You bought what?? 88 Eagle Wagon - Overlander Build

[Prafeston]

Sounds like it was a fun trip til the end!

[amarshall]

It was fun for sure, but also a lot of work.  Every day was a struggle to keep the car healthy and moving, and I didn't want to slow down the bikes.  For the second leg I will get it dialed in better before the trip, and hopefully have an easier time.

[maddog]

i just read this whole thing from the beginning and dude you have done a lot to your Eagle. I like what you've done so far and I can't wait to see what you do next. As for some of the pictures from photobucket I can't see them but I was particularly curious about the ones concerning the paint job ideas you had as they sound like some I had mocked up in paint with a drawing I found on here.

[trucker79005]

hi, glad you made the trip there and back, but, remember, the Eagle was never designed as an off road vehicle. next time, take a @#$%%^ Jeep!  gz

Was just reading a little about the trip. Hoping i didn't make a mistake in thinking an Eagle would get me in and out of my house when it rains..... some time the ruts are way worse than the pics show. there is two miles of this and at its worst its taken 30-40 minutes to make the two miles in the pickups. How sorry am I going to be?

[amarshall]

i just read this whole thing from the beginning and dude you have done a lot to your Eagle. I like what you've done so far and I can't wait to see what you do next. As for some of the pictures from photobucket I can't see them but I was particularly curious about the ones concerning the paint job ideas you had as they sound like some I had mocked up in paint with a drawing I found on here.

I think I've figured out a reliable way to get photos to show from Google instead of Photobucket, so I need to find some time to go back and fix the images.  I'll look for the paint stuff first.  It's currently white, but I really want to add some red and blue accents.  It's too subtle for me now!

Hoping i didn't make a mistake in thinking an Eagle would get me in and out of my house when it rains..... some time the ruts are way worse than the pics show. there is two miles of this and at its worst its taken 30-40 minutes to make the two miles in the pickups. How sorry am I going to be?

I really think you will be OK.  What a great drive home!  The Eagle does great at creating traction, which is what you'll need for that mud.  You will probably want to get mud tires instead of all terrains if that mud is typical.  I had absolutely no problems with traction, and probably could have run the whole 900+ miles in 2WD.  Where I got into trouble was on very bumpy or rocky stuff, and of course we were ALWAYS going too fast so we were beating up the car pretty badly.  I need to slow it down next time.

[maddog]

cool dude. By the way is this one of the pictures you found?

[amarshall]

I've seen that one, but the red top looks like too much work for me.  Hah!  I went looking for old AMC cars, and I found a couple that I liked.  The Gremlin X was cool, and there is a Rebel model called "The Machine" that I liked too.

[maddog]

yeah those both have some pretty cool paint schemes for them.  As for the picture I posted that's kind of what I would like to do with a sport Eagle be it wagon or not but the car that gets it will be a very wild build.

[amarshall]

I went back and fixed all the photobucket links, see if you can see them now maddog.

[maddog]

yes I can see them now thank you. I just remembered reading in one of your posts that you broke a door handle. Do you have a spare one if not you can get a new one on Amazon but you'll have to look under jeep wrangler half doors, they come in both black and chrome and lots of different prices. I had to buy four of them myself and I've had them for about three or four years and the only complaint I've had with them is that the clips that came with mine didn't fit the rod to the latch very snugly so I had to zip tie the one on my driver door down other than that I've had no issues with them.

[trucker79005]

I really think you will be OK.  What a great drive home!  The Eagle does great at creating traction, which is what you'll need for that mud.  You will probably want to get mud tires instead of all terrains if that mud is typical.  I had absolutely no problems with traction, and probably could have run the whole 900+ miles in 2WD.  Where I got into trouble was on very bumpy or rocky stuff, and of course we were ALWAYS going too fast so we were beating up the car pretty badly.  I need to slow it down next time.

I've been in the areas that you went through and even the highways are interesting sometimes. I bet that offroad really was something...Mine is a great drive home if you're well rested, on your game, and not in a hurry:) Unfortunately mud is not typical in the texas panhandle but it is unpredictable. You can leave home in the morning with the 2 wd and think you're ok but by afternoon you wouldn't be able to get home without 4WD. appreciate the input! trying to sort out the tire deal.... I'll enjoy looking though that thread too if you get pics back in it.

[amarshall]

Thanks for the info on the door handles, maddog.  I've ordered a chrome pair online, figure I may as well do the front passenger door too before it breaks.  I'll take my chances on the rear doors.

[amarshall]

Before I jump into the front end rebuild (again, ugh) I am ticking some things off the list that never got done before the first leg of the cross-country trail.  I now have some very bright LED lights on my Eagle.  There are two spots on the front bumper for fog lights, and there is a pair of floods on the front and rear of the roof rack.  I ran power to the roof through a hole that already existed. Some PO had put a CB antenna up front on the roof.

I made a little switch panel out of some aluminum angle and wired up some red switches.  I figure the inside of this thing needs more stuff that is red.  I hung the panel under the 2WD/4WD switch.  I think it came out pretty good.



Here is a shot in a dark garage with all the lights on.  The picture doesn't do it justice, they are nice and bright.



Each light pod is supposed to draw 18W and give off 1200 lumens, so it's pretty bright.  With all 6 lamps turned on, it's still only pulling 9 amps so I ran everything through a 10A fuse.  Each switch is only handling 3A, so I didn't bother with relays either.  I'll keep an eye on the wiring, just in case.

[maddog]

i think it looks good dude. I have a couple of LEDs on Eagle Eyes and I blinded one of my neighbors in broad daylight with them and that was before I installed a relay (mine are also 1200 lumens), so I know just how bright those things can be. I also like the braket you came up with for your switches.

[amarshall]

Wow, a month has passed since I updated this thread!  Sorry for the five of you that are following along!  We took some vacation, kids started school, etc, etc.

I had a chance to wash the car and get most of the mud out from underneath.  There was probably 10 lbs of red clay, dirt, and muck from my recent off road trip.  My driveway took a hit, and the Florida neighbors were scratching their head trying to figure out why the dirt was red!



I played around with some side mirrors, and finally landed on the black ones recommended by vangremlin in another thread. My original mirrors were flopping around like crazy due to stretched cables.



This week I reluctantly dove into the rebuild of my front end.  I had done everything except the control arm bushings before my trip, and of course they disintegrated after 900+ miles off road.  The brand new strut rod donut bushings cracked and popped out of the joint, not great for camber!  Luckily nothing seems bent, so a full rebuild should fix it up for round 2 on the trails.

This is how it sits as of today:



I hope I can remember where all this stuff goes!





I broke a front axle on the trip, and I had a chance to compare an original Eagle axle with the brand new replacement.  The original axles are much stronger, there is simply no comparison.  For a spare for the next trail segment, I was able to talk forum member RALLYX-SX/4 into sending me an original axle off his burned parts car - thanks buddy!

Here are some side-by-side shots of the old and new axles.  New style are smaller diameter and much weaker.  Also, the original ones have a thick flange where my finger is pointing in the second picture.





I still have a leaky oil pan (ARGH!) and my motor mounts are worn out.  While I've got the front suspension out, my current plan is to remove the front crossmember and do the oil pan gasket again.  I'll also sneak the new motor mounts in from below.  Compared to the way I did the oil pan before, the amount of effort is probably about the same - both are a lot of work.  But I'm doing suspension anyway so a lot of the work is needed.  Plus, I should be able to start and run the engine before I put the suspension back in, so I can find any leaks before putting it all back together.

The next segment of our cross-country off road adventure has been scheduled for early November.  It seems like plenty of time to get ready, but you all know how that goes!  Wish me luck!