Just A Nerd's Garage

[JustinS]

How did the jeep recovery go?

 

[shade]

LOL Greatest thread ever. IT pimp by trade as well.
I have a 42U full rack at the house
AC'd my garage, fully insulated to support such stuff.
All virtualized with HP DL380's via a cisco 3570 48 porter
I'm so sick I'm debating on putting a SAN in. I have an older EMC CX4 i can put in with about 80TB's. I have a dedicated 100amp circuit for it

This would sit next to the Harley and Turbo Busa.

 

[jeremy_cherokee]

For drive line then I can totally understand. Ive done that with quite a few Wagoneers that were rusty buckets of tetanus and needed to be scrapped. I would remove everything useful then have the frame and body hauled away. Then sit on the parts that were good till someone bought them at my price.

That's exactly what I'm doing. My next post will be about this journey and, well, yeah ... I think I need a tetanus shot!

How did the jeep recovery go?

Getting ready to write that thread now

LOL Greatest thread ever. IT pimp by trade as well.
I have a 42U full rack at the house
AC'd my garage, fully insulated to support such stuff.
All virtualized with HP DL380's via a cisco 3570 48 porter
I'm so sick I'm debating on putting a SAN in. I have an older EMC CX4 i can put in with about 80TB's. I have a dedicated 100amp circuit for it

This would sit next to the Harley and Turbo Busa.

hahahaha I've contemplated a real SAN. Every once in a while they pop up on CL and man are they tempting. In order to do that, though, I'd probably need to update my house's circuit. I have 150 amp service but that has a 100amp breaker feeding the garage -plus my entire house. I imagine those SANs are a little power hungry. Currently I've got about 12TB but I'm over 50% utilization now.

How do you like the HPs? I've always been a Dell guy but a previous job got me interested in the HPs. They seem to be good stuff.

 

[jeremy_cherokee]

Because Manuals are better than Automatics
I pulled the trigger. I wanted a manual transmission in my 01 XJ. If you are an XJ fan you know that getting a manual transmission in a 97+ XJ is a Jeep unicorn. the 84-96 XJs were a little easier to find, but the 97+ is a giant pain. In fact, I have been looking for such an XJ for at least a year and a half now. I search all the major Craigslists and ebay and anything I can find. The only ones I could find people were very proud of. There was a guy on a Facebook swap site that wanted something like $30k for one that had significant front end damage and a lot of miles.

FINALLY I was browsing CL last week and I found it. A 97 XJ with 165, the 5-speed manual, brand new clutch, brand new tires, a complete rust bucket and it was only $850. And it was in North Carolina. 16 hours from where I live. If you ever get to meet me, you'll find out that I am not adverse to a challenge and have no fear. Naturally I called the guy. He seemed real nice and seemed to be very honest about what he had. I asked him if I could fly there and drive it home - he said no (he was right). I don't own a truck, nor a trailer that can haul a car, but luckily I have some really good friends. A buddy let me borrow his Ram and I rented a U-Haul car trailer.

My original plan was to leave late Monday and get as far as I could, get some sleep, then take off again. Turns out my old man had the week off and said he'd like to ride with me to keep me company. So, we took off about 7:30 on Tuesday and got there around midnight to a town about 20 minutes away. That was a LONG drive. It was fun though - time to sit and chat and talk about life and growing up. The only exciting thing on the trip out there was this weird trailer porto potty thing.

I don't remember where we were when I took the picture but there was a gas station that was doing construction and the men's restroom was put out in this trailer. Had a few stalls and probably 3 or 4 urinals and sinks and stuff. Probably the fanciest porto potty I have ever used hahaha

I am pretty sure I got a whopping total of 2 hours of sleep that night. Partially because I don't usually sleep well the first night in a hotel and partially because I was excited and nervous to get this old heap. We got up at 6:30, checked out of the hotel and hit the road through the mountains. Got to see what was probably the most beautiful sunrise I had seen (which might not be saying much because I am not an early riser and have probably seen a grand total of 10 sunrises). It's not the best pic of it, but it was an red sun through the trees in the mountains. Almost worth the trip itself:

We made it to the Wal-Mart (where we met) about 20 minutes before he was there so that we could check it over. No real leaks around the engine, tires looked good, major components that are worth money all looked good. Exactly what I wanted. The guy showed up and ... he couldn't find the key. He came there assuming he had locked them in the Jeep and left the hatch unlocked (because apparently in NC they just do this). He then realizes, after crawling through the Jeep and not finding the key, that he had left them in his new car that his mom is currently borrowing. ****! He calls her and ... no answer. Luckily, this Wal-Mart was just across the street from a Dodge/Jeep dealership. 20 minutes later he had returned with a new key.

I hopped in, fired it up (it fired right up despite sitting for a few months - so yay!). I moved it all of 80 feet in the parking lot and the look on my dad's face was priceless. The front control arm bracket had completely rusted off of the unibody frame. When I turned the whole body shifted separate of the wheels. Luckily I was able to move it enough that I could confirm it does, in fact, shift real well and the clutch grabs like a new clutch. We let the rust slide and loaded it on up:

After a brief discussion on how North Carolina residents apparently use "some clay like stuff stuffed in trees" to which they shoot and it explodes the tree and knocks it down - we then parted ways (and now I have an idea I want to try at home). Snapped a few pics of the beauty that is this great country of ours:

Which, I believe, includes these man made beauties:

A few hours out and we got to see someone having a real bad day:

Couldn't tell what happened but the bed of the truck was engulfed in flames. The FD was on their way and it looked like the people were out safely.

Something we noticed on the way out to NC was in Kentucky I bet we saw probably 30-40 cars on the side of the road that either had blown out tires (maybe 20%) and were broken down. I've never seen that many cars in duress.

