What was done to your rig this week?

DanW

Member
I installed a Rancho Rock Gear differential slider plate on the rear of my 08 JK. For 13 years, I've worried about hitting a rock just right and peeling open the rear diff. After seeing some guys knock the shit out of these on their Jeeps, I added one to the front of my JL last year and it has done well. So this went on the JK rear yesterday. I'll put one up front when the wallet is restocked.

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Last weekend I removed the old 2" AEV spacer lift and Rancho 5000's, all of which served well for many years, and added a 2.5" AEV Dualsport XT lift with 1/2" Teraflex spacer up front to level it out. It turned out great and drives/handles better than ever. Can't wait to get it off road. Up next is installation of adjustable front track bar, AEV geometry correction brackets, a Rugged Ridge Arcus front bumper, Spartan rear bumper, and an upgrade to the A-pillar auxillary lighting.

Oh yeah, the old Engo winch gets a new rope, too. I wire brushed rust off the drum and hit it with Rustoleum Rust Reformer/Sealer. Those synthetic ropes trap moisture under there in a pretty bad way. I think the wire brushng and Rustoleum treatment will be a 6 month maintenance item from here on out.

I've been focused on my JLUR for 3 years and turned attention back to the old JKUR so my son could wheel it on our off-road trips. He's 17 and did some driving in the JL in Moab in April and did a good job, so he's ready to wheel this one. We'll try it out at Turkey Bay in Land Between the Lakes, Kentucky, and then Windrock in TN. Then in October we'll be hitting the Appalachian Byway in VT, NH and ME.

Here's the before/after pics of the lift swap The lift raised the whole Jeep more than I expected and brought the front up even more, right where I wanted it. The pics don't tell the whole story. You can really tell when you climb up into it. MUCH better breakover angle, for sure!
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BaddestCross

Active Member
Not sure never used one. But I think Eddie may have posted up using one before or maybe somebody else. Hell I'm still looking for a grease gun that work as I think it should.:unsure:😂
I have one and you need to get on the fitting perfectly or you just make a mess. Found I have better luck with a needle tip and just jam it in the zirc.
 

DanW

Member
Well, went to install the Rugged Ridge Arcos bumper today. The good news: The bumper fits and looks great! The bad news: The winch plate was too wide to fit into its place between the frame rails by about 1/4", or slightly less. So I'll be calling RR tomorrow to see if this one is out of spec or if I'm going to have to cut the ends off, taking away 1/8" on each side, then welding them back on. Either way, I'll get it resolved. It is too nice a bumper not to. I also decided to replace the old but trusty Engo 10k winch. It still works as it always has, with lots of noise, but it never let me down. I'll put it up for sale. It'll have a brand new wire rope and roller fairlead to go with it off the new Smittybilt XRC9500. I picked up the Smitty for about $270. It's a great winch. I've got one on my JL and I've done many pulls with it without a hiccup.

It also turns out that the fog lights on the older JK's use a different bulb, so I"ll have to splice new connectors onto the old wires to get the new fog lights up and running. No biggie. So here is a pic...

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DanW

Member
Looks good

just about any significant upgrade requires some modification like that. Hope that 1/4” is an easy fix

I just confirmed on my cousin's 2018 that the winch plate is out of spec and is too wide. Hopefully Rugged Ridge will ship a new one, but if they don't, we'll cut it down. I hate breaking the powder coat, though. So we'll see how good their CS is. (Or how bad it is.)
 

FFPulley77

Hooked
BD802BF7-E296-47D8-8F0A-A0E60FAC9D79.jpeg Cut down the Rubicon rails down in preparation for the 35’s being installed this Friday. The first side looked like an axe murderer got after it at first, had to grind it down a bit. This side was much better.
 

FFPulley77

Hooked
There’s nothing like cutting and grinding on perfectly good parts!!!
Yep!! I’ve got another round of fun coming in the next week or so. I’m going to take a shot at chopping the factory fenders, following the write ups on here. I may need a shot of whiskey before I start cutting!
 

DanW

Member
Well, update on the Arcus. Turns out Amazon sent the JL version instead of the JK version I ordered. The only difference is the winch plate, so when the new one arrives, I'm just swapping that out and sending it all back, so we should be good to go in a week or so. Of course that's assuming they send the correct one this time.
 

wjtstudios

Hooked
Well, update on the Arcus. Turns out Amazon sent the JL version instead of the JK version I ordered. The only difference is the winch plate, so when the new one arrives, I'm just swapping that out and sending it all back, so we should be good to go in a week or so. Of course that's assuming they send the correct one this time.
That's and easy fix! It's always great when things work out
 

DanW

Member
I installed a Rugged Ridge Arcus front bumper today and a new Smitty XRC winch to replace the old trusty Engo. I'm now waiting for RR to ship the steering component skid plate and Spartan rear bumper. I've still got lots of smaller things to do for my little JK refit project, such as a new turn signal stalk, geometry correction brackets, new A-pillar lights, and she'll be ready to return to the trails.



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