12 Days Of Jeepmas 2025 Part 1 and CAD / FAD Axles

SFJ 4x4 Studios presents, in my oversized four-wheel drive Jeep, a Jeep podcast starring industry

experts, curminosity, with mad scientist Scott Brown, use my drill press as a sort of lathe,

our host, Neil Simpson, if one leg goes off, they'll all go out. Phil Bush and Annie. We are

really professional with Jeeps. This is I Speak Jeeps. Oh, oh, oh. Good morning, afternoon,

evening, wherever, however, you are joining us. This is the I Speak Jeep podcast presented

by SFJ4x4.com. My name is Neil, and joined in Grandma's Couch Studio.

Bah-humbug. Bah-humbug. Yeah, you guys are both wearing black. I wore the Christmas hoodie

today. It's Gremlins. It's Gremlins. It's a Christmas movie. I actually watched Die Hard

because in my household, Die Hard is a Christmas movie as well. I watched it already this

season. My wife fully supports that as a Christmas movie. So you got mad scientist Scott Brown

sitting over there with a black snap-on hoodie, and then myself, Jeff Shramani, the producer.

The Italian stallion. Scott's being big grumpster over there. Yeah, man, he's

screwing it out. You know, especially for making me bring the guitar for the 12 days

of Jeepmas today. So in that regard, I don't have pictures for him, which means

he's singing along with you. I know. How dare he? He had expectations for you.

Which means he's singing along with you. Nope. I have the lyrics here when we get to that part.

All right. If you're new to this channel or program, we continue to grow exponentially.

We thank all of our listeners worldwide for prioritizing the I Speak Jeep podcast as part

of your infotainment. But prior to the three podcasts leading up to a brief Christmas New

Year's break that we will take, we will loosely make your eardrums, your ears bleed because

I will sing for you a rendition of that Jeffrey has produced of 12 Days of Jeepmas.

We've been doing this for four years now. This will be our fourth year, I think.

I think so. And it is not A.I. created this year.

Yeah. Last year. We tried that last year. We didn't try that last year.

We tried that last year. We didn't try that last year. The producer's job

is to produce the content. So you tried that last year. None of us liked it.

And here we are. Jeffrey has supposedly created new content, new wording for us. Now,

we've been doing this for years. It is really hard to create new lines

for the fourth year in a row, just to put that out there.

Excuses. So we will sing four verses because ultimately you've got three weeks of it and we'll

add verses each week. So if you think that watching me struggle through this now as part of that,

Scott has challenged Jeffrey to strum the guitar, which actually sounded great during

mic checks. So Jeffrey will be strumming the guitar through the process. So if you do want to

be part of this masochistic approach here, it will be near the end before the outro.

Following the outro credits, if you want to hang in there, you'll hear about our weekend

updates. And we'll kind of tell you about what we did. I definitely want to give a shout out

near the end for as part of my weekend. But I am curious before we get into our topic today,

which is going to be crappy axle technology as your topic. I'm not sure what Jeffrey titled it,

but I'm just going to call it crappy axles. I literally titled it the 12 Days of Jeeps

Part One, leaving it open for whatever topic we wanted to put in. So we're going to be

locking in. We're going to tell you a little bit about a situation we're encountering with JLs and

JTs specifically. But we're going to give you some context. We're going to expand upon this

specific subject matter. Additionally, I will be doing a YouTube video on it so that you get

that B roll, you get that, you know, maybe that little extra tidbit. Today's will be kind

of an organic conversation based on our experience and a little further contextualization

of maybe where this crappy technology came from. So that will be next on our agenda.

We are dressed in black, but that's we're dressed in black because we're here to do work because we've

got a lot of work to put in on a lot of Jeeps. I have a black hoodie to change into. I'm sure you

do. I'm sure you do. I'll wear something more appropriate towards the end of the month. But

yeah, we got, we got, we got work to do today. So what do you got, Jeff? In the comments,

we got Nate being first as usual saying good morning and a very merry Jeet Miss to all.

Billy Joe saying good morning, everyone. Happy Monday. Stay warm. Rob Siemens saying,

ho, ho, ho. SFJ four by four. Nate is interested to hear how your 12 days of Jeet Miss compared

to his. Yours is better, Nathan. Probably without question. We have, did you even listen to his?

Oh, OK. But did he have a live guitar, a live guitar? You haven't heard the live guitar play

along with the song yet. So that leave that out. I heard enough at the beginning that was great.

Geaga Jeepers says good morning, SFJ. Billy Joe saying singing. I can't wait to hear the

Christmas songs. I'm sure they won't be the original version. And there's only one Christmas

song that we've rewritten. So you just get to hear it for three weeks. I'm sorry.

Geaga Jeepers. CAT, crappy axle technology. You know what? He's straight on. You're about to kick

your guitar off the set. So he's straight on because we are going to be talking about acronyms

and the two different ones will be a fad or a cad. And I really like

the acronym CAT, crappy axle technology as well. It'll fit right in there with our acronyms of sorts.

Well, that's what CAD stood for, right? Crappy axle design. Oh, that's fair. That's fair. That's

fad is flawed axle design, right? Jeff, you are on fire. Look at you. I was just hoping it's,

it is a fad and they're going to phase it out, hopefully, because please.

No. Nope, they're not. Nope, they're sure not gracious. And if you're logged on,

you'll know that we dropped a good YouTube video over the weekend, utilizing some behind-the-scenes

information that we're privy to regarding some contractual negotiations and production plant

expectations and kind of historically what Jeep has looked like and kind of looking into our crystal

ball about what the next Wrangler looks like in just a few short years. So you might want to go

check out that YouTube video that is live right now if you haven't already. So I suppose without

further ado, were you going to say something besides bah humbugging everyone? What was your title

today? Other than me calling you mad scientist, normally you've got titles. Dash removal guy.

Dash removal guy. That really speaks. I think that's why Scott Sauer is that he's having to work

pull heater core and pull an entire interior apart. But he's so good at it. I got six Jeeps

torn apart and haven't been able to finish one of them. Yeah, that's challenging. Way to kill

the mood for everybody. I feel that in my soul. Yeah, me too. We're really good at Jeeps. Well,

that's why we have six torn apart and we can still put them back together. Yeah, if we ever got parts

in a timely fashion. Jeanie said, wow, time got away. Good morning. Scott Bennett said,

good morning, gentlemen. And Jerry Huber said, good morning, guys. Good morning. Good morning

to everyone. So I suppose without further ado, we should talk about this crappy axle

technology. And I think that it behooves us to kind of jump off as to what the catalyst

is. And I think you got to build up to it. We just start talking about where it began

with crappy axle technology. And then we get to the end and we explain why.

See, I felt like it was a movie where you get to see the crash. And then we go,

you know, 24 hours earlier and we come up to the crash and go forward. The crash is the

fact that we've got six Jeeps in the shop tore apart and one of them is because of this.