The rest of the drive home was exhausting. Only a couple of hours of sleep makes driving significantly less fun. To make matters even more interesting, from about 20 miles east of Moline all the way home we had scattered thunderstorms that produced so much rain we had to pretty much come to a stop on the interstate. That added at least a half an hour to our journey and, after dropping off the trailer in the middle of the night, we didn't end up home until about 2 AM. It was exhausting. However, I'd do it again in a heartbeat ... but maybe split up the journey home into 2 days.

Not 100% garage related, I know, but it was a journey to acquire a project for the shop and I think that counts The truck performed great. Really didn't even notice the XJ on the back the entire way home ... other than the bad gas mileage. Took 9 1/2 tanks of gas for the journey, 2 Monster energy drinks, several snacks, and a lot of great stories and memories I'll get to hold on to forever.

 

[Mr. Roboto]

Awesome! Glad the trip was mostly incident free, and that the XJ was as described. My 98 that I was talking about earlier was a 5 speed, which makes me regret selling it even more Good luck with the swap!

 

[jeremy_cherokee]

Awesome! Glad the trip was mostly incident free, and that the XJ was as described. My 98 that I was talking about earlier was a 5 speed, which makes me regret selling it even more Good luck with the swap!

Thank you! It was a blast. Too bad you let the XJ go .. .everyone has their reasons though. The 5-speed just makes it sting a little more.

Tonight I'm going to get my good XJ ready to have the interior put back in. I was originally going to wait on the 5-speed conversion but I don't think I have the patience now that I have the donor in the drive.

Unrelated to the XJ build, I think I'm going to turn the crappy little lean-to "shed" on the side of my garage into temporary wood pile storage. I hate having the wood pile in the parking garage so I think it'd be a good place to put it until I'm ready to build the permanent wood storage area.

 

[JustinS]

Awesome, looking forward to the trans swap.

 

[shade]

That's exactly what I'm doing. My next post will be about this journey and, well, yeah ... I think I need a tetanus shot!



Getting ready to write that thread now



hahahaha I've contemplated a real SAN. Every once in a while they pop up on CL and man are they tempting. In order to do that, though, I'd probably need to update my house's circuit. I have 150 amp service but that has a 100amp breaker feeding the garage -plus my entire house. I imagine those SANs are a little power hungry. Currently I've got about 12TB but I'm over 50% utilization now.

How do you like the HPs? I've always been a Dell guy but a previous job got me interested in the HPs. They seem to be good stuff.

I tend to choose whats best - for that its HP by far.
Dell makes good stuff but HP its just a step above. ILO way better than DRAC
hp's management suite is better
blades are better

Everyone seems to be on the converged band wagon these days IE Nutanix.
Just not drinking the coolaid yet

 

[moon_tanner]

I'm a nerd who loves the XJ too, so welcome!

Can we talk about that 25U server you spoke of? What do you have stacked in there?

 

[jeremy_cherokee]

Awesome, looking forward to the trans swap.

Thanks! I'm starting to make progress this week. Trying to clean up the good XJ from the headliner replacement, new speakers, and some floor clean up and then I'll start pulling the donor apart this week. I'm getting pretty excited! I've always wanted a 4-door XJ with a stick ... and now I'll have that with parts from the best years of the XJs throughout the Jeep.

I tend to choose whats best - for that its HP by far.
Dell makes good stuff but HP its just a step above. ILO way better than DRAC
hp's management suite is better
blades are better

Everyone seems to be on the converged band wagon these days IE Nutanix.
Just not drinking the coolaid yet

I think I just need to buy one and play with one. I got to use the iLo at the previous job and I completely agree - it's years ahead of the DRAC. The DRAC just doesn't give a lot of good info. Maybe in a year or so when I've ran myself out of the 144 GB of RAM I have available then I'll have to **** it up and get some HPs.

I'm a nerd who loves the XJ too, so welcome!

Can we talk about that 25U server you spoke of? What do you have stacked in there?

Of course.

That's the overall layout of my network. The Nerd01/Nerd02 hosts are what I just bought a month or so ago. Identical Dell PE R610 with 72GB of RAM each. They each have a few drives in them locally but I just used them in the transition from local datastores to a shared storage system.

The Files server is a custom server using a Norco case, Supermicro motherboard, 6 x 3TB HGST drives and 2 x 3TB some other brand drives. the 6x 3TB are in a RAIDZ2 (I use FreeNAS) so there are 2 drives of parity and 12TB of usable storage. Then the 2 x 3TB drives are in a Mirror and act as my shared storage via iSCSI for the VMWare datastores.

Then I have a R210 that I have made a dedicated pfsense firewall. I had this virtualized but got tired of having to mess with switch config any time I had to take down the hosts. This allows me to mess with the hosts and not lose network connectivity.

I've got a Linksys SRW2048 (I think) for the "core" switch that does the networking in the rack and then a D-Link managed switch attached to the wall int he "server room" that facilitates my house network.

Now, what I run in the environment is the following:

• An RDP access server (I need to turn this off because it's really my only security hole
• OwnCloud (I absolutely love this platform and use it all the time)
• Domain Controller
• PHPiPAM for IP Management
• Plex (Seriously if you don't use Plex you are missing out on an awesome platform)
• SQL (this is my MySQL server)
• Web (I have a couple little sites I host)
• SharePoint, MS SQL, and Exchange

I have been a Linux house for a while but work is getting me more involved in the complex MS stuff so I'm setting up a SharePoint server, MS SQL server and Exchange servers at home so I can learn some more.

Generally what I do is I'll be reading here or reddit or some other forum and I'll see something that looks neat to me. Then, I get interested, research like crazy and then figure out how to make it happen. Basically I never stop learning because if I did, I'd be bored.

 

[jeremy_cherokee]

Less Nerd, More XJ
Got to play around in the shop a little yesterday. First, I can't wait to have the Jeep done. I love working on my Jeep, but this has interrupted my steevo bench build so I'm excited to move past the 5-speed conversion and start working ON the shop again.

