TJGladeRaider

LOLLLLLLLLLLL I wouldn't expect anything like that, but it is odd not to get replies from him. Bill

I have sent a couple of e-mails to George that have not been answered, which is very unusual for "Mr. MBW." Anyone heard from George lately? Bill

A BL!!!! Arghhhhhhhhhh You cannot cure that with Penicillin I'd sure love to see a Rubi with a 408 -- like the man says, you can never beat cubic inches. Bad news from KB, I spoke with them at length today - there is no SC for a 2005 or 2006 TJ, there have been SERIOUS changes to the computer system for those years and the R&D would be financially prohibitive. My ARB Bull Bar, Warn 9.5ti and Bushwacker Pocket Flares are on their way. Which synthetic rope do you use - the warn, or that blue one? I just ordered 125' of 5/16 blue - I am assuming that I use the same length/diameter as the steel cable. Bill

Ahhhhhhhhh -- I knew there'd be some serious Jeepers amongst us. You ran 37's on a LC? That must have looked pretty sharp. I'd like to use 37's on this but I don't think they'd fit without further mods. I know all about the snorkels - I have used them on all my Jeeps and you're quite right about turning them around if brush busting with them - or driving across Aligator Alley in the Summer. That is a bug vacuum system when the bugs are out in force. The K&N oiled filter is a nice thing to have. It's a great way to pipe cool air into the engine compartment, and they sure do work when the water gets deep. Now that they upgraded the joints, I am not so concerned about the Dana 44 issues - I know what I have put mine thru, and it isn't worth the expense of the upgrade, plus losing the 100K mile factory warranty for the difference. To me, that's the attraction of the Rubi - factory parts and warranty.My dealer installs serious mods on Jeeps and honors the warranty unless it is something ridiculous. I am shopping the ARB Bar/9.5ti combination now. I wouldn't buy a thing from TR - too many horror stories. They make a massive tough bumper, but their fit and quality control issues are as legendary as their lack of customer service. You ever use synthetic winch rope? The idea of knocking 60 pounds of weight off the front of a TJ appeals to me. I am also considering the Kenne Bell Supercharger. I'm not done researching it, but Kenne Bell has been doing superchargers forever and they are the ones that designed the Buick Grand National and GMC Cyclone. I can get it done as a dealer installed/warranteed option and that appeals to me. You know anyone who has done one that way? Bill

Yep, and I used them - but they were identical to the factory lug nuts. The deal is, American Racing says you cannot put these wheels on a spin balancer without some special gizmo that nobody I could find ever heard of. To me, it's just BS - but that's what comes of buying these things on the net. Bill

OMG -- and I only used half as many lug nuts too! LOL Bill

I get you, but I cannot help point out that you didn't think this thru. Gotta watch those absolutes. Lassie attacks serial rapist breaking into the little girl's bedroom? Police dog dealing with desperate "you'll never take me alive" crackhead? The fact is, I've known lots of people I'd find easier to shoot in the head than the average dog - but then I've known some remarkably bad people. Bill

I dunno Pug, you ever see how the bastards who fight these dogs train them? I bet you'd be in a real bad temper after three days of that sort of thing. You saw the dog. Did that dog seem naturally vicious and aggressive to you? What it was is a pit bull, the dog of choice for the fight crowd. You saw the owner. Not a child, housewife or little old lady - he fit the profile of a person who fights dogs. Then there's the area, a place well known for dog fights. Maybe it's a giraffe, but the feathery little critter waddles and quacks. Bill

Unfortunate for the dog, but savage behavior has a price. The sad thing to me is, the savage sons-of-bitches responsible for making these dogs vicious don't suffer the same fate. Bill

Odd, I just replied and it disappeared. Anyway - yep, that seems to be the trick. Mine dead keys 5 watts and modulates to 20. I'd like to see Galaxy or one of their competitors build a hi-power "export only" radio that fits a DIN case, but they won't fit in my overhead console the way they are made now. Some of those things have some serious juice as they come. Bill

