2016 Hard Rock Rubicon Build

feederic

feederic

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2016 Hard Rock Rubicon Build - The Bluebicon

Hey everyone, I've been an owner of a 2016 JKU Hard Rock Rubicon for almost a year now. It's long been a dream of mine to build up a vehicle, and after owning sports cars I realized most of the upgrades only serve to get me in trouble :eek:

I bought the jeep after stumbling across trail recon on YouTube, who happens to be local and part of the SD Jeep Club. My intention with this vehicle is more of a fun project build, which I can take out on the trail with peace of mind.

Oh yeah, I jokingly call it the Bluebicon - just to make my friends chuckle.

Mods Completed:
Evo Enforcer Pro Coilover Setup
Led Hedlight/Fog light bulb swap
35s - Nitto Ridge Grapplers
Spare Tire Carrier
Adams Front Drive Shaft
Front seat recline mod (highly recommend!)
Evo Protek skids
Poison Spyder Diff Covers
RSE Power Steps

Mods In-Progress:
Breather extensions
Another round of LED head/fog lights


Mods to come:
Sprintex stage 2
KC HiLites
Winch
Head-unit with front/rear cam
Evo Long arms
Brake Upgrade (TBD on make - possibly progrips or rebel restraint)
Evo Vented Fender Liners
Owl Cam

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Samuelh3 said:
Looking great! Just ordered my EVO Suspension as well. I heard it's a night and day difference.


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Did you get the coilovers? Night and day is right, I can easily cruise on bumpy freeways doing 80+. The handling is vastly improved as well as comfort. Worth every penny IMHO!
 
Samuelh3 said:
Yup!! Should be coming in next week. Can't wait!!!! Doing the install myself so it may be a few days before I get it all installed.


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That's awesome! Congrats! The setup has been phenominal for me. I did think it was harsh just after the install, but after a re-torque and alignment its everything I wanted.
 
Please keep the updates coming. I am saving my penny's to do a lot of the same things to the wife's 17 Rubi Recon. But I am thinking of going full tilt and doing prorock 60's because I know in about 3 years she will want a new vehicle of some sort and then it will become mine


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Rock Slide Engineering Installed

Today I picked my Jeep up from a local shop that installed some Rock Slide Engineering steps (Truck Shop SD - they did a great job, as usual). These are their updated steps that advertise quick deployment, more reinforcement, and heavier loads. Thus far, they feel incredibly solid and do deploy quickly. Sitting in the car and opening the door in a normal fashion the steps will be fully extended by the time the door is only half way open. Friends and family should now be able to hop in effortlessly.

I may pick up the skids for these later, but mainly I plan to not use them as rock rails since this is my only vehicle.

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Late last week I adjusted my coilovers after not being too happy with ride quality - basically, everything felt like a really small pot hole meaning small road defects where amplified where anything worse than that were muted.

Changed done:
Dropped the preload on the front 1"
Readjusted timing rings to 2" above the slider
Dropped nitrogen PSI down to 125

Right now the ride is amazing. Handling is still great, though it has softened up a little which is to be expected. I was on a dirt road over the weekend and it felt like I was on pavement. The freeway ride is now super plush, and I coast over most small road defects without notice. Before the adjustments the "BOP BOP BOP" noise from every little line in a road was driving me insane - so cabin noise has been reduced quite a bit and now I can feel the jeep coast over road imperfections.
 
This weekend I'll be getting ready for some small upgrades/mods.

First up is using Eddie's writeup to extend the axle breather tubes. I ordered 25 ft of fuel line from amazon, which should be more than enough for the axles, transfer case, and autotrans.

Also - I installed LED bulbs in my main headlights but haven't been too happy with the beam they throw. I got some halo led units with DRL, as well as new foglights and turn signals. The small parts/items I need to do the breathers and lights should arrive tomorrow which is just in time for the weekend.

One thing I learned while researching how to install the DRL units was the indexing screws to alter vertical and horizontal throw of the headlights themselves. That's a good thing, because I've gotten quite a few fingers raised my way from the cars in front of me due to my headlights pointing at the trees.
 
Just picked up two new items, an Autovox X1 rearview mirror camera, and some Dynatrac progrips.

I got into a pretty bad wreck last year and decided I need a dashcam to help protect myself. This dashcam has a forward and rear cam with loop recording in HD, and also displays the rear cam full time in a streaming mode. I also live in a busy urban environment and this cam provides nice assurance that when I start backing up nobody is around me. WIth a 35" tire in the rear, there is not a ton of visibility out the back to check for crosswalks/street parking/stupid bird/lime scooters that zip in and out everywhere.

