These pictures are the most recent showing off my new Warn M8000. The effect of the new Ranchos is obvious when the Jeep is on flat ground. I am TOTALLY satisfied. Now, for some 31-10.50's!
Compare these first two and you'll see the difference in the lean of the body. The Jeep was in approximately the same place as taken before.
We use the Jeep as a back up for running to town, wich is great considering that the tranny went south in my truck. Most of the time, we play with it. I got to take a couple of pictures a few weeks ago. I had just put the new Ranchos and Warn on earlier in the week. I got to put them to the test. I only got pictures of the stuck. My wife was sitting a long way away and did not have the camera to take shots of the recovery.
This last one is the after shot from that day. I had pulled the others out of the river and on the way to go home, I passed the guts in the Datsun and S-10 playing in a mud hole wich wasn't very deep. Although I knew the ignition wasn't waterproofed yet, they promised to pull me out. They did. It took about 20 minutes to clean the distributor out, and we were CREEPING through that hole!
I took some pics of the Jeep as I was finishing up the install of the springs. I repaced all the bushings with Polyurethane bushings... which I kinda HAD to considering the ones that were in there had worn to the point of the bolt riding on the springs. There were steel sleeves left in the spring hangers which I had to remove with a Ox/Acetylene torch. After running out of oxygen, I had to drive back to my DAD's shop and get the air chisel out to get the last sleve out. Again, the joy of finding I had a DANA 44 instead of the AMC 20!
We finally got the ignition selad up... at least as far as splashing goes. We haven't submerged the engine in water, but it DID withstand all that the water hose could dish out. With a lot of confidence, we went to a nearby creek and splashed aroud on a trail left wet by recent (thank GOD!) rain. To put it plainly, we were NOT disappointed!
We splashed around without getting stuck. There really was a solid bottom out there. Only one time did we use the winch and that was because we drove down a path that others had been digging in with probably 35's or bigger. All forward motion ceased when the axles hit the middle of the rut. The Warn got us out with no problem. My copilot got a little winch training.