I am making progress on that Rubicon Project vehicle, but those of you who recall the fantastic job Pug did showing how the Jeep would look with those American Racing Teflon Mojave Wheels will note that I didn't use them -- if Pugs pics had wobbled as bad as those wheels did, I would never have bought them. As an aside, that's an interesting story. I bought the Teflon Mojave wheels thru an authorized American Racing dealer on EBAY - and I am sure he must have been as the wheels were sent direct from American Racing. Since it is a Jeep where the spare is on the back, like most Jeepers, I wanted them all to look the same so I bought five wheels, and since these are a very unique looking wheel with this Teflon finish, I bought six so I would have an extra one if something happened - offroad excursions tend to be hard on wheels and if that Teflon scraped off, it would look nasty. I took them to a shop I have done biz with for twenty years to mount my tires and balance them - $130 later, the Jeep looked exactly as Pug's pics, but had a terrible shimmy between about 42-50MPH. By this time, I had invested an entire day in this project with packing up wheels, tires, delivering them all to the tire dealer in my Suburban, picking up the finished set of five, installing them on my Jeep and test driving it. Back to Shop#1 (I guess that's a clue that this is gonna be a story!) to re-balance them. The guy said he would rebalanced them and put the wheels with the least weight in the front - later that day, he called me to come get my Jeep that was "much better." [censored]. With your hands on the steering wheel at 45MPH, you could not possibly read your watch with your arms shaking so bad. Even more BS, when I crawled under the Jeep, the wheel with the MOST weight was on the right front, and it had nearly a pound of lead. I switched it for the spare but the end result was no better. Being self employed, I can't spend all day every day driving to Marco Island (where Shop #1 is) so I remounted my prior set of wheels and tires (also large oversize tires so not the problem) and delivered the Mojave/Tire combinations to another shop close by. My plan was to make Shop#1 reimburse me for my expenses at Shop#2. I told the owner about my trouble and he took me out to his shop so we could balance them together - I ran a machine shop many years ago so I know a little about mechanical issues. The first few wheels/tires were all off, but close enough. When we hit wheel four, I realized for certain that Shop#1 must hire the handicapped. That clown must have been blind as the wobble was apparent to anyone standing near the machine. We took the wheel/tire assembly off the cone and re-set it just in case something had gotten cocked out of whack -- same thing. That wheel was badly out of round. No problemo -- good thing I got six. Went home and returned with wheel six, new in the box with protective rings just like the others and, bummer . . . it was even worse. I contacted the guy I bought them thru and he was shocked. He said, "That just doesn't happen with American Racing wheels." Now, one might expect that from him, but the owner of Shop#2 does not sell American Racing wheels, and he had said precisely the same thing. As far as that goes, I have had good experiences with them too. Later that day, he called me back and reported that the fine folks at American Racing blamed the balancing machines. Specifically, they said these wheels were "lug centric" rather than "hole centric" so they must be balanced on a machine that puts the wheels/tires on a "finger device" that simulates the lugs rather than the cone that centers the wheel by the center hole. "OK, fine boss." I'm an easy going kind of guy, but I couldn't help wondering why American Racing would not include a note with these wheels if they required some kind of VooDoo to balance. Essentially, they are telling me that the $130 I spent was destined to be wasted from the get-go. Still, I am not in the wheel/tire biz, so what do I know, I did a quick Google while we talked and sure enough, there is such a thing as a "lug centric" wheel. I called Shop #1, and they said - "Huh?" Tires and wheels is what they do - for twenty years that I know of - and they were an American racing distributor because they still have an American racing display. They had no idea what these people were talking about. I called Shop #2, and they said - "Sounds like BS to me." They are also a wheel and tire shop in biz for a long time. So I called Tire Kingdom - I know the manager there and recently bought new tires for about the tenth vehicle from them, so I figured I'd get the straight scoop. They had no idea what American racing was telling me either, and like she said, they could do a sign like McDonalds and tic off how many million sold. So, one thing is for damn sure. Either American Racing is completely full of crap, blowing smoke up my patootie rather than honor their warranty, OR they are irresponsibly selling perfectly good wheels that their customers will not possibly get properly balanced without jumping thru hoops they don't warn them about. I know what I think, but that's all I can say for sure. Anyway, back to the Jeep I have been talking about on here. It's coming along pretty good. When