Dave Stewart is the host of the Wet Fly Swing Podcast, one of the largest fly fishing focused podcasts in the US. Each episode Dave interviews a new expert guest to tease out all of the best tips to help you live out your best trip in the outdoors this year. Although most of the Wet Fly Swing listeners come to learn about fly fishing, they have a diverse background in all outdoor activities including hiking, backpacking, kayaking, hunting, overlanding and much more. Dave also has a history with Jeep going all the way back to his childhood and has some amazing outdoor stories around Jeep.
Month: May 2024
CentreSteer #134 – Scott Preston
Scott Preston Placid Lassie — Tunison Foundation Events & Rallys Stories Buy me a Tea
Episode 1048 – Avengers Are Back!
Unlike the prior Avengers, this Advenger 4xe is not sold in America. Maybe we have a bad attitude about what Jeeps are
The Advenger is a British tv series from 1961 to 1969 introduced us to Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg. A spy versus spy, I’d call it a SciFi show! Much later the Avengers returned, but this time part of the MCU. A group of Super Heros that as far as I know weren’t spies or British.
This Jeep gets four-wheel drive and a lifted suspension.
The Avenger 4xe is a tiny 1.2-liter gasoline engine fitted with mild-hybrid technology. It’s a three-cylinder turbo mill that develops 136 horsepower and routes output to the wheels via a six-speed, dual-clutch automatic transmission. Joining the ICE are two electric motors, one at the front and the other at the rear, with each developing 28 hp.
Top speed of 121 mph. At speeds of up to 19 mph, the Avenger 4xe always works in 4×4 mode with a 50:50 split between the two axles. From 19 to 56 mph, it defaults to front-wheel drive, but the rear motor is always ready to intervene should the need arise. Go faster than 56 mph and the rear motor is disengaged to reduce fuel consumption.
If it’s not sold in America, the majority of our audience, why talk about it on the show? Well, sometimes you can see what’s coming to us from overseas.
Replacing Fender Flares
We all love making our Jeeps custom, most of us just buy someone else “custom” work and bolt it to the Jeep. The fender flares that came on my JT are fine, but never very custom. For those people who are trying to make customizations for functionality, why do they change fender flares?
Metal or plastic
Wide vs narrow
Legal ramifications of narrow flares
Rain or mud (with rocks)
Are you customizing your Jeep into an off-road only, or mostly, vehicle?
Must-Have for Your Jeep!
PRP Seats B040-05 Front Seat Covers for Jeep Wrangler JLU, 4 door $433.46
I think we all, or most, have heard of PRP seats, but did you know they make seat covers? We love customizing our Jeeps, but inside the Jeep is overlooked. Looking from the outside the seats are easily seen. If they are nasty-looking seats that’s bad, but you can just change it from factory to custom, and that screams you love your Jeep.
Episode 1046 – Gladiator 4×8 Sheets
Jeep slams into home
A Jeep, a JK, ran into a home in Huntsville, Alabama.
Houses are near streets, so it’s not that unusual. What makes this story interesting is the Jeep is suspended seven feet in the air between a brick wall and the house!
The jeep slammed into the side of the house just after 9 am. Early morning drinking is a thing! The resident of the house had just walked into the laundry room, a good place if you think about it, the bathroom would have been better…
It seems the Jeep was not occupied, but had rolled down a hill. The Jeep Wrangler had enough forward momentum and the distance between the wall and the house was just wide enough for the 2 door Wrangler to be suspended almost perfectly horizontally!
There were no injuries, and other than a damaged hood it looks like the Wrangler JK fared well.
Jeep Wagoneer S EV
A First teaser video has been released for the Jeep Wagoneer S.
The video is obviously comparing itself to the leader in EVs the Tesla. The teaser seems like the Model Y and the Wagoneer S are going to race, but perhaps that will be in a future video.
I am excited about the first battery-only Jeep! No, I’m not on board, literally and figuratively with an EV for myself, but I am anxious to see what Jeep has accomplished here. I initially read that the estimated miles per charge was 400 miles. This was big news to me as this, as are many other people, watching the range of EVs, and especially for something as brickish as a Jeep.
A more realistic range is given of 300 miles, estimated, on a charge. This means the Wagoneer S can go 21 miles further than the model Y. The Tesla you can get for $52k and the Jeep starts around $80k. The Rivian boasts a range of 321 miles for $92k!
The alleged 0 to 60 for the Wagoneer S was 3.4 seconds, beating the Tesla by .1 seconds.
Just like cell phones went from a communications device to a smartphone that we all have to have, I believe EVs will do the same thing. In the future, it was just make sense to have an EV over an ICE vehicle, but that time isn’t now for most people.