That's, well, okay. That's fair. That's true. So there was a fuel crisis. Yeah,

there was a fuel crisis in the 70s. And wow. So,

and we decided that we shouldn't have these gigantic heavy gunboat vehicles that we were

huge cubic inches with 100 horsepower that just love gasoline. Yeah. Yeah. So the energy

crisis of the 70s led the automotive market, both on consumer demand and federal regulatory

expectations to start to creatively address the function of the vehicle itself. This is where

we start kind of thinning out our metal. So instead of these big, full thick frames and these

big, beautiful, you know, thick quarter panels and side panels, beautiful was the thing for

the 70s vehicles, but late 70s. You're so full of hate. It is. I like a number of 70s vehicles.

Anyways, anyways, anyways. So, you know, one of the things that was happening was at that time,

four wheel drives had lockouts specifically. And the reasonable objective of the lockout

was less wear and tear on the rotating components specifically of your front axle.

And so today's conversation is going to be largely talking about front axle technology. I would love

to get into two piece rear axles. That's for another conversation. We're going to lock in on

front axles specifically. So loosely speaking, through this this era, and really starting in

the 40s, we have lockout technology for the expectation of reduced wear and tear on four

wheel drive systems. But the challenge with that and why military vehicles of all early era and

whatnot, they have what's called dry flanges. Dry flanges are keeping that front rotating

hub assembly locked into the front axle at all times. And so what's happening is the axle shafts

that run down the innermost portion of the axle tubes into the differential. You might call

that the pumpkin or the pig or the diff itself. And those axle shafts run in internal to that.

They kind of float. I need everybody to know that they're kind of suspended true within that assembly.

So there's a connecting point out at the rotating hub. And then that stub shaft connects to some

form of universal joint from that universal joint, the axle shaft suspended in trueness or centered

nature down the axle tube itself pushes into the differential housing internal to their is called

a carrier. The carrier is what the ring is bolted to and oftentimes you've heard us talk about the

ring and pinion or industry talks constantly about ring and pinions. The ring is bolted to

the carrier. The pinion is inserted through the front or backside of the differential. In this

situation it would be the backside of the differential or the pinion throat. And basically

inside the carrier are spider gears. No spider gears allow unequal energy transfer. So that's

what allows four wheel drive to kind of move from the transfer case down the drive shaft

into the pinion and then be reasonably distributed side to side. Now back in the day you got these

guys who just wanted what we call Jeep flex and stir the pot. And with an open axle they would say

well that's not true four wheel drive. Do you remember those? Oh yeah. Oh my god. Yeah. So

the issue is when you have wheel slippage energy will be transferred to the path of

least resistance. So as that motion from drive shaft to pinion to carrier happens

the path of least that that energy transfer follows the path of least resistance. It's why

in a rear wheel drive in the ice you would get this one tire that would all of a sudden go

whoo and it would just spin on the ice. And that was because that pretty good sound effect.

I'm impressed. You know I really like my sound bite. I really like my my accents and sound bites.

Yeah. I mean that was that was one of your better ones. No that was I didn't feel that good about

it but I'm going to take that as a way. So the the issue with four wheel drive is objectively

that if everything is maintaining a reasonable amount of traction four wheel drive works beautifully.

However if you've got you know into an off camber situation or a heavily articulated

situation where you actually have opposing tires up in the air or heck even the same tires up in

the air that that energy transfer is just going to those loosey goosey tires and you're stuck.

Which we could go deeper into on another podcast but that's not yeah I gotta I gotta

leave it be yeah I gotta leave this be okay. So drive flanges is what connects the outside of

the stub shaft to the inside of the carrier. Yep. Lockouts would allow that system to sit there

100% neutral that if your front if their transfer case was not engaged in four wheel drive so you

were in two wheel drive that means your front drive shaft is not spinning and your lockouts

were equally disengaged then that means your axle shaft your universal joints your drive shaft

universal joints your ring your pinion are 100% neutral or static they're just sitting there

they're just sitting there. Arguably there should be absolutely zero parasitic drag okay and these

are this is an important term this is like if you were in elementary school again this would

be like highlighted for you to reference at the end of the the end of the instructional for the exam

that we're going to give you that's right that's right pay attention and the biggest challenge is

you know humans because in a perfect world you know back in the day my dad used to plow snow with

old school four-wheel drives with lockouts and you turned them in in November and you turned

them out and like May yes and that was just life and we also didn't go very far very fast in our

four-wheel drives we did in that era we didn't by comparison but there was a habit of people that

get a bug up their butt and they go off-road and go hmm I'm stuck because I didn't turn the

hubs in yep and now I have to crawl on the hood and go down into the soupy mire up to my arm pit

yep and try to find the lockout yep and just around down in the mud just for a point of clarification

the drive shaft when you put it in four-wheel drive is now spinning yep but what if the lockouts are

not engaged it it's just spinning it doesn't go to the wheel it does not go to the wheel the

drive shaft spins the ring of pinion spins and then again following path of least resistance

one of the axle shafts is largely going to spin maybe both one spins a little faster than the

other good clarification Jeffrey and you could technically have one lockout on and one off

correct and one wheel would spin no no that actually would spin inside the differential

thanks avage no that if it would only do that if you had a locker or something which I already

had to pry him away from talking about more so as far as as far as the technology of the front

axle I think that's an important clarification that's great that's I I'm with you 100 so

the reason why we had drive flanges in military applications was because at no point in time did

we a care about fuel consumption no and b you can't be worried about uh engaging lockouts when

you're getting shot at yeah you need to just be able to laying on the hood in the in the mud puddle

is not a good time when you're getting shot at no no you need to be able to just shift

and go now the problem is that you know leads itself to excessive fuel consumption

heavy wear and tear as four-wheel drives become more marketed towards the general population

which I actually watched a great video I think I might have sent it to you guys um regarding uh

maybe I didn't the marketing of Jeep from utilitarian to civilian yeah and I mean that in the sense

of not just like military to civilian but when our service members came back after World War II

they used jeeps as tractors as tow trucks as generators as factory uh you know go-getters and

stuff like that right and they're trying to make the the vehicle more easy to digest so

his perfect kind of example is I had an old tractor and now I got a new tractor the old

tractor he had to know where to hit it turn on the gas uh you know the clutch stuck

so if you wanted to climb off of it while it was still kind of moving that was kind of dangerous

there's no safeties involved but you couldn't you could hug man and and make it work or you

have the new tractor where it's all friendly and easy to get on and off and everything kind of

works correctly but we have this stigma too is all part of this that we want to be a manly man and

we we kind of want you to think we're driving the dangerous tractor or or the bad awesome

four-wheel drive with the lockouts but we don't actually want to get our shoes dirty that's true

so so what ends up happening um as we kind of fast forward and compartmentalize this

as as Scott had mentioned uh humans don't want to get out and get dirty to engage their lockouts

yes they want from the comfort of their uh driver seat whether they're plowing snow

or whether they're off-roading or whatever they want to be able to engage four-wheel drive

and stay within the cab of the vehicle and for four-wheel drive to just work but they also want

to get the best fuel economy they can and they don't want to replace parts earlier than

necessary so we got into this weird situation where we wanted our cake how do we have our

cake and eat it too and uh this is not a just a jeep problem this is um every four-wheel drive

problem actually it didn't i don't think it hit jeep until the 80s um correct full-size uh jeeps

may have had this design earlier in the 80s um that's true and it would but it like