I bought it a couple of months ago, I had the dealer send it out for their leather conversion. They have a company that does this when they have a new vehicle that came with cloth and the customer wants leather - they had it done for me on one of my prior Suburbans years ago, and the seats looked better thyan factory and wore better too. I also bought the same overhead console that I have used in every Jeep I have ever built - the one by Tuffy Security Products. I get bent over things that don't fit, screws that don't line up . . . you know how that goes. Their stuff has no such issues and never has had. I installed a suitably tweaked and tuned Cobra 29 CB in the box, and mated it to the venerable K-40 that will handle about 6000 watts of juice. Those who know radios know I am not kidding when I say I run mine barefoot (no juice) because you cannot run a tweaked and tuned radio with a Texas Star. The CB must be detuned first or it will burn the linear up. I have nothing against the hi-power cowboys, I just don't need it and a 1000 watt linear requires a LOT of juice (remember the Amps = watts/volts formula from high school) and I don't want anything drawing 80+ amps that I don't need, especially since I have been known to put the Jeep snorkel to good use and putting that kind of juice underwater could give you a permanent erection (if you're lucky). This is a pic of my previous Jeep when my son and I used to go mudding in the Glades. As for the outside of the Jeep, my first call when I get a new Jeep is to Ron Garvin - Garvin Industries. I have gotten to know him over the years, and I always call him to see if any of the specs have changed - everyone has a right to make changes, but I don't want to order a rack from him and $1000 worth of lights from someone else and then find out they won't fit due to some production change. The rack systems, tire carriers and rear bumper assemblies have not changed; the only new thing was they now make a side step/nerf bar combination that was not available before. I got all the part numbers and went back to my Jeep dealer - they can buy anything for a lot less than we can, and shipping is MUCH cheaper for them too. Bob Taylor Jeep takes very good care of me, and they have since I bought my first vehicle from them ages ago. I suspect that the people at Garvin are as anal as I am. Their stuff comes packed like they expect it to be run over by the truck that carries it, the hardware for each step is individually bagged and labeled, the instructions are perfectly understandable by a child of twelve (or nine) - when I do this write up on my web site I'll be including the pics of the kids outting everything together. Did I mention that the hardware for each step is individually bagged and labeled . . . The kids were able to handle this just fine, but I'd love to see anyone try and assemble this entire package if it was not bagged and tagged the way they do. Underneath, I have tried lots of things from the extended shackle sets we made in the old days, thru the various suspension sets offered by virtually everyone under the sun these days. On the TJ Jeeps, I use the Rancho Rock Crawler 6505 kit with 9000 series shocks. Jeeps ride better with this kit than they do stock, it lifts the Jeep significantly (they say 2.5 inches which happens to be my dealer's limit for warranty so I ain't sayin nuthin else) so I can add up to 35" shoes with no rubbing. My dealer's limit is 33" on the Rubicon (which comes with 31's) but some dealers try very hard to blame anything they can on any mods you make - I read on a Jeep forum that a dealer tried to bail on an AC problem due to a lift kit. What can mutts like that be thinking. With the internet and these groups, screwing someone like that gets out and it has got to cost them more than they could hope to save. Anyway, back to the Project. Another mod I have come to love is the Safari Snorkel marketed by ARB. Cutting that huge hole in the fender is enough to rattle anyone's nerves - can you imagine cutting a 3 inch hole in a brand new fender and finding out you measured wrong?! What a bummer that would be. Installation is easy enough, and they really do work every bit as well as advertised (unlike the really popular open filter under hood mod). Y'Know, things haven't changed a bit in the 30+ years I have been doing things like this - clowns are still selling whatever they can make sound good, and they are selling this trash mostly to young people who cannot afford to be buying garbage, but believe what they read. Have you seen the ad where they have this enormous, open filter sitting in the engine compartment touting lack of "restriction?" "Yo Dude, lemme hold your head against this engine, lower the hood on you and let you enjoy all that free breathing!" The operative word is "COOL" and every engine in the world benefits by using "COOLER" air, hence the factory design (that also helps when driving thru water). It's so incredibly hot under the hood of modern engines with their higher op temps that drawing intake air from there is just plain ridiculous. The snorkel is still the best way to go in my view - it doesn't get any cooler than that. I think it's a pretty cool ride for a cranky old fart like me, and the kids love this stuff! Bill

