(engine revving)
- This Dirt Every Day Extra,
we're going to answer some more viewer questions.
If you guys have questions,
whether it's about your project vehicle or about the show
or about just life in general,
you can hit us up on Facebook
at the Dirt Every Day Facebook page.
We also have the Dirt Every Day Extras Facebook page,
there's a Dirt Every Day Instagram page,
and then I have my own personal pages
which is four by Fred Williams, 4xfredwilliams,
both on Facebook and Instagram.
Let's dive right into it.
Kevin Greenwall says, or Greenwell,
Kevin Greenwell has a '91 Dodge W250, he's on 38,
and he noticed a hairline crack
in the frame by the steering box
and wondered what the best way is to weld it.
The Dodge trucks do not have the after-market support
that Chevys do, square body Chevys.
Off-road Design offers a steering box brace for the Chevys,
and I don't think they offer one for the Dodge.
I actually haven't had them side by side
to figure out if you could use the Chevy version
on the Dodge, you probably can't.
What you're going to want to do is reinforce the frame
with some thicker plate, and then maybe add
some sort of brace that either runs across the frame
to tie both sides of the frame together
as some sort of a kind of cross member.
I know Synergy Manufacturing makes a steering box brace
that ties the frame rails together
on the newer Dodge trucks, and then it comes off
of the sector shaft of the steering box.
In fact my jeep that's up here beside us on the lift
has the new Synergy steering box skid plate
and steering box brace support
to help stiffen everything up.
That early first gen Dodges with the diesels,
like the early 90s trucks,
I don't know of anybody offering a steering box brace.
You can make one.
If there's a crack in the frame, a lot of times
I've heard that the best way to deal with cracks
is to drill a hole at either end of the crack
to keep the crack from spreading, and then welding it,
or just adding a thicker plate there
through the frame rail or on the frame rail,
maybe it's something a little bit larger footprint,
and then drilling the holes
and mounting the steering box to that.
I hope that helps you, Kevin.
If you come across a company
that is making a steering box brace,
let me know, and I'll pass it on to Kevin.
Let's see, who else here? Michael.
"Fred, I'm a broke college student and I need help."
Well Michael, you didn't ask me any sort of question.
All you did was give me a statement there
that you need help.
I guess my advice to all you broke college kids
is stay in school and get good grades
and then get out of school and get a really good job.
Hopefully you didn't run up too much student debt
and you'll be able to get on with the rest of your life
as quickly as possible after you're out of school.
If you're in high school and you're thinking about
what you're going to do when you graduate from high school,
first of all if you're in high school, stay in school.
Graduate, go as far as you can
with your high school education,
and then when you get out of school,
there's lots of different options for you out there.
You can go to college, you can get a degree,
you can also go to technical and trade schools,
there's lots of great jobs out there for kids
and for people that are just looking
to jump right into the work force.
I know guys that didn't go to college
and they have after-market businesses,
whether it's welders or plumbers, electricians,
started their own mechanic shops,
a lot of guys doing really well.
I think my advice would be pick something
that you like to do and work hard at it
and take a few business classes
if you're looking for what your future's going to be.
So Michael, you're a broke college student.
Stay in school and get out of school and get a job,
and then you can get into off-roading.
Off-roading is not a cheap hobby.
There's ways you can do it inexpensively,
but it's not like frisbee.
Like you get a frisbee, and you can play frisbee.
Four by four, it's going to cost time and money,
and you're going to need tools and parts.
So good luck.
Let's see, who's next?
Somebody asked, "What size Old Man Emu lift
"did you put on the junkyard YJ with 35s?"
We only put a two inch lift on that jeep.
Old Man Emu actually doesn't recommend that,
they would recommend a smaller tire.
I wasn't really too concerned about the tires rubbing.
In the future I would probably trim the fender wells
or replace the front fenders and hood,
some sort of after-market hood.
I know Chris Durham Motor Sports makes
a fiber glass hood that allows a taller tire clearance.
Actually, my TJ, which is up here on the lift behind me,
has one of those Chris Durham hoods on it,
so that's a good way to go
if you want not very much lift and a big tire.
