Bantam Jeep Heritage Fest 2024!!!

[56willys]

Hello all, just sharing some info for an upcoming event. The Bantam Jeep Fest. Which is held in Butler PA the birthplace of the BRC concept jeep. This is probably one of my favorite events to go to. I'll have Flossy there along with many more jeeps that are my Dad/friends. And if i buy any more CJs before then. It Will be June 7-9 2024. I highly recomend going to anyone who likes jeeps. And if you live far away it is worth the trip. I believe last year had jeeps from over 26 states as well as Canada. Also the Epic Willys adventure will be starting off there again. Here's a link to their website https://www.bantamjeepfestival.com/ If any of you decide to attend feel free to come by and see me there.

[bmorgil]

Take some pictures for us for sure 56! There should be some extremely rare stuff there. That will be a great time. Flossy will fit right in.

[gmwillys]

It has become a life goal to partake on the Epic Willys Adventure.

https://www.epicwillysadventure.com/

[bmorgil]

If you need a co-pilot, I am thinking we can win that thing gm!

[56willys]

Would love to compete as well. It'll probably take a few years before Flossy is ready, as well as me, legally/finacially.

I think you two need to make a forum teem. And get sponsered by KW to represent the forum! You guys totally have the knowledge to get through about anything with a willys!

[gmwillys]

Bmorgil, I'd love to have you co-pilot. We might have to get something going on competing.

[bmorgil]

Oh man my hair is standing on end, I am getting chills, its been a long time since I was participating in a race of any kind! It would be hilarious to see an old Jeep with an "old co-pilot" and the young engineer making a trophy run! Careful gm...... I can feel it.

I will need bathroom facilities and we have to walk slow.

[gmwillys]

Yes, bathroom facilities would be a bonus;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7QwTTn3FIk

I suppose we could find a vintage Ben Hur trailer to hook in behind, and have a pop out out house.

[bmorgil]

They just don't make movies like that anymore! I am always "shakin' it boss"!

The trailer is the ticket. Something with a generator. I need power for the smoker.

[56willys]

Just let me touch the jeep, so the rings will go out. Then you'll have a smoker right in the jeep.

[bmorgil]

Hahah! 56 your just seeing a little "Jeep Love" in that smoke. Flossy just wants to make sure you are paying attention.

You might have something... a little 30w coating on the meat couldnt hurt! Well......

[56willys]

Mmmmm, hickory oil smoked brisket with 87 octane bbg sauce. What a delicacy!

[gmwillys]

After a couple hundred miles, The "jake fixed" one piston and compression ring may oblige you in making a tiny little bit of smoke. To be honest, I've reached my saturation point on eating diesel/JP8 soot from having my office above the dyno shop floor, so I'll stick with mother nature fueled smoked meats.

[bmorgil]

I'll bet gm! We will stick to the "hickory" smoke.

[LarrBeard]

Diesel smoked meat - A Sea Story

There was this one time when we were delivering an old destroyer(we were selling it to Turkey) from New York to Mayport, Florida. On Saturday afternoon the ship decided to have a cookout for the crew - grilled steaks and burgers cooked on the fantail on a grill. Now a day out of New York is just off Cape Hatteras and it wasn't really smooth sailing - not a hurricane but that old ship was moving bit.

Twenty plus years and I'd never been seasick - so it seemed like no big deal. I had chow - the steak was typically Navy tough and it had been marinated in something, but I'd had a lot worse. About an hour later, my stomach started to churn and in about another half hour - it rebelled. Between that piece of meat and the rolling, pitching and yawing - I paid a penance for making fun of seasickness for those twenty-plus years.

But - it turned out the ship had an epidemic of the same thing - Old Salts and Landlubbers alike. After a bit of investigation, the culprit turned up. Nobody had any charcoal lighter to start the grill and someone had the bright idea to use Navy Distillate Fuel as charcoal starter. That stuff doesn't burn off (it's close to JP-5) and the "marinade" taste was unburned fuel greasing up the meat.

I agree with GMWillys - I'll pass on the petroleum marinade....

