Term
Fording
Fording means driving your car through water like a river or puddle on the road. It shows how well your car can handle water without breaking down.
Car
Ford Model T
The Ford Model T was one of the first cars that many people could afford. It was made a long time ago and helped start the idea of making cars for lots of people.
Concept
amphibious vehicles
Amphibious vehicles are special cars that can drive on land and also float and move in water, like a boat.
Car
Ford GPA
The Ford GPA was a special vehicle that could drive on land and float on water like a boat. It was made during World War II to help soldiers move through water and land easily.
Term
general purpose amphibious
General purpose amphibious means a vehicle can work on land like a car and also float or move in water like a boat.
Concept
floating
Floating means making sure a vehicle or equipment can stay on top of water instead of sinking, so it can cross rivers or flooded places.
Concept
duck boats
Duck boats are special vehicles that can drive on land and float on water, so they can go across rivers or lakes without getting stuck.
Brand
Jeep
Jeep is a company that makes cars designed to drive on rough roads and trails, not just regular streets.
Term
Rubicon
Rubicon is a special version of the Jeep Wrangler that is made to handle tough off-road trails better than regular models.
Term
35 inch tires
35 inch tires are even bigger tires that help a Jeep drive better on tough trails by giving it more height and grip.
Brand
Toyota
Toyota makes many cars and trucks that people use every day. They are known to be reliable and easy to own.
Car
Toyota Tacoma TRD
The Toyota Tacoma TRD is a truck made for driving on rough roads and trails. It has special parts that help it go over obstacles and through water.
Concept
engine cooling
Engine cooling means keeping the engine from getting too hot. Cars have parts that help cool the engine so it works properly and doesn't get damaged.
Term
oil pan
The oil pan is like a small container under the engine that holds the oil. This oil helps keep the engine parts moving smoothly and stops them from getting too hot.
Concept
water crossings
Water crossings happen when you drive your car through water like rivers or streams. It can be tricky because water can damage your car or make it hard to drive, so you need to be careful.
Concept
flash flooding
Flash flooding means water builds up really fast and can flood roads quickly, making it unsafe to drive through.
Concept
environmental laws
There are rules called environmental laws that say you can't drive through certain water or nature areas to keep them safe and clean.
Term
RTV
RTV is a special kind of glue that can be used to seal parts of a car to keep water and dirt out.
Term
scuba tank
A scuba tank is a big air tank that divers carry to breathe underwater. Here, they talk about how big a tank a Jeep would need to keep working underwater.
Part
winch
A winch is a tool on the front of some cars that helps pull the car out if it gets stuck in mud or dirt. It uses a strong cable to pull the vehicle to safety.
Concept
off-road
Off-road means driving a vehicle on rough ground that isn't a normal road, like dirt or mud, which needs special features to do safely.
Term
mud line
The mud line is how high the mud has covered a car after driving through dirty or muddy places.
Term
four-wheel drive
Four-wheel drive means the car can send power to all four wheels at the same time, which helps it drive better on mud, snow, or rough roads.
Term
seals
Seals are like little barriers in your car that keep oil and water where they should be. If they get hurt, stuff can leak and cause problems.
Part
gear oil
Gear oil is a special oil that helps the car's gears move smoothly. If it gets dirty or mixed with water, it can get thick and sticky, which can hurt the car.
Term
power wash
Power washing means using a strong spray of water to clean your car really well, especially after driving in mud or dirt.
Part
radiator
A radiator is a part in your car that helps keep the engine cool so it doesn't get too hot and break. It works like a fan that cools down hot water inside the car.
Term
flat towing
Flat towing means pulling a car behind another car with all its wheels touching the road, like when you want to bring your car along on a trip.
LIVE
SFJ 4x4 Studios presents
In my oversized four-wheel drive Jeep
A Jeep podcast starring industry experts
Cure monocity
What? Say that again!
With mad scientist Scott Brown
I use my drill press as a sort of lathe
Our host, Neil Simpson
If one light goes on they all go out
Phil Bruce Shenanigans
We are really professional with Jeeps
This is I Speak Jeep
SFJ 4x4 Studios presents
In my oversized four-wheel drive Jeep
A Jeep podcast starring industry experts
Cure monocity
What? Say that again!
With mad scientist Scott Brown
I use my drill press as a sort of lathe
Our host, Neil Simpson
If one light goes on they all go out
Phil Bruce Shenanigans
We are really professional with Jeeps
This is I Speak Jeep
Good morning, afternoon, evening
Wherever however you are joining us
And the goat was included today
We got that for you
We're doing stuff
My name is Neil with SFJ 4x4
Simpson Family Jeeps
And he's sure of that
And I'm sure of the production value of the podcast
Despite the fact that Jeffrey has once again bailed on us
I don't hold it against him
He's a very busy dude as well these days
I'm joined in Grandma's couch studio
Even though Mother Nature tried to blow us away last night
Madest mad scientist Scott Brown
And trying to source vintage drive line parts
And help paint and color vintage drive line
It's already being a Monday
It is such a Monday
It's a Monday is Monday
But we had the goat and we started on time
Despite the fact that Nathan is saying we didn't
Jump to our comments
Nathan is saying Carpe Diem
I'm here to Diem all the Carpe
Carpe the Diem
Billy Joe good morning
Rob happy Monday or something
He had a very busy weekend with the Bantam
Trail individuals
Jeanie saying good morning
Happy to be here
Bradford
Has a word
On the comments
Folks us
Us would got to
Something canoe ride
I got no idea what Bradford's talking about
I gotta be honest with you
Not only can I not pronounce a lick of the word
That he's mentioning
I don't even know what he's talking about
Canoe rides in the middle of
We're good with jeeps not with other languages
Right now the Midwest
The authentic Midwest
Is about to prepare for 24 plus inches of snow
We're gonna get a slushing
And Bradford's talking about canoeing
I don't know
Geaka Jeepers good morning everyone
Nathan trying to claim we're late
Not true at all I started
Exactly at 1019
Joe good morning Mitch good morning
And Rob saying
Good morning Neil and Scott
And Jeanie saying she
Well she's a Jeep person she's enjoying watching you
Build your car on your social page
I appreciate that
And as always we encourage people
To you know jump on
One or both of our
Social pages depending on your
Interest
And Bradford is
Talking about a river in New York
Which I mean it
Sounds great because there's a lot of Native American
It's funny as I deal
Let me just throw my mic into my face
Absolutely
As we deal with so many vendors from
You know the west coast the east coast
And north to south
Everybody's always kind of blown away
At our Native American inspired
Words which of course
From folks who are from this area
We don't think anything of it you know
They're just normal words to us
They're just normal words to us right
If you're going to New York there's some really
Crazy ones
Yes
And that's I mean that's
That's 100% the case because
I'm telling you this
I'm going to spell it for people who are at home
I'm going to spell it because I
Because I feel like you need to participate
With me and I
Feel like somebody you know should like
Phonetically have this
So Bradford is talking about a river
O S
W E
G A
T C
G I
E
There was entirely too many vowels next to
Consonants and consonants next to vowels
Or you know consonants next to consonants
With that said I do enjoy
You know when you're talking to someone out of the area
And they try to say coniat
And you hear canute
All kinds of weird stuff comes out of their mouths
Without question
Without question
And
And John Graber's jumping in
He's saying enjoy the winter
And he's down off-roading in the southwest
Last I knew
And high of 106
On Thursday
And he said enjoy
And Mitch says we happen to get 36 inches
Of snow he's upstate Michigan
There which is they're talking about
Two to four feet for some areas
Wow
Just wow for everybody
And I know we have a demographic
In Florida who are just laughing their
Hines off at us right now
They bask in their 80 degree weather
Which would be lovely
Uh huh
I hear that harassment
Anywho folks we're going to be talking about
