Introducing Spaceship, and a proper eulogy to my old JK

ZachJKUR

ZachJKUR

Member
While I've been a member of this forum since early 2016, I have never given my old Jeep, affectionately known as Chloe, the respect she deserved. She was a 2012 JKU Rubicon with a 2.5" skyjacker lift, Smittybilt steps, a Poison Spyder tire carrier cage, Crawler Conceptz skinny rear bumper, and a VKS fab front bumper.
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Unfortunately, about two months ago, Chloe bit the dust, but at least she did so in a miraculous way. I took good care of her, and she took good care of me after I fell asleep after spending all night moving out of my old apartment. I was able to climb out without so much as a scratch.
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While I understand that Smittybilt does not have the best reputation, I firmly believe that their step-slider saved me from considerable harm on the driver side as I slid sideways in to a steel beam directly on the drivers door. The slider was ripped off and completely folded in half, and found in the grass about 50 feet away from the rest of the Jeep. Thank God it was there.

With respects paid to Chloe, my first Jeep, I would like to introduce everyone to Spaceship - also known as CJ which is short for "Chloe Junior." She (yes its a she, just like CJ from Baywatch :blush:) is a 2017 JKU Rubicon Recon with a manual transmission. I traveled from Northeast Iowa to Denton, Texas for her.
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Beyond being a Rubicon Recon, she has a Mopar reinforced tailgate and HD tire carrier, and the Alpine Speakers and subwoofer.

While the wallet is thin for modifications right now, I'm very excited for what the future holds. So far I have gotten her off the pavement twice for some light wheeling. Its going to take some time for me to get the clutch down off road. (Side note: shifting in 4-low seems excessively stiff and sensitive?)
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Peep my friend's 09 Tacoma.

Plans right now are to install a cell phone mount because I cant find a good place to set my phone down while driving other than on top of the dash, and to install some sort of mount for a handheld CB radio. I also hope to replace the stock 130N head unit ASAP so that I can really hear the alpine speakers do their thing. I'll do my best to keep this thread updated! :beer:
 
ZachJKUR said:
While I've been a member of this forum since early 2016, I have never given my old Jeep, affectionately known as Chloe, the respect she deserved. She was a 2012 JKU Rubicon with a 2.5" skyjacker lift, Smittybilt steps, a Poison Spyder tire carrier cage, Crawler Conceptz skinny rear bumper, and a VKS fab front bumper.
View attachment 278604
Unfortunately, about two months ago, Chloe bit the dust, but at least she did so in a miraculous way. I took good care of her, and she took good care of me after I fell asleep after spending all night moving out of my old apartment. I was able to climb out without so much as a scratch.
View attachment 278608
View attachment 278609
While I understand that Smittybilt does not have the best reputation, I firmly believe that their step-slider saved me from considerable harm on the driver side as I slid sideways in to a steel beam directly on the drivers door. The slider was ripped off and completely folded in half, and found in the grass about 50 feet away from the rest of the Jeep. Thank God it was there.

With respects paid to Chloe, my first Jeep, I would like to introduce everyone to Spaceship - also known as CJ which is short for "Chloe Junior." She (yes its a she, just like CJ from Baywatch :blush:) is a 2017 JKU Rubicon Recon with a manual transmission. I traveled from Northeast Iowa to Denton, Texas for her.
View attachment 278611
Beyond being a Rubicon Recon, she has a Mopar reinforced tailgate and HD tire carrier, and the Alpine Speakers and subwoofer.

While the wallet is thin for modifications right now, I'm very excited for what the future holds. So far I have gotten her off the pavement twice for some light wheeling. Its going to take some time for me to get the clutch down off road. (Side note: shifting in 4-low seems excessively stiff and sensitive?)
View attachment 278617
View attachment 278613
Peep my friend's 09 Tacoma.

