WK2 Alice Build

[Jackal01]

Here is my 2012 Laredo 4x4 with offroad package (QT2, skids). I am copying a lot of this thead from my much longer build thread on the "other forum". I didn't see the point in retyping knowing that there are far fewer WK2 owners here.

This was a couple days after when I was able to wash it since it was storming since the day of pickup. And I was not going to let the dealer "detail" it.

As for the name. I am a big fan of Resident Evil and also using the tradition of naming ships with a female name I have named all my vehicles a female name. This is Alice.


Here is the following day from the post above. I got Nitto Terra Grapplers tires 265/70/17 and MB TKO 17s 0 offset wheels from Discount Tire. I then sold my stock wheels and tires the following day to a local guy. I also removed the two front lower fascia pieces. What do they actually do?

Pre-lift.

I removed the side chrome pieces and "Laredo" from the tail gate. I will see if I like just "4x4" there. Most likely I will remove it or possible paint it. I used a Wagner heat gun, a flat head with tape on the end and elbow grease to pry the chrome off. I tried to save them but there was no getting around bending them. I then heated the adhesive and rolled it off with my thumbs mostly. Finally I used Goo Gone to remove the residue. I did the same with the "Laredo" pieces. Later on I was paranoid about left over Goo Gone so I used some window cleaner and I felt better. :laugh:

I ordered some decals from PixelDecals.com: "Grand Cherokee" in matte black and factory size to go in place of the chrome door pieces and a pair of American flags (in both directions) in matte black to go on the front fenders behind the wheel well. They should be in this week. I am still on the hunt for an appropriate zombie decal. Not sure what I want but I haven't found it yet. I will also Plasti Dip the grille and tail gate chrome when I do the decals. I tested the the Plasti Dip on one of the chrome pieces and so far I am pleased with the results after 4 coats.

Here are the pixeldecals.com American Flag and Grand Cherokee decals. Both are matte black and on each side.

 

[wayoflife]

Wow!! She sure looks pretty :thumb:

 

[Jackal01]

Got back yesterday,6/2/12 from our Colorado trip. I have been to Silverton before but not Animas Forks. Thanks to WOL youtube videos we were able to go to some of the areas yall went to and maybe some areas yall didnt! Who knows. Spent a couple days in Durango then took the train to Needleton and backpacked a couple days in the Chicago Basin. Spent the last few days in Silverton. Went to Animas Forks for a bit and then took Engineer Pass for a couple miles. Had to turn around at Mineral Point because I couldn't decide where to go after that and we had other things to do in Silverton and Howardsville. Alice handled well on the Jeep trail. I used the Rock setting about half the time and 4x4-lo-auto the other half. I wasnt too impressed with the Hill Descent function. In general I prefer to have more control rather than the computer doing it. A lot of Texas Jeeps were in Silverton.

Another WK2 following us through Howardsville and Eureka.

In Eureka

Animas Forks

Animas Forks

Engineer Pass

Engineer Pass

Engineer Pass.

Old Hundred Mine in Howardsville. This picture is supposed to show the Mine's Dormatory almost at the top of the mountain. Quite Impressive to say the least. A tram was taken to get there and back. It is a 2 1/2 story building.

Silverton

Durango

The day we arrived in Durango there was a bad wind storm until late that night. The mountains couldnt even be seen from town. So the Jeep was just covered in dirt and sand from the first day on. I was happy with the way the WK2 handled the trail. I know it wasn't like Black Bear Pass or something like that but it was still somewhat of a challenge with a 4x4 system I was not familiar with. I was used to my 4x4 Ranger back in my earlier years of driving which was just 4x4 hi and 4x4 lo. No terrain management systems. I kinda miss the simpler times. Few more

Fed Ex screwed up again in not delivering the 77 Series CAI to the correct location but I got it anyway. Took about an hour. Had the battery disconnected. For the record, I did not buy this to increase MPG. I bought it for quicker acceleration and adding a nice growl to the engine which it did. I was quite impressed. Now the exhaust needs to come in from back order and hopefully Alice will run a little better. Bought it for $215 with free shipping. Hard to beat since most places had it for just under $300 with shipping. I will try and get a good video of it. Most CAI/ exhaust vids are cheesy and don't accurately record the sound. I will see what I can do. The hood seems to hit the weather stripping so hopefully not too much hot air will get in. I am already considering (researching) adding sheet metal to the existing shroud to help with that.