Forting
Which may or may not be appropriate
With the melt of the snow in the north
But
Coming wheeling season
In general
As always Scott will jump us off
With some of the vintage inspired stuff
We'll see how he relates this back
If he doesn't relate as far back enough
I certainly have some
You know some
Conversation there
And then if you're interested
To know what's happening in our personal lives
Hang out through the outro
Credit scene
And we'll tell you about our
Our weekend updates
And you know other shenanigans
In the process
So where are we going to start
On 40 and maybe
The inspiration of conversation here
Well I would let everyone down
If I didn't go back far enough
So you had to make sure your horse was
Liking water
And then you shouldn't go past the head of the horse
No they swim
Horses swim
Well it depends on how fat the guy is on the back
You're telling me my horse sinks
That is what we're saying
I think you're doing pretty good
So anyways
Moving up from the horse
We went to
I could do
Model T's
And all that kind of stuff
I'm going to write to MB's
Which they're saying about 21 inches
Is when you're maxed out
When did an MB come out for those of our Jeep owners
Who are new air listeners
41
We're in the 40's
We're in the 40's
We're in the 40's
We're in the 40's
We're in the 40's
We're in the 40's
This water forwarding depth
Jeep has ever had
Just to set the benchmark
Next one that I kind of
We had duck boats at the time though
We did
But they float
You had amphibious vehicles
Which was an amazing industrial time
Globally
Because there was this attempt
To have these tanks
That swam
And they did have the Ford version
Of the Jeep
The GPA
Which was general purpose amphibious
And that was a small
Boat with a Jeep inside of it
But I don't think that's really forwarding
Because it's a boat
It's floating on the water
Right
Because they couldn't
They didn't have the technology
I don't want to say they didn't have the forethought
Because I'm always amazed at how incredible those
Engineers, how incredible those
Inventors must have been
At the time
But because of a
Different approach
They thought they should float on the water
Versus drive through it
Yes, 100%
And I think too
We just overbuilt everything
So you just expected
To kind of be real conservative
On what your recommendation was
Knowing everyone was going to push
The envelope well past
Sure
Just really go crazy
So
Next one I worried about
Was the M38
That's kind of the KodiGRA
Of the flat fender
And that is 30 inches
Which you'll see a trend here
From there on in
But the fun one is
With the forwarding kit
So we had done stuff in World War II
Enough that someone was like
Hey, the next military jeep
Needs to be like
Serious
If I'm not in scuba gear
In my jeep
Am I really forwarding?
Okay, but I think that, I think
And this is completely arbitrary
I think it's because we had this
This expectation
We were going to float
And then we realized that maybe floating
Wasn't particularly effective
Because pioneer days
We attempted to float the wagons
They would
Go to your horse and
Buggy conversation
They would
Point or putty
The wagons so that they could float the wagons
But the problem with that of course
Is a cross current
You're not where you were anymore
No, you're not going from
Point A to point B down the river
You had to figure out how to drift
With the river because
Trig, you had to use trig to figure out where you were going
You had to use trigonometry
Stop it
I definitely know
Those guys out in the western
Yeah, that's exactly
What they were doing
That's exactly what they were doing
But they were trying to float all the time
And I
Dying on my hill to cross
Regarding how we
As humans approach solving situations
That's what we knew, we knew floating
And then floating wasn't working
Because these big heavy military
Equipment wasn't floating very well
Yes, especially when you get a couple
Of holes in them from enemies
From enemies, we're no longer floating
This, or the duck boats
And I got to say
Joggiepers
David Joggiepers was like
Wait a second, so they got, they put a
Jeep on a duck
It was a tiny duck
Yeah, well it was a big
It was a big boat
But there is some, there is something to be said
Compared to an actual duck
Which those that don't know
The duck was a large
Like
Ton or bigger vehicle
Had
You know, six wheel, no
Two in the back, two axles in the back
One in the front, so
Yeah, six, six wheel drive
We're counting
Had to get my toes out to do that
Anyway
You could have put the GPA
In that vehicle
I mean, they're humongous
I've been lucky enough to actually
Been on one of those, not in the water
But in a garage
And it is amazing, now the GPA
They weren't very common
Maybe
The floating problem, I don't know
Well, there was a bunch of
Amphibious approaches in that era
Right, and they were not
Super successful, and
To my knowledge, and of course
I don't, oh man, I read something not too long ago
But Pittsburgh was
Had a prolific duck boat
Tour, there was actually a number of cities
That
As a business model, they got a surplus of
Ducks, yeah, and
It was super cool, I always
Wanted to do it, but it's kind of an expensive
Like for two hours
It was like 40 or 50 bucks
And these are not the landing craft
That everyone talks about with D-Day
That is yet something else
That is yet something else, I'm with you
Okay, so let me stop
From that quick sidebar, so anyway
So now we need to actually sync the Jeep
So we're seven years in
From 41
To 48 is when the M38 came out
We decided
That we should do better
And now we can go to 74 inches
That is
6 foot
2 inches
Under water
That's with the deep water fording kit
And that was only because
We had gone
Everybody likes to do one
Extreme to the other
We had, you know, 6-volt
Crappy ignition
Didn't like water
All the way to the M38, we have special spark plugs
That are screwed
The leads are screwed on
So I had a waterproof ignition
It had
Little diagrams
Of where you put plugs before you went
Fording deep in the water
And where you didn't
It was actually in like a user manual
Or a military factory service manual
And you know when you got people that don't pay attention
You gotta have stickers, so there's literally stickers
On the dash that says
Make sure you put these plugs in
And when you remove them, put them here
And that kind of stuff
So they were serious, they went all in
The DOSC went up
The intake had a
Big riser
The vent tubes were metal reinforced
Rubber tubes
Yeah
The master cylinder
The brake master cylinder had a breather on it
I mean they really
Went
Off the rails
And I'd really like to know
How reliable this all was
Cause I doubt it
I would love to know
And in what capacity, because at that point in time
To just fully
Iterate
When you are sitting in a Jeep
That was previously
The prior
Version of this was able to go to 21 inches
And
A generic rule
Was
To the rocker
To the height of the tires
Still use that
Basically to the rockers
When water starts to come in the Jeep
You're going to have a bad time
As general consensus
No matter what model
But basically, I mean it's my understanding
That as a generic rule
And this was
A bit of my experience growing up and whatnot
It was basically three quarters of the tire
The tire size you go to
Basically three quarters, that's your safety zone
You go beyond that, you're working at optimization
And then you go past
Optimization or potential
Now you're above your tires
You're in uncharted territory
You as the driver
Are fully submerged
You are underwater
Yourself
And I just
Now I want to jump
It was excessive
And I want to jump forward
I don't know about 75 years
In briefly
Mentioned Fred Williams' tube sock
And say we will talk about that
And now I want to go
Go back and what capacity
Was that military vehicle
In the late 40s
Ever subjected
In what terrain
How do you know what's on the bottom of this pond
Or lake or whatever
In tube sock situation they knew exactly it was on the
The bottom of this pond
They went in a pool
If I'm not mistaken
I don't remember
But regardless
Because actually I think the first time he tried to do it
In a pond and he actually like the muck
Sunk down to the bottom
And so he couldn't do it in the pond
Because this is the very conversation I'm having
Is at what point in time are you going
Six feet two inches underwater
And not being boulders
Rocks, mud, muck
Little shrubby bushy things
That want to drag you down
Absolutely, so I figure
Because I don't know the truth
I'm just going to make stuff up that sounds good
That's fair
You just had one
Deep forwarding
Equipped Jeep in your unit
And you picked the
The guy that would just do
Anything for you, the drive it
And you had him in the front
Of the pack
And when it just disappeared
You got another one
Later
And you didn't take the other
Jeeps there
Another GP
