2018 SEMA AEV Blue & Yellow JL Wranglers

wayoflife

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When it comes to quality overlanding Jeep products, AEV has always been a SEMA Show favorite and for 2018, they brought out 2 JL Wranglers to highlight some of the new products they're making for it. Not so surprisingly, this would include a 2.5" lift with triple rate coils, a snorkel and new and improved front and rear bumpers. Now, what I personally wasn't expecting to see is a slight shift toward guys who like to play on the rocks and that's by offering their front bumper as a modular unit and one that can be run as a stubby! The rear bumper also no longer has a water tank but now has a cool fold down step. Overall, both have been designed with the JL in mind and I have to say, everything looked really nice.

Here's a couple of shots of the 4-door they brought out featuring a their full width bumper and snorkel.
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Here's a shot of the new JL rear bumper.
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Fold down step and optional license plate mount.
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And here's their 2-door flexing out.
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As you can see, it's running their front bumper as a stubby.
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Check out the light bar mount behind the skid.
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That Pioneer roof rack does overhang quite a bit...was that on purpose, like a tree rail to protect the roof?...also, the bull bar on the bumper is massive...and it looks modular as well
 
I gotta admit, AEV is usually never first to market, but they sure know how tknock it out of the park. That Yellow JL In diesel would be an instant take my money vehicle
 
Always clean. Always well designed.

I really do like the stubby on the blue! I may end up cutting mine back to look something like that

As much as I thought that water tank in the bumper was “clever” idea but not really functional when I first bought my Jeep, we really used it a ton from cleaning up after a muddy recoveries to washing out mud filled radiators when jeeps overheated. It is a bit of a rock magnet coming off ledges, but I kinda wish they kept it.


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Those recovery points look like an improvement. Also new shocks.

The front bump stops are interesting. On their JK lifts, they add a lot of pucks to the lower bump stop. I wonder if the JL lift has more travel, or its just set up this way for show purposes.
 
nice clean builds.

I like the stubby bumper but it's massive and looks really tight to the grill, looks like it's blocking a lot of airflow how they have it setup.
 
Very clean. I don’t like the look of the front bumper compared to the JK version. Do the rear bumpers have a tire carrier or are the tires on the stock mounts?


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I watched the latest interview on Dave Harrington (owner of AEV) and the new Chevy Colorado Bison, and honestly, with the exception of maybe dynatrac and EVO, no one in the industry that I have seen makes parts quite to the same standard as AEV. Often times their designs aren't to my taste, but the attention to detail, testing, etc, I haven't seen anyone do anything like it. Very good watch if you have 15 minutes.
 
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