Fabrication Freezy, with Bill & Larry – JeepingMo
Tailgate Rotopax bracket
Must-Have Stuff for Your Jeep!
You’ll have to go to your garage or the lumber yard for this
If you have a Gladiator and you want to haul 4×8 sheets of plywood, or drywall, you’ll need this.
Jeep made “notches” and recesses to make it easy to do this, but you need to supply the items to go into the notches and recesses.
2×4, 49 inches long, 2 2×4 58 inches long
You’ll need 3 2x4x8 (2x4s). Hauling them in the back of your Gladiator should be simple. Just tie them down and hang a flag on the end to be safe. Locally the 2×4 prices are between $3 and $6, so this isn’t an expensive project.
You’ll need a saw, a hand saw is fine. You’ll be cutting these so you can put them into the recesses in the bed of the gladiator and two of them in the notches. Once cut and installed you lower the tailgate of the gladiator to the first stop, by putting the bed cables behind the stops made for this.
Keep in mind you can use this for more than hauling plywood, you could put a sheet of plywood in the bed and carry something that is too long for the gladiator 5-foot bed. Oh no, your friends are going to ask you to help them move now. If they have a Wrangler, make them admit the Gladiator is a real truck, and a real Jeep before agreeing to help.
Episode 1046 – Gladiator 4×8 Sheets
Jeep slams into home
A Jeep, a JK, ran into a home in Huntsville, Alabama.
Houses are near streets, so it’s not that unusual. What makes this story interesting is the Jeep is suspended seven feet in the air between a brick wall and the house!
The jeep slammed into the side of the house just after 9 am. Early morning drinking is a thing! The resident of the house had just walked into the laundry room, a good place if you think about it, the bathroom would have been better…
It seems the Jeep was not occupied, but had rolled down a hill. The Jeep Wrangler had enough forward momentum and the distance between the wall and the house was just wide enough for the 2 door Wrangler to be suspended almost perfectly horizontally!
There were no injuries, and other than a damaged hood it looks like the Wrangler JK fared well.
Jeep Wagoneer S EV
A First teaser video has been released for the Jeep Wagoneer S.
The video is obviously comparing itself to the leader in EVs the Tesla. The teaser seems like the Model Y and the Wagoneer S are going to race, but perhaps that will be in a future video.
I am excited about the first battery-only Jeep! No, I’m not on board, literally and figuratively with an EV for myself, but I am anxious to see what Jeep has accomplished here. I initially read that the estimated miles per charge was 400 miles. This was big news to me as this, as are many other people, watching the range of EVs, and especially for something as brickish as a Jeep.
A more realistic range is given of 300 miles, estimated, on a charge. This means the Wagoneer S can go 21 miles further than the model Y. The Tesla you can get for $52k and the Jeep starts around $80k. The Rivian boasts a range of 321 miles for $92k!
The alleged 0 to 60 for the Wagoneer S was 3.4 seconds, beating the Tesla by .1 seconds.
Just like cell phones went from a communications device to a smartphone that we all have to have, I believe EVs will do the same thing. In the future, it was just make sense to have an EV over an ICE vehicle, but that time isn’t now for most people.
Fabrication Freezy, with Bill & Larry – JeepingMo
Tailgate Rotopax bracket
Must-Have Stuff for Your Jeep!
You’ll have to go to your garage or the lumber yard for this
If you have a Gladiator and you want to haul 4×8 sheets of plywood, or drywall, you’ll need this.
Jeep made “notches” and recesses to make it easy to do this, but you need to supply the items to go into the notches and recesses.
2×4, 49 inches long, 2 2×4 58 inches long
You’ll need 3 2x4x8 (2x4s). Hauling them in the back of your Gladiator should be simple. Just tie them down and hang a flag on the end to be safe. Locally the 2×4 prices are between $3 and $6, so this isn’t an expensive project.
You’ll need a saw, a hand saw is fine. You’ll be cutting these so you can put them into the recesses in the bed of the gladiator and two of them in the notches. Once cut and installed you lower the tailgate of the gladiator to the first stop, by putting the bed cables behind the stops made for this.
Keep in mind you can use this for more than hauling plywood, you could put a sheet of plywood in the bed and carry something that is too long for the gladiator 5-foot bed. Oh no, your friends are going to ask you to help them move now. If they have a Wrangler, make them admit the Gladiator is a real truck, and a real Jeep before agreeing to help.
Episode 1047 – Storing Recovery Equipment
The Zoom people had a lot to talk about, and some of it was answer the question we asked. Good episode, don’t miss it.
Episode 1045 – CC – Jaimee and Natalie
Jaimee and Natalie come together on Memorial day to talk about off-roading, women in the hobby/adventure and Jeep modifications they’ve done to go anywhere they want off-road.