Here is one of the reviews I watched prior to buying:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6jXtCtzBgM

I've never been too happy with my factory brakes after going 35s. Emergency stops are pretty scary and if family drives the vehicle they struggle with the amount of distance they need to keep between them and the car in front. Progrips seem like the obvious solution, and I'll be installing them shortly and having my tires rebalanced afterwards.
 
Sweet rig!
I am saving up for a double din unit so I can add a rear camera. Post up your results, I'll be in the market soon!
 
Thank you!

Tomorrow I should be picking my jeep up from the shop. New long arms and brakes - I wish I did some testing on the factory brakes to have some numbers to compare with afterwards.
 
Here are some pics of the camera/LCD review mirror. IMO these are a must for people with 35" and up tires, and are honestly good piece of mind for the recording and visibility.

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Synergy Long arms / Pro Grips / Accu-tune Valving

Here are the latest updates.

Synergy long arms have been installed, with approximately 400 miles on them. I was a little bouncy at first and it turns out my front swaybar was missing a bolt to the end - so I was disconnected. After a retorque of the suspension and fixing the swaybar the rig rode quite a bit smoother.

The new brakes are IMO a must, whether you use ProGrips like I did, or some other kit, running 35s and armor with factory brakes is not a desirable setup by any means. Braking requires little foot effort, is predictable, and stops effortlessly.

Now, I found out my rear coilovers were set to only 1" of uptravel which explains why my ride in the rear was extremely harsh - partly due to preload and partly due to extremely low nitrogen pressures. I took my rig to Accu-Tune Offroad which is about 2 hours away from me for a street / medium whoop tune if you could call it that. I told them everything that was wrong with my ride (which I did not know about the low uptravel at the time) and they took care of the rest. I picked the rig up the same day and let me say, WOW!, I am a firm believer in having your suspension tuned to the weight of your vehicle and driving habits. I float on highways, absorb the potholes with ease, and can high speed washed out / washboard roads.

There are only a couple things left on my build, a sprintex stage 2 and a winch, which most likely I will get to next year.

I have some pictures, but for whatever reason they keep uploading upside down. Even when I save them upside down.
 

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I have about 30k miles on them. So far, the tires are very quiet with great traction everywhere I go in various climates.

My only reserve is wondering if I should have bought some C or D rated 35s instead. But, since the coilovers were tuned the ride is much nicer.
 
Last week I picked up my jeep after having a Sprintex kit installed.

For those that don't know, and this seems common, is that there are multiple modalities used for superchargers create boost. The two most popular with the jeep crowd seem to be the prodigy turbocharger, and the ripp supercharger. Both are centrifugal style power adders that require mid-level RPM to actually make boost. HP gains can be huge, but up in the mid-range and high range RPM - and therefore unsuitable for those looking for a boost in power when crawling or moving around at the lower RPMs.

Then, there is sprintex and magnuson which are positive displacement superchargers. Positive displacement superchargers use two screw like rotors which compress air together, each turn produces compressed air. This is the best style to use for jeeps which require low RPM torque and horsepower - torque and boost is instant.

My latest dyno produced over 320RWHP and 350 ft-lbs, with some more tuning in the works. For daily driving, on 35s with 3.73s, I've normally had to shift out of 5th gear (auto) down into 4th and sometimes 3rd when climbing everyday hills in SoCal freeways. I typically need to be in about 2500 RPM to not lose speed, and 3000-3200 to barely accelerate. With the addition of the sprintex, on the steepest freeway climbs I can now accelerate at 1800-2000 RPM uphill on as little as 2-3lbs of boost - on 35s running 3.73 gears.

There are many that say superchargers do not make power at low RPM, and they are flat out wrong. Positive displacement blowers absolutely do, and there is no argument that can be made to say otherwise. No, will it be as much as a hemi or LS swap which cost $20-25k? No, not quite but there will still be tremendous gain in the low RPMs. I'm looking at around 360 RWHP (on 35s!) at my final tuning session, which puts me well over 500 crank HP.

I chose the sprintex over the magnuson because they offer incredible rebates several times a year, my kit cost less than $5k, not bad for the RWHP and torque gains I got.

Here is a good explanation of supercharger types:
Donut Media Supercharger ExplanationIMG_1299.jpg
 
Very nice!

I started with a 2016 Hard Rock as well!

Not much of that left outside of the hood... But it is a nice hood!
 
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