84-ish and it was it was even worse it was even worse yeah it was even worse and so uh if

if you if you don't know and you didn't get the joke from uh geogajipers uh the the sentiment of

fad front axle disconnect or cad center or central axle disconnect um is specifically

where we're we're leading you up to in contextualization okay and and arguably we see this technology

first emerge in the 70s because instead of having a hub design where we have a spindle with bearings

and hub and well i think it's important to say just for the real jeep nerds out there

or four-wheel drive nerds there was a hub that was designed that had an automatic setting

and the idea of that was that it was free until you applied torque to it and then it would somehow

lock in to make it drive so that was the like very first stepping stone getting our toes wet in

in the idea and that actually wasn't too bad of an idea but then it all kind of went downhill

there uh so into the 80s you know we we get into our computer design and we're we're in the

techy area era so on the on the computer screen it's it's just perfect you know you you shift it

in the four-wheel drive and the switch gets activated and routes some vacuum out to the axle

everything's perfect i need i need to interrupt don't don't don't listen to me because i'm going

to interrupt you but i need you to keep going on your piece the switch is actually in the transfer

case that he's talking about so objectively they wanted to make it as as as dumb dumb friendly as

possible so all you are doing inside the cab are pulling the the lever which is mechanically what

you did 20 years prior yes and now there's an electronic switch uh inside the vacuum switch

it's actually vacuum at that age um inside the transfer case which then sets a bunch of other

things in motion and i can't help but think about uh the game mousetrap or pb herman's breakfast

machine depending on where you encounter the incredible machine yeah the incredible machine

is in a perpetual motion or something like that machine where one thing just keeps

setting something else in motion yeah um it's uh this this greg calls it ruth gollberg i don't

know if that's the right reference as well okay and so ultimately what you're doing is

you're putting a bunch of other actions in place by a singular uh input yes so keep going with your

but we didn't have the technology to make it all computer at that time so we're doing it with switches

and vacuums and everything else so anyway and again this is imperfect on the computer screen

everything's just magic so if you switch the lever turns on the vacuum switch sends vacuum to

the front axle has a little diaphragm with a fork on it it shifts over a collar locking the long side

axle into one and poof magic happens and we're looking cool and fly and we're driving in our snow

in the four-wheel drive and then reality hits and and with that sentiment that was with the

design there was a crossover where there were actual hubs with dry flanges but then ultimately

sealed hub unit bearings where we're no longer messing with lockouts within our

given four-wheel drive energy and uh industry yep and so now instead of our long axle shaft being

uno piece it is now dose pieces amy wanted to correct you it's rube gollberg

outstanding i think i think it's great because we always correct scott so his wife steps in

she's used to it yeah so as far as the long side shaft is concerned we now have a two-piece

internal shaft and then we still have our our third stub shaft so that's actually a three-piece

axle shaft assembly on the long side of the tube so then on top of all that so now we have to

have a location for this vacuum motor a lot of better term with its fork to live so we look at our

front axle and and i think all axle manufacturers want things to be heavy and uh so they're like well

we what makes sense is you know we have a big casting in the middle with our ring and our

carrier we have big castings on the outside holding our ball joints we should just make

a big casting in the middle of the axle tube but we're not going to make it one piece with

the center check chunk we're going to connect it with a little piece of tubing in between

which okay um it's a very Dana thing to do it's a very Dana thing to do that's just the best way to

put it but um the problem with all that is now you have multitudes of welds you have multitudes

of different similar metals um and now you have press fit construction initially yeah and while

i need everybody to know again we've toured the Dana corporate factory in modern day they have

rigorous r&d and testing and all that kind of stuff things that they design on paper and then put

into production work really well initially yes i feel that right so that's a society we're not

we have not become great at making things last but our forefathers tried to make things last

but Dana has a dirty word the oe yes and they they don't like the oe yeah right well it's a love

hey don't bite the hand that feeds you right so they don't Dana doesn't want to come out against

the oe but there's murmurs yeah they you have to you have to supply what what the customer will pay

for and ultimately Dana is a supply chain manufacturer of original equipment market

and uh Dana likes a big hammer on some levels but oe doesn't want to pay for the big hammer

and they're compromise somewhere in between and they're and they're also on a certain weight

budget on the vehicle uh the oes are very passionate about that dane engineers a little less

kind of forced into it uh which is why we see the ultimate series where they kind of get to

do what they wanted to do from stage one and it's just beef everywhere yes but so i want to go

back to the the central axle disconnect and the casting in the middle of the tube yep i and i don't

actually know this but i can only assume that the reason it's in the middle of the tube and not

at the center diff wrist off to the side has something to do with the the torque of the axle

shaft itself nope and because if you put it right at the end now you got this little tiny stub

into the uh carrier nope actually general motors literally made their uh disconnect in the center

pumpkin at the end they had my own reasons and own issues um that those things suck but they don't

bend because of it because it is part of the center chunk and then the early early

wagon ears that we're talking about that had the front axle disconnect uh our cad

central axle disconnect it was part of the central pumpkin the the vacuum diaphragm

literally was beside the diff cover why so yeah so why do we move to the tube though is well that's

also why i apologize rob why why jays have been started you know daddy jeep's not even in the

comments yet and you're already going after him so anyway i i think part of it was again you know

we're in the amc mantra we like things to look the same and share across platforms even though

they really can't so on the small Cherokee and small wagon ear it made sense to make that casting the

upper control arm mount so which needed it to be towards the pasture side for whatever reason

when they went to a wrangler with lee springs they're like oh let's just keep it there they

just didn't want to retool but it's a completely different axle like nothing shares and the

only thing i can remotely think is the u bolts then back in cj land we had three u bolts that were one

size and one u bolt that was another size and this allowed you to have fat u bolts and skinny u bolts

on both sides because now one u bolt goes around the the cad and the other one does not but i'm

really stretching for a reason at this point i i think at some point in time we we do have to

recognize that despite wanting things to be motivated by purpose intent construction and

forethought the reality is sometimes bean counters logistics and not having to pay for a new machine

to retool something is kind of what we come down to you know um in the comments charles said the

yj's are the best as far as he's concerned you know charles i everybody is entitled to their wrong

opinion this is america no he has known an 87 yj i want to know if charles has owned an 87 yj he has

not so um and and and all of that is in jest charles and we always appreciate you uh tuning in

as as a as a proud yj aficionado i take all the ribbing and and i can i can take it and i remember

when yj's weren't cool right right they they literally like they pull in and it was the the nerd

or the dork of the the jeepdom they're like oh i don't know what it says about me i've had many

multiple yj's but you fit in so well in school otherwise you had to embrace it somewhere

oh god okay this is painful anyways let's let's get on this fad to disconnect right fad at cad

cat technology here so so any who's we we design this it works perfect in this perfect world hold on

a second to just come back to jeffrey's conversation i don't know that there's a great rhyme or

reason why it's in the center other than i do like your idea that maybe there's a better torque

the the the sub shafts of it it's a sub shaft we have v8s and full-size pickup trucks and that

doesn't matter and that's the only thing i was going to say is that i like how you're trying to apply