Plans right now are to install a cell phone mount because I cant find a good place to set my phone down while driving other than on top of the dash, and to install some sort of mount for a handheld CB radio. I also hope to replace the stock 130N head unit ASAP so that I can really hear the alpine speakers do their thing. I'll do my best to keep this thread updated! [emoji481]
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Wow you are lucky! Sorry to hear about your Jeep but glad you're okay! And while you're Jeep Chloe(good name, that's my daughter's name 😉) I'm sure will be missed..... You have a brand new Fresh Start With spaceship! Congratulations and condolences and glad you walked away okay! Remember Jeeps can be replaced with bigger better ones, arms and Limbs and people cannot. 👍

Sent from my XT1585 using WAYALIFE mobile app
 
You totally could have buffed that out..... :eek:mg: Glad you're ok.... Congrats on the new Jeep!
 
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Glad to see that you were able to walk away from that wreck. Congratulations on the Recon and all manual JKs shift a little harder in 4low.
 
Thanks everyone for your kind words! I'm looking forward to it.
MR.Ty said:
Glad to see that you were able to walk away from that wreck. Congratulations on the Recon and all manual JKs shift a little harder in 4low.
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Good information. I wonder why they're that way? Additional torque on the synchros from the wheels after being geared down by the t-case, perhaps?

Sent from my Pixel XL using WAYALIFE mobile app
 
Completely unnecessary but from time to time I find double clutching helps 4lo be more smooth.

It's gotta be all that extra torque in 4lo and the fact that it's different from daily driving

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using WAYALIFE mobile app
 
Glad your OK. As much as I hate hearing about wrecked Jeeps I love the flip side of the story and hearing about folks walking away with no major injuries. Our iron can be replaced with little effort, we however cannot.


Sent from my iPhone using WAYALIFE mobile app
 
new toys

Spaceship got a rugged ridge dash organizer, thanks to @Black Pearl. I'm really looking forward to getting some good camera footage using it as well as using the cell phone mount - particularly because I can't really think of a great place to set it down without it being in the way of the shifter.
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I also used a toggle bolt from the local hardware store and a $7 mag mount from Wally World to DIY a grab bar accessory mount. Right now it works well for my phone when I have a GPS in the dash organizer, but eventually, I want to use the grab bar mount for a CB radio. The socket I attached will also accept any other swivel ball accessory. Overall I'm pretty proud of how clean the DIY mount came out. It can always be undone without seeing any difference from stock.

So first, after removing the Oh Sh!t bar, I drilled a 3/8" hole to line up with the front fascia for the toggle bolt to go through. Fun fact: those "bolts" you see on the front of the grab bar, don't actually go anywhere. Because I was using the location of those "bolts," I had to make the hole so that there was someplace for the toggle bolt to go to.
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Next I ran the toggle bolt through the plastic trim and remounted the grab bar.
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Next, I clipped the plastic fascia back in, pushing the toggle bolt through the hole I drilled so that it would have a sturdy mounting point.
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Then I threaded on the tightening nut part of the socket, and that was that! This is the part I particularly think came out clean - since the phone mount arm can be easily removed leaving just this.
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And with the phone mount installed, but which doesn't always have to be on:
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I'm impressed with the Rugged Ridge Winch Mount for the Hardrock/10A front bumper

Was finally able to get my Zeon installed in my Hardrock/10A front bumper. I bought the Rugged Ridge Winch Mount from Qtec. The Maximus-3 mount that seems to be the most popular was out of stock everywhere it seemed, and I like the designs where the plate is mounted behind the frame horns rather than pulling on the bumper studs, which is why I steered away from the Mopar system. The Rugged Ridge kit was also very economical. While I was nervous about it being Rugged Ridge at first, I was very impressed with the plate when it came. This mount is seriously beefy - and once I got it all put together, I would venture to say it is stronger than the Maximus-3 kit because of the backing plate that eliminates any torque put on the bumper bolts, and it uses two main bolts on either side rather than just one. Now I am kicking myself for not taking install pictures, but the design was perfect and fits like a glove. Ill attach the Qtec image so you can see the mount and then i have a picture of the final product!
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And here is the mount itself...solid construction out of 1/4" steel (not 3/16" which I originally thought), good powder coat, and all holes lined up perfectly.
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