Colorado JP #29

[DrewSmith007]

Thanks for documenting this. I've wondered how I'll be doing that once the time comes...

[COBrian]

Came home to a goody on my doorstep tonight. The speakers in the sound bar were blown, so I hit up amazon earlier in the week for the some cheap speakers. I ordered some Pyle 5.25" Red label speakers, which are rated at 80 watts RMS, and since my head unit puts out max 50, I figured .. good to go. And they were sitting on my doorstep.

I've never been a huge audiophile, as far as telling the difference between brands of speakers, Hence I went cheap. $20 cheapest thing I have done to the Jeep so far

Took the sound bar off. (2 bolts into the side bars on each side, and 2 to the cross bar, and unplug the wire on one side). Took it inside and started to work.... Pulled the old grills out of their channel so I could access the mounting screws, one grill was really stuck, and since I was trashing them anyway I just beat on it till I got it out.

Go to install the new ones, and I am like wait.. these aren't going in all the way... I pull the old speakers back up, and they were only 4" speakers..... All the online info I could get said speakers were 5.25, and the external grill of the old ones was 5.25" when I measured it... Oh well.... So I grab out my metal shears and enlarge the hole on both sides. Packed the holes with batting we had in my wife's craft room, and installed the new speakers. Reinstall sound bar, plug in and all good!

One thing I disliked a little the Pyles have a squared grill cover.... the sound bar is not exactly flat, so the grill covers don't quite sit as flush in the mounting channel as round ones would be.. still in, just one corner of each one isn't in as far as the other corners.. But on the other hand the square actually looks nice since the whole bar is rectangular....

The PO (I've mentioned how idiotic they were on other items...) installed the head unit wiring harness wrong, and my front left and rear left were correct, but the front right and rear right were swapped... so if you tried to fade to the fronts or rears you got diagonal adjustment... crazy.... I figured I should fix this as well.

So.. drop my AC unit down(5 bolts across top of ac unit, go straight up into dash, middle one has to be accessed THROUGH the unit (access hole)) , remove center console(6 screws), and then access radio. Removing a radio without the special tools they give you when you buy it wasn't fun, With the AC out of the way you can get to one side with a screwdriver to release the tab. The other side, my particular radio a coat hanger, straightened out, was able to release the other side tab. Once out swapping the wires was your standard wiring job with crimp connectors.

So all good to go with the tunes now.

Also stopped on my way home and picked up a 4x4 guide book for central colorado trails. We will be hitting an easy "off pavement" trail tomorrow, with a side hike to a fire watch tower with the family. Should be a blast! And start getting used to the rig off road. (pictures/trail report when I return)

[COBrian]

Just got back from our day trip. We were planning on a hike as well, but ended up just taking several medium length breaks and some boulder climbing, and lunch.

Mostly my wife took pics of the kids, but I did snatch the camera and snap this shot. This was the "hardest" section of this particular road. I scraped the skid plate, (that what it's for right?) and got the right rear bumper thingy on the rocks just left of this pic, that I had just gone over. Nothing major, just a rock rash on the lip of the bumper thing. Like I told my wife.. well thats what it's for I suppose!

Beautiful, Up Here.

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Bigger Shot, rocks to left are ones I got... :)

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Was a blast, jeep did awesome, of course the road is only rated a 3/4(depending on the line you choose in those rocks I rubbed on) out of 10, so not like I was attempting anything crazy...

[Boomerjinks]

Where was that, specifically? You me and AJ should go to Idaho Springs and take Oh My God Road to East Portal of the Moffat tunnel.

[COBrian]

This is on Dakan Road. a 4wd "easy" road that goes 14 miles through the SouthPlatte Ranger District. It starts off 105 and heads over to Rampart Range Road.

Link to Trail Damage 4wd club description of road http://www.traildamage.com/trails/index.php?id=152

Map of Road - Pictures were taken at the "rough patch" on the map

Dakan Rd Map

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Oh my god sounds great, we should get it done before snow starts up there.

[AJ Quick]

I'm game.

[COBrian]

Well that was fun.... Just spent an hour taking off the completely rusted aftermarket fog light mounts off my front bumper....(at least thats what I think they were.)

Top View

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Thats what they looked like... The Center is a carraige bolt basically, then that round thing has a bushing between it and the bumper, then under the bumper was another bushing about twice as thick as the top one, then a bushing holder/washer thing, then of course the lock washer and nut.

I had to cut out the rubber bushing below the bumper to have enough room to get the cutter into the bolt. Removing the bushing, I just used a chisel to hammer through it, and then pried it out, in order to get to the bolt. Then I used an air rotary cut off tool I had to cut the bolts off in order to remove them. Air Rotatry Tools Rock! But I need a bigger compressor.

[COBrian]

So went on a fall colors tour with the Colorado Movie Car Club. Even though Mine isn't really started yet

Jeep and Fall Colors

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Cars in Attendance: Ecto-1A, Resident Evil K-9 Transport Vehicle, My Jeep, Herbie Porsche 911, and General Lee

Colorado Movie Car Club - Fall Color Run

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General Lee is an unbelievable car! But he got 5-6 MPG the whole trip.. OUCH!

General Lee

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[ImperialTrooper]

It's not about the MPG, it's all about the FPG. Fun Per Gallon. My Jeep has a whole lot more FPG than a Prius.

[Boomerjinks]

Obligatory photo dump from Sam's shots. Logan's pictures will be coming soon.