I’ve had my JK Rubicon for a little over a year. Not my daily driver, and we’ve taken it on state trails a handful of times, along with lots of top-down-doors-off cruises. Earlier this year I replaced the stock bumper and added a winch.

Took it out yesterday with the wife and kid to a trail we hadn’t run before and learned a bunch.

Used my deflators for the first time. That was pretty easy.

Not long into the ride with some staggered washboarding, my wife learned that a big lunch before a ride with extreme wobble can cause that lunch to become smaller after the fact.

I learned that even a stock rubicon is extremely capable… of getting stuck really good. I saw the ruts. Looked passable. Didn’t stop. Saw that they were a lot deeper than I thought once I was too far in and grounded the frame. New winch - no help. Traction boards, no good. Helpful side by side with a tow strap (pulling backward) - nope. Ended up digging out some of the dirt manually and getting a manual push back. I know it happens to everyone, and I’m super thankful for the folks that came along. Still embarrassing. It was dumb. Learning experience, I guess.

After that we bailed on the rest of the trail and turned off on the next crossing to head home. Stopped to air the tires back up, first time with the new inflator. Easy enough! Until I knocked it off the wheel well while coiling the tube and grabbed it mid-fall… by the cooling fins. Holy crap that hurt. Learned just how hot that thing gets and that the ground is the best place for it. Started blistering right away. Used the first aid kit for the first time too.

All in all, we had fun, and I’m super grateful for the help I got, and that I had all the recovery and safety gear on hand. I’ve technically been a member of our local jeep club for a while, but never actually gone to anything with them. Going to try to do more as a group and ideally try to avoid learning too much more the hard way.

EDIT - I got two videos in the comments.

Went on an easy ride and I overheated, brake line exploded, and I think I got water in my engine.

Back story: I had some overheating problems off road a couple years ago, and then when it started overheating on-road I got a water pump replaced. I've only been driving it on-road since then and no overheating problems. This past weekend I decide to go off-roading. There is a long steep climb on pavement to get to the trail. I started over heating right at the top. I pulled over for a few minutes and let it cool down. Then I went on a fairly flat and easy trail ride.

I have a snorkel and thought I'd hit a few little mud holes. I went through them no problem...then there was the last one. I have it on my dash cam, but I can't upload the video in the post. I get halfway through and it shuts off. Takes me a second to crank it. Based on the video it looks like the air filter area was wet. So It takes a few tries and it cranks, then takes me a few seconds to get out of the hole. I think it is odd that it died because I have a snorkel. I didn't think about water getting in the intake. I was thinking more about a short or back pressure or something with the tail pipe underwater....never had this happen so I wasn't sure what was going in.

Warning lights are beeping...I don't even remember which ones. The check engine light is always on because of the emissions. I am not too far away from pavement and decide to start heading back. I start running warmer than normal. Shortly after I hear a loud squeaking noise from my tire. When i go to hit my brakes....there were none. I get stopped with my hand brake and it looks like my brake line exploded. At this point I put it in low range to help get me out since I have no brakes.

I get ALMOST to the pavement...two small hills, and I'm overheating bad. Three side by sides were coming up on me and I was at a wide spot in the trail. I pulled over to let them pass, turned the engine off to cool down for a little bit.....then she never restarted. I would turn the key and get one "Click". Had to get my wife to bring my Gladiator and I had to tow myself to the pavement. i got it towed home.

I started running everything through my head what happened, so I got curious and popped open my air filter. It was wet and somewhat muddy. You can see in the pics that it looks like it went into my engine. Does it look like water got in my engine to you? It did run 10-15 minutes after it shut down the first time.

If you were me, what would your next step be? 2008 JKU. 250K. Overall it was in good condition. Now I'm looking at maybe a busted engine, busted brakes, and some overheating problem I don't know where to attack.