Or another Jeep
Whatever the requirement
There were so many guys enlisted in the military
At the time which is
God rest their souls
But I don't imagine they had
A surplus of these
Equipped Jeeps everywhere
Like I said I'd be surprised if
Probably a couple per unit
Would be my guess
Or something that they were expected
To install this kit
And I think
This is
Again this is a completely
Arbitrary based on my
Feeling statement
At this point in time
In my
Exposure to this world
We actually see quite a few 40 kit
Equipped Jeeps
I think it's because they never got used
I bet you they all got surplus
The GIs
Now they're taking the shows are excited
And it gets
People's attention
When the exhaust pipe is holler than your head
Then they get excited
Obviously all the Jeeps
Were equipped to allow
That 40 kit to be installed
But if they were used in great
Use mass
Please correct me but I would be shocked
To see them still relevant
To this day
Mainly because they didn't stick with it
They
Yes
Military vehicles are able to
Ford pretty deep
But I've never seen
A Humvee where people with
Scuba gear are driving it
I don't think this was
I think we had swung
The pendulum
From just crap
To 6 feet 2 inches
And they're like okay
Maybe
There's more of a proof of concept
Maybe we overreacted a little bit
Maybe we need to reign that back
All I can conceptualize
Is almost every Hollywood
Movie there's that moment where everybody's
Gearing up and they're like
Shoving the magazines
And the rifles and putting
18 guns up their back
Throwing some grenades on their
Belt and then they go down
Under the water and they all rise up together
Like a navy team
They're all seals
Right they're all seals
Rambo always does this
At no point in time have we ever seen a Hummer
In that scene
At no point in time do we
Like oh yeah I expect to see the Hummer
Equally slowly come up out of the water
Yeah and they did keep this
For the next model
The M38A1
I think it just had to because it was
Basically the derivoration of the
First Jeep they just put a CJ5
Body on it
And an F-head so they wanted
It to swim too just not L-heads
F-heads had to swim as well
But other than that I mean
Really don't think it went too
Far past that I would love to have a
Historian I mean an authentic
Historian out there
Kind of weigh in in some capacity
And be like this is when this
Skirmish was decided
By a semi
Aquatic
People mover Jeep
We all be asleep though
Stop it if they listen to us
Now they probably are asleep
But anyway so
I'm kind of
Impressed with Jeep with consistency
After all that
Hoopla
They pretty much decided
You know what 30 inches
30 inches is pretty good
So and obviously there's
All the disclaimers because it matters
On your model it matters
On your equipment so it's
Not one size fits most even though
This is like the word
But they do say
To the rocker panels
Don't go past that
I think they add all of that fluffed
Up language so that it gives them
An out when it actually comes
To warranty purposes
Correct I think the engineers
Like I can go to 30 inches
And the PR are like
Yeah legal way
It goes but
So and that's
From basically
Everything after the A1
All the way up to JLs
Now obviously JLs we broke
The mold and we had
To do things differently because now
We have different springs for different corners
And we have all this extra stuff
So we're
Still 30 inches for like
Basic
Run-of-the-mill JLs
And then we also could be
Depending on how it's option
So they're kind of flirting with
The idea of Rubicon but they're not really saying it
We're kind of 33.6
And then if you get one
Extreme recon
With the 35 stock
You can do 34 inches
So a whole 4 inches
I
For a lot of folks out there
4 inches is important
It's important
It's not about how many 4 inches you have
It's how you use those 4 inches
There's value in those 4 inches
To be a game changer
And obviously it's all general
Roll of thumb and
Once you have
Utilized your 30 inches
You have a work
List now
You have things you need
Well you should do
Because like Neil
Is already alluding to you have
Everything that can and will be in a puddle
Is now
In your Jeep in very
Tight intimate areas
And we're going to get into a little bit
Of that science and what not
And I do want to add
A piggyback off of what
Scott is sharing
That with the
With the advent of the 392
Because
Air flow becomes hyper
Critical
And that's the thing and if you
Listen to much of what I've said before
When customers ask us to do
V8 swaps
Air flow becomes one of the things
That we as a business have to
Be
Highly conscientious about
Heating and cooling of that engine
In an efficient manner
Becomes more important than ever and of course
If you create a production
Value vehicle
The engineers at Jeep Chrysler
Equally
Have to prioritize that
It's a lot different than doing a V8
Muscle car as I had shared
With Scott in the
You know kind of
The lead up to this
Podcast
Jeep still
Does advertise their fording depth
And they do give us a generic number
Which they know that we will push
But
If you were to go to
A Toyota dealership
As an example a Toyota Camry
I would be nice a taco
They're not going to tell you
What your TRD taco
What your fording depth is
And likewise
As a V8
Car from Dodge
They're not going to tell you
What your fording depth is for your V8
And they're not going to prioritize it
Whereas Jeep with the 392
Wrangler they did
At 32.5 inches and in fact
It's so hyper critical for air
Flow
They actually designed
It's own proprietary
Intake
The Hydra guide
So that the V8 can continue
To get the ample amount of air
That it needs
100%
In and out
Air flow in and out of your air pump
And it has
Four water drains off of it
And it
Basically
Even in the
Situation of a
Bow wake
Which will get to a little bit in the process of fording
And fording techniques
And if that wake was to
Push into the hood
Because it has a live time hood scoop
Yes
That you're good
That it's actually going to divert the water
And allow fresh air in
As your vehicle
Kind of processes
Through the water over the hood
And I cannot not talk about
My father-in-law when we talk about fording
Because while he was not
A Jeep guy in this
Era of his life
He was a Bronco guy
He had a couple
He was into cooler Broncos old school
Yeah it was a dense side Bronco
He bought brand new but anyway
He spent a lot of time in rivers
And streams and stuff
No he didn't
EPA anyway
It was the 70's things were rough
That was good to say it was a totally different world
But he had a weird
And fun concept
Because he had done so much of that
And talking about
Heating and cooling of your engine
His word was
If you dip the oil pan of the engine in the water
It runs a lot cooler
Yeah
So all you gotta do
To truck overheating
Just get that oil pan in the water
That was his thing
That was his thing
That was his word
And about bow
He had us prescribed
Entrance into the water
Procedure
You can't do it with
Zest and zeal
Because then you overcome the vehicle with water
You had to go in nice and slow
And for that bow
And you had to pay attention
When it bounced off the fending shore
And came back at you
Now
Absolutely
He had a whole science for this
And he would go down to like
Truck Nationals or any of that
Where they would go with water pits
And he would be the guy standing there
He used to run that wrong
Because you see how fast he went in there
And look at that bow
And he was right
You could watch it happen
And he's like he's gonna stop right there
And they were dead
And that was his thing
Because he had done it so much
And it's interesting
Because I genuinely
Feel like when we
The Harry Potter
Sorting hat of off-roaders
You have
You have a couple different groups
And actually we should probably do that as a podcast
Absolutely
And so I will not necessarily expand upon
That concept because
Write that down. Somebody remind me at the end of the podcast
I want to talk about the Harry Potter
Sorting hat of off-roaders
You
Find yourself to be a person who does
Or doesn't like water
And I
Really really really like
Water crossings
And we're very fortunate
Where
Our geography
We're around
Glacially
Created water ways
And that tends to give us
Kind of a slate
Or a hard rock
Water bed
That's a pretty even
Demeter
Where they were playing it's all shale bottom
It's hard bottom
And they literally had a road when we were kids
Called the Ford
That you drove across in the water
And if the water was rushing
Too much
You left the chat
You were downstream
And so it's valuable to take this moment
And kind of expand upon that
As part of our
American history
And it wasn't just us but we're fortunate enough
To have this direct experience
I actually saw a post
And I saw a post just this weekend
From somebody
Because the Ford is closed now
But
Back in the day and some of our listeners
From all over the country and I would encourage you
