Dangit! Is nothing easy? Well, at least I have the hitch. I'll just need to pick up an extender. Looks like I can pick one up for about $35 that'll do the trick. The saga continues...
Jeep Wave Count: 17
To set the stage for the next part of the story, first of all I'll say that my sales guy was really nice and I liked him a lot actually. He did his job well and he was really cool and forthcoming about everything I got it in my mind to discuss. I do think he was new to his job and he wasn't the most knowledgeable in the world about the Jeep he was selling us. I know that just comes with time. For instance, the Jeep Sport comes in one of four packages- the 33b, the 34b, the 33s, and the 34s. The "b" means "base" I guess, standard no frills, and the "s" means "Sport S". "Sport S" means bigger wheels (16" base, 17" 'S') and some leather in the interior (steering wheel and shift knob), probably along with some other interior things that allow for other options. The 33 and 34 indicate a Standard or Automatic transmission. Point is, these are all things I understood going in. It was a mystery to my sales guy. Gone are the days when you can talk to a professional that knows more than you do apparently. :-/ Great guy, but hard to work with a little. The whole dealership was kind of like that - every department.
So I finally called to get an appointment to get the hitch installed. Got put on hold. Hung up, tried to schedule through the web. Got a call from the dealership a few hours later. The guy on the other end, I kid you not, told me it was a beautiful day for a drive in a brand new Jeep, when was I going to come by and check one out? This as I sat on my bluetooth talking to him from within the Jeep I'd just bought from them a week ago. He was all, "...oh yeah, you bought the yellow one, right?" Yep. Where's my hitch? I thought he was calling about the hitch appointment, mentioned that, and he said he'd help me with it. He put me down for Thursday.
Wednesday rolls around and I called to verify my appointment. After numerous minutes on hold and being transferred between about 3 different departments, I finally found out the appointment never got made. :-| So I scheduled it for the next day as planned. I asked to talk to someone who knew what I was going to get (hitch AND wiring?), got transferred a few times, people didn't know what they were talking about, who I was, what I wanted, it was maddening. I finally talked to a parts guy that seemed to know what he was talking about and he indicated that "hitch" did indeed mean wiring as well. Well, at least there's that. Score.
I took the Jeep in for my appointment and let the dice fall as they may. The dude I left the car with was kind of short with me. Gone are the days of professional courtesy as well I guess. About 3 hours later I got a call telling me the Jeep was done, and I asked the guy if I got the wiring, and if so if it was a 4-pin or 7-pin set up. There's another story with that debacle, but I digress. It's a long, un-amusing, and similar story. Anyway, he said he had no idea, he didn't really know about that stuff. ?!? Really parts guy? You don't?
Whatever. I went to pick it up, and Lo! A hitch - with wiring! It's 4-pin, but that's ok. I'm not sure I'll ever need the 7-pin anyway.
 |
| Nice, clean wiring harness! |
 |
| oops... |
Jeep Wave Count: 17
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
Side Window ID-10T Error
Anyone in the tech biz knows what an ID-10T error is. I made one.
The side windows in a Jeep attach via zippers and velcro. The attachment is pretty rock solid and sealed tight. That is except for the front edge of the side windows - the oncoming wind facing edge. (Note to reader: The last statement is incorrect, I'm getting there...)
When I bought my Jeep, I was given a pretty dinky little instruction manual and a quick demonstration on how to put the top up and down by a guy who wasn't familiar with the 2015 system. I thought I had an understanding of how the side windows attached. There are little L-brackets on the front edge of the windows that got held in place by the pressure generated between the closed door and the door frame. (Note to reader: Another incorrect statement, still getting there)
I drove around town to work and back for the week with no problems. The weekend came and we headed off to Houston for a trip (see previous post). Once I got the Jeep up to 60 or so, the front edge of the side window popped out from between the door frame and door and became a gaping pocket. Wind was rushing in, it was loud, it was damaging looking, it was not right. I stopped and thought, well, maybe the Jeep isn't supposed to go as fast as 60? Ridiculous, but the top was secured correctly! (false statement) I reset the top into the (in)correct position and decided to keep it slower, about 55. We got a few miles down the highway and it popped out again. This went on for 5 hours (should have been a 3.5 to 4 hour drive). Keep it to 55 (75mph speed limit), pull over, fix, keep it to 55......