[bmorgil]

OMG!!!! That is a scary story Senior Chief! Man that could have gotten real serious. It is a wonder you didnt end up with a bunch of souls in the hospital. I ate hamburgers and fries with greasy hands and ended up with clean finger tips, but I never ate meat grilled with JP-5! You are hard core Senior Chief, hard core.

[gmwillys]

LarrBeard, we had a similar instance when I worked for the county. Our Squad car mechanic brought in an old gas grill to refurbish for our weekly game feed, to move away from everything being trudged out of a crock pot. He spent a week patching and I made him a set of grill grates in the fab shop. That was all well and fine, but the first time we fired it up and he whipped up a bunch of elk burgers. Now most in the shop liked their meats done on the barely dead where I liked the life grilled out to a slight pink. By the end of the shift, everyone was hurting pretty bad. Long story short, when I made the grates, and handed them off to the squad car guy, he coated them not with cooking oil to season, but 10W30. It made for a bad Friday.

[bmorgil]

Oh man, you guys went to the nightmare cookouts!

[LarrBeard]

Bubba Sez:

Whatever don't kill us makes us smarter the next time....

[gmwillys]

Amen. To this day, I'm suspicious of other peoples cooking ability.

[56willys]

Wow guys, I make a joke about cooking. And you folks have real experience with eating oil meat! You guys never cease to amaze me. Thank goodness you guys didn't get seriously hurt from that. And bmorgil, I recommend taking your own smoker. And not letting me anywhere near your engine.

[LarrBeard]

"Amen. To this day, I'm suspicious of other peoples cooking ability."

Don't say that in the kitchen or you might be served hot tongue, cold shoulder and have to eat a side dish of crow....

[bmorgil]

Oh man..... an angry cook! I think we all better know not to talk back in the kitchen! Something about biting the hand......

[gmwillys]

I'm much more fortunate now. My first two wives couldn't boil water. My bride now is a wonderful cook, so no complaints from the peanut gallery.

[56willys]

Flossy is officially registered for Bantam!! I even singed it up for trailriding (lets see if it holds together).

Even got insurance on the old girl, now if I can just finish that welding, and over drive, and shocks, and carb rebuild, and exhaust, and shock mounts, and weld the holes in the frame, and gauges, and wheel bearings, and hope it dosen't fall part then we'll be good to go!!

If any one is planning on coming to Bantam if you see Flossy feel free to say hi, I'll be there with a fleet of my Dads/friends jeeps.

[bmorgil]

You have a deadline now 56'! Please take lots of pictures for us, we live precariously through you! This sounds like you're headed for a good time.

[gmwillys]

Deadlines are good for the soul, from time to time. It would be nice to go up there to see the show, but it won't happen this year for us. As Bmorgil said, take lots of photos.

[bmorgil]

I set a deadline to have peeJ done in time for the Toledo Jeep fest that was coming. I had attended the prior one and decided I had to get in the parade. Then I had the added pressure of picking up Senior Chief LarrBeard for parade inspection. Lots of pressure for the first ride! I got it running down the drive the week before. I picked up The Senior Chief and she did OK. A little carb trouble, a little overheating but we got to the finish on time. The Senior Chief had to supply some "field experience" and a little driver instruction, but peeJ got it done!

[56willys]

I need a deadline to keep me motivated, otherwise it would be 3 more years before I finished this rust repair extravaganza. Sounds like you had a great experience with PeeJ and the Senior Chief! I will post lots pictures as well as have some videos on Youtube. Hopefully you guys will make it out here in the future, likewise I hope to get to Toledo at some point (it'll probably be a while).

Bantam has been kind of my lifetime show, I've been to every one they have had since day one. And ever since that 4 year old me went to the first event in 2011 i knew someday I just had to own one of those willys jeeps with those 3 neat looking shifters! (Actual quote of me having no clue what any shifter does, but they looked cool.) I never thought I'd actually own a willys anytime soon especially not before I was even old enough to drive it. (Bantam requires drivers to be 18) But here i am getting my very own willys ready for some trailriding! So yea, I've always had a sweet spot for Bantam.

[bmorgil]

Excellent back story on the Bantam and your youth Paul! It looks like that dream of long ago is coming true. You are definitely going to enjoy what you have done. And you are very aware of what the 3 sticks are for now!

