Cheap Tips and Tricks To save your money
While you might think that working here in magazine land magically means nothing goes wrong and we always have exactly what we need, you¡¯d be wrong. We can¡¯t just put our hand in our pocket and always come out with the exact change for whatever we are buying, nor is there a money tree in the backyard.
Being paid in peanuts and attaboys doesn¡¯t really fill the old bank account, and whatever money we do get into the account is immediately sucked out again by one of our many project Jeeps. Picture the money you put into keeping one Jeep on the road. Now multiply that by five and you start to feel our pain.
What we lack in cash, we make up for with ingenuity and a healthy dose of trial-and-error, which leaves us with a lot of cheap tricks for common problems that we use pretty frequently. So, without further ado, here are 51 of our cheap tricks that will save you both time and money.
Seal Seater
A lot of guys we know just throw scrap tubing and metal in the trash. We keep a Rubbermaid trash can that catches all the little scraps that can be so useful later. One such scrap is this seal seater/ U-joint removal tool made out of some 13/4-inch, 0.120-wall tubing. By keeping the scraps around, when we run into something that we need a special tool for, it costs us nothing to rummage through the trash can and make one.
Twisted Wire
It is often difficult to keep wires under control when adding things to the Jeep. By twisting the wires together that go to a certain component, the installation will look neater, and you will be able to identify what wire goes where if something goes wrong down the line (assuming you twist different colors for different components).
Tiny Hands
There are a lot of bolts and nuts that are in places which you just can¡¯t physically get to. By stuffing a socket with paper so that just the head of the bolt goes into the socket, and then taping the bolt or nut in, you can get almost any bolt anywhere. It works especially well for inside holes, and around corners that you just can¡¯t bend to get around.
Hanging Wire
We keep the wire clothes hangers from the dry cleaners handy. By unraveling the hanger, and taping a wire to it, you¡¯ve got what might be the best snake anywhere. This technique works especially well for getting through firewall grommets. Start taping on the hanger and work towards the wire so that whatever you are pulling through doesn¡¯t just yank the tape off.
Coloring Time
By marking a line across your tire and driving straight down the road, you can determine what the correct tire pressure is for your Jeep. Depending on the weight and configuration of your Jeep, the correct tire pressure for you will likely vary from whatever the sidewall or owner¡¯s manual says. By drawing a line across the tread, and adjusting pressure until the whole line wears off uniformly, you can save money by making sure your tires wear evenly. Check them for proper wear and inflation once a month to maximize savings.
Spare Tape
We used to spend a ton of money on electrical tape. The tape itself is pretty cheap, but the problem was, we¡¯d always need some and not have any on us, resulting in buying a new roll for almost every application. We stopped that by running an extra couple of wraps around the roll bar so that it¡¯s always nearby when we need it.
Windshield Strap
If you bought your Wrangler new, there is a good chance you have this strap. It was included in a bag in the back of two of our last Jeeps. We think it was supposed to be for the top, but we hang it from the footman loop on the windshield, and then always have a tie-down strap with us wherever we go. Sure, it¡¯s small, but it¡¯s easily reusable and has become one of those things we can¡¯t figure out how we did without it before.
Writing Tape
Keep this one in your toolbox. Take some tape and wrap it around a pen. Bic pens work great. This will make it easier to find the pen when you need it, and will ensure you always have some tape handy too. What kind of tape is up to you, we like a variety of electrical and duct so that no matter what tape we need, it is close to hand.
Swiss Army Wrench
If you are like us and use the home tools on the trail too, this is an easy way to keep your wrenches in order and not lose them. The clips are about a dollar each, help keep your wrenches organized, make it easier to get the right wrench to the repair on the first time, and pay for themselves the first time you notice that such and such wrench is missing because it¡¯s still on the front bumper.
Duct Tape Bolt Holders
If you are working on the Jeep, be it on the trail or at home, a good way to keep your bolts from rolling away is to double up a length of tape and stick the bolts to it. Obviously, duct tape will hold the bolts best, but also might damage paint. If, like us, you aren¡¯t too concerned, duct tape away.
Cure Your Headache
We hate digging to the bottom of the toolbox or console to find a fuse, electrical connector, washer, or nut. We swipe all the empty Tylenol containers we run across and use them to keep our little parts from falling to the bottom of the tool box or ammo can. While not completely waterproof (if you submerse it for an extended amount of time, it will let water in), it is plenty waterproof enough for our needs and thus keeps things from collecting water and rusting too.
Double Nut For Extra Nut
If you¡¯ve got a bolt sticking through something with a lot of thread left exposed, you can put an extra nut or two on it. That will keep it from loosening, keep mud and gunk from crudding up the threads, and you¡¯ll always have an extra nut incase something works itself loose.
Save It For Later
If we have a foot or more of extra wire when we get done wiring something up, we wrap it up, and toss it in the box. The scrap wire we¡¯ve saved has been used to fix bad sections of wire on the trail, tie things down, and works for the test light tip mentioned earlier in this story.
Welding Binding Wire
When you use up the spool in your welder, don¡¯t throw out the extra wire. It can come in handy in a pinch as binding wire. If you¡¯ve got something hot or something that would cut through a regular rope, use the extra welding tie down. It¡¯s great for a temporary fix, but can cutt through hoses and wires over time.
Pepsi Overflow
A lot of older CJs didn¡¯t come with an overflow container at all. In a pinch, a Pepsi bottle or similar makes a decent catch can. It is also something to keep in mind if your existing overflow bites it while out on the trail.
Solenoid Jumper
We keep a length of wire in the toolbox for our CJs that still have the fender-mounted solenoid. Mud, age, dirt, vibration and all kinds of things can cause the solenoid to lock up and not work anymore, leaving you stranded. It is a pain, but with two alligator clips and a piece of wire, you can jump the terminals so that the Jeep starts. Clip it to something under the hood for easy access next time too.
Save Your Bumps
Most of us run relatively inexpensive poly bumpstops. But if you¡¯ve done a spring-over the U-bolt plates will chew up the poly in a couple miles of trail riding. We built bumpstop pads off our spring plates to give the poly a smooth contact surface. Just subtract the height of the pad by your overall bumpstop height requirement. Also, check out the 3/4-inch tubing we welded between the bumpstop-to-frame bracket sides to prevent it from mushrooming under a hard hit.
Tap Bolt
If you are fortunate enough to have a tap and die set you have a more-complete tool chest than us. But if you need to chase the grime out of a threaded hole and don¡¯t have the correct tap, you can use a bolt. Starting with a Grade 8 bolt, use a cut-off tool or small grinder to simply carve a groove or two down the body of the threaded area. Then chase the threads of your new tap with a nut to make sure it¡¯s clean. Now you can run the bolt-tap through the grimy hole, the flutes in the bolt will collect the nasty and you¡¯ll have clean threads to work with.