logic okay i don't think there's no logic here and charles says he has an 89 91 to 92 and 95

charles i love your collection um still not an 87 i you do get a little bit of i yeah 89 you do

take a little bit of crud i want to know charles is the 89 a six cylinder five speed come back

in the comments with us we'll make sure to read it six cylinder five speed give us give me some

feedback the 95 you you can't go wrong with i love it so yeah great jeep yep anyways anyway so any

you know in perfect world it works maybe worked for the first six months off the lot it's pretty

much the only time it worked in my opinion until the vacuum hoses got dry rotted or you poked

them with a stick or the vacuum can rusted out or you decided that you were over the vacuum system so

you're gonna buy this cool aftermarket no no no that not but don't bring the cable up just yet

okay don't bring it up just i want to bring up about the fork breaking

okay because you made it out of aluminum because they made it out of aluminum but

you have this really heavy strong donut that it's supposed to be moving with actually

really strong axle shaft it's like two different people engineered it like you had dana with the

with the donut yep and then the beam counter at the oe made the shifting mechanism oh i mean it

absolutely and we joke about how and the donut wins every time we joke about how amc made stuff

and it literally was like three different rooms of engineers with their own teams they didn't

talk to each other did not share coffee no no water fountain nope no lunch together no sure didn't

no sure didn't and in their defense with the vacuum just gently pushing on it aluminum fork was fine

when when you ramrod it yeah not fine anymore but anyway so uh why jays for a long at least

when i got in the jeeps we were just known that there were two will drive yeah unless

you had done modifications right um otherwise you could not rely on the four will drive system

that's true so and we obviously see that in the small Cherokee because in 91 late 91 i don't want to

argue with people about what month exactly they got rid of it and they just went to a long one

piece axle shaft got rid of the glory glory hallelujah you know everything just worked

and you know then we had our cool you know early 90s commercials where they're going down the road

and like it suddenly a storm erupts and they just go click and just full time on the speed on the fly

four wheel drive yep and we're going down the road and we cared a little less about our fuel economy

but well it's because we went to a smaller platform well i mean no it was a proven platform

even better we got rid of the renex fuel injection from the french sure and we wait wait we put the

Chrysler injection in it which made it way simpler yes so therefore it was actually probably the same

fuel economy wise that's true with the front axle turning all the time that's true so it was it

was a great win yeah but the yj suffered the yj for whatever reason did not get the value of

a axle redesign at that at that point and i will give you your credit to talk about that cable actually

actuated because once the vacuum system failed that whole era started in the 80s had just cumbersome

vacuum systems yes so many problems with vacuum and god bless the mechanics and the the di wires

who understood and rebuilt vacuum systems of that era uh i and i will say this take my hat off to

as a two ford owner uh they made it worse on the fords the the vacuum systems on a yj are

superior superior compared to what ford tried to do which you know is not a topic for this

conversation but if you own an 80s to 90s to even even early 2000s ford you know how cumbersome the

vacuum systems are and so here's the thing and this is what adds to the confusion of this conversation

and we need to move on from our our little jeeps that the relevancy is less on but ultimately

that aftermarket product that was a cable actuated to move the fork was called a posi lock so here's

the thing cable was positive to move the fork was not here's the thing at that time gm had

released their posi traction axles oh they had them before that but i know that's what i'm saying

so in society yeah we knew what a posi was yes right and so you're at the street the strip the

off-road and you know what a posi is a posi right it's like claim next and so and i don't

understand that posi posi traction was a gm design um so so and that's specific to a locker

or internal to that differential that carrier that i was talking about so now we have this

cable there were in fact elsewhere in the aftermarket cable actuated lockers in military

application yep so so we had service members who knew that when they were in the military they

could pull a cable and uh like tractors when i shouldn't say just the military we have it

in tractors it was either linkage activated or cable activated we would be able to lock

a differential together um with a cable so the biggest misnomer yes was that people thought

again your your two three times removed when you're just the average consumer and i got a posi

you put that cable in i've got a locker now yeah literally the product was called a posi lock we

had those conversations early on oh my god we still have to tell people no i'm sorry you do not

actually have a locker in your vehicle now your vehicle's four wheel drive just actually works and and

then and a bare minimum as you made me do it do you also had people that were like oh well now i can

link and lock it yeah all the spiders together put this posi lock cable in and now i can have

both you're the best of all the both worlds i can have a spool when it's locked in which

none of that's true no you just made lots of breakable stuff yes and moved refuse

significantly fork is really mad now now here's the piece i'll leave you all on the the conversation

regarding the the small the small axle uh cad uh design that came out in the 70s and was prevalent

through the 80s and early 90s there is a workaround at this point in time i recommend

everybody to do pull that little cover off pop a c-clip out shove that collar over permanently

pop the c-clip back on and arguably all you've done is create a design in your yj or early 80 or

mid 80s xj mj so on and so forth that is the same as a 92 xj right it's now you've locked

two axle shaft donut has moved permanently them donut has moved permanently and now that design

is functioning the way that a 92 xj's axle works minus the fact that the 92 xj simply has a long

one piece internal shaft i'm not going to do it the hard way like you know scott or greg would do

then you buy a kit and it changes a seal and you put a little block off plate on it and you

want to put a one piece axle shaft in it now there are advantages to one piece axle shafts

and and i think this is an appropriate segue for us because and this is the piece that i stand

firmly on my soapbox sharing with you today brothers and sisters oh boy long axle shafts

are actually meant to twist bend flex so on and so forth and then they go back to their original

casting or shaping that they were and i'll tell you dana tries and makes sure they do that

and when you shorten an axle shaft like driver's side yep it has a weird fuse because it cannot

twist like that that's correct and so that's the big misnomer within the world is that because

something is longer we think about a longer lever right our lever is longer and therefore

for supplied somehow should be able you know maybe bend it but like a quality pry bar you can actually

get a bunch of flexion in that pry bar it's it's not too hardened where it's going to break or chip or

leave you you know with a bloody broken face it actually once you pry what you need to pry it

it goes back to being straight um and so within reason your axle shaft itself works the same if

you are in the hardcore race industry rock bouncers or something along that line there's a term called

gun drilled axle shafts the objective of that is actually to make those axle shafts so twisty

that no matter how much torque is sent through them the axle shaft won't break twisting is

actually perfectly acceptable and with custom axle shaft designers like dutchman there's actually

an acceptable twist where that shaft is good for you know life it's actually really cool to

see the slow-mo cameras watching it and it just flexes all the way and then comes right back yeah

because dry shaft is so cool dry shafts do it too yeah correct so where this becomes

problematic well i should say then that transfers over to the tube structure itself and we

actually had this issue early on we were of the i mean go back to young scott and young neil we thought

that the long side would smile or frown right and we quickly learned from you know people as we kind

of sharpened our axe within the industry that what ends up happening is that's the short side i

still remember being in my parents backyard and like learning with you whether we were on the

phone whether we're together and we were putting the straight edge on and come to find out the

long side was perfectly straight and the short side was actually what was bent and my mind was

blown yeah because of the long side had come back and then returned to where it could because you

have more more structure and more ability for those molecules and stuff's kind of move around

and then come back where the other side you pretty much deform it you stove it and it deforms

