KingCopperhead
New member
Adding in a list of Current mods, to read my "how I got my JK story" continue below 
Current Mods:
Mopar Stage 3 Lift
Fox 2.0 Resi Shocks
Poison Spyder Brawler Lite front bumper.
Engo E9000 winch with synthetic line
Warn D ring shackles with daystar isolators
Off Road Evolution rocker skins
Off Road Evolution rock sliders
Off Road Evolution C gussets and front lca skids
Off Road Evolution rear LCA skids (the weld on ones not the rock stars)
Off Road Evolution Drag link flip.
Off Road Evolution Rear D ring mounts with Aluminum rear fascia.
Dana 44 Rubicon front Axle, factory locker.
Poison Spyder Bombshell Diff covers front and rear.
Daystar spare tire isolators.
ATX Mojave wheels.
Kumho KL71 Road Venture MT tires 35x12.50
AEV Procal Tuner
4.88 gear swap.
JKS Quicker Disconnects.
Adams 1310 front drive shaft with solid spicer joints.
Ruff Stuff tie rod with 1 ton offset ends.
Factory Hard Top
Bestop Trektop NX
Since I'm spending so much time drooling over a few other build threads on here, may as well get mine rolling.
Purchased my 2014 Copperhead Pearlcoat Willy's Wheeler 2 door JK in June of 2014. It was a total impulse buy. Initially I had planned to build up my 97 TJ, and use it as a winter DD and trail toy. However, my fair weather DD (2011 Camaro SS, full bolt on's) was giving me a TON of random issues. (Heater core meltdown, evap sensor failure, 3 blown ac belts caused by an out of balance crankshaft pulley that GM failed to fix on 2 separate occasions) Warranty on the Camaro was up, and so was my patience. Drove to the Jeep dealership after work, drove home with my new Jeep.
The day I brought it home:
Woah! It's lifted already?? Are those 35's???
Yeah. like I said LOL impulse buy. Let me babble on for a moment about how I justified it LOL.
When I got to the dealership, I initially planned to buy a Rubicon. They had none available. I didn't want to wait to order one because I knew I'd break down and just fix my Camaro... again. I asked if they had any Jeeps with at least the 3.73 gear ratio. They had two Willy's edition jeeps on the lot, which include the 3.73 as part of the package. One was Polar Blue, the other was Copperhead Pearlcoat. I figured, what the hell. "Let me drive the lifted one." The sales manager went and got the keys, didn't even take a copy of my license. Took it out for a spin..........
WOW This isn't my TJ. (which is also lifted) It drives in a straight line......... has decent power..... and... it's Comfortable? IS that bluetooth??? My camaro doesn't even have bluetooth...
Impulse kicked in. I negotiated a fair price for my trade, and got them to take down their asking price. I still paid 5500 for the lift, wheels and tires, which in retrospect. Is a LOT. However:
It has the pricey fox reservoir shocks, and teraflex coils. The shocks are amazing. My family DD is a 2011 Acadia, and the jeep is almost as comfortable.
Came with Teraflex Speed bumps. They're expensive. I don't need them, but they look AWESOME in the Mall parking lot.
It was already installed on the Jeep. The dealership agreed to honor my warranty in the future should any problems arise. (a few problems have actually sprung up, and they have held to their word. SO FAR)
I got to roll it into the financing. Not the smartest financial move. However, convincing the wife that I *Need* an EVO Enforcer lift right now and I should dump a few grand from our savings OR put it on a credit card is also not the smartest move. At least I got a really good interest rate LOL.
SO I bought a pre-modded Jeep.
I don't feel bad about it. I promise.
How was that for some rationalizing? Not bad eh??
Anyway.
Here's the stats on the lift:
Mopar Stage 3 lift.
Fox 2.0 Reservoir Shocks
Teraflex coils with lower front arms and upper and lower rear arms (all fixed, these will be replaced once they break or wear out with adjustable arms)
Mopar Limit straps. Not sure why I need these, but at full droop I don't have any drive shaft contact, which is nice.
