JK-MAT
New member
Well, its been a few weeks since I said I would make this post. Apologize for the delay! In the past few weeks I've done plenty of mods to the jeep, and unfortunately I'm not very good at documenting step by step what I do. Might need to get me a photographer to pick up my slack. :rolleyes2: In any case, I'll try to explain everything I've done thus far, and my future goals for the jeep!
I personally HATE the look of street tires on a jeep. I think it goes against everything a jeep stands for, although they do ride pretty nice on the highway! Lucky for me, the parents 2013 Rubicon just got a wheel and tire upgrade a few weeks before purchasing my jeep, so there was a lightly used set of Rubi take offs sitting in the garage. I quickly snagged these up, and threw them on the jeep. Really liked how the silver/gray rubi wheels looked on the billet JK. These would stay on for 3-4 weeks until I got new wheels and tires in!
Next step was for me to protect the overly exposed naked sides of the jeep. I found myself paranoid everytime I pulled into a parking lot, thinking someone would pull in right beside me and give me a nice door ding on my brand new jeep! Rock sliders were the obvious choice, but hard a hard time figuring out exactly what I wanted. I liked the look of the angled rails, that follows the contour of the lower body of the jeep as opposed to one that came almost perpendicular from the sides. My choices came down to VKS, EVO, or Smittybilt. In most cases, I usually refuse to buy Smittybilt equipment, but in this case, they were the only choice of the 3 that didn't require me to weld to the frame. Thus I went with them. Yes, I know they aren't the best for actual "slider" protection. But quite frankly, I don't see myself taking the jeep out and dropping it on a large rock anytime soon. If I get to that point down the road, I'll replace them with an EVO slider. For now, I'm completely satisfied with the Smitty one.
Next mod was to get rid of the ugly hardtop(or turtle top as I like to call it). I've always loved the way the Trektop NX's looked on a 4 door JK, so I went ahead and purchased that. It even came with a nice Bestop underseat lock box. Not sure if I'll end up using it, but it was a nice little addition. After spending a full day rigging up a pulley system in the garage, clearing out space to store the top, and sweating my ass off, I was able to get the hardtop removed and the NX top installed. Needless to say, I love everything about the top. Its extremely tight, looks fantastic, and is a bit quieter inside the jeep in comparison to my parents Rubicon that has the stock mopar soft top! Very satisfied, and would buy another again in a heartbeat!
That same evening, I went online and made a few hefty purchases. Ended up ordering 5-35x12.5x17 Cooper STT's from Discount Tire Direct which gave me a killer deal(thanks again DTD!), 5 ATX Slots with 4.06bs, Rock Krawler 2.5 Flex kit, Fox 2.0 Shocks, Superchip Flashcal, Artec C-Gussets, Northridge grade 8 bolt kit, new TPMS sensors, other small required parts, and of course, a wayalife windshield sticker! The wayalife sticker was the first thing in, and I was overly excited to stick it on!
A few days later, I came home on a rainy day to see a stack on tires sitting in front of my door. Love the look of the tires, and couldn't wait for the wheels to come in so I could get them mounted up!
Next day, the wheels, TPMS sensors, Fox Shocks, and Flashcal were in!
I came right home from work, threw the wheels and tires in the back of the pickup, and took them down to a place locally to get them Road Forced! Not sure of the exact rating they Road Forced at, but they said it was impressively low for a Mud Terrain. I picked up a set of hub rings before I left, and brought the newly mounted tires home. Needless to say, anticipation got the best of me and it wasn't long before I had the jeep jacked up and had the new wheels and tires mounted. After mounting them, I noticed how close the front tires were front hitting the front bumper. Some quick sawzall action, followed by some spray paint to clean up the exposed metal, and she was looking sharp!
Loved how the jeep looked, but really wasn't too fond of the front end rake of the jeep. My rock krawler kit was still backordered at the time (in fact, I still have yet to receive it and ordered it 3-4 weeks ago) and with a 5 hour trip to PA planned, I wasn't comfortable driving that distance with front tires being within inches of the fenders. I made a quick call to quadratec and got a Teraflex leveling kit ordered! This kit will eventually go on my parents Rubicon, but until I get the Rock Krawler kit, I'll be borrowing it
2 days later, the leveling kit was sitting on the front porch, and was installed later that afternoon along with the Artec C-Gussets. I ended up ONLY installing the 1 inch spacer upfront, just to level it out with the rear. To my surprise, it seemed as if that extra inch tightened up the steering quite a bit. It was never really "loose", but I did get a EXTREMELY slight left to right jar of the wheel when hitting sudden dips in the road before adding the spacer. This seemed to be completely eliminated with the extra inch. Not quite sure why or how it happened, but I like the feel!
As of just this past weekend, I completed the 5 hour trip to and from PA. For anyone interested in just how well it drives out on the open road, it is honestly one of the smoothest vehicles I've EVER been in. 60, 70, 80, 90 mph, there are absolutely NO vibrations what so ever. The tires and very quiet with very little hum. I can easily roll up the windows, and listen to music at low volume with no problem. Crosswinds didn't blow the jeep all over the road at all. The stock sport shocks surprisingly feel decently comfortable with the large 35s. Could be a bit stiffer, but that's expected with all the extra weight. And the best part? I averaged 21.5 mpg both there and back. Could not be happier with how it performed. Highly recommend the setup to anyone who is looking for a extremely well behaved jeep on 35s! A quick poser pic once we got to PA
If the Rock Krawler kit decides to come in sometime this year(sarcasm), I'll update this thread accordingly! If anybody has any questions on the jeep, I'd be more than happy to answer them. Thanks for viewing
I personally HATE the look of street tires on a jeep. I think it goes against everything a jeep stands for, although they do ride pretty nice on the highway! Lucky for me, the parents 2013 Rubicon just got a wheel and tire upgrade a few weeks before purchasing my jeep, so there was a lightly used set of Rubi take offs sitting in the garage. I quickly snagged these up, and threw them on the jeep. Really liked how the silver/gray rubi wheels looked on the billet JK. These would stay on for 3-4 weeks until I got new wheels and tires in!