Anyway, in order to start pulling apart the donor, I need to get my XJ ready. I had started working on the headliner and now I have pieces to the XJ all over the place. Sunday morning I was able to get the new headliner fabric laid out over the fiberglass part of the headliner:

I've never had good luck installing headliners so hopefully this holds. It appears to be on there pretty good. I got the holes cut out (and totally forgot that the front edge of the headliner doesn't have trim covering it so that looks like total s%#t but at least I have the sun visors to hide some of that). I got it put back up in the roof of the Jeep and I got the new speakers installed. At Best Buy they had 6 1/2" Pioneer speakers on sale for $37 so I bought some. Sounded pretty decent for cheap speakers and anything is better than the factory XJ speakers.

Once the head liner was in I started putting plastic trim pieces back in and I broke both of the mounts on one of the upper pieces. That stopped me for a while. We went down to a pick n' pull salvage yard in Des Moines and they didn't have a single XJ 97+ with matching interior. On the way home from a family day I stopped and got some JB weld. When we got home I got the plastic clips JB Welded back on. In addition, when cleaning up the surface rust in the floor pans so I can paint the interior floors with the same farm implement paint I used on the underbody, I found a hole in the passenger side floor about 1/16th of an inch in diameter. Well, I had the JB weld out so I just filled it with that. It was way too small of a hole to get the welder out, but just big enough that it irritated me. I figure the JB should hold well enough for this, plus it's getting paint on top and bottom of it.

Here's the JB Welded floor:

And here's the proof I plan on presenting to the wife that I need more clamps:

The JB sets in about 5 minutes but takes 4-6 hours to cure so that was it for the night. Tonight I'm going to paint the floor boards and get the front speakers wired up and tested.

 

[jeremy_cherokee]

Exceptionally cool. Im a geek as well. I likewise have a 25u rack in the cellar. Pfsense firewall, server, and other stuff. Running mythtv dvr since 2001. Anticipating your construct. Welcome!

Thanks! It's nice to know there are other geeks around here

I used to have a 42U but it's just too big for me. I think 24-26U seems to be the best fit for most home builds. How are you liking pfsense? I absolutely love it. I haven't got to play with mythtv yet but I keep hearing about it so I'll have to take a look.

 

[bdbecker]

Jeeps... Iowa... Garage... Nice!

I barely understand some of the computer talk, but if you ever need help moving something heavy, I'm just down the road.

 

[hard12catch33]

Good looking server rack you have there! I have been tinkering with PFsense, ESXi and unraid server.

Nice garage setup too!

 

[DoctorDiesel]

No idea whats going on in this thread with the computer stuff, but hey Im in Iowa too! Western Iowa tho.

Dig the XJs too. Its a bit of a drive for you, but I highly recommend heading down to Tuttle Creek in KS. I promise you'll have a blast.

 

[jeremy_cherokee]

Jeeps... Iowa... Garage... Nice!

I barely understand some of the computer talk, but if you ever need help moving something heavy, I'm just down the road.

I will definitely keep that in mind. For years I have told myself I'd never stay in Iowa. It's boring I said. All we have is corn and beans here. Then I get the opportunity to leave and I start thinking ... man I have awesome friends. Man I know where everything is. Man, I know where I won't get shot. Then it all starts to come to focus. It's not the state you live in that makes it exciting, but what you do in it with good people.

Maybe when the XJ is back on the road we can find some mud and have a good time.

Good looking server rack you have there! I have been tinkering with PFsense, ESXi and unraid server.

Nice garage setup too!

Oh man, unraid. I was debating on that for a long time. I almost went with it but I really liked the FreeNAS GUI. Glad to see another nerd on here and thanks for reading!

No idea whats going on in this thread with the computer stuff, but hey Im in Iowa too! Western Iowa tho.

Dig the XJs too. Its a bit of a drive for you, but I highly recommend heading down to Tuttle Creek in KS. I promise you'll have a blast.

Many years ago we lived in Council Bluffs ... for like 6 months. But I do find myself "out west" with some frequency. Now what is this "Turtle Creek" you speak of?

 

[jeremy_cherokee]

IN My Shop
So far my JB Weld idea is holding up. I was able to get the floor pans painted using the farm implement paint. It went on pretty smoothly. That stuff is crazy strong. We used it on the underbody of the Jeep and when we put the engine/transmission back in, we bumped the underbody a few times and it didn't even scratch it.

In addition, I was able to get 3 of the 4 speakers ready to go and tested. I was a little nervous because I bout 6 1/2" speakers and the XJ only uses 5 1/4" speakers from the factory. So far I have been able to get them all in the holes without issue - hopefully I don't have any problems getting the front door panels on. Luckily the rear is exposed in the ceiling so no problem there.

I had one little issue with the front driver's side speaker. For some reason it's not receiving a signal. I ran out of energy last night so I'll poke around with it some more tonight.

We have a "big" Mario Kart 64 party for a friend of mine's birthday next weekend and the wife and I had to get some more practice in as we haven't played that game in probably 15-20 years

ON My Shop
Over the weekend I was able to get all of the firewood we have stocked up moved over to the crappy little lean-to shed on the side of the garage. The kids now have several outdoor toys so they were starting to consume too much of my garage with the wood supply in there.

Now that I have that out of the way, I think I'm going to use some duct tape or something that will hopefully stick a while and make the little man his own parking space. For being an almost 3 year old, the kid is actually a good driver in that little John Deer electric Gator and I think he'd love his own parking space. I'd make one for my daughter but she's not quite as skilled of a driver yet ... so I don't think she'd use it

I also picked up the outlet box for my 50 amp outlet for the welder. Hopefully I can get started on that soon because I'd love to get my bench built by winter. We'll just see how the XJ conversion goes.

 

[littleviking]

Everyone seems to be on the converged band wagon these days IE Nutanix.
Just not drinking the coolaid yet

As an Old school blade guy who just replaced 3 racks of older stuff with 18Us of Nutanix.

The bandwagon has plenty more room.

and SSD is SOO nice.