Teraflex exhaust spacers. To keep my drive shaft from tearing to bits. It's a bandaid fix. It'll do for now.
Rear tracbar relocation bracket.
Extended brake line brackets front and rear.
Teraflex Speed bumps.
Extended swaybar links.
The wheels they had installed already: ATX Mojave, with Kumho Road Venture MT tires. 35"
I like the wheels, they'll do for now. Eventually I'm going to just buy a set of Slabs and put the Mojave's on my TJ. This will likely happen when the Kumho's wear out.
The tires, I'd never heard of. BUT I did some reading on them and they get very decent reviews. They're an inexpensive Korean tire. As for my experience with them: They are nice on the street. I haven't gone off road yet.
They also installed a spare tire spacer to fit the big ass 35 on my tailgate. Another bandaid solution that I will eventually replace. For now it doesn't bounce or rattle. 2K miles on the jeep and it's still good to go. We will see how long it lasts.
Overall. Very happy with my purchase.
Not happy enough to leave well enough alone though! :grayno:
It was time to start modding.
The day after I bought my Jeep, I went on northridge and ordered a Poison Spyder Brawler lite bumper with plate gussets, and brawler bar. I ordered it unpainted, I'll go over that in my second post. I also ordered a set of JKS quicker disconnects, since I don't like dicking around with wrenches unless something's broken.
I'll go into more detail as to how I painted the bumper in another post, but here's some pics of the end result:
The new bumper completely changed the look of the jeep. The factory plastic bumper just doesn't belong there. Not a big fan at all. The Poison Spyder unit is nice and thick, was incredibly easy to mount up, and provides enough protection to the grille without hanging all over the place begging to be bashed in by a rock or tree.
Once the bumper and discos were installed, I had to order a few more pieces to get this rig ready for the trail. My plan is to cover the protection and recovery side of the jeep first. Some might have gone with gears and axles, while I'd like to do that: I prefer to protect what I have, while bringing whatever I can to the table to assist myself and my friends if things don't quite go as planned.
So last week I ordered a set of Evo C gussets to beef up my axle. My plan is to ride the D30 for a year or two and save up for a PR44 just in time to upgrade to 37's and a front locker. The gussets are cheap insurance, and like the nifty Teraflex bumpstops.. .they look really cool.
I also ordered a Poison Spyder winch fairlead mount to get my bumper winch ready.
That bumper needed a winch, so after AGONIZING for a month, I ordered an Engo E9000 with synthetic line. I've read all of the debates. Warn Vs. All the Chinese winches. I know that I'm getting what I'm paying for. I'm just getting into wheeling again, I don't want to break the bank on a winch *right now* For 400 bucks after my wayalife discount (thanks wayalife!) I can gamble with this one. Worst case scenario is that I buy a warn in a year or so. I'll get to wheel this Rig maybe once every other month. The Engo got great reviews. I'll let you all know how it works out. I won't cry if it breaks. I promise.
While I was at it, I ordered some Daystar D ring isolators, Daystar spare tire bump stops, and a nice ARB tree strap. My Willys edition came with a very handy Jeep trail bag, along with a Warn tow strap, some Warn D ring shackles, and a lovely set of Warn wiching gloves. They will go lovely with my Chinese Engo winch.
So. That's the part's list for now. I'm dead ass tired, and I'll upload a full DIY on how I painted my bumper along with some pics later on.
As for future plans: I want to wheel this jeep a few times and see how I fare. That will help me determine my needs vs wants so to speak. I'm booked to go to Rausch Creek at the end of August for 3 days. Going to ride with the NOVA group for 2 of the days and some friends from my local club on the last day. Planning to hit some blues, and see if I break or dent anything. I'm thinking for now, just save up for the new front axle, some lower gears, and a locker. Then do wheels and tires. I'll throw in a few inexpensive mods along the way.
Thanks for having a look. If you managed to read the imposing wall of text that is the first post in my build thread: I applaud you. Hope it made for some good sh**er reading LOL
Thanks also to the great folks on this forum who have given me advice so far. I've asked quite a few questions and gotten some great answers.
