Life of Pie

Shadowfire

New member
Decided to start a thread for the trips and future upgrades of my 2 Door Punk’n Pie Rubicon..hope this is the right place.

This weekend was a trip down to Big Bend National park and a stay at the little ghost town of Terlingua Texas. Leave it to us to plan a trip to the desert in the middle of their rainy season...rainy season in the desert..who knew. Anyway the drive down was rain rain rain, the news was just saying how the month of October alone has brought over 10 inches of rain here at home an area that averages that much a year. We were looking forward to a trip of some trail riding and some hiking and maybe some bike trails. First trip to Big Bend, first actual trail trip with Pie. I also have Tango an 04 TJ which was the replacement for my 90 YJ...Cash...yeah I know cheesy but cash came first and it was a money pit hence the name anyway the point is even though Pie is new to me I’m not new to Jeep’n. My partner on this trip was my brother in-law and his new Tacoma. Couldn’t have him do better than me on the trip he was sure he would but spoiler alert he didn’t. Neither of us was ready for a crazy trail that would require one of us to ride back with the other so we were in agreement if it didn’t look safe we weren’t doing it. We did the panther trail and to be honest a side frame 1 sketchy mud area we didn’t even need 4x4. Nice scenic dirt road really, a few drops some baby rocks and barely any trouble but the hiking trail and views were worth it..each part of the park has something to see, a land mark or fossil exhibit you know park stuff. As we continued on to the next trail which I should have written down and ended up at the trail for balancing rock, it’s a walk up trail about 1 mile in from the main trail. Oh did I mention it was raining..anyway back on the road and out to hit the restaurant at the top of a very steep winding road in the park. The higher we went the less we could see, I could tell that the drop off on my wife’s side was pretty steep since what I could see looked like tree tops, but fog and rain obscured all that and thankfully so evidently my brother in law isn’t into seeing that, gives him vertigo. Also colder up higher and if my stupid off road app would work I could get an altitude on the way down I think it said 8500 ft but that app was useless to me. After lunch we head down to the Terlingua Ranch Road it was a long road that emptied out of the park North of Terlingua and maybe 30 or so miles from home for the weekend and the bar with the really good margaritas. As we started down that road it didn’t seem to awful a few twists and turns and down and around and crap....a long stretch as far as we could see of mud and standing water obviously where all that rain was ending up. There was no running water or river flow or stream and the road was well defined as far as sides and edges and no drop offs, just mud and water. So the Tacoma heads in...my wife..the cautious one of the group says are we going in there? Sorry, the dice has been rolled Taco is in so we are in, everything will be fine we will just keep moving not too fast and not to slow just keep it steady as long as we don’t stop we should be good. Besides If Taco gets stuck I have to save him ...lol so we start in get about half way in and Taco stops ....Noooo what is he doing move Taco move don’t screw us up we’re doing great steady not too much sliding ...I end up going low into the deep stuff and the momentum just wasn’t enough so there I am stopped. Oh and yeah we have no com with each other because he didn’t bring a radio and our cells have no service ... Taco starts moving and continues on around the bend...you bastard...lol my wife says now what? No worries I have a secret weapon...diff lock I’ll just drop her in Lo and lock the diffs get moving and head up to where tacos was and out we will go..so first Lo try as I said I’m stopped neutral it won’t go into Lo the lever moves in the direction of Lo I feel it ..just not going in..keep working it ok finally it’s in...diff lock switch let’s go slow...because Lo is really crawl and we start moving cpl of feet and stopped ..slipped out wtf ok back in maybe I wasn’t quite in...diff switch rolling ok about 10 ft bam back out ...wife why is it doing that? I don’t know but I know how to keep it from popping out, so I hold the lever back and drive 1 handed we roll for about 20 yards in Lo I make it to the top side where Taco was and around the bend more mud more water...where’s Taco. By now it’s staying in low and all is working as expected we make it out and there in the wet sandy are beyond the mud is Taco and my brother in-law and his wife videoing us coming out. We thought you got stuck.....Thanks for making that more challenging than it needed to be why did you stop? Oh I wanted to switch into 4x4 I wasn’t in yet and didn’t want to get stuck. Lol you should have just done it 2 wheel I’m sure you would have been fine. A few more miles a lot more mud but now I’m in the lead...we come out with a cpl hundred pounds of mud it seemed and everyone made it out alive. Made for great convo at the bar and btw Lo worked every time after that so I just chalked it up to new.