Nutanix has a free to use PRISM application which mirrors their backend so you can get a feel for it.

Good stuff.

 

[JustinS]

What implement paint is that?

 

[jeremy_cherokee]

As an Old school blade guy who just replaced 3 racks of older stuff with 18Us of Nutanix.

The bandwagon has plenty more room.

and SSD is SOO nice.

Nutanix has a free to use PRISM application which mirrors their backend so you can get a feel for it.

Good stuff.

I've never heard of the Nutanix stuff. Interesting. Off to Google I go ...

Yes - SSD is awesome. I'm so glad it's finally coming down in price!

What implement paint is that?

I want to say Rustoleum because I got it from Theisen's. However, I'm not 100%. It takes a few days to dry. I looked at it last night after drying for 24 hours and it was still pretty sticky. But when it's dry, it's hard as a rock and takes a LOT to scratch it.

 

[littleviking]

I've never heard of the Nutanix stuff. Interesting. Off to Google I go ...

Yes - SSD is awesome. I'm so glad it's finally coming down in price!

When the CIO from the company that bought us out started talking Nutanix and Hyperconverged i kind of glassed over.

But man I tell you. Our DR went from an entire rack to a co-lo with 6U and 2U was firewall.

The Nutanix/Prism backend works natively through VmWare and most other virt platforms. So it's incredibly easy to spin stuff up on it. Then once its up you never really have to worry about it. And the thing that kills me is how easy it is to fail things over. Our 18Us of Nutanix can loose up to 75% I believe of the capacity and still keep going.

I am a believer and fully believe these things will take over for Blades going forward.

Oh shoot GarageJournal Not HardWire. Sorry.

Nice jeep good paint. JB Weld is awesome. :-D

 

[jeremy_cherokee]

When the CIO from the company that bought us out started talking Nutanix and Hyperconverged i kind of glassed over.

But man I tell you. Our DR went from an entire rack to a co-lo with 6U and 2U was firewall.

The Nutanix/Prism backend works natively through VmWare and most other virt platforms. So it's incredibly easy to spin stuff up on it. Then once its up you never really have to worry about it. And the thing that kills me is how easy it is to fail things over. Our 18Us of Nutanix can loose up to 75% I believe of the capacity and still keep going.

I am a believer and fully believe these things will take over for Blades going forward.

Oh shoot GarageJournal Not HardWire. Sorry.

Nice jeep good paint. JB Weld is awesome. :-D

I wish I would have seen this before we just dumped a ton of money into EMC/CISCO ... Does it replace a VMWare hypervisor or does it run on top of it?

Thanks! I'm a JBWeld believer haha

 

[littleviking]

I wish I would have seen this before we just dumped a ton of money into EMC/CISCO ... Does it replace a VMWare hypervisor or does it run on top of it?

Thanks! I'm a JBWeld believer haha

It KILLS Cisco UCS product.

It allows the HyperVisor to run on top of PRISM. Energy and Heat/Cool savings are noticeable day one. Finance guys loved that little tidbit.


JB weld held my mirror on after a particularly nasty hill climb ended up with me and a rock outcropping disagreeing on the proper placement of a driver side rear view mirror.

The Rock won but I had JB weld

 

[jeremy_cherokee]

It KILLS Cisco UCS product.

It allows the HyperVisor to run on top of PRISM. Energy and Heat/Cool savings are noticeable day one. Finance guys loved that little tidbit.


JB weld held my mirror on after a particularly nasty hill climb ended up with me and a rock outcropping disagreeing on the proper placement of a driver side rear view mirror.

The Rock won but I had JB weld

I apparently need to do more research the next time we buy hardware. Everything I am reading about it makes me wish we had gone that way. Damn.

I hate it when we disagree with rocks as, unlike rock paper scissors, the rocks always seem to win. At least we have JB Weld to help correct these failures

 

[jbmatth]

I'm with some of the others on here that the computer IT stuff is WAY over my head, but I like Jeeps even though I've never owned one. My wife just picked up a new JKU and it is a lot of fun. We are also a family of manual transmissions. The only thing I currently have that is an auto is my truck. '06 Duramax 1 Ton CCLB, they just didn't make many of them like the XJ, and when you do find them they are tons of money I've bought 3 Duramax CC 4wd trucks for what you can get a 6 speed for. Maybe one day...
JB

 

[littleviking]

I'm with some of the others on here that the computer IT stuff is WAY over my head, but I like Jeeps even though I've never owned one. My wife just picked up a new JKU and it is a lot of fun. We are also a family of manual transmissions. The only thing I currently have that is an auto is my truck. '06 Duramax 1 Ton CCLB, they just didn't make many of them like the XJ, and when you do find them they are tons of money I've bought 3 Duramax CC 4wd trucks for what you can get a 6 speed for. Maybe one day...
JB

Dude those JKUs are no joke. Take it out into the woods and get it dirty.

After awhile

1.5 inch body lift
1 inch motormount lift
flatbelly skid

after that
3 inch short arm lift
35' or 37' tires

They really are the best bang for the buck in terms off offroading and Daily Driving! Unless were talking about 99-2004 Jeep Wranglers. But they arent as comfortable on road.

 

[jeremy_cherokee]

I'm with some of the others on here that the computer IT stuff is WAY over my head, but I like Jeeps even though I've never owned one. My wife just picked up a new JKU and it is a lot of fun. We are also a family of manual transmissions. The only thing I currently have that is an auto is my truck. '06 Duramax 1 Ton CCLB, they just didn't make many of them like the XJ, and when you do find them they are tons of money I've bought 3 Duramax CC 4wd trucks for what you can get a 6 speed for. Maybe one day...
JB

How is she liking the JKU? We are in the process of selling our Acadia specifically to buy a Wrangler Unlimited ... but we're debating on when to actually buy it. Buying a used one, unless you go back a few years, barely saves any money. So, if I'm going to fork out $40k on a Jeep, do I get the last year of the JKU or do I wait for the JLU as the 2018 model and get the diesel stick so maybe I can get better than 15 mpg. The only problem with waiting for the JLU is that we would then be down to my Sonic and my XJ as only mode of transport for us and the crazies. Not a big deal, but every once in a while the XJ needs a little work - or I do something crazy like convert it to a stick.