I was driving my CJ yesterday when it suddenly caught fire under the hood (it isn’t a real renegade). Everyone was safe, I got it off the road in short order, and am very thankful for the local business’s fire extinguisher. The fire appears to have started from the wiring harness. As you can gather the paint was mostly saved and the fire was well contained but the I4 under the hood is toast.

I am now faced with the decision of what motor to replace this with. My gut said to just find another jeep motor for simplicity but since the wiring harness is already cooked I am wondering if a small block Chevy swap might end up being easier and more reliable. my thought is that the wealth of resources on the topic will guide me and make the swap pretty plug and play.— perhaps similar effort to a rebuild/replace. Thoughts? Any other options I should look at?

Whoops!

I have a 2022 Gladiator Sport Max Tow. Lifted 3” on 37s. I’m getting new 4.88 Yukon gears installed along with a TruTrac lsd in the rear end and an E-Locker in the front. I booked the job a month ago but the shop I’m using had issues getting in parts and is only now getting to the install. They been very communicative with me and I trust their work.

The issue: the shop confirmed that they will have the truck ready to picked up tomorrow (Tuesday). I am supposed to be leaving on Wednesday morning for a group off-roading/camping trip in the ozarks, about a 10hr drive from me. Leaving on Wednesday is a non-negotiable because I’m scheduled to meet a work client halfway in St. Louis.

What can I do to break in the gears on such a short notice? The shop is doing the 1st 100 miles so that leaves 400 miles for me to break in effectively Tuesday night. I can do fluid swaps and such on my own so I’m not worried about taking it back to the shop for that.

Should I try to drive all 400 miles and swap out the diff fluid Tuesday night? Or would I be ok to drive to St. Louis if I take it easy and swap the fluid in a parking lot after my business meeting?

I am going to replace my thermostat in hopes the P0128 goes away. I want to do this without draining the radiator. I've seen a few videos and they all say to disconnect the hose then unscrew the thermostat housing. Idk if I'm missing something but wouldn't it make sense to unscrew the thermostat housing while the hose is connected, then prop it vertically and then disconnect the thermostat housing for minimal coolant loss. Linked is the video I found that shows the procedure without draining the radiator. Credit to OP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4XEUc8fdRg

I’m just a girl…..who is clueless about cars. I have a 2019 Jeep Cherokee and this just popped up on my screen.

Perfect day to get dirty 🤓🤓

I bought this off marketplace for $60 for a shop wall hanger. I think it’s from a cj2a, does that look right? I’m not super well versed on the early jeeps.

Third picture is photoshoped with the new grille. I don’t know if I like the matte look, what do you guys think?

This little cutout that has flip flops on it

Saw this Jeep in a parking lot. Duckie's on the dash.Could be Ernie's Jeep.

3 years of owning my jeep wrangler,
Just had my first death wobble, fck that was scary 😬😬

Hoping someone else has had the problem I’m having and that I can get an idea of what the problem is. I’ll be taking it in for service soon, but I’m hoping to know what I’m looking forward to.

I have a 2020 Sahara, automatic transmission.

The issue is that there is a loud clicking noise under the vehicle that coordinates directly with acceleration speed/wheel rotation. Slow clicking when I’m rolling and ramped up to a high speed whir on the highway. It’s maddening. To my ear, it’s on the right side, but I don’t know if it’s front or back.

It started shortly after my brakes were done at one point, but the shop looked at it and said they didn’t see anything. And as luck would have it, they folded in the middle of the night so I can’t even deal with them anymore.

Any ideas?

This is my 1983 Mitsubishi Jeep Station Wagon.
Mitsubishi built Jeeps under license from Willys from 1953 to 1998.

The early station wagons were also based on the Willys Station Wagon, but from 1962 Mitsubishi developed its own frame and body for the five-door J30 series, which remained in production until 1983.

All engines were four-cylinder, but the availability of diesel engines was one of the interesting features.

Mine has a later turbo-diesel engine swap. It gets around 12 km/L (28 mpg US), which is pretty good for something that looks like this.

How much do you know about Mitsubishi Jeeps?