I love hearing from you
So feel free to text us or shoot an email
Tell me where your space was
But we didn't build bridges
If it was a creek bed
Or
A river that had a seasonal
Ebb and flow
You would use that
Thorough fare to cut
Through the hauler, to cut through the creek
Because it shaved time
Maybe you needed, you didn't have to go
Eight or ten miles down the road one direction
When the water was low
They didn't build a bridge
For purposes of civil engineering
They just had this crossing
Through a waterway
And it might have been a hard pack where they threw some concrete down
At a low spot
And then when there was a little bit of water
It was just two or three inches
You drove your station wagon through it
You drove your bias ply equipped rear wheel drive
You know
Ford and Chevy
Of the 20s through the 50s
They literally
My father-in-law would go in
Somewhere downstream of the Ford
And end up at the Ford
So that's the general area they were
Doing livestock that
I expected them down on the gulf when you were talking about that
Well some of that happened too but
So we had these spaces
And in fact
Our listeners in western Pennsylvania
A kind of famous one is the
Is in Tien S is the Nebraska bridge
The Nebraska bridge
Is a
Super cool space still open to the public
Seasonally
Because this bridge actually will flood up to like
18 feet
And it'll become completely impassable
And of course it's so so valuable for my
PSA at this exact moment
To say
That flash flooding is a real thing
That water
Traversing water
Ways
It can be against local
Environmental laws
And it can straight up be dangerous
So please be conscientious
Of how you play and how you
Recreate
I mean nothing's more fun than
Have your underpass and
It suddenly they get you know
Chest ahead deep and grandma
Decide the minivan is going to swim today
Yeah
That happens almost every spring around here
Absolutely and I
Think that you have to be very very conscientious
Of how emboldened
We are
In our thoughts of
The fact that this American spirit says
We should be able to cross this body of water
I should not have to go 8 to 10 miles in either direction
To go around it I will not be
Encumbered I will move forward
Which I think is that
74 inch conversation
From that poultry 21 inches
You know
Bigger is better and I'm going to
Just put my head down and jeep through it
And
I do
Miss those I do miss the Ford
I remember going down there after a heavy rain
Or a heavy melt and
I don't know challenging myself to drive through
Even though it probably really wasn't that big of a deal
Yeah
I remember being excited to drive through
And of course I still do as I was
Started to elaborate on the fact that
In our area from
Southington to Wellsville to
Anthracite to Roush they all have
Water crossings that
Are
Protected
Now
Likewise there is actually an ATV
Park
Within general proximity to us
That
Had a river way running through it
Which
People downstream did not appreciate
The fact that this ATV
Park was doing
Water crossings
And
Because of
This uber rare salamander
Western Pennsylvania thing
They eventually got
That water crossing
Byway
You know they deemed illegal
And so
I do believe there is a conversation
Of Brown leave no trace and being respectful
Of our neighbors and how we
Do stuff and there are challenges because
Like as you mentioned the 70s 80s
And arguably into the 90s
We just ramrodded our jeeps
And trucks wherever we wanted to
They weren't always hard
Bottom shell crossing sometimes
They were mucky murky bottoms
And we buried vehicles
My family farm
We had a pond on the property
And my cousin
Thought it was a good idea to take our
Three-wheeler out there and attempt to cross it
Well that was like
You know I don't know
16 to 18 inches of that soft
Muck at the bottom of it
And all he did was bury it about
He only got about six feet out but
The three-wheeler headed
Out into the pond and just
Buried itself
And we're going to talk a little bit about
What happened if and how and when
We did do that but I remember
Before we get there we went from
Forting kits
I remember reading
Through the Petersons and the JP Rags
And kind of expanding
My knowledge that
Here we are in the 80s and 90s
And we want to play in the water because again
It was more culturally acceptable for
Just localized
Play you weren't traveling to an off-road park
And nobody knows you're
Serious unless you have a snorkel
Attached
Well we didn't quite have a snorkel just yet
We didn't have those snorkels yet
But we had the big air cleaners
Remember we all used to flip the lids
We had a little purse purse and a little growl
So we had an exposed air filter
Element
You may or may not have had
A good seat
From your air cleaner assembly
To the
To the carbon mutator
One more thing on that kind of note
My other father-in-law's
Big PSA was
Jeeps and fords are better
At going playing in the water than
Chevy's
You know why
Why
Because the fan grabs the water
Throws it up against the bomb the hood
Because you're moving forward
Momentum pushes it back
And if you have a Chevy
The distributor was in the back
So you immediately drowned your distributor
Where an AMC or a Ford
They were at the forward
They were in the front
So the water just went over top of them
Missing them
Your father-in-law would have that belief
Absolutely
Big block crisis were okay
Small blocks were just as bad as the Chevy
I just love
Somebody who's new to Jeeps
Who's just joined us in the JK
To JL World
Has a full appreciation for that era
Of our 4B4
Lifestyles
Because man I remember those
Conversation arguments because
What you're alluding to
Is about where I'm about to lead
With Peterson's and the JP Rag
You had to protect your distributor
Yes
It became this hyper-critical situation
To
Address spark plugs
And distributor
There was conversations of
Using
Silicone of some type of silicone
To silicone your distributor
Well at minimum you had to go find
Like an 80s to 90s Ford
And steal a little rubber booty
They had over the distributor cap
That was your first line of defense
If you were really serious
Then you had to seal up your distributor
You had to seal it up
Because they're vented from the factory
So you had to throw the vents away
And get out your tube RTV
And just glue everything together
And I remember
And I couldn't even begin to tell you
Where or how or what this was
But I remember this offhand comment
It's one of those things that was completely burnt
Into my brain and it was like
In a worst case scenario
If you don't have
Access
To a approved
Product like an RTV
Or some type of gasket making component
You can use hot glue and saran wrap
And I can't begin
I just remember
Being a teenager and being like
I'm going to hot glue and saran wrap
My distributor
And make sure you have WD-40
For when it doesn't work
Absolutely
So
What an impeccable
Experience it was
We weren't worried about the oil
In the motor
We weren't worried about our oils
And our diffs
Or into our transmission
And another fun story
I remember early on in my wheeling days
There was a guy
He had a TJ
And sadly it was an automatic
Much to his
Sadness
And those era of
Pre-02
TJs, they had a Chrysler automatic
And the vent on those
Is behind the torque converter
At the very top of the
The pump
Which is a very tall
Okay, the transmission pump
Oil pump just so everybody's listening
Yeah, so we're talking
Kind of ish
Bomb in the oil pan is about where that vent is
And you can't easily
Make it higher
It is doable but you have to
Have it apart and plug things
And drill new holes and redirect them
It's involved
And he put one or two
Transmissions in that Jeep
Just because of
Following the stick shifts through the water
Yes
And they made it through so therefore I should
And I think as we continue
To kind of build upon this
Conversation
Then there's a couple ways that I want to go
With this, I want to talk about
I want to move into the JK and that experience
I want to go
And I want to talk as well
As far as what happens
When we do take on water
One of the piece that I remember
As a young person being exposed to it
When sitting around
The club conversations or the campfires
And people being like really
Can you do this? And it's like okay
Well if the fluids and the combustion
And the high
Pressure functions
That are happening internally
Stay internal to the vehicle
Then yes you can
Subject the outside of it to fluid
As well. If the insides are sealed
So the insides don't become the outsides
Then it's sealed from the outsides
And only when we have those
Vents and other
Prolonged exposure
Does there become
Problems. I do want to
Kind of touch upon
Your father-in-law's experience
Where he was on the sidelines
And he had done it enough
And had enough appreciation and enough
Finite understanding
Of the process to say
Here's a technique, right?