I love being a manual only family. That's one of the reasons on moving to the JK/LU and converting my XJ. They are, in my opinion, just more fun to drive. I've ran into the same problem as you, though, with the trucks. GM seems to have a personal vendetta against manual transmissions in a truck - I think the newest one I've seen is a 2004 ish and that is like finding a unicorn with a platinum plated horn ... Ford seems to make them a little newer than that and the Dodge with the Cummins seems to go up to around 2010ish. I want a truck and I'd love it to be a diesel (the XJ just can't pull a lot around) but I want a stick ... so I have a feeling it's going to be a LONG time before the planets align and I have money at the same time as finding a diesel, manual, full sized truck.

 

[littleviking]

JLU is going to be a definite change from the old style wranglers. I would hold off on buying one as it is going to be a FIAT first. It will need a year or two to work out the kinks.

The used market for Wranglers is insane. 10 year old wranglers still command top dollar. Heck Ive been looking for a 20 year old wrangler and its still worth every bit of 9k.

Which has me looking for a 10 year old LJ with some cosmetic problems.

 

[jeremy_cherokee]

Dude those JKUs are no joke. Take it out into the woods and get it dirty.

After awhile

1.5 inch body lift
1 inch motormount lift
flatbelly skid

after that
3 inch short arm lift
35' or 37' tires

They really are the best bang for the buck in terms off offroading and Daily Driving! Unless were talking about 99-2004 Jeep Wranglers. But they arent as comfortable on road.

That's almost what I'm afraid of - it's just a new addiction. It'll start with something little. The wife and I will be driving along one day perfectly content in our very nice JKU. The sun will be shining. Our bank account will be happy. The kids will be laughing. Then I see it. What is that, in the corner of my eye? That's a bad a$$ set of rubber on that JKU. But, man, if I put tires that big I'll need to lift it. If I lift it then I better do Long Arms so that it can handle better off road. If I lift it and put tires on it then I better put better gears and a locker in it. If I put a locker in it then I better put a winch on the front in case I get stuck. If I get stuck and need the winch then I better also have some skid plates to make sure nothing gets damaged.

All of that happens because I see nice tires on a Wrangler. All that and I'm sitting at the local bankruptcy lawyer's desk explaining how I'm willing to let the house go but don't you dare touch that Jeep.

JLU is going to be a definite change from the old style wranglers. I would hold off on buying one as it is going to be a FIAT first. It will need a year or two to work out the kinks.

The used market for Wranglers is insane. 10 year old wranglers still command top dollar. Heck Ive been looking for a 20 year old wrangler and its still worth every bit of 9k.

Which has me looking for a 10 year old LJ with some cosmetic problems.

And that's the problem. So, am I willing to drive the XJ and Sonic for 2 years so that the inevitable problems can be worked out of a first gen product like that. Is it worth it? And you are dead on - my little brother was buying his first car on his own (he was effectively an only child and got a much different life than I did since he's so much younger) and he badly wanted a Wrangler, but finding one for under $10k is damn near impossible, let alone finding one for under $15k that isn't 10 years old and get good interest rates. I mean it's good if you own one - that's crazy good value retention. But it's not good if you don't own one and want to.

 

[littleviking]

That's almost what I'm afraid of - it's just a new addiction. It'll start with something little. The wife and I will be driving along one day perfectly content in our very nice JKU. The sun will be shining. Our bank account will be happy. The kids will be laughing. Then I see it. What is that, in the corner of my eye? That's a bad a$$ set of rubber on that JKU. But, man, if I put tires that big I'll need to lift it. If I lift it then I better do Long Arms so that it can handle better off road. If I lift it and put tires on it then I better put better gears and a locker in it. If I put a locker in it then I better put a winch on the front in case I get stuck. If I get stuck and need the winch then I better also have some skid plates to make sure nothing gets damaged.

All of that happens because I see nice tires on a Wrangler. All that and I'm sitting at the local bankruptcy lawyer's desk explaining how I'm willing to let the house go but don't you dare touch that Jeep.

So long arms are horrid. Only good thing about them is the increased on road ride handling.

Offroad they get caught up in everything and hang you up.

But yes the addicition is there.

Especially after you drop 10k in parts on your jeep and then can't get up the waterfall.

SO you budget out another 10k and go out with a smile on your face only to see some old guy in a CJ with 33s happily jump it right over the waterfall and your over in the corner with a 30k dollar 20 year old wrangler that can't go over the waterfall.

so out comes the wallet again.

pretty soon your wrangler is more expensive then some Porsche driving down the road.

 

[jeremy_cherokee]

So long arms are horrid. Only good thing about them is the increased on road ride handling.

Offroad they get caught up in everything and hang you up.

But yes the addicition is there.

Especially after you drop 10k in parts on your jeep and then can't get up the waterfall.

SO you budget out another 10k and go out with a smile on your face only to see some old guy in a CJ with 33s happily jump it right over the waterfall and your over in the corner with a 30k dollar 20 year old wrangler that can't go over the waterfall.

so out comes the wallet again.

pretty soon your wrangler is more expensive then some Porsche driving down the road.

That pretty much sums it up.

When you think about a Wrangler with only logic in mind, they are the most impractical and expensive vehicle you can buy for the basic levels of practicality they provide. Put a Highlander up against it. About the same price. But the highlander is quiet, reliable, comfortable, and has a ton of features. Then then you say the words "off road" and all of that practicality goes out the window as you open your wallet and willingly give up practicality to have a bad a$$ vehicle that doesn't need a road to have fun.

Good thing I gave up logical thinking years ago otherwise I'd be conflicted

 

[littleviking]

That pretty much sums it up.