and so you know so we understand this as an automotive industry for a few you know for a

couple decades ultimately by the by 95 is the last time that we see within the jeep industry

a cad axle produced that was in the yj yeah we those of us who are in the in the no

we put on our party hats we got out our little kazoo noisemakers our champagne poppers and we

toasted each other we didn't have to deal with that anymore

boom boom boom and then we and then we decided we wanted to get more than like 15 miles of a gallon

out of our jeep now 2018 comes around yeah and they are needing to push that that

acceptable epa regulation up higher you know they need it to be better and the set you know

sad part is the motors are more efficient they're got more horsepower than we've ever had

and that kind of stuff but we you know i have a myth it's nice getting you know 18 20 miles of a

gallon out of a four-wheel drive straight axle jeep but we need to go back to the olden days and

kind of make things somewhere we gotta we gotta sacrifice something somewhere which we finally

had the technology we should have had in 87 sure and you know now for all intense purposes

you only get my rubicon you go down the road and go oh it's a little slippery pop it in four high

you flash once on the dash and boom you're in four-wheel drive and you're none the wiser of all

the magic that just happened sure as you put it in four-wheel drive and you didn't have this

horrible grinding noise which you know uh old school obs chevy guys i'm looking at you

because you're you know little plunger failed and you put in four-wheel drive and things weren't

lined up right you're bad grinding definitely not synchronized no no no synchronization but

anyway all that magic happened so really other than this problem we're going to bring up it's a

good system yeah it works it's pretty robust i haven't seen anybody break it i'm sure you

break anything but you know general purpose used for a daily driver jeep it works right so just to be

very clear in 2018 and a half we see the release of the jl wrangler platform so jl and jl u and with that

we have obviously both the day the advanced tech series and uh this is a great axle design right so

despite the fact that it has the name uh Dana 44 it is vastly different than the the prior year 44s the

Dana 30 retains a number of similarities um to prior model 30s as far as internal bearing structure

and uh journaling uh you know oil galleys being of similar placement pull them back in there anyway

okay so here's the thing i you know what i really get excited over this stuff so we can't tell

so anyways this is when we have the fad axle release and i'm going to make up a story that we

kind of came up with when this all happened that it's too fun not to just share share uh we think

that like this young guy was trying to figure out this and he like went down in the depths

of the engineering department and found that old school big drawer with the old school of a

vellum paper drawings and pull that open and like dust flew into the air and he found the drawing from

the yj sure and he's like wow wow we can do that i can do that with better stuff now but for some

reason yeah instead of moving the actuator closer to the differential he's like well if grandpa

put it there i should put it there too amc did this we can do this yeah it was obviously just a

vacuum system that sucked which is true um and all that stuff and we do electronics now and make it

better and which is true but what we can't not do is bend our axle housings sure every five minutes

so here's the here's the catalyst of this entire conversation as we've we've strung you along

in process is that what we are seeing now more than ever is this uh issue with bending the long side

of the tube structure so when we had the compact dana 30 under the xj yj mj so on and so forth

while the housing may bend that was less the failure point of that era of axles typically

when you were aggressively off-roading and so there was some hopping in the front of your

vehicle or if you were involved in an accident again the short tube was going to bend and not

be able to rebound again the long side actually wasn't so problematic because there just wasn't

that much leverage on that long side under those more compact class of of of jeep models

by the time we're at 2018 that's actually a very large axle assembly and now that long side

is is back again a very long large lever and it is unable to rebound because it is a multi piece

process of assembly but with press fitting tubes and heat applied via welding

at which we have to for two seconds remember you know seven to eleven jk's also suffered

from general frowning smiling axles because we're just wider than we've ever been before

and we didn't even have a fad no we had porous castings at that time to even think about

making it would be five times worse if they would have had a fad then so we actually have a pretty

good axle design but the disconnects by 11 12 by 2012 we've got an amazing front axle design yeah

and really the Avantek made it better in lots of ways other than this dumb disconnect in the middle

of the long side axle tube where the upper control arm is so then we get this perfect

catalyst of of things where the upper control arms actually pretty robust and it's holding it

to the through the fad and we have bambi jump out in front of us and we tap bambi with the

pasture side front tire so you have our control arm holding holding strong and it just goes

absolutely and twists and bends the the axle tube and you know folks we're talking

inch half an inch but it is enough to completely mess up all the geometry tire wear

bad stuff happens and we have replaced more of these axle assemblies in 2025 from arguably

minute impacts just normal off-roading where an individual kind of came up over a little hill

and then yeah as they came down and the tire stove to tire and a little washout they're in an entire

line in a row of jeeps off and you can't not talk about all the great pictures of like in the dunes

of axles broken at the fad as well fad itself where they've actually bent it and then went

further 100% and and currently one of our our greater more severe bends is specifically just from

a small deer impact yes not even a substantial off-roading or you look at this jeep and go

I could still drive that 100% but you can't but we actually can see the the spring having a lean

to it the track bar pocket being a skew and and you know orientation sway but that link is all

catty want this sway bar link was was the primary indicator initially and you know

in our process of working with insurance companies it has been our experience talking

with insurance adjusters about how many of these axles that they are writing to replace

at this time now what's crazy to let you in on a little bit is the fact that we know that gladiators

specifically with the sport axles so non max toe non rubicon you know the air quotes narrow front

axle 44 that axle is on a degree of indefinite back order yep at minimum 45 day lead time

with 18 nationally and this is a Chrysler statistic 18 on pre-order with zero in production

to and I bad I you know basically the country needs 18 of these axles they're not actually

building any and you might see one within 45 days maybe and like true day in a fashion the engineer

was mad that the young guy went down and found that drawing whoa you got choked up so he went ahead

and designed the axle that we should have got yes and made an ultimate series but you know he's a

four-wheel drive guy yes and he likes his Rubicon's and because we now have narrow and wide axles

what did he do chose the wide axle correct because it's the best axle the best axle he

wanted to make the best of the best and not like that why in the world would we do anything lower than

the 410 gear ratio right so we now have this weird conundrum where you know and honestly we don't see

like my truck front axle bending all that much which they should bend worse because it's lighter

potentially potentially or maybe again the wider is maybe we're saving it I don't know

but if I bent my front axle tomorrow other than cost I could go and buy an ultimate

in my gear ratio put in there get rid of the fad everybody's happy right turn it off with my taser

one piece axle shaft yep full one piece tube tube construction and suddenly we got the really the

best front axle we've ever seen correct in the Jeep but if you have a sport like Jeff

even a max tow well no max tow is wide right yeah I mean we've seen them bend in a max tow

absolutely yeah but if you're Jeff screwed and we have seen Rubicon's jl Rubicon's bend as well

but so it's not undoable but just plan on if you have a sport that you're now upgrading your uh

to a wider the wider axle you're upgrading your gears which means now you got to regear the rear

and steering right yes and steering is different so we've the the whole point of this is to is to

kind of unpack the special is specialization of front axle technologies over the last 30 or 40 years

you have understanding that if there's a tidbit here that benefited you when you're in your