I am generally against censorship, and I think it is always a good idea to step back, take a few breaths, look at things from both sides, ignore the inevitable "piling on" and objectively evaluate the situation independent of the collective thoughts of the group. I think it especially important when the offended party is generally and widely popular - and even more so if that offended party happens to be popular with me. Having said that, I see no redeeming virtue to this miserable mutt, and nothing that could be offered as justification, mitigation or extenuation as regards that offensive and unwarranted retort. I think it appropriate to cast the obnoxious cretin curbside. Bill

Ohhhh my goodness . . . I fear that you have "shot the messenger." On the other hand, it was a very good shot! Bill

Well, I suppose that whhhhhhoooooooooooooshing sound was something sailing over my head -- is somebody going to explain? Bill

The thing I like best is, in daylight the watches look exactly like they did when I sent them. I'm sure the puffy lume, or vintage colored lume, is great stuff, but it doesn't do it for me. I wanted my watches to look just like they came from MBW, but glow like brand new. You cannot believe the way these things glow. I'm going to Jacksonville for a few days tomorrow; I'll get another batch of watches out at the end of the week. Lord how I love a crown that feels like the real thing! Bill

In the future, I shall take advantage of the bold, underline and italic functions! LOLLLLLLL "There I was at 60+ MPH, blasting thru the dark with telephone poles sticking up at random intervals, when my Ziggy watch saw its first light -- about a zillion candlepower from a mag lite a few millimeters away. That watch, that had been in a perfectly dark mailer for almost a week, sucked that up like a dying man in the desert tossed into a lake." What am I gonna do with you guys! Bill

As we have all discussed many times, my idea of a wonderful vintage Rollie is a bit different than those who want to make them look old - I want mine to look like they did brand new, including lume that works. Therefore, I sent a bunch of watches off to Ziggy for his "ultimate" lume job, and had him install new gen crowns/tubes while he was about it. I'm a little anal about things, and having watches I really like that are useles at night annoys me - especially since I spend as much free time as possible running a powerboat at night, and there are no lights to read a watch by as you cruise the intercoastal waterway, or skate the waves thirty miles offshore in the middle of the night. It has been with much anticipation that I have been waiting to get my watches back, and when I came home last night, I found a package from Ziggy -- they had arrived. I had my hands full, as I had to get my boat ready to take out . . . it was Friday night, the weather was perfect, winds were minimal . . . anyway, I had a lot to do. I left my watch I was wearing one my dresser, and tossed the package from Ziggy in the truck. Once i got my boat launched, and tied off dockside, I finally had time to open my package. It was getting dark, and I knew I was going to be impressed -- nothing to do between me and casting off but select which of my newly arrived glowing torches that I was going to wear, right? Wrong. I opened the package and none of them was a torch - Hell, they weren't much different than they were when I had sent them. Oh well, lesson learned -- two lessons actually, the second being to experiment one watch at a time rather than spend a lot of money to be unimpressed. Still, the night was fabulous, so I put on a nylon windbreaker and took off to go cruising. Speaking of lights and glow, you ought to see the lights of the big hotels as you run down the coast at 60+ mph on a really dark night -- wind blowing tears from the corners of your eyes, knifing thru swells, thrumming of motors . . . it would be easy not to go home til the gas run out. In fact, I generally don't and for what a couple of hundred gallons of gas costs these days, well that's another reason why the wifey doesn't mind if I sit home at night playing with watches. When I finally did turn back, it was dark - blacker than a coal miner's ass crack, if ya know what I mean, but it was late enough that the damn Corinthians (a semi derogatory term for people who don't know [censored] about boats) had all gone home, which is a safety issue in more ways than one. Just try running the markers in the dark (you know, those telephone poles sticking up out of the water with unlit signs on them) and having some twit shine a spotlight in your face -- I kid you not, I have seen these freakin tourists try to use docking lights as headlights. Anyway, they are all gone within a few hours of total darkness. Yankee tourists are only on the water of they got last and didn't know how to get back on time. So there I was, blasting down the Intracoastal dodging the markers as only a smuggler (or MEO (Marine Enforcement Officer) is supposed to know how to do, when I decide to see what time it is. The way you do that on a boat at night is important, because you don't want to screw up your night vision and I have had plenty of practice with shitty lume watches. You take your mag light, put it against the watch crystal, turn it on for a few seconds, and then turn it off and read your watch. Evenb dead lume will glow perfectly well enough to see in total darkness for long enough to read it. I looked at the watch, and couldn't see [censored]. Literally There I was at 60+ MPH, blasting thru the dark with telephone poles sticking up at random intervals, when my Ziggy watch saw its first light -- about a zillion candlepower from a mag lite a few millimeters away. That watch, that had been in a perfectly dark mailer for almost a week, sucked that up like a dying man in the desert tossed into a lake. It was like I had a damn KC Daylighter on my wrist. I looked up and couldn't see [censored] in any direction except the watch face with 3:05 that seemed to be permanently branded into my corneas. Can you imagine running a high powered boat in the dark and having someone pull a bag over your head . . . it wasn't pretty. Every damn spotlight happy yankee at the yachtclub combined couldn't have blinded me so effectively. I shut down the throttles as fast as I could, but . . . When I finally could see well enough to stand back up, I realized the bad news that I had hit something in the dark that knocked me flat on my ass. The good news was that my ass was not wet . . . evidently, the boat wasn't sunk. She and I were pretty busted up, but she got me home without swimming . . . any landing you walk away from I guess. So, that's why I'm gonna have to sue Ziggy, once he gets done doing the rest of my watches. Good thing for Ziggy I have so many! BTW -- if you have rep Rollies, and don't do anything else, try having a gen crown/tube installed. That has got to be the best mod you'll ever pay for, the difference is . . . I almost said, "night and day." That's the lume job - the crown and tube job is just excellent. Bill

