Best JKU Build in the world! Seriously.. Maybe... Well, Lots of Pictures.. lol

J

JeepNoob

New member
Hello fellow members. No, I do not own the Best JKU in the world or even the universe but it sure seems like everyone feels that way right about their rig right? lol My wife and I do however own our third Jeep and its a really fun 2015 JKU. Started with a YJ,




then went to a H3,



then a JK



and now have a JKU.



One of the things I've noticed since we got into wheeling a few years ago is how serious everyone has gotten about Jeeps and how knowledgable so many instantly become when they purchase one. I for one love offroading with anyone who loves the freedom of exploration and has fun. Remember no one knows everything even if they act like they do. its all about having a great time and meeting great people.
- Freedom Crawler
AKA - "Jeep Noob"

https://youtu.be/avbYoFuDW9g
 
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First things first I swapped out the gunmetal wheels we were running for daily driving for the stock sport wheels. Luckily the dealership was cool and i literally started wrenching on the Jeep before it left the dealership.









Got her home and then went to work on the fenders. Living in an apartment makes it rough for using power tools so I had to cut these all by hand with a razor blade. Took Forever but came out straighter than my last ones that I'd used a jigsaw on. Easy mod, clears up space and looks extremely better. Also tossed on some JKUR rock rails. Cleans up the body too in my opinion.






Also trimmed the rear bumper and 2" off the rear of the rock rails to fit our tires.

 
Did the spare tire delete also.

So before we got the JKU we were running two sets of tires. One set with 37's and one set with stock rubicon tires to daily drive. This way I could save the wear and tear from the 37's and save on some gas mileage. Unfortunately this meant carrying tires up and down three flights of stairs to our balcony every time we went wheeling. Which was usually twice a month. So once we got the JKU we decided enough of this, we are only running one set all the time.



From there I started gathering parts for our lift. After seeing someone post there stock suspension online for $800 and being completely blown away that someone, A. thought they could get that much and B. Wanted to screw people over like that, I decided I would try and find all of the components we needed for about the same price.

So I went scrounging and ran into some motivation along the way. (We are the small one)

 
Anyone who live at an apartment complex knows that it sucks to try and wrench. I finally got our front comp stinger and lift kit together and was ready to install it. I had to borrow a friends driveway for some power tools for the bumper install and we went at it.












 
The next day I went to work on the lift. I started at 8 am and stopped for the day at about 11 pm still not finished. I had done lifts before but I took on a lot by trying to do the lift alone in a corner spot at the apartments. It was ridiculously hot, I didn't have the right space and often the right tools. It was so hot the jack stands were melting into the blacktop under the weight of the jeep. What a nightmare. I learned the hard way that having shade, room to work and the right equipment makes all the difference in the world. I got it done but it sucked horribly. My wife did her best to help when needed but I often didn't even want her near the jeep as it wasn't working out well. Wish I'd taken pictures but I was just beat and wanted to get it done.

Needless to say I got the 3.5" lift in and dialed in by the next morning. Came out really well and I hit my budget so I was pretty excited.

Also tossed on our set of 37's. This gave us around 7" of lift total from the wheels and suspension. Not 7" of suspension lift so please read that correctly lol





Testing her out





From there we finally took her out to the trails to test and tune










For the record I HATE mud but my wife loves it. I always say " The only girl who loves mud has a guy who will clean it up for her" lol






 
JeepNoob said:
The next day I went to work on the lift. I started at 8 am and stopped for the day at about 11 pm still not finished. I had done lifts before but I took on a lot by trying to do the lift alone in a corner spot at the apartments. It was ridiculously hot, I didn't have the right space and often the right tools. It was so hot the jack stands were melting into the blacktop under the weight of the jeep. What a nightmare. I learned the hard way that having shade, room to work and the right equipment makes all the difference in the world. I got it done but it sucked horribly. My wife did her best to help when needed but I often didn't even want her near the jeep as it wasn't working out well. Wish I'd taken pictures but I was just beat and wanted to get it done.

Needless to say I got the 3.5" lift in and dialed in by the next morning. Came out really well and I hit my budget so I was pretty excited.

Also tossed on our set of 37's. This gave us around 7" of lift total from the wheels and suspension. Not 7" of suspension lift so please read that correctly lol





Testing her out





From there we finally took her out to the trails to test and tune










For the record I HATE mud but my wife loves it. I always say " The only girl who loves mud has a guy who will clean it up for her" lol






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I wish I had mine built at least this well haha
 
muddy_anvil said:
With the 3.5" lift do you plan on getting a new drive shaft??
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Not until I need one. The group I wheel with and myself generally like wheel, reach our limits, build up a bit, wheel, build up a bit and so forth. Originally I thought I would need all four sets of lower control arms for our lift and all sorts of other things but its going well for now. Will I need one in the future, most likely but for right now I'm going to wheel it and dial things in as we go.
 
Great Job!

It is a process! Slowly creating mine! Learning as I go! Keep up the good work! There must be thousands of us out there at the same time, fighting the heat and Mosquitos, working on our Jeeps! Funny thought!
coop
 
Welcome to WAL... Nice Rig!

Shit I remember the days of apartments and doing the "parking lot" builds, it sucks ballz... but the results were always worth it...

I so want 37's...
 
OverlanderJK said:
Welcome to wayalife. Are you here just to pimp yourself and your videos?
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That's definitely not my intentions. Personally I've read a lot of builds and some people just do a horrible job and some people do a great job. Build threads are great when they tell a story of your build. I mean that's the whole point right. You start somewhere and then continue on with it. Ours just tend to have no ending.

My build thread is designed to tell the story of my build and to make people smile, laugh or just shake their head. We do this because we enjoy the Freedom right? Everyone's is different, this one is just mine.
 
JeepNoob said:
That's definitely not my intentions. Personally I've read a lot of builds and some people just do a horrible job and some people do a great job. Build threads are great when they tell a story of your build. I mean that's the whole point right. You start somewhere and then continue on with it. Ours just tend to have no ending.

My build thread is designed to tell the story of my build and to make people smile, laugh or just shake their head. We do this because we enjoy the Freedom right? Everyone's is different, this one is just mine.
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Who's your favorite build thread on here?
 
JeepNoob said:
That's definitely not my intentions. Personally I've read a lot of builds and some people just do a horrible job and some people do a great job. Build threads are great when they tell a story of your build. I mean that's the whole point right. You start somewhere and then continue on with it. Ours just tend to have no ending.

My build thread is designed to tell the story of my build and to make people smile, laugh or just shake their head. We do this because we enjoy the Freedom right? Everyone's is different, this one is just mine.
Click to expand...

So they do a horrible job because they show what they do to their jeep? You do a better job because you make some videos and pimp yourself with your blog and Facebook page?
 
JeepNoob said:
That's definitely not my intentions. Personally I've read a lot of builds and some people just do a horrible job and some people do a great job. Build threads are great when they tell a story of your build. I mean that's the whole point right. You start somewhere and then continue on with it. Ours just tend to have no ending.

My build thread is designed to tell the story of my build and to make people smile, laugh or just shake their head. We do this because we enjoy the Freedom right? Everyone's is different, this one is just mine.
Click to expand...

Freedom? Theres no freedom here. Dictatorship all the way! :bleh:
 
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