Day 2. We head out to what looks to be a very nice clear day with no rain in sight today we r headed to a trail called old ore road we are expecting this 26 mile trail to take about 4hrs to finish and to have some really awesome views. First we head down another trail that connects to the ore road it was home to a very ominous looking large tarantula who, had he been interested very well could have owned my Jeep. Lucky for me he was not..anyway the trail was a desert road that was surrounded by mountains, so flat and level but surrounded by Yukas and many other types of cactus and desert plants I was hoping to see more lizards and no more hairy monsters...as we got onto the Ore road I imaged how difficult that would have been to travel by horse and ore cart...that was one cool trail. It started out with door deep water (for Taco) not quite for me that helped wash some of the crap from day one off and stair stepped stones that were fun to crawl up and down as the trail wound up and down between the mountainous terrain. As we proceeded across the midway point the trail kind of narrows to one vehicle wide and steep drop offs on both sides at this point we hadn’t seen anyone but i still was looking at where I would go if needed. Then across the gorge it appeared someone else was out on this trail headed toward us, it was pure luck that just as we met the trail opened to a viewing area where we could move over and pass no problem. It happened to be a border patrol officer and so we chatted for a bit, he asked us how the trail was we just passed and we the same of him. He told us about a popular ruin area for an old ranch house and so we decided to make that our lunch stop. As for the ruin area well it was an old stone house that was just a few walls and a stone fence, even in its new state it looked to be very small and modest dwelling for the person or people that lived there. As soon as we finished lunch and started back south on the trail it started to rain again. We still had about 12 miles to go and as this trail was proving to be very fun and scenic I expected it to be much more of the same the rain however was going to be key to my second Lo gear failure. For this trail I don’t think I mentioned that I was lead the whole time, Taco enjoyed the benefit of watching my line in deciding his, from where we met the border patrol to where we were was a decent from this point we climb back up over another narrow part of the trail up and over and back down the other side. So far all that has been needed was 4 hi and some slow going and again no major drops or rocks but a few that managed to catch Tacos steps/sliders on the climb up there were some stair steps and a section of rock face that was pretty smooth but steep with drops offs on both sides I should have accounted for the rain making it pretty slick and switched into Lo before my approach but so far easy peasy as I start up I get about half way and then start sliding back I should have backed down and switched into Lo but no I figure it’s all worked out I’ll switch into Lo and crawl on up ...nope had to hold it in but made it up no problem...that’s when I figured I just need to work on it and plan ahead ..new motto is 4 Lo before u go..not gonna get into a spot because of my failure to plan..btw Tango has never had an issue with Lo and I need it all the time due to the shitty gear ration and tires anyway we make it and over and into the next water/mud obstacle and a group of 7 jeeps headed back the way we came, I moved over for the group since they were a larger group of the 7 only 1 wave and 1 spoke...shunned because of Taco..or shame..not a JL amongst them..idk pretty rude. Figured I’d get a hi or how’s the trail or something guess they were focused. Anyway we manage our way down to the main road again and down to the Rio Grande Village, spoiler alert it’s just a store for an RV park, really thought it was a village. From there up to the hot spring which sits right up on the Rio Grande. All in all a fun day jeep’n and everyone made it out alive. Anyone planning a Trip to Big Bend, don’t go during monsoon season, plan to camp you can spend more time on the trail. There are gas stations in the park and a cpl convenient stores and at least one restaurant. River road is next time for us and maybe a look see at the State park...I was told the state park has a few 2 spare tire trail areas. Have fun and hope to see out there somewhere .


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Shadowfire

New member
I have some video but I’m no expert on editing and putting up good clips I’m working on it, the first day of GoPro video was shot upside down a rookie GoPro mistake. The 2nd day was better but my non techie wife struggled with it for sure looking for a good easy to use editing software solution that works on Linux, it’s proving to be more challenging than should be. I’m not really liking the GoPro but it could just be me, open to any suggestions from the master......hmmm


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wibornz

New member
Nice read. Pictures are worth a thousand words. Have the wife fire up the camera on her phone. Take us on your journey.
 

Shadowfire

New member
Forgot to mention a couple things 1. Now I want to lift it, bumper/winch it and 35” it. I thought I was happy stock. 2. I did the fender mod per Eddies vid and it was awesome for keeping all that mud and rocks out of there..thanks again..but it keeps coming out at the bottoms..gonna try some clear rtv to stop it. 3. The short nature of the 2 door maybe catches more mud/debris on the rear fender, since mine are painted I’m considering applying some of that clear chafe tape.