When you think about a Wrangler with only logic in mind, they are the most impractical and expensive vehicle you can buy for the basic levels of practicality they provide. Put a Highlander up against it. About the same price. But the highlander is quiet, reliable, comfortable, and has a ton of features. Then then you say the words "off road" and all of that practicality goes out the window as you open your wallet and willingly give up practicality to have a bad a$$ vehicle that doesn't need a road to have fun.

Good thing I gave up logical thinking years ago otherwise I'd be conflicted

yep perfectly put.

I have always said that the PERFECT logical vehicle is always the Tacoma.

It handles Very well on-road and with some moderate modifications it does Very well off-road. it's a truck so its practical and it comes in 4 doors so it's good for kids as well as cargo.

unfortunately Ive never met anyone with enough sense to stop at moderate modifications so Ive only really heard stories.

 

[jeremy_cherokee]

yep perfectly put.

I have always said that the PERFECT logical vehicle is always the Tacoma.

It handles Very well on-road and with some moderate modifications it does Very well off-road. it's a truck so its practical and it comes in 4 doors so it's good for kids as well as cargo.

unfortunately Ive never met anyone with enough sense to stop at moderate modifications so Ive only really heard stories.

I've only heard stories as well. The Tacomas are nice trucks but I think I'd be in the same boat. $20k later and I won't remember that I bought the Tacoma as a practical alternative to the JK

 

[jbmatth]

This reply got out of hand, sorry.
Wow, I didn't expect to open this up and find a novel on Jeep ownership, but glad I did. As I said I've never owned a Jeep of any kind, but we (Okay Okay my wife) have one now and with only 6,000 miles on it I'll tell what I've experienced. First of all it was brand new 2016 Sahara with the 75th anniversary package, very sharp looking Jeep and with the 6-speed easier on fuel, and cheaper than the auto. It gets 18-19 mpg all the time with her driving, if I drive on a trip and take it "easy" I can darn near get 20 every time. It does have the hard top and is relatively quiet but louder than her last car, but much cooler! Here is one pretty much identical to what we picked up, the 75th anniversary packaged had the special badges, bumpers and an awesome hood that is hard to see in these pictures.
Link to "same" JKU we have.

When we decided to buy new it was because we were in a similar boat, couldn't find anything with less than 100k miles for a reasonable price so just said screw it and bought one with a loan, I hate loans, but hopefully wont have to buy another for a long long time. My personal list of vehicles have mileages of 160k, 185k, 285k, and 365k, so I plan to keep this one just as long as those.

Dude those JKUs are no joke. Take it out into the woods and get it dirty.

After awhile

1.5 inch body lift
1 inch motormount lift
flatbelly skid

after that
3 inch short arm lift
35' or 37' tires

They really are the best bang for the buck in terms off offroading and Daily Driving! Unless were talking about 99-2004 Jeep Wranglers. But they arent as comfortable on road.

We live on what the county calls a gravel road, but when it rains I don't drive a car as I might not make it out, I've even struggled a few times in my truck so she definitely gets it dirty plenty often. Her biggest complaint is the mud kicks up onto the door handles and hinges. There isn't much chance of her letting me put a lift on it anytime soon, she is only 5' tall and we have two in car seats that are becoming a struggle for her to get that high up as is. Once I inherit it then I'll make it a fun off road rig. I have no intention of selling it because we have a lifetime warranty on the drivetrain, engine, trans, transfer case, and axles, I plan to put that to the test.

How is she liking the JKU? We are in the process of selling our Acadia specifically to buy a Wrangler Unlimited ... but we're debating on when to actually buy it. Buying a used one, unless you go back a few years, barely saves any money. So, if I'm going to fork out $40k on a Jeep, do I get the last year of the JKU or do I wait for the JLU as the 2018 model and get the diesel stick so maybe I can get better than 15 mpg. The only problem with waiting for the JLU is that we would then be down to my Sonic and my XJ as only mode of transport for us and the crazies. Not a big deal, but every once in a while the XJ needs a little work - or I do something crazy like convert it to a stick.

I love being a manual only family. That's one of the reasons on moving to the JK/LU and converting my XJ. They are, in my opinion, just more fun to drive. I've ran into the same problem as you, though, with the trucks. GM seems to have a personal vendetta against manual transmissions in a truck - I think the newest one I've seen is a 2004 ish and that is like finding a unicorn with a platinum plated horn ... Ford seems to make them a little newer than that and the Dodge with the Cummins seems to go up to around 2010ish. I want a truck and I'd love it to be a diesel (the XJ just can't pull a lot around) but I want a stick ... so I have a feeling it's going to be a LONG time before the planets align and I have money at the same time as finding a diesel, manual, full sized truck.

I'm a big fan of having spares as you can see above I have my commuter car, spare commuter car, truck, identical truck for spare parts that I'm parting out, and fun sunny weather car, not listed in mileage because it is under 20k at 15 years old. As above I'd go new, better interest rates if you get a loan, and with the JLU coming out you can get a tried and tested JKU for a decent deal in the coming year or so.

If you want a manual full size diesel truck Ram is your only option, they even still have them new even up into the Laramie package, but they are de-tuned compared to the auto's. GM stopped in 2006 I believe and Ford was either 2010 or 2011, but I'm not a fan of their 6.0/6.4's personally. Her JKU is only rated at 3,000 pounds towing so no better than the XJ really, that is just a utility trailer and 4 wheeler or two. I only know two people out of all of my friends that have a manual GM diesel and am jelious, but just can't justify some of the asking prices. I really want to find a LBZ (version of the Duramax in 2006-2007) with a manual, crew cab, 1 ton 4x4 with some comfort options, and less than 100k miles and not have to pay over 10k, or even 20k for the right one. But as you said that is like finding a Unicorn with a diamond encrusted platinum covered horn that craps gold nuggets. I won't hold my breath and may end up just having to build one from a few other trucks.

