The rise of the Pooper (aka Mocha)

mstraw9379

mstraw9379

Member
I've owned my '15 Rubicon for almost two years now. My wife named her Mocha when we left the dealership because the color reminded her of a cup of coffee. When I got home all of my kids hated the color. They called her the Pooper. So now my Jeep has two names.

I've enjoyed driving my Jeep over the past two years, unfortunately most of that onroad. I have decided that it is time to upgrade. So the build begins, even though it will be a slow one.
What i need is some advice and guidance from experience here.

I have decided i want to go to 35" tires (eventually 37"). I would like to do things right the first time so I'm not going back and redoing things. So here are my thoughts.

I am going to get new shocks. I am thinking King shocks from EVO. I don't know if i need the 2.0 or the 2.5.

I am also looking at putting a lift on. Also looking at EVO for this. Is a 3" lift enough for 35" and eventually 37"? I was thinking the EVO 3" Enforcer kit.

For tires I'm pretty sure that the Cooper Discoverer STT are recommended by several here. So I think i am going to go with those. I am staying on stock wheels for now.

I don't have enough to do much more at this time. I know that the bigger tires will put more strain on components. Most of my driving is daily driving to and from work. I do try to get offroad when i can, but that hasn't happened in a while. So Please let me know what your recommendations are an what I am thinking and if they will suffice for what i am looking for.
 
Looks like fun! If you're looking to save a few bucks Hinrichs is selling a set of used 2.5 Kings in the for sale section. He bent a rear shaft :)thinking:) on a Rausch trip but the shaft is an easy fix.
 
mstraw9379 said:
I must proclaim my ignorance here. What is the benefit of 2.5 over 2.0? Is it worth the extra money?

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Well, the 2.5's are less likely to fade on those mad dashes to the beer store :thumb:

The extra capacity is better for high speed offroad stuff, as in they're less likely to overheat. Not sure if the shaft size is different between the 2.0 & 2.5, but Jim managed to bend a 2.5 so there's that. Also depends on how you're set up. A heavier Jeep and/or one on larger heavier tires will benefit from the larger oil capacity size as well.
 
A few items arrived at my house in NJ this week.
 

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Another thing that came in were the JL good latches. I went ahead and installed those today.
 

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A few other things that I've gotten in preparation for installing my new lift kit.
 

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Today is the day. I have all the parts and finally have the time.
I'm leaving PA and heading to the house in NJ. By 1000 Mocha should be on a lift at Naval Station Lakehurst.

Wish me luck.
 
I had an Aunt that had a small farm behind Lakehurst Naval Airstation many years ago...she remembered watching the Hindenburg light up from her back porch...

Interesting thread title...
 
I get to the house in NJ and take a last picture of Mocha before I start.
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I also took a picture of the parts and tools in my daughter's truck.
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Then it was off to the base. I get there and there is a temporarily closed sign on the Auto Hobby shop door. A couple panicked calls later and I find out they are just running behind.

We get her up on the lift.
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Unfortunately they had to close early. Instead of working until 1800 we only got until 1430. So I had to leave her there tonight. We got about halfway through the front. I'm sure that is pretty slow, but I really have no idea what I'm doing here.
 
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So here we are. Day two is over. Unfortunately I'm still not done. Just a few minor things left before getting her over to get tires.
Rear is complete (except torque track bar and bleed brakes.
Front is almost done. Need to reattach and torque track bar, bleed brakes, and and finish installing the draglink flip kit. I did learn a valuable lesson, the drag link is reverse threaded. I fought with that thing forest longer than I should have.
So here are some pics I took today.

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So any thoughts? Does it look like I'm doing this right?
Any feedback is welcome. Tomorrow is my last available day to do work. Then tires and alignment. After that is back to PA on Sunday.

I won't get to mounting the rock sliders this time around. That will probably wait until spring.
 
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Maybe a bit too late but after fighting with bits I got a reamer off amazon to drill out the knuckle for the draglink flip. Went thru like butter

Other than that looks great! Have you checked your wheels will be ok backspacing wise? Not sure what the enforcer kit needs but I needed spacers even with my aftermarket wheels for the EVO coilovers. Mounting new tires to stock or are new wheels also part of the project?


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CapnMericaMyCopilot said:
Maybe a bit too late but after fighting with bits I got a reamer off amazon to drill out the knuckle for the draglink flip. Went thru like butter

Other than that looks great! Have you checked your wheels will be ok backspacing wise? Not sure what the enforcer kit needs but I needed spacers even with my aftermarket wheels for the EVO coilovers. Mounting new tires to stock or are new wheels also part of the project?


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For drilling out the knuckle I used a unit that stepped to 7/8“. I ground off the last step of the bit which left me at the 13/16“ that was needed. It went through almost all of the way. I had to come up through the bottom to get the last 1/16th“ or so. It worked really well.

New wheels are not part of the project at this time. Will be using stock wheels and spacers.
 
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