2015 JKURHR Build

[First State Overland]

Oh, where to start.  Every five years I take a road trip across the country.  The next trip is scheduled to leave in May 2016 and this time a new Jeep will be my chariot.  Every adventure has a first step, so this is the day I brought her home, still bone stock but very, very capable.  I ordered this Hard Rock edition with 4.10 gears, and all the bells and whistles available.

Then the parts started flowing in and my hands got a little dirtier....

 

[First State Overland]

First mods were minor things like Rugged Ridge Hood latches and the BOLT hood lock.

For the BOLT hood lock, I knew going in that I wanted to be able to lock the hood with the OEM key and also have a mesh grill insert.  But I didn't want to remove the insert every time.  So I fashioned my own little plug and portal for the key.

Removing the plug, I decided to leave the BOLT lock cover in place and cut a cross slit so that it served as a dirt cover and my key would slide through the slit.  It works great.

 

[First State Overland]

Next came the lighting conversion.  Everyone that has ever owned a Wrangler knows the OEM head lights are horrible.  So a full LED retrofit was on the menu.

Headlights went to Trucklite LEDs

Taillights went to Spyderco smoke LEDs wrapped in Rugged Ridge guards

Fog light bulb was replaced with some LEDs I got from eBay and they are by far the best of all the bang-for-the-buck upgrades I've done.

The headlights alone are a night and day difference and I needed the anti-flicker module to make them plug and play.

 

[First State Overland]

After that came winch time.  I specifically ordered the Hard Rock to get the "winch-ready" bumper.  I say that in quotes because it's only "winch-ready" if you count the removable front plate.  You still need to buy the mounting plate and other hardware to relocate the vacuum pump.

Removing the bumper end caps, you have to remove the winch center plate.  You can see how the vacuum pump sits.  Depending on your choice of winch, it might need to be moved because it's such a tight fit.  Mine did.

Removing the bumper, exposes your frame mounts for the winch plate.

Next, you fit the winch mounting plate in and secure it with temporary bolts.  It's time to gauge the fitment of the winch.  I chose a Warn Zeon 10S Platinum for a number of reasons.  I trust Warn reliability, I wanted synthetic line, it's sleek design hides down in the bumper as you'll see and the stronger motor.  The reason I went with the platinum series is because of security.  There is no external clutch and being that I need to leave my Jeep parked in some less than perfect areas for work travel occasionally, I wanted a winch where someone can't turn the clutch and un-spool my expensive synthetic line and walk off with it.

After relocating the vacuum pump, mounting the winch, anchoring the line, I added a hoop bar while the bumper was off, as well as the faring and anchor hooks, and light mounts,  and fed the line through.  You can see how low it sits.

Then putting it all back together with some IPF lights (more on those later) you get the final product.

 

[First State Overland]

Because I knew where this rig was headed in terms of future power needs, the next install was a Genesis Offroad dual battery kit (with monitor) powered by two Odyssey batteries.

First, you need to remove the OEM battery, unmount the fuse box and air box.  The entire OEM plastic tray has to come out.  The Genesis kit comes with a very strong steel dual battery tray that also accommodates the fuse box.  It also comes pre-wired with all the hardware and a smart isolator to manage the charging and discharging of the two batteries.

This image shows the full OEM tray removed  and the fuse box (still connected) moved out of the way.  You can see down to my garage floor.

The OEM tray must be cut because the reinstall still uses the OEM air box portion to mount to.  This is easily done with a sawsall and it's a straight cut.

Here's what it looks like installed.

There's a line that you can see in the above picture that is now hidden, but runs across the back, through the firewall to an A-pillar mount that holds the LED monitoring screen.  It shows voltage on both batteries, indicates if they are isolated or linked at any given time and serves as the manual override for linking them both together.  (Sorry for the crappy pictures)

More on the ARB fridge install later...

 

[First State Overland]

With the dual batteries now powering the rig and exterior lighting in hand, it was time to install the SPOD that would control lights, the future air compressor and a power line that will eventually run to a roof top tent.  Even with dual Odyssey batteries, I'm planning to add a rear compartment deep cycle battery bank for the constant heavy loads of the final product.  The plans are to have this solar assisted as well.  The SPOD folks have not released the Bluetooth addon for the SE version yet, but the board had the port.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that by the time May 2016 rolls around, it will be and I'll be able to sit in my roof top tent and wirelessly control lights or anything I chose to power through that.  I've been camping many times when you hear critters outside your tent and now I can flip the panic button and light 360 degrees with the touch of my cell phone.

But for now, the SPOD SE drops right in...

Wire up and add the cover...

Then running the control wired into the cabin, I mounted the touch screen on a Daystar mount in the center of the dash for a clean install.

And then a wide shot for a size perspective.  The touch screen pops right off and doesn't lose any settings.  It's about the size of a cell phone.

 

[First State Overland]

There's more that's done already, but I'll post later.  Cheers.

 

[Robert OB 33/48]

That is a dream for me, working with brand new materials.

What a beauty.

(However, I think I would be bored that I just cant use my imagination to make things )

Greetings from Robert

 

[First State Overland]

That is a dream for me, working with brand new materials. What a beauty. (However, I think I would be bored that I just cant use my imagination to make things ) Greetings from Robert

Thanks, Robert.

