You would think we would build vehicles for this trip that were super comfortable and reliable and that worked great on all trails. But that takes all the fun out of it. Instead we used our usual trail rigs.
Cole had installed a new engine in the GMC only two weeks before the Adventure kick-off. He added a Holley Pro-Jection fuel-injection only two days prior. As if that weren't close enough, the last two days were spent installing a Klune-V Crawler box between the transmission and transfer case and breaking a stock front axleshaft during testing. A new set of 4340 chrome-moly axleshafts from Offroad Design were tossed in the Dana 44 at Off Road Unlimited along with new seals. The crew there also replaced the worn-out shocks with Rancho RS 9000s. With the list of must-dos checked off and a list of like-to-dos taped to the dash, the GMC was ready.
John installed a set of new 35-inch Mickey Thompson Baja Claws mounted to M.R.T. heavy-duty bead-lock wheels on the flatfender. He changed everything resembling a U-joint and installed two new turbo mufflers. The Jeep averages about 1,000 miles to the muffler. He also replaced the early analog Pro-Jection computer with a new digital one--although he's not sure all the adjustment the new computer affords was really a good thing for his application. Finally, he replaced his front Dana 44 axleshafts with Warn chrome-molys.