[56willys]

Alright folks, so this past weekend was the Bantam Jeep fest. Which I already wrote about the experiences loading Flossy on the trailer. So the next day we pulled out and headed for the show, we had flossy towed by my friends gladiator Mojave, his 97 TJ and my dad's 06 Rubicon. We set up camp that day, (the day before the event officially starts) we decided to drive flossy and one TJ down the road to get gas and drive through the local state park. Which was really neat running Flossy through paths snaking around giant boulders. Then basically just hungout at camp that evening. Then Friday started the event, now they require drivers to be 18+ so I got to be swamper while my brother drove. We did the obstacle course with some steep hills a log bridge (which was a little sketchy since they made it wide for them modern jeeps) and some rocks. Then we did a couple trailrides through the woods. Flossy did absolutely phenomenal, we didn't do any super technical offroading but I will say the capabilites of a willys are really good. It ran good, had plenty of traction and with those new shocks actually had a decent ride. I put less then a pint of oil in it and then it stayed full all weekend. So the Lucas stuff really worked. Flossys previous owner showed up, who hasn't seen it since I bought that then piece of junk old woods jeep. And he was amazed with how far flossy has come. Then we hopped in the newer jeeps and rode to town for the invasion. They block off over a mile of main st and line 1200 jeeps down each side of the road, with about 20,000 people it's just a big street party. So up until know nothing had broken yet, one weld on the battery tray broke and it was squeaking so bad. I put a ratchet strap on it and that didnt help sk I sprayed some aerosol canola oil cooking spray on it and presto, the squeak went away. But Saturday we were just coming out of a trail and went to upshift and the clutch pedal went to the floor. So we killed the ign and drifted off the path. Turns out the clutch link rod came lose since a cotter pin sheared off. I didn't put a washer on it so it was just wearing right on the pin. Someone passing by said they had some pins back at camp and brought some over. So It was fixed, then there was a weird clicking noise. Turns out the terribly jerry rigged exhaust started scraping the drive shaft, but that just took a bungee cord and that was the only issues all weekend. The show had a cti flex trailer so I decided to put flossy on it. And I (including the operator of the trailer) was amazed at how well it did. A stock willys has 14.5 inches front and 13.5 inches rear suspension travel. For a total CTI score of 560, better then a stock 2018 Wrangler unlimited. And nothing broke or got tweaked in testing, it still sits right it and everything is good!

The epic Willys adventure left from there, which they left earlier then I thought so I didn't get to see the jeeps up close much. But we did pass them on the one trailride and saw them go down the road.

I'll continue some more photos on this thread but please watch this video I made, it basically shows the entire event and everything that took place. https://youtu.be/ZWT-opMYFf4?si=wj4ywkNdAll3-k-b

I am super fired up with how well the old jeep did. My confidence level got a lot higher this weekend. And it did alot of running and hardly leaked oil, only broke a couple minor things, and I found out how capable it is. I hooked up a temp guage but I don't think it's accurate, it never went above 140. I had a heat gun I checked it with and the thermostat housing was about 160, the top of the rad about 180. Oil pressure would drop to about 15 at idle, but it was idling alittle low rpm, and with any throttle input would get better. So yep, I am super happy with Flossy and had an absolutely amazing experience at the Bantam Jeep Fest!

[56willys]

I'll just continue some photos.

The extended cap J truck prototype was there as well as a polished stainless flat fender.

[56willys]

More pics. Some Bantam concepts made right in Butler where the event was. A FC fire truck, an m677 with original cerlist diesel, a jeep a trench a flat fender on a cj7 chassis, and a cj6 with a Kubota engine.

[56willys]

More pics.

[bmorgil]

Fantastic outing 56"! That is what its all about man. The camping out, comradery and the walking around is something you wont forget. Fixing little things "out in the wild" is the best part. It sounds like Flossy is doing just fine. Great pictures! Some nice rides at that Fest!

[gmwillys]

Outstanding '56. You did very well on getting Flossy to the show and able to participate! When I get some more time, I'll watch your video of the event.

[56willys]

Thank you guys!! I am super excited with how well Flossy did. And I'm kind of amazed at how little broke.

Looking forward to more expeditions this summer!

[gmwillys]

Flossy and most Willy's do not require much maintenance to stay happy.