Next step was for me to protect the overly exposed naked sides of the jeep. I found myself paranoid everytime I pulled into a parking lot, thinking someone would pull in right beside me and give me a nice door ding on my brand new jeep! Rock sliders were the obvious choice, but hard a hard time figuring out exactly what I wanted. I liked the look of the angled rails, that follows the contour of the lower body of the jeep as opposed to one that came almost perpendicular from the sides. My choices came down to VKS, EVO, or Smittybilt. In most cases, I usually refuse to buy Smittybilt equipment, but in this case, they were the only choice of the 3 that didn't require me to weld to the frame. Thus I went with them. Yes, I know they aren't the best for actual "slider" protection. But quite frankly, I don't see myself taking the jeep out and dropping it on a large rock anytime soon. If I get to that point down the road, I'll replace them with an EVO slider. For now, I'm completely satisfied with the Smitty one.
Next mod was to get rid of the ugly hardtop(or turtle top as I like to call it). I've always loved the way the Trektop NX's looked on a 4 door JK, so I went ahead and purchased that. It even came with a nice Bestop underseat lock box. Not sure if I'll end up using it, but it was a nice little addition. After spending a full day rigging up a pulley system in the garage, clearing out space to store the top, and sweating my ass off, I was able to get the hardtop removed and the NX top installed. Needless to say, I love everything about the top. Its extremely tight, looks fantastic, and is a bit quieter inside the jeep in comparison to my parents Rubicon that has the stock mopar soft top! Very satisfied, and would buy another again in a heartbeat!
That same evening, I went online and made a few hefty purchases. Ended up ordering 5-35x12.5x17 Cooper STT's from Discount Tire Direct which gave me a killer deal(thanks again DTD!), 5 ATX Slots with 4.06bs, Rock Krawler 2.5 Flex kit, Fox 2.0 Shocks, Superchip Flashcal, Artec C-Gussets, Northridge grade 8 bolt kit, new TPMS sensors, other small required parts, and of course, a wayalife windshield sticker! The wayalife sticker was the first thing in, and I was overly excited to stick it on!
A few days later, I came home on a rainy day to see a stack on tires sitting in front of my door. Love the look of the tires, and couldn't wait for the wheels to come in so I could get them mounted up!
Next day, the wheels, TPMS sensors, Fox Shocks, and Flashcal were in!
I came right home from work, threw the wheels and tires in the back of the pickup, and took them down to a place locally to get them Road Forced! Not sure of the exact rating they Road Forced at, but they said it was impressively low for a Mud Terrain. I picked up a set of hub rings before I left, and brought the newly mounted tires home. Needless to say, anticipation got the best of me and it wasn't long before I had the jeep jacked up and had the new wheels and tires mounted. After mounting them, I noticed how close the front tires were front hitting the front bumper. Some quick sawzall action, followed by some spray paint to clean up the exposed metal, and she was looking sharp!
Loved how the jeep looked, but really wasn't too fond of the front end rake of the jeep. My rock krawler kit was still backordered at the time (in fact, I still have yet to receive it and ordered it 3-4 weeks ago) and with a 5 hour trip to PA planned, I wasn't comfortable driving that distance with front tires being within inches of the fenders. I made a quick call to quadratec and got a Teraflex leveling kit ordered! This kit will eventually go on my parents Rubicon, but until I get the Rock Krawler kit, I'll be borrowing it
2 days later, the leveling kit was sitting on the front porch, and was installed later that afternoon along with the Artec C-Gussets. I ended up ONLY installing the 1 inch spacer upfront, just to level it out with the rear. To my surprise, it seemed as if that extra inch tightened up the steering quite a bit. It was never really "loose", but I did get a EXTREMELY slight left to right jar of the wheel when hitting sudden dips in the road before adding the spacer. This seemed to be completely eliminated with the extra inch. Not quite sure why or how it happened, but I like the feel!As of just this past weekend, I completed the 5 hour trip to and from PA. For anyone interested in just how well it drives out on the open road, it is honestly one of the smoothest vehicles I've EVER been in. 60, 70, 80, 90 mph, there are absolutely NO vibrations what so ever. The tires and very quiet with very little hum. I can easily roll up the windows, and listen to music at low volume with no problem. Crosswinds didn't blow the jeep all over the road at all. The stock sport shocks surprisingly feel decently comfortable with the large 35s. Could be a bit stiffer, but that's expected with all the extra weight. And the best part? I averaged 21.5 mpg both there and back. Could not be happier with how it performed. Highly recommend the setup to anyone who is looking for a extremely well behaved jeep on 35s! A quick poser pic once we got to PA
If the Rock Krawler kit decides to come in sometime this year(sarcasm), I'll update this thread accordingly! If anybody has any questions on the jeep, I'd be more than happy to answer them. Thanks for viewing
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