Jeep club or at your next Jeep meet also if somebody is trying to do a distance diagnosis

about a Jeep that has got some shakes the shim shimmies or some oddities that you know they just

can't quite sort out and they've done all of the normal things regarding uh track bars and

caster and um you know good quality components accidentally hit a small deer or a dog that's

exactly wow that honestly you could be dealing with uh an issue perpetrated from a bent axle

itself and at this moment there are not a lot of good fixes other than going with an aftermarket

axle application in which case you may be looking at upgraded steering or additional gearing

needed to satisfactorily do that replacement and so I really hope we don't see this technology

go past the jl but or just put it next to the pumpkin please relocate which is an interesting

you know which is an interesting conversation as to why we see it still mid shaft which is exactly

where we see these bends and breaks happening yeah they're not necessarily at the at the

the diff itself it is out past in the comments Billy Joe said the suspense so wait to hear

you all sing in the 12 days of i don't know why simpson's version um i'm trying to do everything

i know you're stalling at this point and uh we are to that point where we really would you

guys like to hear about spine counts over the years of internal axles and no all right

folks if you have any questions about uh crappy axle technology or cat technology and jeeps as

as geogat jeepers put it um then feel free to reach out to us directly for at

contact c o n i have not a c t at sfj four by four dot com or text us on our text only number

four four zero eight five five twenty one hundred we love to hear from you and uh we'll we'll respond

accordingly uh jeffrey while i was continuing to try install has produced us the 12 days of

jeep mess 2025 i think it would have been better to say ai wrote this yep probably

i'm sorry people i don't think i can even get all these words in on this

i do jeffrey's gonna jeffrey's gonna gonna sound check this a little bit i'm just

glad that jeffrey wrote it i don't do you have letters on here for your strumming yeah that's

where you're getting a strum that's what cord you're getting oh god do you remember when he

actually gave us like background music and then it was really fast and he slowed i mean

in his defense this was my idea this was scott's idea and it's designed that i can just go at your

pace maybe all right that actually works i was just i thought it worked i don't know jeff that's not

bad see that's not bad it's just hazing jeff and here we are all right you're gonna you're

gonna strum what are you gonna do what what the heck are you doing the whole idea the hell are

you doing i don't know the actual this this neck of the guitar is supposed to be in neil's face but

i mean jeff has gotten real serious oh i wanted to do a shout out to one of my friends uh he

we actually just topped his top listener list um and he said he sent me a screenshot and he said

if only we gave ukulele lessons as well we would easily rise to number one and uh so i thought

it would only be too fitting that jeff is actually strumming he's way too serious about it though his

guitar here and i was gonna bring a u because he had like his whole persona has changed i know

for those who can't see i know for people who can't see at home everybody who's listening at home

like all of a sudden jeff is like super serious yes i've made i've been made to feel uncomfortable

yes way too much lead up here because this is not jeff is going to be like a super pro so randall

if you wanted an instruction on string instruments uh apparently this is it and i we wanted to give

you this for christmas clearly and a jeep fixed but i you know i don't know if that's going to

happen either yeah are you ready jeff have you have you have you sit your way yourself do you

feel good no i don't let's go are you gonna strum can i hear you on the first day of jeep miss my

true love gave to me a dog perched on my new jeep terrible jeff were you strumming or were you just

like could you not hear were you in panic mode were you panicking okay i guess strum again i'm

ready to go second one i'm folks listening at home you're singing first he's so serious he's so

serious you have a book you only have to listen to four verses i promise you on the second day of jeep

miss my true love gave to me two tow straps purple and a duck perched on my new jeep it's important

to clarify they're purple straps on the third day of sfj 4x4 jeep miss my true love gave to me

and add more words three skid plates gas tank transfer case and oil pan two tow straps purple ones

and uh worthless purple ones and a duck perched on my new jeep jeff you're doing a great job i want

you to know i think whoever suggested was that you scott i i am so happy about this right now

last friend last verse for this week folks if you actually enjoy the torture you'll have to

tune in next week for four new verses on the fourth day of jeep miss my true love gave to me

three four reservoir shocks three skid plates two tow straps from harbour freight and a

duck perched on my new jeep it makes sense now why we had to do purple straps because we had to save

up for the rezy shocks that's right we had to do the the affordable purple strap because now we

got rezy shocks jeff that was actually pretty good i tried you really did i see that man i feel

we talk about the fact his guitar is blue it comes as no surprise to anybody it's blue it's got

parallel inlay birds on the neck it's got a skull uh yes a neck strap i gotta say the skull neck

strap and the birds kind of conflict hear no evil so you know evil speak no evil of the skulls

we're really good at working on jeeps i need you to know that and hold that true for us are the

birds on the neck from this right way you sing this song what are they turtle doves and and

doves and anyways so um that's that's a wrap on this episode i was really i'm i'm excited to see

what the next couple verses look like jeff the pressure's on now i know wow i worked really

hard on the uh the partridge in a pear tree line because i really wanted something that actually

worked the last two i think we didn't have a good flow yeah but that actually this is now

the pressure's on this is actually half decent i don't like the duck perched on my new jeep one i'm

sorry if you care about what happened over the weekend stay true to the credit stay through the

outro credits until next time jeep on jeep on so in true uh curmudgeon fashion i was drug

unwillingly with my unwilling son to christmas shindig on saturday after work um and i need

everybody to know we went to the exact same christmas shindig at different different opinions

of it at different times and completely different opinions uh i had to like pep talk my son sometimes

you do stuff you don't want to do because you love people and they want you to do it i had the best

time it was amazing experience i'm sorry but i have to laugh at the comments jugga jeeper said

jeff hard to work with non musicians glad they got day job ouch i thought that went really well

our bar is so low

our bar is so low for this that is true we're gonna do it for real sometime not on air we're gonna

and we're gonna autotune it we'll actually record it for people oh boy now not true at all no

we'll let jeff we'll let jeff mix it up all right so anyway so you went to this really great

experience but you were a big scourge about it um we had to park down the side street and not die on

sidewalks that weren't de-iced and it was fine oh anyway welcome to winter in the north i don't

like winter you live in the wrong area i know i do so but but it could be much worse you could

live in hurricane area i mean i was literally chanting that i know no hurricanes our spiders are

smaller uh no alligators you know it's fine anyway so then on to the next day uh and true when your

friends with old old friends uh older friends uh you sometimes are like i'm gonna sleep in on sunday

and you get a phone call and they're like hey i'd like to come over see your project and

like oh that actually sounds like fun oh you know well i'm at the end of your road well i'm in bed so

you're gonna have to give me a minute but anyway it was a nice visit with a friend he came over see

the Model T uh ended up over at his place and looked at Model T parts so it oh and all was

okay uh weekend in between snow flurries and ice tried to kill me so what a scrooge

man and he's the one who's taking time off between the holidays gracious so i don't have to go out in

the cold and the snow and the ice that's strategic yeah i just need to somehow to get to the garage

without going outside what i heard is you're taking that week off so you can be building your

pole barn out back no that makes sense to me i would totally do that it's uh there's snow and ice

and it's cold out there and i don't know what i'm doing he named three well three reasons that'll be

fun the fourth reason is just makes it more challenging and exciting all right so i guess um