Welp, the exhaust is finally on. My first time so ran into a couple bumps but worked out in the end. I borrowed my dads sawzaw and it died mid cut so I went out and bought a cheap one from Harbor Freight. I wish I would have used a cut off wheel because the cut on the factory side is at a slight angle since I could not get the saw completely perpendicular to the pipe. Oh well. The rubber hangers were a PITA to get off but after some lube, prying and extensive use of vulgarity they came off. I wasn't able to get the tail pipe center all the way but I think that is about as good as it is going to get which is fine for now until I can figure out what is going on. I noticed a difference in the sound for sure but mostly as idle and in first gear. After than the CAI kicks in and it is difficult to hear the exhaust. Not many pictures during the process because I was just too focused and I was rushing against sun light. I had work this morning and if I didn't get exhaust on I wasn't going to drive it so time was of the essence. I also received free shipping from Quadratec for being a forum member! Thanks, QT!! I hope to have it welded someday.

I did 2 coats of Dupli-Color Self-Etching Primer then 4 light coats of Rust Oleum Flat black engine (high temp) spray paint. Then today, about 24 hours later, I did 2 more light coats of the paint. In person it looks absolutely like it was factory painted. I still need to paint the separator inside...sticks out like a sore thumb!

 

[MTG]

Looks great! :thumb:

Just curious, what is the towing capacity of those if you know off hand? Otherwise I can look it up.

 

[Jackal01]

Looks great! :thumb:

Just curious, what is the towing capacity of those if you know off hand? Otherwise I can look it up.

Thanks!

5,000 pounds I believe, for the V6. I have a hitch but I don't tow...it just keeps people from tailgating. I want a D shackle for it but with a new bumper coming soon...I will just hold off on mods for the rear end.

 

[jmpsweeps]

Your build looks really good! Ive been having a hard time trying to decide if I want to give up my JK for a little more comfort and going with a Grand Cherokee myself. Ah decisions decisions..

 

[Jackal01]

Your build looks really good! Ive been having a hard time trying to decide if I want to give up my JK for a little more comfort and going with a Grand Cherokee myself. Ah decisions decisions..

I can deal with less comfort...backpacking and camping in BSA for 12 years. So I can deal with the lack of comfort with a Wrangler. But the Laredo is the base model and I love the cloth interior. I didn't want anything luxurious although the saddle leather is fantasic. A buddy has an Overland Hemi and man...is that thing sweet to drive! So far the WK2 has done well offroad. I look forward to getting with a group of people that wont poke fun at the WK2 not being a Jeep (like a group I went with locally last year). I am not a fan of the look of the 2014 GC, though. Too fancy looking. BUT...but...the '14 Trailhawk is beast with 35s, larger wheel wells, diesel and that bright orange paint.

 

[Tackerdown]

nice looks sharp

 

[joelbarras20]

Thats Sweet

 

[Jackal01]

Thanks! :drinks:

 

[Jackal01]

Well, we pretty much finished up the Viair system today. No leaks. I just need to secure the air lines and wires. I ran out of time.


The tank is mounted under the spare tire and the compressor is mounted in the cubby on the passenger side. I never much used the cubby so no real loss. I plan to cover it with some sort of plastic to make it somewhat pretty. I took some progress pictures but I don't think they will really do much in the way of providing information so I will just post the mostly-finished ones.


The system is a Viair Constant Duty. Came with a 2.5 gallon tank and a 100% duty cycle compressor so almost anything can be run on it. The switch I ran to the front as opposed to the switch next to the gauge in the back. I only plan on having it on when I need it or know that I will need it and I don't wanna stop just to turn it on/off. I still have some cleaning up of the tank and the area and some odds and ends to secure down like I said. These pictures were literally taken immediately after we finished for the night.