Told you that was a long response,
JB

 

[jeremy_cherokee]

This reply got out of hand, sorry.
Wow, I didn't expect to open this up and find a novel on Jeep ownership, but glad I did. As I said I've never owned a Jeep of any kind, but we (Okay Okay my wife) have one now and with only 6,000 miles on it I'll tell what I've experienced. First of all it was brand new 2016 Sahara with the 75th anniversary package, very sharp looking Jeep and with the 6-speed easier on fuel, and cheaper than the auto. It gets 18-19 mpg all the time with her driving, if I drive on a trip and take it "easy" I can darn near get 20 every time. It does have the hard top and is relatively quiet but louder than her last car, but much cooler! Here is one pretty much identical to what we picked up, the 75th anniversary packaged had the special badges, bumpers and an awesome hood that is hard to see in these pictures.
Link to "same" JKU we have.

When we decided to buy new it was because we were in a similar boat, couldn't find anything with less than 100k miles for a reasonable price so just said screw it and bought one with a loan, I hate loans, but hopefully wont have to buy another for a long long time. My personal list of vehicles have mileages of 160k, 185k, 285k, and 365k, so I plan to keep this one just as long as those.



We live on what the county calls a gravel road, but when it rains I don't drive a car as I might not make it out, I've even struggled a few times in my truck so she definitely gets it dirty plenty often. Her biggest complaint is the mud kicks up onto the door handles and hinges. There isn't much chance of her letting me put a lift on it anytime soon, she is only 5' tall and we have two in car seats that are becoming a struggle for her to get that high up as is. Once I inherit it then I'll make it a fun off road rig. I have no intention of selling it because we have a lifetime warranty on the drivetrain, engine, trans, transfer case, and axles, I plan to put that to the test.



I'm a big fan of having spares as you can see above I have my commuter car, spare commuter car, truck, identical truck for spare parts that I'm parting out, and fun sunny weather car, not listed in mileage because it is under 20k at 15 years old. As above I'd go new, better interest rates if you get a loan, and with the JLU coming out you can get a tried and tested JKU for a decent deal in the coming year or so.

If you want a manual full size diesel truck Ram is your only option, they even still have them new even up into the Laramie package, but they are de-tuned compared to the auto's. GM stopped in 2006 I believe and Ford was either 2010 or 2011, but I'm not a fan of their 6.0/6.4's personally. Her JKU is only rated at 3,000 pounds towing so no better than the XJ really, that is just a utility trailer and 4 wheeler or two. I only know two people out of all of my friends that have a manual GM diesel and am jelious, but just can't justify some of the asking prices. I really want to find a LBZ (version of the Duramax in 2006-2007) with a manual, crew cab, 1 ton 4x4 with some comfort options, and less than 100k miles and not have to pay over 10k, or even 20k for the right one. But as you said that is like finding a Unicorn with a diamond encrusted platinum covered horn that craps gold nuggets. I won't hold my breath and may end up just having to build one from a few other trucks.

Told you that was a long response,
JB

Don't apologize - I appreciate the conversation and information. That's what this site is about, right? Conversing about the things we are knowledgeable and passionate about.

I'm glad to hear the JKU can get close to 20mpg. The main reason we went with the Acadia last year was that we wanted a little better gas mileage than what we thought the JKUs got. So we sacrificed getting a vehicle we wanted with the idea that the Acadia is supposed to get over 20mpg. Not at all. We get 19.1 mpg. No matter how we baby the throttle, that's all we get. So now we've bought a vehicle we didn't really want for a reason that isn't even accurate. Those 75th anniversary editions are sharp - if we can find one in her blue we might have to jump on it.

You're at my mileage goals - I'm only 29 and I've owned 36 (I think) vehicles. I'm tired of rotating through vehicles. My wife is tired of rotating through vehicles. We just want to get what we want and stick with it just can't go anymore. My XJ has 177k on the body but the engine has less than 10k on it. My Sonic is only 4 years old and should hit 80k by the end of the week. We put a lot of miles on our cars, but, if properly maintained, can easily hit the higher numbers. In my brain, high mileage cars are an achievement - it says "i bought this car. I drove the sh!t out of this car. I had a damn good time in this car."

Luckily we live on pavement, but I can't imagine living on gravel like that. We want a place in the country, but I don't know if I can handle the gravel. I love having a clean car every once in a while ... being on gravel would make that much more difficult. How did you swing the lifetime warranty? Is that an add-on warranty or is that something Fiat/Chrysler is doing now?

The car seats ... how well does it handle the 2 car seats? I think our kids will be in them for probably another year or so before we can put them in boosters.

That's pretty much what we are thinking. We're trying to get rid of the Acadia now (something proving to be more difficult than expected) and we'll just live with the Sonic and the XJ for a few months to save up a little more $$ for the JKU. The JLU is interesting, but I'm way too nervous about a brand new vehicle like that - even look at the first 2-3 years of the JKU. They used that 3.8 and it was junk and they had been using that engine before for years. I'm afraid for what a brand new owner, building a brand new engine on a brand new platform is going to be like ... so this makes for a great opportunity to get a JKU at a great place.

I browse CL on a daily basis. Like you said these diesels are the holy grail of truck finds. I'll make a deal that if I see one ... I'll let you know. But don't get your hopes up ...

 

[jeremy_cherokee]

Made a little progress in the shop last night on the XJ. I found the why the front driver's speaker wasn't working due to one of the wires just going to nowhere. However, the overwhelming smell from the implement paint started to give me a headache so I wasn't able to get the new wire ran.

Most importantly, though, I found a high lift for only $30 on a FB swap site. Made in USA and seems to be in good shape - just needs a little TLC.

One of my long term goals with the welder I purchased is to build my own bumpers. I'd like to build one that can incorporate the high lift ... I just need a LOT of practice before I go displaying my welds like that

 

[littleviking]

Made a little progress in the shop last night on the XJ. I found the why the front driver's speaker wasn't working due to one of the wires just going to nowhere. However, the overwhelming smell from the implement paint started to give me a headache so I wasn't able to get the new wire ran.