Another question.
This is from Eric.
"Just wanted to ask you some advice real quick.
"My name is Eric, I'm getting out
"of the Marine Corps in a couple months
"and stationed in Camp Pendleton, California."
Thanks for your service there, Eric.
"And I have a '97 TJ with a 2.5 four cylinder,"
which is just like what my tube sock jeep used to have,
"and a 30 RH automatic."
Wow, four cylinder automatic TJ, I bet that's a dog.
"And I'm pretty sure 307 gears."
Yep, you're probably right.
"I'm originally from Orlando, Florida,
"and I'm going to road trip the jeep
"back to there when I get out.
"Besides not doing it, do you have any advice,
"tips, or cheap upgrades I should do before I go?"
I don't think you're going to have any problems with your TJ.
You're probably not going to be the fastest jeep on the highway
headed back to Florida, but I think you'll have a good time.
The nice thing about the four cylinder and the automatic is
you don't have enough power to hurt anything,
and the automatic will kind of protect
all the drive train down stream,
so it really shouldn't have any issues.
I would make sure everything is up to snuff,
your cooling system, your transmission cooler if it has one,
maybe flush all the fluids through everything
and put fresh fluids, oil change, check your tire pressure,
air up those tires as much as you can
because running down the highway,
you'll appreciate having a stiffer tire
will get you a little bit more fuel economy.
Any cheap upgrades?
Let's see, what else has he said?
"I've already put on new shocks, tires, wheels,
and a wench, and I'm sure it's mechanically sound."
I think you're pretty good to go, you'll have a good time.
I had once drove a four cylinder TJ, actually it was a YJ,
across America, actually it was from Pennsylvania
to Colorado, so it was only halfway across America.
It was a good trip, it wasn't very fast,
but jeeps are a lot of fun to road trip in
because you have the four wheel drive abilities
to kind of go explore back roads.
I think that would be my biggest advice
is don't be in a rush to get to Florida.
First of all, you're not going to be getting there very fast
with a four cylinder and automatic,
so take your time, have a good time.
If you're going from California all the way to Florida,
I would go check out Utah,
Utah's got lots of great national parks and Moab,
go check out Colorado, your four cylinder automatic
will have a good time trying to get over the Rocky Mountains
but it's a gorgeous state to check out.
Arizona's pretty neat depending on the time of year.
You might want to steer clear from there
if it's the middle of the summer,
but if it's later in the year or the fall,
you'll have a good time crossing Arizona.
Pretty much all of the West is pretty epic.
There's amazing stuff to see in America,
if you haven't had a chance to kind of road trip
across America, whether it's in a jeep or a truck,
or whatever you have, go do it.
I think it's really worthwhile doing.
Time well spent is traveling around the U.S.
Let's see, what else do we have here?
Rob Fox says, "Fred, bring your flat fender to an event
"you create at Mosquito Pass in Colorado.
"Deadline, got to do it before it gets snowed out."
Mosquito Path is one of those
high mountain passes in Colorado.
I haven't done Mosquito Pass, but that's a great idea.
Instead of finishing my grampy flat fender project,
the one that I kind of do updates on all the time,
and getting it done for somebody else's event,
maybe I should just plan on doing
some sort of adventure in it and then set a date
and just set my own deadline, and go for that.
Maybe if I do that, I'll put a shoutout to everybody
that grampy's done and I'm going wherever I'm going with it
and I'll let you all know, and if you want to meet up
and go four wheeling, we can go four wheeling.
What does this guy have to say?
"Hey Fred, I'm sure you're busy," da, da, da, da, da,
"I'm new to four wheeling," da, da, da, da,
"I went out and I bought myself a four door Rubicon.
"I didn't do enough research, I ended up
"with an '08 auto with a 3.8.
"It has a 190,000 miles in the chassis,
"60,000 miles on the engine.
"I got an okay deal because of the mileage,
"and it's overall in good condition
"and hasn't been wheeled too much.
