Mbryson's 2012 JKU "build"

[mbryson]

That's one big assed tennis ball!


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How's your tomorrow afternoon look? You work tomorrow?

 

[BCGPER]

I'll be in the garage all day.


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[gijohn40]

Hey Marc things are looking great... I have had great service from LHM Bountiful as well Dave was a great guy to work with... just recently sent my LJ in for a vibration... he ended up replacing everything he could find wrong seeing my warranty is almost up... $1500 of work that cost me $212... just don't go there to buy a new one... their sales force sucks rocks!

 

[mbryson]

Wanting to get this thing ready for the trail running 37" tires (I have some Toyos--measure out at 36" at about 75% tread). After talking myself out of taking it down to Moab for 2014 Presidents day with 37" tires, I put the 35" Toyos tires and ran a few trails in Moab. That proved to be a good thing to do.
Observations from trails from Pres_Day 2014:
a) I NEED more tire with the wheelbase of this thing. Breakover angle sucks. Probably not really able to fix that fully, but a bigger tire will help for a minute.
b) 37" tires would have rubbed EVERYWHERE with my current setup'
c) driving your trail rig down and driving it home has good and bad points (similar trade offs to trailering....) but for what I intend to use this rig for, a trailer is not in it's immediate future (5ish years or more?---maybe it gets heavy axles and a real V8 if this motor proves crappy)
d) watching someone (even my own kid, cbryson) drive my trail Jeep is pretty odd. Fun to watch it work and watch your kid enjoy your rig, but weird in that I'd almost rather be in the old pig than in my luxo-soccer-mom mobile. It was fun watching the suspension and such all day. The thing just flat works. Why, I don't know, but it does. At worst it gives me real appreciation for that Jeep.


So, I'm running 37" tires now.... Not really what I wanted to do but it is what it is. I'll have to drive VERY conservatively with my cute little axles (not an issue, I'm still making payments and I'm not out to prove anything). To get some clearance, I'm considering some MCE flares and wheelwell clearancing and/or a 1" body lift. The body lift seems to be an almost perfect solution (other than it's a body lift) for the clearance issues I noticed on the trail. My AEV 35" Toyo combo rubbed the crap out of my Tera disconnects (they're not quick, so I don't call them that ) and the swaybar itself. Pretty much everything else was fine. The 37" tires are mounted on Mickey Thomson Classic IIs that have less offset than the AEV wheels pictured below. I think that'll get the 37" off the swaybar?
Notice discos in picture below.

How dumb is my 1" body lift idea? I've never really had issue with a 1" body lift, but higher than that, I don't care for them. Anyone have any input?

 

[Bart]

It sure looks good with the 37s.

 

[mesha]

Why a body lift and not a spacer or a taller set of coils?

 

[jeepin4x4james]

Not sure on jk's... But a v8 swap on tj's typically requires a 1" bodylift... No harm in doing it now and being ready for your LS swap in a couple years!

 

[Bart]

I'm a fan of 1" body lifts, especially on TJs. If it helps the JK, why not. No bigger than 1" for sure.

 

[mbryson]

Well, no body lift. No 37" Toyos either. After much consideration, some spreadsheeting and thinking about the actual purpose of this rig, I decided to go back to my original plan of running an actual 35" tire. They don't exist, so the 34.75" Goodyear Kevlar found it's way onto my Jeep. Seems like a good match so far. The Toyos were 36" tall at about 60% tread. The Kevlars are 34.75" new, and the Toyo 35" tires were 33.5". With the weight reduction from the E-rated to C-rated Kevlars and the height, I hope I've found a good match for my cute little axles? I haven't totally fixed the belly height issue I experienced with the 35" Toyos on the trail, but have improved it a little and I'll just have to learn to drive around the belly height of this rig. It's not really a "rock-crawler" for stuff like Coyote Canyon but can do most trails without issue short of that.

Same Tera lift as original, I've increased the backspacing vs. the AEV wheels that were on there before and I think it'll wheel OK. The weight of the Toyos you could feel when accelerating (I'm sure that's due to the massive 3.6L displacement) but matched well on the highway.

KSL.com/classifieds Teraflex rear bumper/tire carrier. EASY to put on. Had to lose the stock bumper and rear tow hook (I might be able to still use that?) so I left the hitch in the stock location so it can get dragged over stuff but I could put a shackle in there if needed. I moved the stock third brakelight harness out to the tire carrier but I'm not sure I'd do that again. Fabbing up a bracket in place of the stock tire carrier would have been mucho easier and WAY faster, IMHO. CB antenna mount is a piece of angle welded to the Teraflex carrier (CB antenna should be grounded through the light, at least that's the theory).

New third brake light. Not sure how legal it is but it's there.
I'll likely need to fab up some kind of mudflap to be totally legal.


Projects that are left:
-Find Brett Matthews and get him to do a full detail so my wheels are shiny
-Mickey Thompson Classic II center caps
-add to the "rock rails" with some tube
-Build a hoop over the winch on the front bumper
-raging debate in my head of a softtop vs. a hard top. I'm not a fan of the three piece hardtop. It squeaks and leaks like I thought it would. From what I hear, it's not much quieter if any than a factory soft top. I've been saving up for a while for a soft top but dropped the cash on the Tera rear bumper when it came up. I'll try a soft top and see how I like it. The only thing I like about the hardtop is the perceived security vs. the soft top.
-Get out and explore with it as intended. I'll need to try to get out with all the cool kids every now and then and camp out of the thing. See what I think about it then.