Most importantly, though, I found a high lift for only $30 on a FB swap site. Made in USA and seems to be in good shape - just needs a little TLC.

One of my long term goals with the welder I purchased is to build my own bumpers. I'd like to build one that can incorporate the high lift ... I just need a LOT of practice before I go displaying my welds like that

Careful with those high lifts. Ive seen more damage caused by them than problems solved by them.

especially if you enjoy your bones unbroken.

 

[jeremy_cherokee]

Careful with those high lifts. Ive seen more damage caused by them than problems solved by them.

especially if you enjoy your bones unbroken.

Probably won't ever get used ... but at least I have it just in case. And for $30 it was worth it

 

[shade]

It KILLS Cisco UCS product.

It allows the HyperVisor to run on top of PRISM. Energy and Heat/Cool savings are noticeable day one. Finance guys loved that little tidbit.


JB weld held my mirror on after a particularly nasty hill climb ended up with me and a rock outcropping disagreeing on the proper placement of a driver side rear view mirror.

The Rock won but I had JB weld

Nutanix is much better than UCS -

We have nutanix in the office along with blades.
You have to buy memory modules for nutanix which is fine then you have to buy storage blocks as well. I see a benefit of the converged platform but if I want to run server with 128G ram each Im buying huge amounts of memory blocks from nutanix. Why not just load up a blade with tons of memory, its cheaper.
On the storage side you start sticking lots of the storage blocks together - cool. Will the controller be able to handle all the IO the disks can shove out? I THINK the storage controller is a beefed up raid card.

I guess if your going to scale that out a SAN with dedicated storage processors would be a better route to handle IO. Dont know never seen a huge scale out of Nutanix storage.

 

[jbmatth]

Don't apologize - I appreciate the conversation and information. That's what this site is about, right? Conversing about the things we are knowledgeable and passionate about.

I'm glad to hear the JKU can get close to 20mpg. The main reason we went with the Acadia last year was that we wanted a little better gas mileage than what we thought the JKUs got. So we sacrificed getting a vehicle we wanted with the idea that the Acadia is supposed to get over 20mpg. Not at all. We get 19.1 mpg. No matter how we baby the throttle, that's all we get. So now we've bought a vehicle we didn't really want for a reason that isn't even accurate. Those 75th anniversary editions are sharp - if we can find one in her blue we might have to jump on it.

You're at my mileage goals - I'm only 29 and I've owned 36 (I think) vehicles. I'm tired of rotating through vehicles. My wife is tired of rotating through vehicles. We just want to get what we want and stick with it just can't go anymore. My XJ has 177k on the body but the engine has less than 10k on it. My Sonic is only 4 years old and should hit 80k by the end of the week. We put a lot of miles on our cars, but, if properly maintained, can easily hit the higher numbers. In my brain, high mileage cars are an achievement - it says "i bought this car. I drove the sh!t out of this car. I had a damn good time in this car."

Luckily we live on pavement, but I can't imagine living on gravel like that. We want a place in the country, but I don't know if I can handle the gravel. I love having a clean car every once in a while ... being on gravel would make that much more difficult. How did you swing the lifetime warranty? Is that an add-on warranty or is that something Fiat/Chrysler is doing now?

The car seats ... how well does it handle the 2 car seats? I think our kids will be in them for probably another year or so before we can put them in boosters.

That's pretty much what we are thinking. We're trying to get rid of the Acadia now (something proving to be more difficult than expected) and we'll just live with the Sonic and the XJ for a few months to save up a little more $$ for the JKU. The JLU is interesting, but I'm way too nervous about a brand new vehicle like that - even look at the first 2-3 years of the JKU. They used that 3.8 and it was junk and they had been using that engine before for years. I'm afraid for what a brand new owner, building a brand new engine on a brand new platform is going to be like ... so this makes for a great opportunity to get a JKU at a great place.

I browse CL on a daily basis. Like you said these diesels are the holy grail of truck finds. I'll make a deal that if I see one ... I'll let you know. But don't get your hopes up ...

Jeremy,
Why yes you are correct, plenty knowledge on this site and much more friendly than any others I've been around.

I've been disappointed with new cars advertising their MPG and not being able to get close to that. My two commuter cars I can get much better than what they were advertised to get sometimes by almost 10 mpg hwy. My wife's last car was a Mazda CX-5 6 speed rated at 35 mpg hwy, even going 65 on a flat road I was only able to pull 33, but wasn't ever able to drive it much how I drive my commuter cars. The Mazda and JKU are the only new vehicles I've ever had around all of the others are used with usually high miles. 36 vehicles, that is impressive, I'm 30 and am at 27 including 5 of my past motorcycles, but have picked up 5 just this year so I'm gaining ground slowly. I keep saying I'll get just one more and stop for a while, but just can't pass up a good deal I can make money off of, or just have some cash burning a hole in my pocket.

If it were up to me and I didn't keep finding something else I'd keep all of mine until the rust apart, or I just can't find the parts to make them run. My goal is to have picked up a vehicle with under 100k miles and drive it past 250k with the original engine and trans and not being rebuilt. The green Saturn I have now is headed that way, 186k now it was my wife's when we met, then sold to my older brother, then back to me so it will get there but will take a few years as I only drive it to work. If that was my only car it wouldn't take any time at all, we each drive about 30k miles a year between our commute and travel.

With two full size car seats it does fine as long as you aren't too tall but with the seat height adjustment it really helps. Now with those same two big car seats it is tough to sit between them but can be done for shorter trips, once they are in booster seats it is no problem at all even for leg room. I'd be weary of the JLU for the same reasons you mentioned and why not get a great deal on a tried and true JKU, plus diesel engines with DPF, EGR, PCV, DEF, etc. scare me just a little after taking the EGR off of my truck and seeing that nasty deposit junk on the intake.

I won't get my hopes up, but you just never know.
JB