sully151

I am thinking you are all nuts

azrwilkinson

I was going to suggest getting one of those M146 military trailers. You have roughly 3,500lbs of towing and that trailer should put you close to that fully loaded. Just a thought if you are really serious.

him

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did." Mark Twain

If you owned that truck (or trailer, or whatever else you can convince yourself would be useful) then 20 years from now you'd have no excuse for being disappointed about never owning a military surplus truck.

wrangler07

You know I used to live by that same mantra and then I discovered I was wrong. I spent my entire adult life (from 18-40) travelling, living in 40 different countries, pursuing and living out all my dreams...and then one day I stopped, wiped away the cloud in front of my eyes, got married, grew up and found I'd had my priorities all back to front for way too long. Fortunately, Him upstairs will forgive me those things I've already done but moving forward I'm trying to make a concerted effort to get a few more important ones right.

So no, in twenty years I won't be more disappointed by the things I didn't do rather than the things I did. I'll be more disappointed by the things I did wrong and the things I didn't do right and hopefully my family will benefit from that revised thesis.

BTW, re-reading what I've written I can see it has the ability to be read with a tone of pompousness and condescending or with one of grace. It's meant to be read with the latter.

RayHoliO

Yessir! And I hope that dog comes with it.. sure looks like a survival dog to me.

You definately have a point... but I just don't see myself moving THAT much stuff..

that and the fact that having a couple large duece + halves sitting in my back yard is a little wasteful..

I like to give this probable situation thought.. but I'm not going to devote major resources to it, or alter my overall lifestyle. For the price of one or two of those trucks, I could buy another rental house (down payment)..

On the otherhand.. if I mod the Jeep, I actually get to use it every day.. so I don't feel quite so fringe crazy.

Yeah.. I think about bugging out. I figure that my putting just a little thought into it will put me above 90% of people in this situation.. which should be sufficiant for me to get out of dodge to a guy who will be ahead of 99.9% of the people due to his extravagant preperation..

I'm already on the edge of my city, and I don't expect that escaping would be difficult... I just want to be prepared to drive over ditches, thru yards and over garden knomes if need be.


Back onto subject.... Does anyone make leaf springs for the JK rear axle? or is that something that would require frame mod too? I can use airbags... I've just heard bad things about them... mainly reliability.

RayHoliO

Heheh Well, I know that this is 'out there' for a lot of people..

Planning is a personality trait. Some people fly by the seat of their pants.. and I acutally envy them... I can't help myself but to consider every possibility in every situation, and then plan a path that to me is the most protection for the least investment.

I was going to raise, and mod my jeep anyhow.. so increasing its payload while doing that is a small detour that could potentially have a pay off in a possible future.

So like me.. lets say you sit down one bored night and wonder to yourself.. ok.. what would be the signs of an immenant collapse? how long would I have to vacate? where would I go? and what gear would I need? This thought process is VERY low overhead. yet once you do this dance, you're already better prepared than 95% of the people.

if you actually buy gear that is not already part of your lifestyle.. you'll be out some money... but some of this gear is cheap in regards to the return if you have to use it.. and the cost is low if you don't. Think of a badass med kit.. one of the $200-$300 ones in a big bag.. If you need the trama gear in it EVER, then who care's what it cost? if you don't.. isn't the peace of mind worth a few hundred bux? just sayin'..

him

The problem is that vehicles have performance envelopes - ranges of conditions where they work (or work best) - and mods tend to shift the envelope around rather than making it larger. Many mod actually make the envelope smaller but offer a lot more capability in a specific area.

Increasing the maximum payload by shifting the envelope towards carrying more can - will - reduce your ability to drive around with no load at all. It's a common problem with trucks and trailers; when empty they can hop and be downright dangerous because of the massive springs they need to carry full loads.

There are exceptions...air suspension systems can dynamically change the spring rate to increase the overall operating envelope. That's why those suspensions are so common on commercial vehicles where the difference between fully loaded and empty can exceed the safe envelope possible with leaf springs alone.

I think you will be better off optimizing your resources for regular use and basing your emergency plans on the resources at hand than optimizing your resources for emergency use and trying to use them in regular situations. Well, that's if you don't buy the M35 of course.