I anticipate having to get imaginative when it comes to building the interior items that I want.  Because one of my goals is to also keep this as a daily driver, I have to be able to pull pieces with ease if I want to use the back seats.  I have no intention on removing them completely.  That's going to require some creativity.  I have blue prints in my head that need to be put to paper.  

 

[deeker]

In your first post you mentioned that your hands got dirty.  How did that happen when you went to work on a brand new Jeep??  

Great looking build.  Look forward to seeing pictures of it in 'the wild', getting dirty.

 

[boss324]

Very NICE! Love the your rig and great write up. Looking for one down the line for now my Burb will do! Cars are soo expensive now adays haha

 

[First State Overland]

Test post to see if it sticks before I go re-posting the rest of the build in vain.

 

[Michael]

Ugh. Sorry about that Chad. New forum software on the way within a couple weeks.

M

 

[First State Overland]

No worries, looks like it's sticking now.  Thanks.

 

[First State Overland]

Added the on-board air compressor. I didn't want to do a tank just yet and I wanted to control it via the SPOD, and I wanted the ability to "dial in" to a certain pressure. So I chose the small ARB CKMA12 mounted above the Master cylinder with the EVO-1097 compressor mount for JKs.

I removed the pressure switch, which also gets rid of all the extra wiring, and replaced it with a variable blowoff valve that lets me dial up or down to a specific pressure and also allows the compressor to run without damage. All said and done, it fits perfectly back out of the way and it allows for airing up and down, inflating air mattresses, and pressuring (future) water tanks at a lower pressure.

Next up, leveling out....

 

[First State Overland]

After adding all of the weight of the above mods plus accounting for the factory rake of the JKs, it was time to balance out. The Rubicon was a little beefier to begin with so the sag was less noticeable but still a factor. Long term plans will likely include a lift, but I have some garage clearance heights to work around for now, so it was a Terraflex 1 inch front puck to level it back out. The double edge sword of a JK is that it takes such a long ways to jack even a factory suspension due to flex. I had my floor jack at max height just to get the wheel to leave the ground.

Removing the springs. I should have extended my diff breathers while I was down there but I didn't. :(

And then popping in the puck and reassembly. Simple as long as you watch your brake lines when lowering the axle so they don't get stressed.

Next up, the work horse of the overland vehicle, the Gobi Stealth Rack...

 

[Mad Garden Gnome]

Very nice!

 

[First State Overland]

Rack time!

I went with the Gobi Stealth Rack package deal that included the Stealth Rack, two rear ladders, air deflector, front sunroof insert, quick detach connectors and a 40 inch Rigid LED combo light bar. It arrived in the super protective packaging on a crate.

One of the reasons I picked Gobi was for the no drilling installation, but being that the Hard Rock JK has a different set of bumpers (similar to the AEV) you need to get the AEV adapters which are extra. The other reason was because I could keep my A-pillar lights with the front mounting section.

Removing the rear bumper is Step 1. Fairly easy with 4 main center bolts through the tow hitch, and two on each side.

After assembling the frame mounts, it eventually forms a rock solid brace that will support each rear side . And it is SOLID. A paint protector is supplied for each side. The rear bumper goes back on and the stabilizers cleaning "hover" as intended.

The rest of the install is straight forward and the rack lowers in place to lock with the front piece. I installed the lights (covered to comply with my state laws) and ran them all to the SPOD. I ran a harness with a quick detach to allow for independent control of the right and left side Rigid LEDs as well as the rear Rigid LEDs, all with dimmable capability. Here's a shot with the LED covers still on. Extremely bright.

And then overall... (prior to side and rear lights)

From the back... (rear LEDs added)

With the top down... (side LEDs added) Here you can see I've added some black pipe insulation due to the buffeting from the soft top being so close to the rack. It was brutal and sounded like the top was going to rip. This helped tremendously. The hard top sits lower and of course doesn't move so no problems there.

Overall, I'm very happy with this rack. Strong as an ox. I'm 220 pounds and I can easily jump up and down on it.

And one last over head shot... This was taken also with the bumper lights I swapped out. It was bugging me that the only thing that wasn't LED on the JK were the bumper lights. So I changed them out with a set of 7" ARB Intensity lights. I loved how the red trim ring matched the rest of the red trim on the front of the Hard Rock edition and the faring for my winch. The other "cool" factor is that when the covers are on these lights and you turn them on, they are so bright that trim ring glow red and it looks awesome. (sun roof insert left out until I need it.)

Next up rear awning...

 

[First State Overland]

Very nice!

Thanks!

 

[First State Overland]

Trying to get some better photos of this when opened. I keep forgetting to take them. But I added the somewhat hard to find shorter (narrower) rear awning to the JK. Because the Gobi Stealth rack has a recessed rear tube, I had to fashion some home made clamps. The goal here was to cover the tailgate cooking area and also be able to use the rear LEDs to light the area. So it mounts like this and then extends out over the lights.

With lights on... the rear LEDs are diffused and dimmable, and they also turn about 50 degrees either direction.

The rear mounts.... I essentially drilled a carriage bolt through the aluminum backing on the inside and luckily found these clamps I had sitting around. I added a piece of rubbing into the clamp to hold in place and it worked like a charm. First camping trip was last month and it didn't move at all. It also comes on and off with the twist of the knob. I need to find a theft deterrent for that.

I'll try and remember some open shots when I use it next.