Episode 494 – Gorilla Glass and Hair Globs!
Turn it up and Drive during the Jeep Celebration Event at Southfork Jeep…Call 1-800-Low-Price to get a lifetime warranty and 0% financing for 72 Months on New Jeep Grand Cherokees! Shop the fastest growing dealer in Texas at southforkdodge.com that’s southforkdodge.com
This Week In Jeep
Jeep Wrangler with Steering Wheel on the right?
The Wrangler RHD is a right-hand-drive version of the 4×4 SUV that’s sold in the United States, where it’s perfectly legal to drive. You may think that this must be for the US Postal services, but no one can buy one… The U.S. Postal Service got rid of its Jeep-based mail trucks a long time ago, but it employs rural mail carriers in remote areas of the country who use their own vehicles. And what better to deliver to rural roadside mailboxes than an all-terrain vehicle?.
Does it mean I’m fat because I’m concerned about how I would get my food order in the drive-through?
The prior generation of the Wrangler was offered in this configuration from 2011 to 2018, but only returned to the lineup this year and appears on the consumer website with a starting price of $40,000.
The basic model comes with standard four-wheel drive, but you can only get it with a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine. The infotainment system is just an AM/FM/Satellite radio without navigation or any apps but can be upgraded with a nine-speaker Alpine audio system for $1,295. You can add a $95 engine block heater and $995 cold weather package with heated front seats, heated steering wheel, and remote start are also available for places where snow is more of an issue than rain, heat, or dark of night.
What if Jeep Added Gorilla Glass as an Option
Jeep may be offering up a sturdier windshield option for Gladiator and Wrangler owners who plan to take their vehicles through rough, debris-filled terrain on a regular basis.
Oh, you mean like on the highway any day of the week?
You may be one of the few lucky Jeep Wrangler/Gladiator owners that have never had a rock ruin your otherwise beautiful windshield, but for the 99% of us, we know all too well that the flat, mostly vertical windshield is a rock catching magnet! Some of you have replaced your windshield multiple times and found out about a tougher, yet more expensive, alternative Gorilla Glass.
What if you had Gorilla Glass option directly from Jeep?
Mopar Insiders reported, dealers will soon be offering buyers the choice to upgrade their front-facing windows to Gorilla Glass!. The report claims the Gorilla Glass windshield option is $95, and that Jeep expects 80 percent of buyers to opt-in. The automaker has NOT confirmed this as of yet.
I look at this as a no-brainer. I purchased the $2k option for a bigger screen on the Gladiator dash, $95 for a tougher windshield is an easy choice.
I think having options is great, but if Jeep really does offer this as a $95 option you have to wonder why they just don’t switch to it as a standard option.
I’m looking forward to Star Trek’s transparent Aluminum, however, that creates a new question. Would you rather have a crack in the glass or a dent in the aluminum? I think the crack is easier to fix.
onX
Last week we reported on onX a trail mapping app that is available for FREE for 2021 Jeep Wrangler/Gladiator purchasers as part of the Jeep Wave program. As you well know I recently purchased a Gladiator and wanted to figure out how to get my 6 months of free service.
I searched, I tried things, but I couldn’t make it work. I mean I downloaded the app, but couldn’t find out how to activate the FREE part.
I reached out to their support. They responded quickly, they said…
“Hey Tony, I do apologize for the confusion on my end. This is a brand new partnership we have formed with Jeep. You should have received a 16 digit redeem code to access your Membership for Offroad, but since you haven’t I’ve gone ahead and got you set up with years worth of access to onX Offroad. If you have any questions please let me know.”
I asked if I had just missed the 16 digit code in my paperwork from the dealership. They said Folks will be receiving these in the next few weeks. If you get any questions from folks wanting to start that Membership before they get that code, just have them reach out to help@onxmaps.com and we can get them all squared away.
So if you’re part of the Jeep Wave program and haven’t received your 16 digit code from onX keep an eye on your email! Be sure and let us know what you think about the app. Oh and before I forget they have a 30% discount for their HUNT app just in time for Fathers Day, just use the code DAD!