And that was a thing more
So than
Modern day. We don't talk about modern day
Forting techniques
Because it's less important
Because
As we move into this conversation
About what happens when we do take on water
And what our modern vehicles do offer us
But at that time
Technique
Because our technology wasn't as good
Right?
That 21 to 30 inches
Became standard but guys kept pushing it
To the six and guys and gals
Kept pushing it to the six foot standard
We had
To have the priority of technique
And technique is still valuable
Engineers at Jeep
Chrysler still talk about
Bow Wake technology
And there is a
Speed at which you're supposed to
Five mile an hour or less
Correct. Yep. And that's
Valuable folks who are listening at home
That is actually an engineered
Standard expectation
Barely per Jeep
And if you are in this
There was this Bow Wake technique
Which is the idea that at this speed
I could keep the wave going over the hood
Or going past the Jeep
I would actually keep an air pocket
In or under
My hood space
And so my vehicle would
Continue to breathe
So long as it was within this air pocket
And my father-in-law would say
That you want that
Offending wake to hit you
In the middle of the crossing
So that
Again, you don't make a big wake
You allow the reverb off the other side
You come back, it hits you
And then the water drops
After the wake has passed you
The water level goes down
And then he said, you mad it
Give it a heck. Because now you
The water level has gone down
And now your time is basically
Before that other
Wake comes back for you
You should be a cross.
And there is a whole conversation on effective water crossing
And I don't think that today
We're going to get into it. Today we're talking more
On the tech side of things, the vehicle
And what it means to our Jeep history
Itself
There are a lot of great
I can't speak highly enough
There are a number of individuals from coast to coast
Who offer like 101, 102 and advanced courses
And that's a great place for you
To do this. We all see the really cool videos
Where the Jeep like floats down river
Before it, you know, mats it
And runs up a hill. I don't recommend that
For anybody, but this is a cool
Technique if you can learn it
In a calculated risk
Environment. And as I
Mention, I love water crossings
In Southington and Anthracite
And Wells all have it available
To us. And another thing
He also, my father I would say
And we've experienced here
If you have
Gone out on a trail and you've flogged
Your Jeep pretty hard and everything's pretty
Warm and then you go and you're like
Oh, now I'm going to go to the water
The minute you dip
That axle, that transmission, that engine
Into the water, just like he said
Once the oil pan drops into the water
The motor cools off
So doesn't your axles
Now, that's a
Good thing, but
It could be a bad thing
And I want
You to hold that thought, okay?
I want you to hold that thought because
I want to take a moment and recognize a bunch of listeners
Because people have jumped in
All the comments
So
Billy Joe is sharing with us
Her first memories of crossing water was about
Age four, crossing the high water
In the Colorado after snow melt
Caution and common sense are definitely
Required. I've seen some videos of people
Attempting really fast water
We don't recommend that and that's certainly what we're doing here
Charles says good morning from Texas
Nathan says Pittsburgh still has the duck boat
Joe says Ducky tours Pittsburgh
Based on the station square
Like I said, I'm going to do it one of these days folks
I just think it's so cool
I just haven't made a priority
Yvonne says Jeep Jeep
Nick and Linda Perry, good morning
Nathan starts talking about
Tubesock, Bill McWilliams
Good morning, Rob
The rails, they go the other way
They're definitely not
Definitely off the rails
I don't remember what he's talking about there
Nathan
The scuba tank
How big of a scuba tank
Would your Jeep need to keep running under water
Geog Jeepers used to drive the
Golf and Asheville where the Ford was
We all, yep, that's what we were talking about
Nathan, not hard to
Drown his
254 cylinder
Jerry brings up a very good
Point in our comments
Is why I always encourage people to go check out there
E-fans were a very
Big deal at one time
And the older technology
Of an E-fan, the fan might
Kick on and have entirely too
Much resistance in the water
Itself and freak out
And freak out, you would want a bypass switch
To override that fan, you'd shut it off
And I remember that being
Even our factory fans
There was a couple XJ hacks
Where you would go in and you could turn off
The E-fan
And then Nathan
Pulls like a cartoon
Ask if you go fast enough, you can drive on the surface
I don't think anybody's walking on water
Who's listening to this podcast
We're not driving Volkswagen's
With paddle tires
So good morning, good morning to all of you
Who've joined in the comments and shared
So, you know, you started
You touched upon
A little bit of
Thermodynamic properties
Yes, so you have a hot axle
And you then dip it
Into a cold
Relatively cold water
And just like you do
When you get in the pool
From an 80 degree
Day and it is, you know
62 water
And you get in the water and you
Yeah, at least I do
Your axle does as well
And if you're
And your transmission
And if your vents aren't
Able to deal with that
Sudden inhale
It will
Pull water right past the seals
Because the seals are designed
For basically one way travel
They're designed to keep oil in
And relative smuts out
But water
That's kind of a, that's quite a bit
So that seal is
Designed purposely for kind of
One way being harder to pass
Than the other
So basically
A recommendation was
If you go out and you dip your tires
Past the center of the hubs in the water
You better go home and change
Your diff oil
And anything
Likewise similar height
Which is why, you know, obviously
You lifted your truck to the moon
So your engine and transmission
Transfer case weren't in the water
Is actually the value of a high
You know, a high lift at that point
Yep
And I think that this
Is a concept that I think is lost on
Entirely too many people
But I do want to break down the science
Because I do enjoy it so much
And as far as the seals and what not
You know, Scott's talking a lot about the breather
Aspects, right? Because ultimately
Any of these systems
That
You know, working systems
They create friction
So inside are differential
Our axle bearings, our transmission
And it could be
A fluid friction
As well, but basically
The expansion
Of those fluids
The air
Space relative to the fluid
Has to go somewhere
It has to vent out
Likewise, as it cools
Naturally, it will pull in
Environmental
Or ambient
Air
Into the system and equalize
It's a basic
Property at which our radiator
And our cooling system specifically works
With our overflows
Yep
Most of you know to check your
Overflow
When you have an open
System
Cooling system, our JLJT
Owners now have a closed system
More reminiscent
Of our 80s
XJ, MJ, so on and so forth
Cooling systems
And that system being closed
Ebs and flows and expands
Inside this plastic bottle
But that's where this venting
Process happens, it even has
An environmental vent
PSC specifically
Played with this and now
They have a barometric
One-way valve
As part of their
Their
Complete or comprehensive package
And that is something they added to their steering kits
Almost 10-15 years
After they were relative to the market
Understanding that
Their high
Pressure
Closed hydraulic systems
Actually needed some type of
Barometric venting
But they also needed to maintain
Barometric pressure
So there's a super cool kind of process
Big deal
Is the fact that
We used to talk specifically
You brought up the automatic transmissions
Manual transmissions were largely sealed
And you could
Within reasons subject them
To
Some abuse
The clutch was not always faring
So well in the water
But you could get through it
Whereas the automatic transmissions
Were a little more sensitive
And their vents weren't as
Robust
Most manuals in the early
Day, middle of the sandwich
The 70s and 80s
Were basically vented from your
Shifter pole
Or relatively right behind that
So pretty much at the top of the transmission
You had to be pretty deep
To kind of submerge
That
And that's the whole rocker
Best practices is the rockers
So then
What ends up happening
As this
Becomes more and more
Prolific to do these water crossings
The idea was to then
Draw the vents
Up to the top of the firewall
Do the M38
Bring everybody, got a vent
Everybody come together