on his bum bug level i'll go to mine i went to the exact same uh christmas market uh which

has become a tradition for uh my my kids and i um and uh and it's it's this uh local fair

that is meant to be like a holiday market you might see in a much larger city of course

pittsburgh has a beautiful christmas market that is just stunning this was a great small town

hometown version because it's kind of kicked off with uh you actually have horse drawn wagon

rides uh when we went there was a skating rink installation which i know that scott didn't get

to partake of um they had free hot cocoa and they had a one of those stove burner things where the

wood superheats and it produces you know one of the super stoves that we've seen sold like snoop

dog sells them for some reason um yeah i don't know what the frick i don't know so but really

emmerday home for me as we are in the the the rise of everybody making crafty stuff i love it with

crickets and yeah and 3d printers and everything everybody's got a small business i love it good

for them good for them and if you if you want to hear about you know being a successful small

business owner tune into jeffrey's my american hustle podcast there you go um but you know so

you how to make the best soap yeah the best soap out of your kitchen man so you know we go

into all those little tents and we talk to those people and they're in there you know shivering

trying to make the best of it and sell their little handcrafted etsy you know product and

you know it was it was it was very nice the beauty was that once my wife um who's had

you know had some health ups and downs not always great on friday night but she made

it a priority come and join us this year um and uh we had just the best time together

again we're a little irreverent so whether there was like hey you're supposed to do this

than this than that ah whatever we kind of flittered about and and you know kind of

hit our touch points as we uh enjoyed them there was goat petting that you could go to

did you pet the skunk uh so we absolute i my wife and kids absolutely petted the skunk i was uh

why would you not i why would you not i was occupied with something else personally but

you know they got in line to pet the skunk which i mean why was their skunk petting at a

christmas event i don't know i don't i don't need to ask those questions it's just something fun to do

um did you have the grinch there no there was no grinch oh the grinch was there

my bad i didn't go i was right uh no this was it was not you as a grinch i thought it was funny

i thought it was funny is that three years ago when we first went my kids were just a harry

younger um my barber who has been on our other podcast before and you've seen him involved

in a number of things that we've done media wise just his wife volunteers she does photography

she volunteers all the photo session for the weekend oh and for taking pictures for santa

yes okay and and general coverage but primary santa pictures that is her um gift to the public

her her way of charitably giving back and uh my son was he's a he's a bigger boy he's

you know he's at that time he was 10 so sitting on santa's lap was a little bit you know eight

wasn't having it yeah it wasn't exactly having it and he was all in she was all there 100 my daughter

as well um but but at 10 leo's he's a shy kid anyways um stupidly enough uh jim the barber

his name uh santa had stepped away jim the barber was milling about and like made this like

you know joke that jim should go play santa and leo sit on jim's lap we have this iconic picture

of leo sitting on our barber's lap as santa right so that we recreated this year no we didn't uh he

wasn't there uh but in preparation my son did ask me goes is jim playing santa again i was like

buddy jim was never playing santa we just had you sitting on the barber's lap because it was

ridiculous you know yeah so um you know it was it was a fun hometown affair if you will

in that regard but it kicked off um a very long weekend of activity a flurry of activity with

my family um everybody got sick everybody had uh obligations that we had already made commitments

to it was a very challenging weekend in that regard with that all contextualized this was

our weekend to get our tree and if you don't know about me i am a diehard live christmas tree guy and

i have to contextualize they want the biggest tree they can possibly shove into the inappropriately

small space that they have for this tree that's correct is the tree folded over because it's

too tall i no because i cut the pieces off that needed to be folded over so now it's just

looks like it protrudes up into the ceiling how many feet wide is it listen i was really

responsible this year um and it is not that big in the grand scheme of the simpson house it really

isn't okay how tall was it when you bought it i don't know i i it was an appropriate tree just

so you guys know it was i was at least seven foot oh probably yeah of course it's oh it's

easily seven to ten i don't know um the last one i remember the tree was as wide as it was

tall as as usually how i like them okay um but but here's the thing again mentioned everybody was

sick there was all these problems and and again i'm going to go i'm going to continue to paint

that picture about the fact that i am a diehard live tree guy i used to need to trudge into

the the the field the forest the whatever and cut that tree down i love cut your own

dog called you out of the seven foot thank you dog so here's what happens in 2020 you were a little

touched because of the size of the just picked one out of the i said seven to ten dog just clarified

because this is the important thing to note okay in prior to 2020 um and again developing these

relationships with customers our objective is longitudinal right it really is um a degree

of expanding the the family mantra we're not always going to get along it's not always going

to be sunshine and rainbows there's going to be ups and downs but objectively i am here to grow

the jeep family as a whole and i value the unique background that each and every person brings

to um brings to the table it just so happens that when dug and jonathan joined uh this

business as customers they uh brought in this terribly clapped out god awful 89 yj i was i

thought was newer than that i think it's a 91 oh it's 91 that's a 91 92 or so 91 92 93 but

the year just keeps changing yj renegade think about the the the ugliest jeep that only i

would love where it has this fairing plastic all over it it's just absolutely beautiful 90s

the plastics junk it breaks yeah so they come into the business come to find out that 93 come to

find out we got there we got there eventually don't let the facts get in the way of good story

folks come to find out they are at jonathan's degree third generation christmas tree farmers

1956 uh doug's father purchases a farm uh about an hour or so away from his particular home just

outside of cleveland ohio purchases this uh several hundred acre farm in our county and

that we are physically located and it's just this whole like circumstance or happenstance

situation where they become our customers and these individuals are authentically

uh prize winning christmas tree growers if you ever wanted to see like as serious as jeff got when

the guitar came out about christmas trees this this is them this is them i did not know there

were so many things they are uh to christmas trees as we are to jeeps yes they actually if you

didn't see last year's episodes for christmas they brought a wreath that they made and she

actually wove it in the vehicle while they were driving we have ours is hanging in the uh i just didn't

bring it to unveil it today we should have grabbed it's hanging in the showroom currently oh we got

another one oh yeah they brought it black friday or prior to uh we have one for the shop and then

they are so generous they give me one for my personal home as well it has a little jeep ornament

on it i proudly display it in my home we love it we look forward to it they're live real wreaths

i love their generosity but they're so uh established folks that they're literally in

national competitions if you didn't know that was a thing there are um and they just last week did a

christmas tree installation in the governor of ohio's home so this is a this is a serious

business christmas tree farm and um it is of the utmost importance to me uh to uh get my

christmas tree from them because they take such a pride in what they do even though doug doesn't

let me cut the christmas tree at this point um because it takes such pride in it yeah i know he

doesn't let me play with the chainsaw chainsaw oh doug's serious business where he picks out

three or four trees prior to us going out there and he gives us a selection and it's it's

how we operate with jeeps where we basically give our customers kind of a buffet of options

and then they kind of give us feedback and then they narrow it down for them we're really he just wants

the doll like four years out in the field saw yeah saw and you just sit his happy butt on the back

tailgate of the gladiator and you take him out there and you go your type of tree is in that

general direction no they are way too professional for this no i'm saying what you your standards i

know my standards are there and they are so incredible for our family um and and and have been so uh