"I owe about 12k on it, just want to know
"if you think it's worth it to do upgrades
"or if I should trade to a newer 3.6?"
The JKs around 2012 changed from the 3.8 liter V6
to the 3.6 liter V6, and even though the 3.6 is smaller,
it's a much better engine.
It has more power, it's a lot more fun to drive.
The 3.8 is kind of a dog, but I know a lot of people
that drive a 3.8 every day and go four wheeling with a 3.8
and like, if that's what you have, just run with it.
Rather than spending more money to get a better engine now,
maybe you just try it out and go four wheeling,
see what it'll do, add a few upgrades over time.
Down the road, maybe you can do a V8 swap,
depending on what states you live in,
and what after-market your local laws allow,
but I don't think the 3.8 is terrible.
I mean, there's definitely better engines out there,
but you can still have a lot of fun with a 3.8.
If you find a smoking deal on a 3.6,
or you haven't bought your jeep yet
and you're looking to buy one of the new Wrangler JKs,
I would definitely go with a 3.6.
I think it's a better engine.
So 2012 and newer is the Wranglers that have the 3.6.
2011 back to 2007 are the 3.8.
You got it, I say just run with it Aaron,
don't worry about it too much.
Any other questions on here that we didn't touch on?
What does this guy have?
"Hey Fred, I have a 2013 two door JK,
"and the first upgrade I wanted to make
"is a stubby bumper and wench.
"I was looking a WARN for both,
"but are their bumpers worth it?"
I think WARN makes a great product.
Most of the wenches that I run are WARNs.
As far as the bumpers, everybody,
bumpers are kind of like shoes.
Like, there's shoes that are really good performance stuff,
and there's shoes that just look a certain look,
and shoes are kind of personal preference.
If you like how the WARN bumper looks,
and it will clear the tires that you want, then go with it.
There's some companies that make a really narrow bumper,
other companies make a big bumper that kind of protects
all the way out to the edge of the fenders.
I like the narrow bumpers,
because I like when I'm off road
that the tire is the first thing to hit an obstacle.
But it's kind of personal preference.
I know WARN makes a good product.
If they have the bumper that you like how it looks,
then I fully support going that route.
Any other questions in here?
Da, da, da, da, let's check the other.
Let's see if anybody sent any new messages.
No.
One more file here.
Oh, we got two questions here.
I don't know that.
Somebody said that on a prior episode
I had asked about why don't trucks have
tire pressure monitor systems for the trailers,
and I had a reader reach out to me
and tell me that the new Ford trucks
are offering that ability so that you can put
tire pressure monitors in your trailer,
and the tire pressure system on the dash
will be able to read that.
I haven't actually seen it for myself,
but a viewer has reached out and said that that is an option
for the Ford trucks, so that's pretty cool.
If you are looking for that attribute
and you're looking at a new Ford truck,
I would double check and make sure
that it actually works that way, but that's kind of cool
because then when you're towing,
you have the ability to monitor your tire pressure
on your trailers, and if a tire starts running low pressure,
you can stop and air that up.
That's one of the things about trailer tires,
you want to run trailer tires at a really high pressure.
Trailer tires are usually rated at like 80 to 90 psi
to help support the weight and to reduce heat.
That's another thing, when you're running
any sort of tire off-road, you really want to have
a lower air pressure so the tire footprint spreads out.
On road, you want to have a higher tire pressure
to help dissipate heat.
Finally, "Fred, why don't you bring
"your little jeep to Buzzard Canyon near Sayre, Oklahoma?
"In March, they usually do an open wheel weekend."
I've never head of Buzzard Canyon near Sayre, Oklahoma,
but maybe next March, we'll have to come check it out.
If not, if you guys live near Sayre, Oklahoma,
and your looking for a place to go four wheeling,
check out Buzzard Canyon.
That's it for Dirt Every Day Extras,
we will talk to you soon.
If you guys have more questions,
whether it's about how to cook an awesome omelet
in the morning or what color tie goes
great with blue slacks for father day,
tune in or send us a message,
and we'll let you know whatever we think.
I don't usually wear ties.
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