I dunno my friend -- my experience with him was like yours, and I bought a dozen or so. The first one I bought was nice, buy the batch I ordered afterwards were junk. The best inserts I have received thus far have been from Raymond Lee Jewelers, and that Clark company that sells those very nice knock off super domes. I think that guy must actually like watches - he seems like more of an enthusiast than a salesman. Bill

Frankly, although Uncle Rollie has enormous resources, it still comes down to effective, efficient use. Even if they could shut the boards down, they'd pop right back up on offshore servers somewhere, and even if they could shut down all the dealers we know from taking PayPal, the net effect on the rep trade industry would be neglible. Until they get the big fish under control, I don't expect to see them targeting the minnows. I would think it more likely that successful dealers get sniped by jealous competitors, and/or self-motivated individuals who dislike the rep industry so they stir up trouble as time permits.

I don't know your system as well as I know ours, but I think the situation you are in relates to the distinction between seizure and forfeiture. I'll tell you how things work here. Customs has the authority to seize any number of things, but once they have seized it, they cannot just keep or destroy it - that would be a bit too much like stealing. They must dispose of it one way or the other via some sort of forfeiture action - in other words, they must resolve the issue of possession. If Customs seizes a watch here, they must account for it. It is your property, contraband or not, so they must tell you that they took it, why they took it, and what your recourse is, and give you an opportunity to challenge their position. If it were me, I would not make any false statements of any kind - and I would not make any admissions either. I would just send them the check and forget about it. By the way, paying the charge is not an admission of anything. I really do suggest that you refrain from following any of the clever, well intentioned, advice. Trying to get cute is a great way to make a little problem into a big problem. Here, making a false statement under these circumstances woould be a felony cognizable under Title 18 USC Section 1001. Bill

Ohhhhhh Damn. I told the wifey to send you the watch on my desk - she got confused by all the pieces in the baggie and figured I must have meant the watch on my night stand. Doncha just hate it when that happens! ; ) Bill

I'm with you. It was very apparent that this was some punk enjoying a little power trip. The cavalier way he buzzed the pedestrian made it clear that this was not a rational man en route to an emergency. 100% [censored] thru and thru. Bill

Yep. I surely do, but now it is wearing a gen Tropic 127. Bill

I need to take some more current pics - here are some of my vintages and classics. The watches look much better since the 1680's have gen Tropic 127's on them, and the 1665's have the Tropic 39 Super Domes that Clark is manufacturing. Since I started buying things from Clark, I tried some of his bezel inserts and swapped them out for the ones I had been using. The Clark versions are very nice. Bill

Amazing - I was just asking Ziggy when a better date mag might become available for the PAMs. How about send me an e-mail - I think I need a couple of these. Bill