And we're going to pick a high point
Which on the M38 was the air cleaner
There was like
11 tin bungs off the back of it
For you to put all your vents to
And that was a thing
Especially like you're bringing up JP
Back in the day they would have like
How you did that
What was the proper way to do it
Right, how to tie your vents together
In what capacity were you getting enough fresh air
To and from
Those components
So that when you did hit
The cool water
With these hot parts
They're able to both
Basically burp the system effectively
Yeah
It was one of the criticisms
When the rudimentary
Cold air intakes
Started to saturate the market
Now we had an exposed
Filter element
No longer was it kind of encapsulated
In a box that the engineer had kind of
Painstakingly designed
But now we had this 360
Degree cone
That was just hanging out at the front of the engine
Think TJs specifically
Are what comes to mind
It became very very prevalent
And
That
Exposed air filter element
Had the potentiality to become
Saturated
In a less than ideal
Water crossing situation
So
Ultimately I'm going to fast forward to the JK
Because this is what becomes highly relevant to me
It's basically 2016
We had a customer who picked up
A leftover 2015
He got it on a smoking deal
And
He came to us with a relatively
Young
Professional build business
We all had been doing stuff
The side
Or kind of normal
And listening to our
Fathers on what they did or didn't do
Right and we have a customer
Who comes to us and with the JK
Snorkels became a fashion statement
They were a thing in the TJs
And for functional purposes
How you know you're serious
Yeah it's how we knew you were serious
You had a snorkel and a winch
For looks
But we had a customer come to us
And he said I just bought this Jeep
And I want you to build me a submarine
And
That was one of my first exposures
With kind of this modern day
Interpretation
And
There was
Some folks were playing with this at that time
And we endeavored
To do that for
This customer and
He said basically
I want to use every bit
Of the advertising
Forwarding process
He wanted to use the bow wake
Technique
To get the water up to
Basically at his cow
And he said he was going to go cow deep
Deep because
He had experience or he had memories from
The 70s, the 80s, the 90s
Where they did water crossings
And he wanted to do it in his new modern day Jeep
And so we turned
This brand new
JK
Into a submarine as far as I was concerned
And we had it all sealed up
We had
We had used gasket maker, we had used rubber
Gaskets, all the stuff
Now at the same time Fred Williams
In dirt every day
And something or other
There is this, he's playing
With this concept of tube sock
And
As I mentioned the first attempt under the water
If I recall was a huge failure
Because
Because he got stuck at the bottom of the pond
If I remember
I don't remember if he got stuck on a rock
If he got bogged down with mud like my uncle
Or my cousin in the pond
And he then set out to do it
Kind of like a myth buster situation
Where okay
It didn't work in real world
Situation
Now what do we have to do to make it work
And that's when they actually went to a pool
If I'm not right
Because it was clean water, solid bottom
He ended up putting on authentic
Scuba gear so that he could remain
With the vehicle or somebody put on Scuba gear
He removed
All the interior but one seat
Like they went through
And really purpose built
Tube sock for that one
Singular
Yes, experience
And it was fun, it was fun to see
And again it's valuable to say that
These air pumps of ours
So long as they've got air coming in
And air going out
They don't care if they're sealed up
From the inside becoming the outsides
And the outsides can't become the insides
And that was a big concept for me
As a kid
And that's exactly what they did
Now
I am going to kind of go
A little bit of jumping back and forth
Back in the day
You didn't need to
Elongate your exhaust
Because so long as
The motor didn't shut off
The motor didn't shut off
You would continue to pump out
The force of the exhaust
Back pressure being
A conversation that the
Forward pressure of the exhaust
Or the exhausting pressure
Was greater than water pressure
Depending on depth
And this gets into the science
Which I nerd out on
The argument is
If in an emergency situation
Your engine shuts off
You're in trouble
Because we have the same thermodynamic properties
Of that hot pipe
It's going to act like a straw
With revenge
And it's going to suck all the fluid
And now in
Fred Williams' situation
They had like, I don't even remember
Nine to twelve foot tall pipes
Both in intake and exhaust
Yeah
And the fourteen kits of the military
It equally elongated both
That was above your head
Yeah, it was both intake and exhaust
And that air pump continued to
Convent ambiantly, appropriately
And I keep calling the engine an air pump folks
If you haven't caught on to that
Because in this situation
It exemplifies exactly that concept
So the challenge is
I remember folks
Getting into water
And for whatever reason
The electronics geeking out
Something happening
And now the water comes rushing in
Not even so much in the intake
But because it's coming back up
In the exhaust ports
And of course the exhaust ports right into the valve train
From the valve train right into the cylinder
Bad things happen
So to round this conversation
Up to a degree because we are encroaching upon that time
And we didn't really talk about jails and JTs
Other than the fact that
You can go somewhere between
32 and 36 inches
With your Jeep kind of stockage
Depending on equipment
Those four inches do matter
How you use them
So
When you got water
Into
Your sensitive places
Yes
Cast iron blocks
Were more forgiving
Yes
It was important that you didn't try to restart it
When it was full of water
Or underwater
As soon as it shut off
You needed to be done
And you needed to be
Tugging that vehicle back to the shore
From there
You would pull the spark plugs
Pull the wires, pull the plugs
Pull the oil
Drain
You're going to drain the engine
Of arguably
Every
Cavity possible
And then
The next oil you're going to put in
Is the sacrificial oil change
And you're going to want to oil down
Your cylinder walls
Inside the engine itself
If you like it
Don't raw dog them
You want to oil them down a little bit
Because that residual moisture exposed to the environment
Will become flash rust
On those cylinder walls
And valves
When you are doing
Your water up the stream
In your Chevrolet truck
In 1980
And it dies because the water has hit the fan
And drowned the distributor
You had to call my father-in-law
Because he had 250 foot of chain
Yes
And he was proud of that
And you would swim the chain
To him
And then recover him
From the shore
And they may or may not have had the picture
Of that truck stuck in the middle of the water
On the front page of the paper
I love it
So
And I remember seeing these vehicles
They didn't hydrolock
They got to the point where they didn't hydrolock
And that's what you want to avoid
Is sensitive systems hydrolocking
Bad things happen
Because then internal components bend
Uncle Rodney
Exits the chat
He goes out the bay window
That you just blew in the side of your block
So I remember
Having all
I remember seeing all the
Spark plugs removed
V8
Oil down the cylinders
At that point in time
They had already drained and refilled the oil
And now they hit the key
And I remember seeing
Water vapor
Exiting
Exiting the chat
With
Just a fervor
Coming out these cylinders
And it was cool to see
But not by any means ideal
At first start after that
It's always a little rough
It is, it is
But relatively
You might actually be saved
By the grace of the engine gods
Once or so when this happens
Now our modern day vehicles
Where we have multi-piece construction
Engines
And a high bi-metal
Construction, meaning there's aluminum
In there, there's steel in there
There's plastic in there
Which we're teasing for a future podcast
Yep
Things get more complicated
And chances for
Success go down
A lot
As a purveyor of
Wheeling at the outer banks
And being off-road
In a beach
And oceanfront capacity
I've personally witnessed
A grand Cherokee
Be sacrificed
To mother ocean
I've also seen a grand Cherokee
That tried to play where Wranglers were
And the mud line
Was at the windshield
And it no run no more
This was not Rob Morgan's grand Cherokee
Let's just all be on the same page
This was like, you know
This was just your run of the mill
I got done at the grocery store
And I was like, you know what?