I was pretty livid. I couldn't understand why the Jeep would be made this way. Every other side - but the WIND facing side - was totally secured! What brainiac engineer made such a stupid design decision!? I was about to sue everyone, buy a new top, sell the Jeep, whatever I had to do. I was not happy as I putted along I-45 at 55mph, looking in the side-view mirror to see the gaping hole in my car. What if it rained!?
So anyway, we finally got to Houston and I was instantly on the interwebs looking for articles, new tops, instructions, whatever I could find. And I found it. After reading over and over to tuck the L-brackets into the door frame, it finally started clicking. To put the final nail in my ignorance coffin I watched this YouTube video, linked here for your viewing pleasure:
I don't know how to succintly describe what I was doing wrong, or how one does it correctly. Basically there is a step where you wedge those L-brackets back around behind the door frame. Doing so seals and secures THE HECK out of the side window. I can't believe I bone-headed it so completely. You look at it once you've done it right and it's really a "duhhhh...." moment. So I connected the windows correctly and can now travel as fast as I please. ...Well, it IS still a Jeep.
Jeep Wave Count: 14
The side windows in a Jeep attach via zippers and velcro. The attachment is pretty rock solid and sealed tight. That is except for the front edge of the side windows - the oncoming wind facing edge. (Note to reader: The last statement is incorrect, I'm getting there...)
When I bought my Jeep, I was given a pretty dinky little instruction manual and a quick demonstration on how to put the top up and down by a guy who wasn't familiar with the 2015 system. I thought I had an understanding of how the side windows attached. There are little L-brackets on the front edge of the windows that got held in place by the pressure generated between the closed door and the door frame. (Note to reader: Another incorrect statement, still getting there)
I drove around town to work and back for the week with no problems. The weekend came and we headed off to Houston for a trip (see previous post). Once I got the Jeep up to 60 or so, the front edge of the side window popped out from between the door frame and door and became a gaping pocket. Wind was rushing in, it was loud, it was damaging looking, it was not right. I stopped and thought, well, maybe the Jeep isn't supposed to go as fast as 60? Ridiculous, but the top was secured correctly! (false statement) I reset the top into the (in)correct position and decided to keep it slower, about 55. We got a few miles down the highway and it popped out again. This went on for 5 hours (should have been a 3.5 to 4 hour drive). Keep it to 55 (75mph speed limit), pull over, fix, keep it to 55......
I was pretty livid. I couldn't understand why the Jeep would be made this way. Every other side - but the WIND facing side - was totally secured! What brainiac engineer made such a stupid design decision!? I was about to sue everyone, buy a new top, sell the Jeep, whatever I had to do. I was not happy as I putted along I-45 at 55mph, looking in the side-view mirror to see the gaping hole in my car. What if it rained!?
So anyway, we finally got to Houston and I was instantly on the interwebs looking for articles, new tops, instructions, whatever I could find. And I found it. After reading over and over to tuck the L-brackets into the door frame, it finally started clicking. To put the final nail in my ignorance coffin I watched this YouTube video, linked here for your viewing pleasure:
I don't know how to succintly describe what I was doing wrong, or how one does it correctly. Basically there is a step where you wedge those L-brackets back around behind the door frame. Doing so seals and secures THE HECK out of the side window. I can't believe I bone-headed it so completely. You look at it once you've done it right and it's really a "duhhhh...." moment. So I connected the windows correctly and can now travel as fast as I please. ...Well, it IS still a Jeep.
Jeep Wave Count: 14
Monday, April 6, 2015
Beach trip!
My wife and I went beach camping this last weekend near Galveston, TX. Lots to talk about! I'll probably break the experience into multiple posts. So in this issue, the trip itself!
I was so excited to try out the Jeep's 4 wheel drive, my wife and I decided to plan a mini camping trip at the beach over Easter weekend. We were going to Houston anyway to visit family and figured we could sneak a trip in. As the weekend approached the weather started looking like it wasn't going to cooperate. The report was that it was going to be cold and rainy. We went to the family get together SW of Houston (2+ hours from Galveston) for Easter and it went on into the late afternoon, so we didn't leave until 5pm. So here we are at 5pm, wouldn't get to the beach until dark, it was cold, and thunderstorms were in the forecast. Heck with it! We went anyway.
We took the ferry to Bolivar and bought a beach parking sticker for $10. It's good for the entire year! So if you're anywhere near Galveston / Bolivar and want to get some cheap beach camping in, I would recommend the Bolivar / Crystal beach parking sticker! I also bought some firewood and a starter log since we would be out in the cold. (we didn't really plan the trip very well and pack such things ahead of time!)