So the pictures aren't great. I usually include a bunch and clean up before I take shots but...not this time. :blush: Once it gets cleaned up I will get some better pictures posted.

The driver side switch will be for the KCs and the passenger side is for the Viair. Neither interfere with the console being opened or closed. I also installed a Federal Signal snake light to the left of the center stack for better night time reading; has red and white LEDs. I have had it for years and felt this was a good time to put it somewhere. I also ran the wires and cable for my Kenwood UHF radio that will be mounted in the center stack cubby. The antenna is a Laird. I will get pics of those shortly, too. This weekend I will be installing a Rocky Road bumper winch mount, Quadratec Q9000s synthetic winch and a couple KC 6" HID lights on the winch mount. I will also be ordering a Cobra 75 CB, a spare tire carrier and matching spare (my size spare cannot find in the compartment and I didn't have the money at the time to get a spare tire carrier.)

 

[Jackal01]

I have a two-week trip planned for Silverton/San Juans/etc like I did a couple years ago. This time my buddy with a JKU will be going with us. I searched around but cannot find any input on the WK2 taking on Black Bear Pass (and also the surrounding trails. I have done parts of Engineer Pass). I have read stories and watched YT videos of all sorts of vehicles taking the trail but I wanted to get some input on wheeling the WK2.

Edit: more pics from tonight.

 

[Jackal01]

The female connector that is normally on the solenoid for the remote was installed on the driver side.

This just shows the wiring for the positive and negative from the winch. Unlike the install for txwest, we could not install the solenoid in this cubby because mine was much larger.

The solenoid (minus the pretty box it is normally in) was relocated beneath the passenger side fog light. The bumper kit comes with a bracket that relocates the QL pump for those model WK2s. Since mine did not have that we mounted the solenoid to that bracket which mounts to the winch mount. It worked out rather nicely.




The directions from RRO state that some customizing may be required because there are of course factory tolerances that Jeep allows thus each winch and Jeep may be different. With that said, we did more than just some minor customizing to mine and I wish I would have just gotten the Smittybilt 10K synthetic. I had to cut quite a bit of the plastic with the vertical slats behind the chrome grille to accommodate the cross bars on the winch.


Like I said, once we ran into problems I stopped taking pictures so I only have finished photots. The fairlead still needs to be put on because the clip on the clevis hook does not fit through the hawse fairlead. Go figure. So my only remedy is to cut the hook off because I do not want it anyway. I still have to pull all the line out and winch in to break it in like they state in the directions.

Below is the link to my buddies install we did for reference with much better pictures. Essentially the same thing. Link to Jeepforum

txwest RRO bumper/winch install

 

[jorgelrod]

Awesome build, don't let people give you shit over wheeling a Grand, I owned a 2001 WJ and I would hear a lot of BS until they saw me wheeling it, that's the best way to shut them up...

Jorge

 

[DKronk42]

God i miss my zj right now... Your doing the lords work sir!

 

[Jackal01]

Thanks, fellas.

Of course the WK2 is very different from the WJs, ZJs, etc but this thing still does a great job. If I didn't so I wouldn't drop money into her! :rock:

Finally got the hawse fairlead on last night after I cut off the clevis hook.

Needless to say...this project is done! :beer: This is obviously being built for mild trails/overlanding. It may not do what a lot of the guys here do but it holds its own and will be prepared as much as it can be! Hopefully when this thing is paid off I can get a JKU.

 

[AllAmericanInfidel]

Thats a great looking GC!

 

[hinrichs]

those winch mounts look awesome hidden in the bumper like that :thumb:

 

[Jackal01]

Yea. This is the only option for a winch but I like it. I wish there was an aftermarket bumper available but the only ones are the huge ARB style.

But this works well and RRO did a great job with putting it together. It is almost entirely bolt-on but I am not one for 100% bolt on so I am glad I still got to do some cutting and customizing to make this thing fit. :yup:

 

[Jackal01]

Here are some better pictures with the daylight and not a camera phone flash.