I got four-wheel drive
Well that's still Rob's Cherokee
Just so we're on the same page
Rob's modified his
The cutting wheel had come out
At some point
And a little bit of know-how
Also it goes a long way
The Bowway conversation
Still a grand Cherokee
The insurance company
Deems it a total loss
Boom, a total loss
If you are a modern day vehicle
Understanding that
How we relate to these vehicles
The component construction
And kind of
What we're dealing with
Personal experience, the newest vehicle
I know of that got swamped
Pretty extensive and lived the tail to tail
Was a 3-H AK
And that's because it was an old school
Pushrod motor that
Yes, there's some dissimilar metals in there
It wasn't happy
After that, it definitely
Shortened its service life
But it did live the tail to tail
After that
I'd say you're pretty much
Your goal is not to do that
Yeah, and I guess
This gets into a whole conversation
About salt water versus fresh water
Which we haven't even expanded upon
The high electrical sensitivity
Of our modern day vehicles
With, again, subjecting modules
And, you know, computer control
Wiring harnesses
Certain plug kits
Everything is intended to be
Environmentally sealed to a degree
Yes
With that said too though
When you play in this situation
A lot you do
End up with corrosion
In places that you don't expect
My father-in-law's Bronco is no longer with us
For a reason
For a reason
Rust was definitely an issue with that
And likewise
If you don't go in and clean
Out where things get
And we see that all the time
Because we're, you know, underneath
Jeeps that have been wheeled
So we see, you know, straw
Or
Or
Read sticks, that kind of stuff
From water
Sand in really crazy places
It hurts your brakes
It hurts your seals
Gear oil will turn into this paste
Mud that you gotta clean out
There's a lot to it
You should go in and you should grease everything
You should dump fluids
You should power wash
You should remove wheels
I think that that's a really valuable sentiment
As we kind of bring this conversation to a close
It is all
Dual-bull still by modern standards
You can do it
And I'm gonna give kudos to where kudos belong
Specifically
For guys who are hardcore off-roaders
Who I know have subjected their jeeps
To some really substantial
Beating
Chip Fury and a customer of ours
Dave Welch, both of them are customers of ours
Or were customers of ours
Those guys would
Almost disassemble their vehicle
And seeing pictures
And having conversations with them
They go
Into the obstacle knowing
I just caused myself a bunch of work
And they were okay with that
Well, and it's
Rob Sander as well, and there's other customers too
But they actually take
Solace or joy
In the disassembly, the cleaning, the detailing
Process, whereas
For a lot of us, we want to go out and play
And then immediately
We gotta drive to work on Monday in the same vehicle
Or so
You know anything about that, Scott?
And so for just a simple
Lack of priority
Or even
Evaluation of time
Were unable to address the vehicle in such a way
That allows it
To do these
Depth of water cross
So then we pay the price
Your father-in-law was exactly that
He was a guy's guy
He would go out there, he would push the limit
He would do the thing, he liked
The recovery, he liked the club
Experience, but then he also just
Had to go to work on Monday, like the vast
Majority of us
And that in itself becomes
A little bit of the challenge when it comes
To prolonging the life
Span of the vehicle. Are they capable
Of it? Absolutely. There's a great
History with forwarding
Water and playing in situations
That would have the average
Camry owner shaking in there
In their shoes, absolutely
But
Prepare to do the work, following
Drain your diff
Drain your diffs, inspect
Your vents, make sure they're tied together
The best of ability. Wash out your brakes
Wash out your brakes
And
Understand that
For ten minutes of fun, sometimes you have to do
Ten hours of cleanup. Absolutely.
There is
A savage in the truest
Way possible and the production value
And I appreciate him for this. We do have to do
An amendment or a correction
To today's program
And actually the
Toyota Tacoma trail hunter
Oh jeez
Does come with a snorkel
And is rated for a 14-depot 35 inches
So we do apologize
We do apologize
Toyota, if we've offended you
By saying that
We did not think the taco would be advertised as 14
So to get 35 inches
You have to have a snorkel on a Toyota?