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WiscoHR

Member
Forgot to mention a couple things 1. Now I want to lift it, bumper/winch it and 35” it. I thought I was happy stock. 2. I did the fender mod per Eddies vid and it was awesome for keeping all that mud and rocks out of there..thanks again..but it keeps coming out at the bottoms..gonna try some clear rtv to stop it. 3. The short nature of the 2 door maybe catches more mud/debris on the rear fender, since mine are painted I’m considering applying some of that clear chafe tape.


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With painted fenders I would definitely consider some protection on the front of the rear flares. I don’t have painted and my rear fender flares are beat to shit from rocks. There are little chunks knocked into the plastic everywhere.


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Shadowfire

New member
I’m sad and Happy at the same time...Pie has been replaced..I’ve opted into the 4dr craze and now say good bye to Pie and Hello to a Mojito JLUR Haven’t committed to a name yet but it’s another Rubi with most of the stuff Pie had but with auto trans, LEDs and Steele bumper, remote start and of course the extra space. I gave up the cold weather group not much use in Texas and the aux power switches (easily added). I’ll miss Pie as she was my favorite color but I think the new JLUR will serve my purpose better. Pictures will be up when the deed is done.


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notnalc68

That dude from Mississippi
That was fast. I love 2 door Jeeps, and have had a few. I think you’ll like the 4 door much more. You have more cargo capacity and more towing capacity. A longer Jeep is more stable in some off road situations, and that probably outweighs any benefit of the shorter turning radius of a 2 door.


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Shadowfire

New member
Just a note about differences in the two, The factory halogen lights were not bad but the LEDs are so much better it makes it seem that way. They will present there own challenge in replacement cost and trailer tow upgrade. I was considering that as a dealer add but close to $1800 so no, I’ll wait for that. Money would be better spent on a lift. The push button start on the 4 door is like what I have seen on most push starts, you just tap the button with the brake on and it does it’s thing, the manual tranny didn’t work that way, for obvious reason I think but you have to hold the switch until the engine starts. This one has the safety group, so blind spot monitoring etc, first vehicle I’ve had with that, managed this long without it but verdict is out on its usefulness. The rattle from the top now gone but the sound reverb during talk radio a little more noticeable, thanks to other writer ups here I have an idea where to start. The longer wheel base is a little more noticeable in steering stability, the shorter 2 door was very responsive and you could really feel quick lane changes not so much on the 4. And the getup and go on the 2 manual was really good, the xtra doughnuts on the 4 still impressive for a v6. The one thing that made me nuts on the 2 door was the sub in the middle of the floor, it is smaller than the 4 door version and I wished it was mounted on the side panel like the 4. In an already limited space your under Matt storage was eaten up by that, not to mention packing stuff on top of it. This weekend I will go work the 4 lol lever and make sure that’s all good. Finally the thing nobody cares about...fuel economy, the 2 door ran hi 19 to 20 on the daily, the 4 is showing better after a few tanks I’ll know for sure. Oh and as for a name I want to call it JLo but my wife wants to call it the green lantern , I guess naming it after a woman ... with let’s say those attributes lol


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Tanktitan

New member
Your post about Big Bend got me thinking about my trip there. In March 2016, with 600 miles on my almost stock ‘16 JKUR I headed west and River Road in Big Bend was my first trail. I will never forget that “first time”. On the river road I had lunch and a wild horse over in Mexico came to the river to drink.

IMG_0416.jpg

Came across a mercury mine

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Had a great time but my Jeep did not fare that well

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Shadowfire

New member
We missed the river road, the park rangers didn’t recommend we try it with as much rain as they had. It’s gonna be on the next visit. We did the old ore and a few others as well as the Terlingua Ranch road it was washed out pretty bad, no winch on either vehicle so we played it safe. Winch plate on order for the new one already.


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Tanktitan

New member
We missed the river road, the park rangers didn’t recommend we try it with as much rain as they had. It’s gonna be on the next visit. We did the old ore and a few others as well as the Terlingua Ranch road it was washed out pretty bad, no winch on either vehicle so we played it safe. Winch plate on order for the new one already.


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When you get back, check out Black Gap Road, between Glenn Springs road and River Road. It is a Jeep Badge of Honor trail.


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Shadowfire

New member
So it was pretty simple added the switches add the power module mounts up next to the coolant bottle wires run behind the bottle bracket I reviewed the written instructions and watched Matt’s video. Everything went as described except;


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