ZMotorSports 2011 JKUR Build Thread

I am new here but thought I would throw up some pictures of my latest Jeep build. It is not real time as I have owned it now for almost two years.

I bought the Jeep with only 3208 miles on the odometer and commenced building my "Dream Jeep". This is my daily driver and weekend wheeler.

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On lift just before sitting it down with the 4" BDS Suspension Lift and 35" KM2 tires/ATX Crawl wheels.
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Backed outside the shop after just barely sitting her on the ground with new lift and tires/wheels.
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More to come as I dig through the pictures. Also pictured here is the Warn Rockcrawler bumper/Powerplant combination that I purchased used just to get me by until I could fabricated my own bumpers.

Mike.
 
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zmotorsports

Hardcore Gearhead
Vendor
Location
West Haven, UT
It only hurts for a few months when you buy one. Then you grow accustomed to them... It's an odd transition. You'll get through it ok

Oh trust me, there's no getting through it. I've owned a couple which is why I won't own another. This one will be gone from the shop the second I get the regear completed. :rofl:
 

zmotorsports

Hardcore Gearhead
Vendor
Location
West Haven, UT
A little post off-road cleaning ritual last night.

Started by pressure washing the exterior and undercarriage before getting home. Pulled the Jeep into the shop to finish the detailing by blowing out the interior, vacuuming the interior then blowing it out again and wrapping up the interior with a wipe down of everything. I also hit the dash vents with compressed air and seeing as how this was a rather dusty trip I pulled the cabin air filter to clean as well.

Then moved outside and blew out the engine bay then a wipe down with damp towel followed by some Zep Power House on the plastic trim in the engine bay.
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Lastly a wipe down of the exterior with Meguiar's Final Inspection to remove any water spots and foaming glass cleaner to clean the glass inside and out. Now she's clean and doesn't even look like she's ever left the pavement. :D
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Usually a post off-road trip detail takes me about 2 hours not including the 10-15 minutes at the car wash with high pressure getting the undercarriage and body clean. Time well spent to preserve the appearance. Plus, the Jeep "feels" more happy when it's clean. :cool:

Thanks for looking.

Mike
 

zmotorsports

Hardcore Gearhead
Vendor
Location
West Haven, UT
This isn't exactly Jeep related but I thought I'd post it in my Jeep Projects thread rather than the what did you work on thread.

My wife had a new flag made for my shop as a Christmas present this year. A guy she works with builds these out of wood and they are freakin' awesome. Most of the ones he builds are around the 2'x 4' size and smaller for people to hang in their offices and/or home garages but my wife told him it needed to be rather large because my shop walls are 16' tall. We picked it up on Saturday and it nearly filled the Duramax's bed and looked huge. She said I had to wait until Christmas but I couldn't wait to hang it and didn't want it getting damaged leaning against the wall in the shop, so I hung it last night.

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I think it looks awesome hanging over my welding/machining section of the shop. It looks a bit on the small side here though. :thinking:

Thanks for looking.

Mike
 

zmotorsports

Hardcore Gearhead
Vendor
Location
West Haven, UT
I washed and shined up the Jeep Friday night on the way home from work. The wife and I wanted to go for a drive on Saturday and my son and DIL wanted to go with us.

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Saturday we headed up Weber Canyon towards Morgan where we stopped for lunch.
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From Morgan, we headed up towards East Canyon.
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Saw a LOT of deer throughout the day. Most were a couple at a time but this herd was just outside Hoytsville in a field alongside the highway.
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Thanks for looking.

Mike
 

zmotorsports

Hardcore Gearhead
Vendor
Location
West Haven, UT
I arrived home yesterday to find a package on my doorstep. I had almost forgot I ordered a Rotopax system for the Jeep.


Now let me preface by saying I HATE the looks of fuel cans or Rotopax containers on Jeeps. The ones around here are mostly on mall crawlers and don't have any idea why people drive around with them hanging all over their Jeeps. Maybe it to make people think they take them off-road.

Anyways, usually we have had absolutely no issues with fuel concerns when off-roading, especially with the LS being even better on fuel than the anemic little V6. However, last year we had two occasions where I was getting nervous wondering when we'd hit pavement and a fuel station. In addition, there are a couple of trails here in Utah out across the west desert heading towards Nevada that my wife and I would like to explore this year. Last fall when the wife and I were in Moab we really wanted to do Lockhart Basin but it is a long trail that heads south out of Moab and when it finally hits pavement it is a long drive back on pavement to Moab. No one else in our group wanted to do it so I'm sure it will be a trail that we will run by ourselves and not knowing the exact distance and terrain I would feel a little better having some extra fuel. Then again in the San Rafael Swell in November there was a trail we were in Reds Canyon. Near the bottom of Reds Canyon there is a secondary road that takes off down through Muddy Creek. It is "usually" passable from what I understand but not always. The wife and I sat at the turn-off for several minutes discussing it with 3/8 of a tank of fuel remaining. I knew that if we stayed on the main road we had about 18 miles of dirt before we hit pavement and aired up and then another 30 miles back to camp in Green River. However, I did not know what Muddy Creek trail would be like and where exactly it would dump us back on to the pavement or even IF the trail would be passable through the ravine that day. I figured it would be as it was later in the year but they had also gotten some heavy rain the week before we were there so it was questionable. Ultimately we stayed on the Reds Canyon loop road and arrived back to camp with just under a quarter of a tank, but I really wanted to see where the Muddy Creek trail went as I understand there are some cool old abandoned mines along that route. My wife and I would really like to explore a couple of these areas more extensively.