Newbie Nuggets with Wendy
Rocks & Roots
When I mention the trails we run on there is usually a designation that the trail is easy, medium, or difficult. While most difficult trails involve big boulders, medium trails generally consist of medium-sized rocks, ruts, and off-camber stuff and the easy trails are usually what we refer to as fire roads. They are mostly graded, fairly level, some easy to get over rocks and ruts but mostly flat roads.
First off, I’d like to say, rocks are your friends. I know for most newbies the thought of going over rocks is daunting and usually has a comment like “I don’t want to dent my jeep” or “I don’t want to get stuck”. Well you would be right for the boulders, and you should be “set up” and “armored up” before tackling them, but the rocks I am talking about are found on almost all the roads in our area in So. Calif. They may be small or medium-sized and most could fit under a stock jeep. The problem comes when you first start driving and you purposely start to avoid them. Why not, it’s what you know driving on the highway. Sure in your Toyota Corolla or Prius with 3”- 4” of ground clearance it would be a good idea to miss them and on the highway that is an excellent idea, but on the trails, rocks are your friends. When you put a tire upon a rock it raises your jeep up so you’ll gain ground clearance and secondly, rocks are a great source for traction rather than the soft, shifting dirt. This is especially true when you’re climbing a slight or moderate incline. Spinning tires offer no forward movement. If you use a rock for traction and your tire doesn’t spin you’re now moving forward.
Rocks provide “lift” and clearance and they are an excellent way to practice learning where you place your tires – front AND rear. When I work with a newbie I ask them to “feel” their way through going over a rock. Do they know how wide, or long their jeep really is? By aiming for the rock and feeling your way over it you can tell if your judgment was correct. If both tires run over the rock you know you are getting the feel of your jeep. You purposely aimed correctly. This will come in handy when you start tackling larger and more difficult obstacles.
So next time you are on a fire road or dirt road and there are rocks. Try driving over them at slow speeds and let your jeep do what it was meant to do – crawl.
Now the other thing that pops up all the time on our trails is roots. Yep, good old-fashioned tree roots that over time the dirt around them erodes away and the root is left with sometimes as much as a 6”- 8” high of the root exposed running across the road but “rooted” very solidly in the ground. I can tell you that driving over these things is pretty much the worst thing I hate. They are usually hidden most of the time on the trail because their color blends into the soil and they are hidden in the shadows of the trees they support. You think the trail is smooth and BAM you run over a root. Now some of the roots are angled in a way that when you run over them, they tilt the jeep and rock it back and forth. I know Bill purposely goes over these at speed just to get to me. I think he hopes I’ll approve the next addition to the jeep, “like very expensive but really good shocks with better dampening” (his words) Uh HuH! Now most of the roots are smooth from all the tire wear so as you approach they look tiny and unintimidating, but some have a shelf, or step-down on the other side that you can’t see until you “drop” down over them. Most jeeping speeds are slow and you can usually get the brake applied prior to the rear tires going over them, but sometimes you are simply getting from one obstacle to the next and moving a bit faster and that’s when these evil little monsters show up. OK, they are not really evil, but when you are sitting, riding a passenger, enjoying nature and you hit one of these little suckers, I mean, roots, and the Jeep rocks violently side to side, you definitely have a few things to say under your breath. LOLOL
Roots are not bad, how could they be, they are part of nature. Well when you hit one, let me know how you feel then. Watch out for roots, slow down on the trails as they hide in shadows, and lurk around the bend when you least expect it. Rocks on the other hand are your friends and you should drive over them anytime you get a chance.