Current Mods:
Mopar Stage 3 Lift
Fox 2.0 Resi Shocks
Poison Spyder Brawler Lite front bumper.
Engo E9000 winch with synthetic line
Warn D ring shackles with daystar isolators
Off Road Evolution rocker skins
Off Road Evolution rock sliders
Off Road Evolution C gussets and front lca skids
Off Road Evolution rear LCA skids (the weld on ones not the rock stars)
Off Road Evolution Drag link flip.
Off Road Evolution Rear D ring mounts with Aluminum rear fascia.
Dana 44 Rubicon front Axle, factory locker.
Poison Spyder Bombshell Diff covers front and rear.
Daystar spare tire isolators.
ATX Mojave wheels.
Kumho KL71 Road Venture MT tires 35x12.50
AEV Procal Tuner
4.88 gear swap.
JKS Quicker Disconnects.
Adams 1310 front drive shaft with solid spicer joints.
Ruff Stuff tie rod with 1 ton offset ends.
Factory Hard Top
Bestop Trektop NX
Since I'm spending so much time drooling over a few other build threads on here, may as well get mine rolling.
Purchased my 2014 Copperhead Pearlcoat Willy's Wheeler 2 door JK in June of 2014. It was a total impulse buy. Initially I had planned to build up my 97 TJ, and use it as a winter DD and trail toy. However, my fair weather DD (2011 Camaro SS, full bolt on's) was giving me a TON of random issues. (Heater core meltdown, evap sensor failure, 3 blown ac belts caused by an out of balance crankshaft pulley that GM failed to fix on 2 separate occasions) Warranty on the Camaro was up, and so was my patience. Drove to the Jeep dealership after work, drove home with my new Jeep.
The day I brought it home:
Woah! It's lifted already?? Are those 35's???
Yeah. like I said LOL impulse buy. Let me babble on for a moment about how I justified it LOL.
When I got to the dealership, I initially planned to buy a Rubicon. They had none available. I didn't want to wait to order one because I knew I'd break down and just fix my Camaro... again. I asked if they had any Jeeps with at least the 3.73 gear ratio. They had two Willy's edition jeeps on the lot, which include the 3.73 as part of the package. One was Polar Blue, the other was Copperhead Pearlcoat. I figured, what the hell. "Let me drive the lifted one." The sales manager went and got the keys, didn't even take a copy of my license. Took it out for a spin..........
WOW This isn't my TJ. (which is also lifted) It drives in a straight line......... has decent power..... and... it's Comfortable? IS that bluetooth??? My camaro doesn't even have bluetooth...
Impulse kicked in. I negotiated a fair price for my trade, and got them to take down their asking price. I still paid 5500 for the lift, wheels and tires, which in retrospect. Is a LOT. However:
It has the pricey fox reservoir shocks, and teraflex coils. The shocks are amazing. My family DD is a 2011 Acadia, and the jeep is almost as comfortable.
Came with Teraflex Speed bumps. They're expensive. I don't need them, but they look AWESOME in the Mall parking lot.
It was already installed on the Jeep. The dealership agreed to honor my warranty in the future should any problems arise. (a few problems have actually sprung up, and they have held to their word. SO FAR)
I got to roll it into the financing. Not the smartest financial move. However, convincing the wife that I *Need* an EVO Enforcer lift right now and I should dump a few grand from our savings OR put it on a credit card is also not the smartest move. At least I got a really good interest rate LOL.
SO I bought a pre-modded Jeep.
I don't feel bad about it. I promise.
How was that for some rationalizing? Not bad eh??
Anyway.
Here's the stats on the lift:
Mopar Stage 3 lift.
Fox 2.0 Reservoir Shocks
Teraflex coils with lower front arms and upper and lower rear arms (all fixed, these will be replaced once they break or wear out with adjustable arms)
Mopar Limit straps. Not sure why I need these, but at full droop I don't have any drive shaft contact, which is nice.