Episode 1044 – Interview Pocket Change LJ
Josh is an avid Jeep enthusiast for over 15 years, virtually a nobody from the foothills of the Carolinas. Josh managed to build his dream jeep in less than 7 months and was invited to one of the largest jeep events in the world, by one of the largest suspension companies in the country. This is a true underdog story.
Episode 1043 – Oil Cartridge Or Filter?
GoTopless Day 1 dead, 2 injured!
You hear this every year, or at least we do in S.E. Texas. Our beach is Galveston, and GoTopless Day happens in several places on the sandy border of the Gulf of Mexico.
Bolivar is generally a bad place to attend the event unless you have new body armor and driving to Detroit is just too far to try it out.
189 arrests were made, and the local TV station is calling this “Jeep Weekend” Did someone copyright GoTopless Day?
On the Bolivar Peninsula, there was one fatality among the victims, but it’s unclear if they died at the scene or if they died later.
Does it matter, they are D E A D dead!
Jeepers let the NON-Jeepers cause the problem. We don’t want people to associate Jeeps with bad actors, you know like the BMW and Bro dozer people…
Grand Cherokee 4xe “Bricked”!
We here are the Jeep Talk Show don’t enjoy bringing you “we told you” news about another 4xe issue, okay maybe we do a little, but Edmonds.com is reporting that their 2023 Grand Cherokee 4xe died 300 miles from home.
Roadside assistance was called, and they could pay $2300 to be towed the 300 miles home. Free to be towed 20 miles to the nearest dealership, or $3.99 for a gallon of gas to burn it to the ground.
Wussys they decided on the dealership. It took 6 days for the dealership to report… “We found a pin disconnected from the back of the electronic control unit.”
I think this means a wire was disconnected from the computer, the ECU, the PCM, and that thingy that makes the Jeep go.
In the end, our Jeep spent 14 days out of service. All repairs were done under warranty. We learned it was also due to two safety recalls. The tech performed one and part of the other while troubleshooting the main issue.
- Problem 1: The car bricked.
- Solution 1: Reconnect pin 10 to the ECU and repair the wire leading to pin 10.
- Problem 2: Safety recall 04B; defroster.
- Solution 2: Update parts and software.
- Problem 3: Safety recall 10B; steering knuckle to control arm bolt.
- Solution 3: Parts not available.
All service was done under warranty, but they were still without their Jeep and had to travel 1800 miles to get it. 300 from where it died. 300 back to pick it up (two people) then 300 miles to get it home.
Warranty is nice but it doesn’t pay for everything.
We have a link to the full story at edmunds.com in our show notes for episode 1043.
https://www.edmunds.com/car-news/2023-jeep-grand-cherokee-4xe-stranded-long-term-update.html
Jeep Talk Show Gladiator Update
After the recent trip to EJS, the 2021 Jeep Talk Show Gladiator now has 22k miles on it!
Low Patreon subscriber count, Apple trimming 27% of our downloads means even less money coming in for the show. It’s great having sponsors like Bawarrion and JeeTops otherwise I’d be picking up aluminum cans. Although I think these days it’s catalytic converters and the random A/C unit for the copper.
Even though times are tough I didn’t want to get too many miles on the 3.6 before adding some protection that I believe in since Kevin of Baxter Performance talked about right here on the show.
The MS-201-BK cartridge to Spin-on adapter.
This do-dad keeps oil in the filter and then dumps that oil into your 3.6 upon startup. Getting oil to the critical engine parts that are known to fail.
A quick Google search identified that TrailRecon.com had the best price at $325, with free shipping.
It was quick getting here, in fact so quick I don’t have an oil filter yet.
Bill let me bounce this off of you. I can’t change the oil on my gladiator as it will end the extra warranty I have, but I think I can install the adapter, and oil filter and then just do the double pedal and turn the engine over but not start to prime the filter.
I need to check the Gladiator but I think I have an oil change coming up, so I may wait to do this until after the oil change.
Must-Have Stuff for Your Jeep!
RT-TCZ for Jeep TJ Sunshade Soft Top, TJ Bikini Top Mesh Sun Shade Sunroofs for Jeep Wrangler TJ 1997-2006 American Flag $35.99
Episode 1042 – JeeTops Giveaway!
Are You Attending the 4th JTS Annual Off-Road Event Texas?
Is your rig built to “wheel to go camping”… or “camp to go wheeling”? (top heavy or light and lean?)
Knowing what you know now… Would you do if different..? Would you buy a different model (Jk vs JL or TJ vs Jk, or JT etc) to go wheeling.
Listen to this episode to find out how you can have your own JeeTops