That being said, I started thinking about it later last year and looking at what my options were and I was especially keen on something that was NOT permanent and easily installed and removed when not needed, which will be the majority of the time. I stumbled across a guy on the trails between Ouray and Silverton last year and was quite impressed with how simple of an idea it was and especially how easy it was to install and then remove when not needed. It is made by Rock Slide Engineering which is a Utah based company so I was happy to support them. I also had a discount coupon to a vendor that I used recently so for Christmas I ended up ordering a couple of 2-gallon Rotopax containers, two Rotopax mounting brackets and a Rock Slide Engineering spare tire carrier dual mount system. This will allow me to carry 4 extra gallons of fuel on those rare occasions I think I'll need it thus extending my range by about 40-55 miles depending on the type of trail. More than likely to the higher range because when we do these longer trails they are generally not as technical and I am netting at least 14 or so MPG when traveling at speed on scenic dirt roads. The technical trails I get closer to 9.5~ish or so.

I had received the two 2-gallon Rotopax containers and the mounting brackets within a couple days of ordering them in mid-December. However, I received an email stating that the mounting system was on backorder and it would be late February before it shipped. At the time I didn't think anything about it because we had no plans until March/April time frame but I had forgotten all about them until yesterday when I arrived home.

Needless to say, I had to test fit them.

I assembled the mounting brackets to the curved mounting plates. They appear to be well made and have a nice powder coated finish that compliments the rest of the Jeep's fenders and bumpers well. The instructions say to mount them on either side across from one another but I chose to mount them a bit higher on the tire and somewhat angled. My theory is that it will keep the weight more centered over the tire than further out over the widest part of the spare tire.
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The mounting system is pretty basic, just a 2" wide ratchet strap. It appears to be very stable but first trip with fuel in the containers and a rough road will be the test. The guy I talked with in Colorado last summer said his didn't bounce much at all or really give any indication they were mounted back there but I'm still a bit anxious. I also know my tire carrier is probably built a bit stouter than most aftermarket ones but still, between the 37" spare tire, Hi-Lift jack and now 4-gallons of fuel that is a lot of weight.
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They don't look the greatest but they don't look that bad either. More importantly they will work when they are needed, which thankfully won't be that often.

Thanks for looking.

Mike
 

Hickey

Burn-barrel enthusiast
Supporting Member
I struggle with the extra fuel question. I like that this is removable, but also worry about the movement.

The Swell is one of three places I wished for more fuel capacity. The others are The Rubicon and Hole in The Rock. HITR will happen again this Easter, so I need to figure something out soon.
 

zmotorsports

Hardcore Gearhead
Vendor
Location
West Haven, UT
Time will tell on the movement Jeremy. I shook the hell out of it and didn't seem to get much movement of the containers in relation to the spare tire but they are empty and I'm sure going down the trail will be completely different. I like the removable aspect of this though so I hope it works well.
 

moab_cj5

Well-Known Member
Supporting Member
I have that exact Rotopax mount. Maybe I should sell it as I haven't used it in many, many years. I have (4) 3 gallon Rotopax that I bought when i had a Jeep. I don't use the spare mount anymore as I put them on the roof now, but they are a useful, yet expensive, way to carry gas.
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frieed

Jeepless in Draper
Supporting Member
Location
Draper, UT
I really don't understand the RotoPax following.... $$$ for small amounts of storage.
Simple metal cans for $50 each for 5 gal. would a much better bargain.... but not many expo points :)
 

moab_cj5

Well-Known Member
Supporting Member
I really don't understand the RotoPax following.... $$$ for small amounts of storage.
Simple metal cans for $50 each for 5 gal. would a much better bargain.... but not many expo points :)
Not to derail the thread anymore, but rotopax solve a specific problem well. Yes they're expensive, but there isn't a metal can strapped to the tire solution as clean and tidy as the rotopax. To each their own, but they serve a specific purpose.
 

zmotorsports

Hardcore Gearhead
Vendor
Location
West Haven, UT
I really don't understand the RotoPax following.... $$$ for small amounts of storage.
Simple metal cans for $50 each for 5 gal. would a much better bargain.... but not many expo points :)

See below:

Not to derail the thread anymore, but rotopax solve a specific problem well. Yes they're expensive, but there isn't a metal can strapped to the tire solution as clean and tidy as the rotopax. To each their own, but they serve a specific purpose.


^^This. I'm not what you would call a Rotopax fan boy by any means. Nor am I a rolling Quadratec catalog. I was trying to solve a very specific fuel supply related problem, nothing more. There is really nothing on my Jeep that doesn't serve a purpose as I don't install crap for the hell of it and this definitely will not be on the Jeep any more than absolutely necessary.

And I despise the metal gas cans and the mounting configurations, even if they were free.
 

Hickey

Burn-barrel enthusiast
Supporting Member
See below:




^^This. I'm not what you would call a Rotopax fan boy by any means. Nor am I a rolling Quadratec catalog. I was trying to solve a very specific fuel supply related problem, nothing more. There is really nothing on my Jeep that doesn't serve a purpose as I don't install crap for the hell of it and this definitely will not be on the Jeep any more than absolutely necessary.

And I despise the metal gas cans and the mounting configurations, even if they were free.
So, you don't want to drill holes in your body to mount this magnificent specimen?

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🤮🤮🤮
 
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