Hey, you picked up on the right
Piece of information that I saw
Jeep World, we got
32 to 36 without a snorkel
Yeah. So
I see you
Toyota
Toyota, Ford, you're all just playing catch up
Just is what it is. I had a lot of fun
With today's program
I hope you all did at home as well
If you want to contribute to the conversation
Text us at
440-855-2100
Or send us an email
A contact
C-O-N-T-A-C-T
At
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4X4.com
And we'd love to hear from you
About some of your cool off-road
Wheeling
Well, and
I did not
I like everything
We've learned stuff the hard way
So you don't have to
Maybe you can contribute to our viewers
As well. We are going to be coming back
In the future talking about some
Tech, specifically plastic
In modern day vehicles
Good, bad or otherwise
Until next time, Jeep on
Jeep on
So this weekend
I got to put a radiator
In my truck
I don't know, I'm a little disappointed
That I actually did that well enough
I really want the
noise
And also
It was kind of
It was a nice day
Wasn't actually that bad of a job
Definitely
You can see
Doing an all-metal radiator
Would be a complete pain in the butt
Glad I went with back the life of factory
Style
And will continue to do so
Other than that was relatively easy
It's amazing how efficient
Our cooling systems on these modern day vehicles
Are
It's literally a e-core
So this tiny, thin radiator
And I can just, the hot-rotter
Was like, that's not good enough
Need like a 4-core radiator
And then I waited
For it to get the operating temperature
For the thermostat to open
And waited
And waited
Because it's just so efficient
It just
I just did not get up the operating temperature
Really fast
And went up and then back down
A couple of times and finally we were able to get
You know, up there
But relatively
Half a gallon of coolant all I lost
Was able to do it that way
So I was pretty happy overall
With that process
Onto the T I did
Work on making it more
Shored up so the back of the body
Up to this point you would like
Get a stiff breeze and it would flap
At you and move all around
Rough weekend for that
So I was able to
Finally decide where I wanted
To put supports, how to tie them into the original
Supports exactly what I was going to do
I'm trying desperately
Not to
Do 1940s technology
Where we add
20 pounds of steel for no reason
Because this is a light car
And the lighter it is the more fun it will be
With a
Paltry 120 horsepower
That it has
Massive flathead V8
It will look cool, it will sound cool
Absolutely, so I was able to figure that out
And kind of get the
Back of the body finally where I'm happy with
Help the driver's door alignment
Even more so
I did rebuild the latch on the driver's door
And that is now latching as well
So I have two functional doors
Fancy
And I was able to also
Fit up the trunk lid
And realize just what a big pile
Of garbage it is
But one thing I thought was fun
This kind of show where we've come from
So on this car
Originally you would
So you pulled it forward
To open the door
Onside
Or you push it back and that locks the door
And there's this little tab that
Kind of keys in so it does that
It's like a whole CJ door
Kind of
And there is no lock cylinder on the driver's side
Because you're supposed to exit
And enter the vehicle at the curb
So you were parking on Main Avenue
You were parallel parking
You had to slide across the bench
Get out the passenger door
And then you could lock it
With the singular lock cylinder
On the passenger door
Get the heck out of here
Then if you were lucky enough
To have a trunk
Which my coupe does
The key on this
100 year old car
Was not the key that you use
For the door and the ignition
It was an old school skeleton key
No
That went in
And just released a latch
So I guess if you had anything
You wanted to keep secure
You put it inside the car
I mean I think
A bobby pin would got you into the trunk
No problem
I just think that's fun
That's all it has
It's just literally
A hole for a skeleton key
To go in the deck lid
And it would move the latch
So it's not going to have that anymore
I'm going to fix that with a handle
Or something I'm not quite sure
But yeah
And there's one on eBay for $50
A skeleton key?
Or a Model T
For the trunk
Like you put it on there for $50
I was like are you plugging your own
eBay sale at the moment
If it was like three bucks
I would have bought it because it's just cool
But $50 now
I don't need that for a price of emission
Yeah
I thought that was super cool
I love that kind of automotive history
Man
I also worked on the driver's side
Bottom of the quarter
Basically right behind the door
That two door sedan
That lost its life to make my coupe live
I had saved the panels from that
Welded that in
Ironically
It's quarter of an inch to a half an inch
Longer on a coupe
There versus a two door sedan
For some reason I don't know
Same door, same cow
Quarter of an inch different in the wheel opening
But I'll fix that
And I got the other side to do yet
Just trying to work on
Making it more and more
Structurally sound
So that things don't flap and fall off
I think that's fair and appropriate
Wow
That's very cool
So for me this weekend
As always
We're going to squeeze
10 pounds into 5 pound sack
You know how we do
I thought was really fun
I saw kind of explained
And this is kind of the quirky stuff
That within reason
My family prioritizes
It was Friday the 13th
On Friday
It was then Pi Day
On Saturday
And it was the Ides of March
On Sunday
It was a pretty good
Kind of folklore inspired
Or I don't know fun socially emotional weekend
For us as far as
Just finding joy
And little things
So had to do
As always in my family
My kids stay very busy so in and around
The kid activities
Where the Jeep life takes us
My wife and I are both
Rarely shut our jeeps off very long
So once again
My daughter was involved in a
Prolific dance opportunity
Which took us
Into uncharted territory but in that process
We celebrated Pi Day
Those people who are on my social
Page saw that
What was the Pi of choice
She got particularly excited
Over pecan
And I went for
The tried and true pumpkin
Just because it's kind of out of season
And I
Either one of those just as a
Great gateway to my heart
My dad was always like an apple pie
Like a straight up old school apple pie
And the place we were at had some
A cookie dough pie
And I really wanted to walk on the wild side
And get that but given the opportunity
To have pumpkin and pecan out of season
I took it
And so we had
A pie and coffee date basically
We ended up in two jeeps
We converged on one location
And then from there we went and found
We went hiking and got some outdoor
Space
And that was great
That was great and
I had to call you right away and be like
Did you know this thing exists?
Not and I grew up
In that area
I mean this is
This is maybe two miles of crow flies
From your old house I just couldn't believe it
I kept repeating it because I was like
Really? Yeah and
My sister called in attention that
The property that my wife
And I have built our homestead upon
May actually have a competitively old tree
On it which I need
To be more conscientious of
And there has been a couple people
Who have documented my tree over
The decades
And I
Again I should be more appreciative
And maybe I should actually go look
Into this tree of my own
Time to get the tape measure out
Correct and that's exactly what she was calling
Into contention because
We went and visited one of arguably Ohio's
Oldest oak trees
In the state of Ohio happens to be right here
In northeast Ohio we get again jeeps
My wife and I converged into two jeeps
One location
And 18 feet in
Circumference which I thought was really
Appropriate for Pi Day
I've found something
That's what I do folks
My oddities
My
Expansive finding information
And being exposed to stuff doesn't stop with jeeps
Not exactly weekend but
When I was broke down last week
And you had to come and rescue me
That tree that we were beside must be
About that age or older
That was a big tree
Scott and I did some flat towing
Last week just for funsies
Had been a while
Had been a while since we did some hillbilly
Shenanigans
Might as well just let the jeep
Break down on the side of the road
This was not one of our modern jeeps
It was appropriate for it
It was appropriate
And then
Yesterday I was really tickled to get back into
The weather
Even despite the wind
Was opportunistic
But yesterday was gorgeous
Yeah and it was great to get
Back involved in the homestead
And start to
Find my tools as far as
Getting them back into kind of
Project mode
From kind of winter storage
And some other stuff
Just in time for winter to come back
Yeah winter 2.0
To smack us
Upside the head that's unfortunate
Any who folks
We have
A lot of jeeps to attend to
I've got estimates
Just absolutely piling up
On my desk and parts logistics
And kind of a challenging time
Of global proportion
And getting stuff here in a timely fashion
At a reasonable cost
So we have
To attend to that as much as we would like to
Continue to just
Jabber with you
We gotta get to work
Yep jeep on
About this episode
Dive into the history and tech of Jeep water fording, from early military vehicles with deep water kits to modern Jeep Wranglers equipped for serious water crossings. Hosts Neil and Scott explore vintage techniques, engineering challenges like venting and air flow, and share personal stories about water crossings and vehicle maintenance. They discuss the evolution of fording depth, the importance of technique, and the impact of modern electronics and materials on water resilience. The episode also touches on off-road culture, environmental respect, and the joy and work involved in Jeep adventures.
Original notes
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From the original WWII military Jeeps to today’s Wranglers and Gladiators, we break down Jeep water fording—how deep they can go, how it’s changed over the years, and what really matters when you hit the water.
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