2012 JKU Sahara Family Mobile

mjmck

Observer
Hello all,

I have been a lurker of this site for a while. I personally love getting out in the woods however NEVER have enough free time to get out as much as I want. I have been in the wheeling thing for many years, mostly at Private events hosted by friends. Looking now at taking more trips with my family (we have a 2.5 M/O son). The vehicle we will be using to travel most will be my wifes JKU. I have a 2016 RAM EcoDiesel (I purchased privately, but has now become my company truck and I have been bought out of it) as well as an 1989 Mutsang with a 357 (bored 351w). So that knocks out both of those rides.

My eventual plan is to purchase a pop-up trailer to tow behind the JKU, but due to life right now that will be down the road. I will also be out of the game for a while with surgery on my right knee for a bone growth on the 29th of November so progress WILL be slow.

Way early on I began life with a TJ:
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And started to mod it:
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A 4 Cylinder TJ on 35's was NOT preactival:
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Prior to the birth of our son we started life with a 2007 JK Sahara.

Honda Dealer Picture:
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Cleaned up and hand waxed:
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New Kanati Trail Hog Tires:
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Frequent Top Down Fun:
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Our Husky pup enjoys it too:
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mjmck

Observer
Enough of the way background info. Lets get to this past summer. My wife and I have been married just over a year now and are both approaching 30. Family started happening and as much as she didn't want to lose her 2 door JK I refused to load a car-seat in and out of it. Just too tough (and honestly even with a JKU its still a darn tight fit!). We went out to Friendly Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep in Penn Yan, NY where I purchased my 2016 EcoDiesel RAM a year prior. Struck a deal trading in the JK on the JKU

Here is how it came home:
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I did some dumb little things such as vent visors and interior work that isn't even worth mentioning.

The mods started to roll in. Starting with an eBay bumper:
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Realizing how much we hated the Sahara steps (just positioned too high for actual use) we purchased some eBay drop hoop nerf bars:
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mjmck

Observer
We ended up driving the JKU like that for all of 2017 summer into fall. My plans were to get another set of Kanati Trail Hog tires as the wife praised them in the snow. I sat down and put some thought into this one as typically I lift a vehicle then get tires for it. Unfortunately due to our current situation the tires are more important than the lift. So I need to order some tires that are KNOWN to fit on a stock JKU without a lift. This thing will eventually be pulling a small pop-up so I want to keep the tire size down. Luckily being a Sahara it has 3.73 gear ration over the 3.21's which should help a little. I figured for now a set of 285/70R17's would look good under the Jeep.

Purchased them off eBay as before:
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I took them over to my local Firestone to mount and balance on an old set of JK rims I kept from the 07:
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Out with the old:
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In with the new:
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Of course I kept my old Superchips FlashCal that was turned into a FlashPaq. Changed up the tire size but had some issues with the TPMS system:
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mjmck

Observer
Currently this is where we sit as of today. I hope to keep updating this thread as we go along. We have been a long-time avid Jeep family (even had a modded WJ prior to the Wranglers), I love seeing the Overland types of builds on this site and would like to contribute. Everyone loves pictures right....

I have a set of "knock-off" Bush Whacker full coverage flatty flares in the basement that will hopefully make it on the Jeep next. Once I get it to the car wash I will get some better pictures.
 

mjmck

Observer
Another super busy weekend at my place. First off we had our first measurable snow. Glad I got my old snowblower off a week ago to the repair shop for a full service. Typically I would do this but time has not been on my side, plus with surgery coming I just wanted it DONE. Possibility of our first good snow the week of Thanksgiving.
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Started off Saturday Morning messing with the eBay "knockoff" Bushwacker Flatty Jeep flares. I attempted an install a month or so ago and it was a complete failure. FAR from bolt on, hell didn't even have all the fasteners. After fighting with the seller for such an inferior part i got a whopping $30 refunded on the $400 purchase price. (Actual Bushwackers are about $350/pair, so these were just over 1/2 price).
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I got my pneumatic grinder out and began shaping all of the small plastic parts to better fit the contour of the Wrangler.
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Finally got the drivers front installed.
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Flipped the jeep around in our garage and proceeded to complete the passenger side.
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Have to custom cut the inner fenders to mate back up with the aftermarket flare.
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By 4PM I had both fronts done. Will tackle the rears next weekend. Need to run out and get more hardware.
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mjmck

Observer
Finally made some headway on the JKU first thing this morning. A few weeks back my Super Chips tuner was not allowing me to disable TPMS on the Jeep. We installed rims from the old 07 JK (no TPMS in 07) we had due to the fact they were 17's instead of 18's. I now need to find a spare tire to mount on the 17'' then I will be able to sell the complete set of 18's. Hope for $200 for just the rims (spare has tire mounted still).

A week or so ago I called Super Chips and they performed some reset on my tuner, welp it worked! I now have the option to disable.
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mjmck

Observer
Got started on the Jeep this weekend. Dealer said both front axle shaft U-joints were sticking/binding. They charged me $58 to diagnose and wanted $550 to replace. I said no thanks, and ordered a set of Moog Severe Duty 377 Joints. I started the dis-assembly on Sunday.
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Just after this picture we began pressing in the Moog 377 and it was not fitting correctly. After a few trips to different auto stores, a lot of head scratching and parts people telling me I was doing something wrong I had one parts guy say well there is this one different u-joint listed and said to fit. Only the Main Napa store in Syracuse has 1 on had. We went to go look at it and it happens to be the correct unit.

Come to find out in mid-year 2012 Jeep changed up the axle shaft sizes. I have the latter 2012 and up larger size, the Moogs I purchased are the smaller size.
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As seen below the SKF is the correct part number for our Jeep. The auto stores computers don't really make it evident that there was a mid-year change, so the parts guys offer the first units to pop up and don't take into account there may be other possibilities further down in the list.
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mjmck

Observer
Was a busy weekend at the house. Lots of errands and painting trim. Picked up another u-joint for the front drivers side axle, plan to do it on a nice day since the real culprit was the passenger side. Also picked up a 12 point 13mm socket from NAPA. Then on the way home stopped at Harbor Freight and got a 3/8'' breaker bar (to help with the tight area to remove the hub bolts).
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Got the Jeep washed and noticed a large rust spot. I have no clue how a chip that big got where it did. Bought this nifty pen thing that has an abrasive tip, pen tip, brush tip and small bottle of clear-coat too.
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