Jeep Talk Show Interview
Mike Heath with True Patriot
https://www.truepatriotinc.org/
Jeep Life – With Jeep Momma
I have been living in an RV campground now for a year and a half. I truly enjoy this life. We can pick up and go when we want. Which we have done in the past when we did our Off-Road Adventures. It’s nice not to have the stress of homeowner life anymore. Neil and I aren’t the only ones who choose this sort of life. There are thousands, hundreds of thousands who do. We are not homeless as our home is our camper and some of their vans or Jeeps or cars are their homes. In our campground alone there are about 20 to 25 permanent campers who have been there about as long as we have. Here in the valley, Xcel energy is re-doing the electrical system as it is long-overdue maintenance to the grid. They have contracted with a company out of Texas. The original job was to last 4 years now it looks like 8. That’s a long commute for some of the guys. So most all are RV living. So the campground is our home…not just a place to come on the weekends for a getaway. For the most part in the winter months here in Colorado, it’s just the permanent folks who we all pretty much stay to ourselves and we all have an unwritten routine of respect and courtesy. But with the influx of tourists, there are a lot of in and out campers. With that comes campground etiquette. Honestly to me, this etiquette is plain common sense but I have found this past year and a half there are a lot of people in this country that don’t have common sense. So here are my Top 5 campground life etiquette tips. And I bet you every listener of the Jeep Talk Show Podcast doesn’t need to hear this because it’s just plain common sense and courtesy.
And for the most part the Jeepers and off-roaders I met all have what seems to be a rare trait nowadays. Number one… This is the number one complaint of campgrounds across the country but honestly, I have to say this isn’t an issue where I live. Usually, after 10 pm it’s time to use our “indoor voices”. You can still hang out by the campfire but you should keep the rabble-rousing until 10 pm. Also, loud yelling children should be sleeping by now. And don’t forget to disengage your car alarms. However, if you are primitive camping I would keep the alarm engaged. Because if you hear a bear or other creature rummaging your campsite you can just click those remote keys to scare the animals away. Number 2 Respect others’ space. Use the public pathways or roadways to walk around the campground. Don’t take shortcuts. The space around my camper is my yard. Teach this to your kids as well.
Number 3: Share the wifi. This is a pet peeve of mine. When I get home from work I want to check my emails or Facebook but I can’t because everyone is on the wi-fi. During the summers it’s really bad. I know lots of campers who are streaming movies and kids playing video games. HEEEEELLLLOOOO you are camping in the wilderness why are you on your electronics?
Number 4… Leave your campsite better than when you arrived. You wouldn’t believe some folks. The stuff they leave behind. One guy left his black waste hose behind. It was in the winter so it was fully frozen full of nastiness.
Number 5… This is my biggest pet peeve. Bathroom etiquette. The biggest offenders are women. Well, I feel they are. Not that I spend time in the men’s bathroom and showers. But I do ask Neil if he experiences the same as me and he doesn’t. We have a campground bathroom with one toilet and two showers. Our showers are not typical and very nice campground showers. They are even better than some hotels I have been to. So I use it a lot. I have found women can be nasty. Some people don’t know how to clean up after themselves. Leaving empty shampoo bottles in the shower or other trash. Toilet paper on the floor. Paper towels that missed the trash. Toothpaste spit in the sink. But the absolute most disgusting and worse is all the hair clogging the drain so the water doesn’t drain quickly and you are wading in your own shower water… BUT WAIT… as you are shampooing your hair and you are rinsing out the soap and you open your eyes to the shower wall and there is a glob of someone else’s hair stuck to the shower wall.
It hasn’t just been once but at least once a week I find this. Who in the world does this. WTF!!! Clean up after yourselves people. The next time you hit a public campground I hope you won’t have to experience the hair glob. Do you have any campground etiquette horror stories? Call the Jeep Talk Show voicemail line. Can you outdo mine? Next week… Tips for selecting a good RV campground.
Must-Have Stuff Pick-of-the-Week for your Jeep!
ORACLE LIGHTING REAR BUMPER LED REVERSE LIGHTS FOR JEEP GLADIATOR JT $149.00
- Direct replacement lamp using existing hardware
- Taps into the existing reverse light power source without error code
- Integrated rear reflector for OE appearance
- 15x high-powered LEDs in each for a total of 30 with 1,500Lm output (raw)
- Clear PMMA lens, cast aluminum housing with powder-coat finish
- Optic-focused beam pattern for an extended field of view
Campfire Side Chat
If your Jeep had traction control, would you still install lockers?
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Links Mentioned in this Episode
NEXEN Tires USA https://www.nexentireusa.com/
Trails 411- POWERING Your Adventure https://www.youtube.com/user/backcountrydriver
The 4×4 Radio Network http://4x4radionetwork.com/
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Rat Bastards Webpage https://ratbastard.lol