Teraflex exhaust spacers. To keep my drive shaft from tearing to bits. It's a bandaid fix. It'll do for now.
Rear tracbar relocation bracket.
Extended brake line brackets front and rear.
Teraflex Speed bumps.
Extended swaybar links.
The wheels they had installed already: ATX Mojave, with Kumho Road Venture MT tires. 35"
I like the wheels, they'll do for now. Eventually I'm going to just buy a set of Slabs and put the Mojave's on my TJ. This will likely happen when the Kumho's wear out.
The tires, I'd never heard of. BUT I did some reading on them and they get very decent reviews. They're an inexpensive Korean tire. As for my experience with them: They are nice on the street. I haven't gone off road yet.
They also installed a spare tire spacer to fit the big ass 35 on my tailgate. Another bandaid solution that I will eventually replace. For now it doesn't bounce or rattle. 2K miles on the jeep and it's still good to go. We will see how long it lasts.
Overall. Very happy with my purchase.
Not happy enough to leave well enough alone though! :grayno:
It was time to start modding.
The day after I bought my Jeep, I went on northridge and ordered a Poison Spyder Brawler lite bumper with plate gussets, and brawler bar. I ordered it unpainted, I'll go over that in my second post. I also ordered a set of JKS quicker disconnects, since I don't like dicking around with wrenches unless something's broken.
I'll go into more detail as to how I painted the bumper in another post, but here's some pics of the end result:
The new bumper completely changed the look of the jeep. The factory plastic bumper just doesn't belong there. Not a big fan at all. The Poison Spyder unit is nice and thick, was incredibly easy to mount up, and provides enough protection to the grille without hanging all over the place begging to be bashed in by a rock or tree.
Once the bumper and discos were installed, I had to order a few more pieces to get this rig ready for the trail. My plan is to cover the protection and recovery side of the jeep first. Some might have gone with gears and axles, while I'd like to do that: I prefer to protect what I have, while bringing whatever I can to the table to assist myself and my friends if things don't quite go as planned.
So last week I ordered a set of Evo C gussets to beef up my axle. My plan is to ride the D30 for a year or two and save up for a PR44 just in time to upgrade to 37's and a front locker. The gussets are cheap insurance, and like the nifty Teraflex bumpstops.. .they look really cool.
I also ordered a Poison Spyder winch fairlead mount to get my bumper winch ready.
That bumper needed a winch, so after AGONIZING for a month, I ordered an Engo E9000 with synthetic line. I've read all of the debates. Warn Vs. All the Chinese winches. I know that I'm getting what I'm paying for. I'm just getting into wheeling again, I don't want to break the bank on a winch *right now* For 400 bucks after my wayalife discount (thanks wayalife!) I can gamble with this one. Worst case scenario is that I buy a warn in a year or so. I'll get to wheel this Rig maybe once every other month. The Engo got great reviews. I'll let you all know how it works out. I won't cry if it breaks. I promise.
While I was at it, I ordered some Daystar D ring isolators, Daystar spare tire bump stops, and a nice ARB tree strap. My Willys edition came with a very handy Jeep trail bag, along with a Warn tow strap, some Warn D ring shackles, and a lovely set of Warn wiching gloves. They will go lovely with my Chinese Engo winch.
So. That's the part's list for now. I'm dead ass tired, and I'll upload a full DIY on how I painted my bumper along with some pics later on.
As for future plans: I want to wheel this jeep a few times and see how I fare. That will help me determine my needs vs wants so to speak. I'm booked to go to Rausch Creek at the end of August for 3 days. Going to ride with the NOVA group for 2 of the days and some friends from my local club on the last day. Planning to hit some blues, and see if I break or dent anything. I'm thinking for now, just save up for the new front axle, some lower gears, and a locker. Then do wheels and tires. I'll throw in a few inexpensive mods along the way.
Thanks for having a look. If you managed to read the imposing wall of text that is the first post in my build thread: I applaud you. Hope it made for some good sh**er reading LOL
Thanks also to the great folks on this forum who have given me advice so far. I've asked quite a few questions and gotten some great answers.
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