When we arrived at the beach it was indeed dark. We used the Jeep's headlights and fog lights to set up the tent. I really wished I'd had some KC's. Lighting just went up a tick or two on the to-buy list! We got the tent set up and went to trying to light the fire. The wind was pretty strong and though we dug nearly a two-foot deep hole for the fire pit the wind wouldn't let our tiny little flames spread and light, well, anything really. I was so frustrated and almost gave up, but while walking down the beach we ran into some people who had a bonfire just blazing and they gave us some better fire starter than what we had. Boom!
The fire cast a nice light on the Jeep!
We didn't get rained on that night, thankfully, but it was pretty cold. We had our tent and sleeping bags, but we didn't have great bedding. It wasn't extremely comfortable to say the least. We had little trouble waking up pretty early in the morning (and through the night multiple times). We were sitting there trying to decide if we wanted to get moving before the rain hit when we heard *drop drop drop* on the tent canvass. We shifted pretty quick into overdrive to get the tent packed away before it started pouring as the last thing we wanted to do was get wet in addition to the cold we were already enduring. Add a beach full of wet sand... Yeah, we got that sucker put up quick. And funny enough we didn't see another drop until about 2 hours later. Go figure.
Anyway, here's some pics of us on the beach with the Jeep. They're pretty boring terrain-wise. There really wasn't much (any?) need for 4 wheel drive really. There were a couple areas where the sand was really powdery and I know I would have gotten stuck without 4x4 engaged, but the sand was mostly very packed as pictured.
Good times! We've got the sticker now, we'll be back for sure for the summer and, you know, SUNSHINE.
Oh, almost forgot! Once I got out of the city and into the fun-time zone (Galveston and surrounding areas) I finally started getting some Jeep Waves!
Jeep Wave Count: 14!
I was so excited to try out the Jeep's 4 wheel drive, my wife and I decided to plan a mini camping trip at the beach over Easter weekend. We were going to Houston anyway to visit family and figured we could sneak a trip in. As the weekend approached the weather started looking like it wasn't going to cooperate. The report was that it was going to be cold and rainy. We went to the family get together SW of Houston (2+ hours from Galveston) for Easter and it went on into the late afternoon, so we didn't leave until 5pm. So here we are at 5pm, wouldn't get to the beach until dark, it was cold, and thunderstorms were in the forecast. Heck with it! We went anyway.
We took the ferry to Bolivar and bought a beach parking sticker for $10. It's good for the entire year! So if you're anywhere near Galveston / Bolivar and want to get some cheap beach camping in, I would recommend the Bolivar / Crystal beach parking sticker! I also bought some firewood and a starter log since we would be out in the cold. (we didn't really plan the trip very well and pack such things ahead of time!)
When we arrived at the beach it was indeed dark. We used the Jeep's headlights and fog lights to set up the tent. I really wished I'd had some KC's. Lighting just went up a tick or two on the to-buy list! We got the tent set up and went to trying to light the fire. The wind was pretty strong and though we dug nearly a two-foot deep hole for the fire pit the wind wouldn't let our tiny little flames spread and light, well, anything really. I was so frustrated and almost gave up, but while walking down the beach we ran into some people who had a bonfire just blazing and they gave us some better fire starter than what we had. Boom!
 | |
| Tiny Fire |
We didn't get rained on that night, thankfully, but it was pretty cold. We had our tent and sleeping bags, but we didn't have great bedding. It wasn't extremely comfortable to say the least. We had little trouble waking up pretty early in the morning (and through the night multiple times). We were sitting there trying to decide if we wanted to get moving before the rain hit when we heard *drop drop drop* on the tent canvass. We shifted pretty quick into overdrive to get the tent packed away before it started pouring as the last thing we wanted to do was get wet in addition to the cold we were already enduring. Add a beach full of wet sand... Yeah, we got that sucker put up quick. And funny enough we didn't see another drop until about 2 hours later. Go figure.
Anyway, here's some pics of us on the beach with the Jeep. They're pretty boring terrain-wise. There really wasn't much (any?) need for 4 wheel drive really. There were a couple areas where the sand was really powdery and I know I would have gotten stuck without 4x4 engaged, but the sand was mostly very packed as pictured.
Good times! We've got the sticker now, we'll be back for sure for the summer and, you know, SUNSHINE.
Oh, almost forgot! Once I got out of the city and into the fun-time zone (Galveston and surrounding areas) I finally started getting some Jeep Waves!
Jeep Wave Count: 14!
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