 

[gertsch]

Saw it outside when riding by on the bike. I should have stopped by. Looks great!

 

[Bart]

Sounds like a great plan and follow through. I like it.

 

[BCGPER]

-raging debate in my head of a softtop vs. a hard top. I'm not a fan of the three piece hardtop. It squeaks and leaks like I thought it would. From what I hear, it's not much quieter if any than a factory soft top. I've been saving up for a while for a soft top but dropped the cash on the Tera rear bumper when it came up. I'll try a soft top and see how I like it. The only thing I like about the hardtop is the perceived security vs. the soft top.

Marc, maybe I'm just lucky but I haven't had any of the top issues that you're experiencing. Maybe try a little silicone spray on the seals would quiet things down? I can't help you on the leaks, since I've not had any.

The hardtops are kind of a POS because of their lack of insulation. If you add a head liner kit ( http://hotheadheadliners.com/ ) I think you'd be pleased with the outcome (I did the roof and the sides).

 

[skippy]

Marc, maybe I'm just lucky but I haven't had any of the top issues that you're experiencing. Maybe try a little silicone spray on the seals would quiet things down? I can't help you on the leaks, since I've not had any.

The hardtops are kind of a POS because of their lack of insulation. If you add a head liner kit ( http://hotheadheadliners.com/ ) I think you'd be pleased with the outcome (I did the roof and the sides).

I added insulation to my top as well and I have never had any kind of leakage, The wind noise is about the same as the factory soft top as well

 

[mbryson]

We got to add a clock spring repair just as we're ending the bumper-bumper warranty. Thanks again to LHM Bountiful Jeep for taking care of me and my fine Chrysler automobile. (can't knock LHM Bountiful service but I'm really starting to wonder about the car). My wife told me to sell it this morning...

 

[moab_cj5]

Your experience is why I opted for the older JK with an anemic 3.8l of gutlessness. I'm sorry for all of your troubles. If ANY other manufacturer made a 5 seat convertable rig (either than Land Rover), I would have bought it.
Good Luck once you decide what to do with it.

 

[Greg]

My wife told me to sell it this morning...

How much does she want?

:greg:

 

[mbryson]

How much does she want?

:greg:

Your truck and $25k

 

[mbryson]

One other thing I learnt about the traction control the other day. I've not been a fan of it offroad most of the time. If you are cruising a dirt road and want to "drift" around a corner, the traction control will kick in (unless you're in 4 low) and try to kill you. NO DRIFTING ALLOWED. No problem, I've got a button that I can turn it off.... Well, it doesn't turn off fully from just hitting the button. However, if you hold the button down for 7 seconds it's supposed to turn off all the way? Next time I'm on a dirt road where I'd like to drift, I'll see if that works?

Here's for hoping. I started searching for a way to get it removed after having it activate on a 75 mph windy trip home from Wendover a few weeks ago. With the insurance companies MANDATING traction control (our dollars at work) on vehicles what can a mfg. do? My traction control light came on and killed my cruise control about 20 miles out of Wendover. The wind wasn't horrible, but you did have to steer into it a bit. This apparently upsets the traction control system after about 10 min and causes the computer to kick that off. I was not thrilled

 

[benjy]

Good to know about the traction control. I also find that quite annoying.

Your experience is why I opted for the older JK with an anemic 3.8l of gutlessness. I'm sorry for all of your troubles. If ANY other manufacturer made a 5 seat convertable rig (either than Land Rover), I would have bought it.
Good Luck once you decide what to do with it.

My 3.8 gutlessness seems to have some increasing loud top end noise. Perhaps some LSishness is in the future? I hate giving up OEM reliability on the family car however

 

[wheelewagon]

One other thing I learnt about the traction control the other day. I've not been a fan of it offroad most of the time. If you are cruising a dirt road and want to "drift" around a corner, the traction control will kick in (unless you're in 4 low) and try to kill you. NO DRIFTING ALLOWED. No problem, I've got a button that I can turn it off.... Well, it doesn't turn off fully from just hitting the button. However, if you hold the button down for 7 seconds it's supposed to turn off all the way? Next time I'm on a dirt road where I'd like to drift, I'll see if that works?

Here's for hoping. I started searching for a way to get it removed after having it activate on a 75 mph windy trip home from Wendover a few weeks ago. With the insurance companies MANDATING traction control (our dollars at work) on vehicles what can a mfg. do? My traction control light came on and killed my cruise control about 20 miles out of Wendover. The wind wasn't horrible, but you did have to steer into it a bit. This apparently upsets the traction control system after about 10 min and causes the computer to kick that off. I was not thrilled

Ya I F=ing hate it on mine as well. It has definitely done more bad then good for me. And it really bugs me when you turn it off that it doesn't actually turn it off. I'll have to try the 7 second thing as well.