Green Bay TJ's JK

Here are some pics.



Upgrades include 32" tires (255/75R17 - went from 16" to 17" rims), control arm skids, oil pan/cat skid, Fab Fours rock sliders (entry ledge for my shorter passengers), 2" budget boost, BDS extended shocks, BDS quick discos, hi-lift jack mount, warn vr8000 winch with synthetic line. I should have thought about getting bumpers that the jack would work with. Also, the winch does not work - will have to get that taken care of. All in all, pretty happy with the jeep even if its not a TJ, but too much plastic. Dealer gave me tire/wheel package for dirt cheap, but tires are street, not ATs. So these may be the first things taken care of in next set of upgrades. The BDS discos have an interesting design. I'm going to have to figure out how to secure the sway bar when disco'd. It needs to stay horizontal and centered, unlike a TJ where the bar needs to be swung up and out of the way.

Thanks for posting pics, looks good . Did you have the winch mounted on the stock bumper or do you have an aftermarket front bumper? The hardest part for me to get used to after driving my husbands TJ, was the drive by wire on the JK , but know I love it!! Good luck with the new jeep and keep us posted with any more mod's you do.

Stock bumper with a winch plate.

Nice! And everything i’ve heard about the 2013 is good – but if you really want a TJ, I’ll trade you straight up!

Jack looks good there, too, as long as it works for you.

I was going to say, as for the discos . . . sell’em to someone and get a Currie Anti-rock, but I just googled it post a link, and one person said it’s not as adjustable for the JKs as it was for the TJs. Still might be worth looking into – it’s SOOOOO nice being able to go straight off road w/o the harassment of taking off, strapping up, worrying about catching them when the wheels are locked, putting them back on, bla bla bla. …OK, a few more forums, and sounds like everyone likes them, too.

I had a Currie A/R and a 2-inch spring lift on my TJ. I'm thinking the way I had the A/R set up contributed to how easy it was to roll it on the highway. What I really should have done was move the links on the arms to the stiffer highway settings and when going offroad move them again to the a softer spring rate. This would be just as much work as using discos, and would defeat the reason for having an A/R system. The discos with the puck lifts on the springs provide some lift while keeping most of the original handling of the suspension. I really liked the A/R (other than rolling the jeep), but I should have probably kept to a slightly stiffer setting, especially since I'll probably stick to mostly greens and blues.

Very nice....looking forward to seeing it in person next weekend!!!

IT LOOKS FANTASTIC!!!

Awesome looking Jeep. I love the black it is a great color. I hope your happy with it and it treats you better than Im sure you will treat it!!

Nice!

On my JK, I just went with the JKS QD's...and they are a breeze to get on/off....with pins to hold them in the up position too....very easy to use. As the ends swivel, you don't have to wrestle with the alignment of the holes to hook them back up for street use like you do for the terraflex or others either....and the JKS are adjustable for height, so if you add lift later...you don't need longer links, and so on.

Food for thought.

Pins look just like the ones Rubicon Express uses on their discos. Also, I take jeep into dealer who installed the winch and it works fine, of course.

The snap pins are an off the shelf common part...the swiveling rod ends and adjustable rod lengths, are what makes it work better than the others I've used in the past.

Decided to add some stonger diff covers. Turns out I had some sort of leak after my last trip to RC in my rear diff. Wonder where that happened? (I think Sam and Dennis know where). Cover on the left is an old style Poison Spyder D30 bomshell cover - I won a PSC gift certificate at a Jeep Jamboree a couple years ago and got the cover - which I never installed on my old jeep. Cover on the right is a Riddler D44 cover. I decided not to go with PSC bombshell since they have a disclaimer on their website that their new D44 covers may rub against the trackbar on JKs. Went to Adams to have these installed this morning (too cold to be doing diff work in my driveway this month).

While I was at Adams I was talking to Chuck about tires - was thinking about Nitto Trail Grapplers. While I was talking to Chuck, Danny mentioned that they had 2 sets of Rubicon tires on JK rims to sell. Ended up getting one set. I don't think these are new, may have a few miles, but the cost for tires and rims was what I would pay from Quadratec for new tires only. Also had my spedo adjusted for the diameter of these tires - these are the largest tires the can be adjusted through factory settings without the use of an AEV procal (which I think might violate the warranty on the jeep).

When I replaced my diff covers, I'm keeping the old ones. Maybe I'll bring on the trail in case I ever need one, or maybe I'll just mount on the wall in my garage. Anyway I was shocked when I pulled the box with the old diff covers from the back of my jeep. Too light. I'm guessing the stock D30 + D44 diff covers I had replaced weigh less combined than the old style PSC bombshell d30 diff cover, certainly less than the Riddler D44. Amazing how thin these stock covers are. I really doubt I'll ever need to replace one of the heavy diff covers I had installed today.

Nice! A leak...have no idea what caused that

I like those rims! Much better than the steelies!!! Good job!!!

I figure that must be what is on the 2013 Rubicons. Probably take-offs when people buy new jeeps and got to larger tires that require rims with less backspacing. The rims do look nicer than my old ones. Can't complain when I'm getting virtually new tires and a set of rims for what new tires alone would cost.

Orangecrush wrote:

Nice! A leak...have no idea what caused that

Had the Riddler cover installed several weeks back, and it still leaks. Just put in about a quart of lube tonight (not counting what ended up dripping down my hand and onto the A/O wristband). So now it does not sound quite like an aircraft engine winding up when I get to 40 MPH (yeah, probably did something to a rear wheel bearing when a quart of lube leaked out). Anyway I did a back crawl under the rear axle to get a good look. Did not see an obvious houseing crack. Also did not see a bead of RTV between the bottom two bolts - you know, the stuff that oozes out between the housing and the diff cover. Just see the green glow of lube oozing out between what looks like a metal-to-metal seal. I guess time for a lube locker.

Very nice!!

Haha - excellent! Love the plates!!

Gave into temptation and bought the Bushwacker flatties. Got the front pair installed in time for the Father's Day show. First side took 3-1/2 hours (in the rain last night, following the tornado watch, fun); 2nd side took 90 minutes. Was easier than the kit for the TJ I installed a year or so ago, but definitely need to do the install in daylight. Will probably install the rear pair in a month or two.

Jeff, your Jeep is really looking good. As far as the rear end leak as you mentioned, use the lube locker. I swear by those gaskets.

I put the lube locker in the back as couple weeks ago.  Think that fixed it, except I hope I did not over-torque 2 of the screws (wrench never "clicked" so I stopped I hope before stretching the screw too far).  I'll have to put in the front lubelocker sometime.

Lookin good there.