fantastic with our trees over the last five years and um unfortunately this year was literally

just my daughter and i going out to retrieve it but of course we had a very special time together

to do that also we're very unique in my my i'm very passionate about my christmas tree folks

if you didn't know this um but i also only get blue spruce if your tree does not make you bleed

while you're trying to decorate then it's not christmas yeah um it used to be jeff is the

guy that likes to get punished all the time it used to be if your parents aren't screaming at

each other while trying to put the christmas tree up it's not christmas at this point time as an

adult i realized i can put the christmas tree up up without screaming at anybody i didn't know

that that was an option when i was a kid sorry mom and dad but now i do um but i still hold true to

the fact that the tree needs to make you bleed so i do have a question do you have any traditional

ornaments that you hide in the tree a pickle you do the pick okay yeah the pittsburgh pitts the

pittsburgh pickle some people do the pickle uh that's i grew up it was the glass pickle that was

hidden there absolutely um but there's always a traditional ornament that and when you when we

say that i've actually had the pickle for probably a day i mean i've had it as long as my kids

have been alive and i don't think i've once actually effectively hid it from them and and

retrieved it it was more like oh here's the ornament box who saw it first here's your president

she's just putting context when i was a little if i wanted a christmas tree i had to put it up

myself and it was the old green pole with the pipe cleaner poles with the uh paint dipped on

the end of the branches and you had to know which branch went where really and i'm sorry oh

that's what i grew up with and so i had to put that up myself and they were the color-coded metal

and and decorate it myself wow so at this point so at this point i'm i'm tapped yeah i dragged that

thing out of the attic your christmas tree i'm not the same pipe cleaner now i think has a special

place in some burning in a hot very hot place so and the kids put it up and decorate it so i

not from nobody i i thought that they were designed to just fold up and keep the ornaments

and lights and you just oh my god you all are so terrible now no we actually we decorated it growing

up but yeah but we did absolutely have the pre-lit fold-up tree and yeah and to make another layer

there is a rule from my wife's family her great grandparents set up the tree and before they

got it decorated their grandma great grandma literally passed away so then the christmas tree

wasn't decorated for the holidays so we have a rule you cannot go to bed without putting decorations on

the tree you can't just have to it tree has to go up has to get decorated that's cute honestly i

have actually gotten to the point because sometimes life's get busy i've actually decorated the tree

on christmas day i am so okay with like flexibility within a degree to me it's this experience

you should do the countdown to christmas and have so many decorations a day oh that's funny

long story short here saying these folks stop it all right it's important to us that we retrieve

the jeep uh the tree with the jeep we took my dad's gladiator this year to you know how weird

we are scott like we need like these little associative things this year's merch limited

edition drop on our hoodies is the red iconic kind of christmas tree jeep which was in part

inspired by the greg christmas tree farm which is dug and jonathan and and their brother

dug's brother and it was in loose part inspired by them they've they've again

we're great supporters of theirs and they're great supporters of ours and so

so i was talking to my parents and it was important to us i took my dad's gladiator this year in fact

to get the tree so we had this kind of moment of tree retrieval but we've we've tied it to the

roof of the jeeps and of course they're great because they do all the binding the tying and

stuff also very serious oh phenomenally phenomenon he's he's and and like us i can

respect every bit of it because very procedural because like yesterday and he's very kind

because like yesterday i was i love i love christmas tree equipment i love the shakers that oftentimes

some farms have i love uh the balers and i was standing on the wrong side of the baler

and he just kind of like kind of like motion gently like i excuse me i need you to come over here

he needed me to move like all of 10 feet but a very procedural as to not take like a winch line

to the neck you know have him you know have me move around the baler i just like seeing it go

through and get you know kind of wrapped all tight and everything so a fantastic experience despite being

a little under the weather and very stretched then over the weekend for those that don't remember

our previous christmas hoodie he actually called us out because we had the tree facing the wrong

direction that's correct because this is very serious business this is incredibly

serious business so um if you have any uh affection towards real live christmas trees i

suggest you give greg christmas tree farm a like on facebook it's g-r-e-i-g and you can see them in the

future uh attempt to get their christmas trees in washington d-c because part of their competitive

process uh actually eventually lands christmas trees um in d-c so kind of fun stuff there but

like me i'm a total tree nerd if you didn't know this the very farm that my grandfather

bought after world war two air quotes and we've had jeeps on since the you know sort of then

and my sister still lives on i had about uh 30 uh blue spruce planted on that that farm

thinking that i would eventually move there and have jeeps and trees and all that kind of stuff

my grandfather used to grow uh about a little less than an acre of blue spruce himself

on this said farm and i thought i was going to continue that on until we

kind of blew up sfj into what it is so fun fun tidbit about me that you might not have known

for me this weekend was my wife's birthday so happy birthday christin yep so saturday we took

time to to rest relax i made her her favorite brownies her grandmother uh who's who's passed

away at this point um shared a birthday so that was she always made brownies so i was like i'll

make you your brownies i did chocolate chips powdered sugar the works all from scratch uh and

then sunday uh i actually went to a santa's workshop in lake city with zander and we worked

as a craft vendor for our nonprofit um supporting another nonprofit that runs that called light

up hope and that was a lot of fun to just go out there um we are not an actual craft vendor

specifically like the other uh the other tables like you were referencing with the 3d printer and

that where they've got seven tables of all these items they're very polished and crafty yep whereas we

just have a table with some information about who we are as a nonprofit and a few uh nice ornaments

and laser engraved things that christin makes for our nonprofits so um that was that was what we

did and i watched the steelers ravens games throughout the santa's workshop because

nice by humbug is scott says and i got i was like i'm gonna watch this football game

yeah i was doing my best uh based on the fact that this was our weekend this air quotes

air quotes weekend to relax my son was in a seven plus hour wrestling tournament

my daughter had a four hour recital practice this is tech week from my daughter's big uh company

production um coming up so this was our air quotes week weekend to relax and all we did

were were sick and and ran around um but you guys bought humbugging stuff god no i actually did

celebrate it while we had gone there uh good good good and i let zander go around check out all

the different vendors i'm sure i'm sure he had a great time things yeah i'm sure he had a great

time all right well as much as i would love to continue to talk about christmas and our

families and our weekend uh activities with and without our jeeps we do have a lot to work

on we've got a lot to work on and not a lot about a lot of time important to know as we

move forward you have two weeks left of the 2025 uh year season and we are going to take

um the last uh date that we will be doing a podcast will be december 22 we will not be

here on december 29 in preparation of our coming season in the first of the year of 2026 so

just so you know prioritize joining us if you have some free time um in your schedule feel free to

jump on and join us live on facebook or on the youtubes at 10 19 am see if you can beat

nathan or joe uh to the punch in the process and uh and be first in the comment thread

like i said two more opportunities in the 2025 season and uh obviously you will catch

four more verses of this awesome jeep missong each time uh you tune in until next time jeep on jeep on jeep on

12 Days Of Jeepmas 2025 Part 1 and CAD / FAD Axles

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Jeep Wrangler

Jeep Cherokee

Wrangler Rubicon

Ford Model T

Jeep Renegade

Jeep Gladiator

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