Vanilla Gorilla: 2017 Power Wagon build

marshal

Burrito Enthusiast
So i got to the LED's today.

Again these are the new Profile PEAK LEDs. They're 3000Lm and 5800 kelvin, have a a 3 year warranty and an expected 30,000 hour burn life. They are super low profile, and have a heatsink that runs the length of the emitter back to the rear of the bulb where there is a small fan to cycle heat away from the emitters. The bulbs BARELY fit inside the housing cover, and rests against it. You can hear the faint hub of the fans outside of the vehicle with the engine off, just slightly louder than the hum you would hear from the ballasts of an HID setup. I got the Morimoto anti-flicker harness, but when i plugged the bulbs in to test them i wasn't receiving any kind of error notifications and i haven't gotten any flickers, so I'm going to try them out this way and see if they work. Otherwise i'll put the flicker harnesses in and call it good.

Untitled by Will Marshal, on Flickr

snuggly

Untitled by Will Marshal, on Flickr

you can see the stark contrast in color between the passenger and driver housings

Untitled by Will Marshal, on Flickr

Untitled by Will Marshal, on Flickr

Untitled by Will Marshal, on Flickr

Untitled by Will Marshal, on Flickr

Really pleased with the setup so far. I'll take it for a run tonight after the sun goes down to see how the patterns lay down and the output. See if anything needs to be adjusted
 

Explorerinil

Observer
Where did u buy them and what exactly did u order? I hate my headlights, I bought the black projectors and am running stock bulbs in them.
 

JSwanson

Observer
Truck looks awesome! Really like those new wheels. I also saw this on insta before reading your update. That dog is pretty sweet too.
 

marshal

Burrito Enthusiast
Where did u buy them and what exactly did u order? I hate my headlights, I bought the black projectors and am running stock bulbs in them.

These are the Profile Peak 9005 LED's. They should be available now from The Retrofit Source. they're $120 for the pair

Truck looks awesome! Really like those new wheels. I also saw this on insta before reading your update. That dog is pretty sweet too.

thanks! she's a pretty good dog, mostly an ******* though
 

WasteOfMoney

Resident Boy Scout
It's a shame you will never see your truck in the mirror, it looks so good on the road with the new wheels. Can't wait to see it in some real action.
 

marshal

Burrito Enthusiast
took the PW out for a little romp today. Had a blast - was just some dirt roads and dry granite creek beds. I love these Falkens, they hook so well. There was some more of the creek bed that i wanted to venture, but was hesitant to tackle the moguls without the rock sliders. Really really impressed with the truck. I need to figure out how to shift the front axle forward a little bit.

Untitled by Will Marshal, on Flickr

Untitled by Will Marshal, on Flickr

Untitled by Will Marshal, on Flickr

Untitled by Will Marshal, on Flickr

Untitled by Will Marshal, on Flickr

Untitled by Will Marshal, on Flickr

Untitled by Will Marshal, on Flickr

Untitled by Will Marshal, on Flickr

Untitled by Will Marshal, on Flickr

Untitled by Will Marshal, on Flickr
 

LimaMikeMike

Observer
Looking good, how did the leds work out? Did you have to clock them after install for proper beam pattern or did they work fine as installed?
 

marshal

Burrito Enthusiast
i got one of them set up perfect (driver) the second one i realized looking at my own photos that i forgot to clock it, so the output is compromised. Tomorrow i need to wash the truck off and when I'm finished im going to pull the headlight and redo the clock. So far im pleased with them. They're not magic but they're nice
 

marshal

Burrito Enthusiast
Updates!

I picked up some stuff. One of the things I had really wished my truck had come with was the bed LED cargo lights. I know they're not super bright, but I'm a sucker for OEM fit/finish and reliability so I ordered the MOPAR kit. Also - my trucks brakes suck. Flat out suck ass. I've been in a couple 'high-stakes' braking scenarios lately with ************** drivers that normally wouldn't have been a big deal, but for whatever reason this truck does not want to stop at all.

The first owner of this truck lived in Atlanta, so I can only assume that this thing's pads were glazed over from stop-and-go highway traffic. I tried to re-bed them, but I think they were totally shot. So, I wanted to go with the highest friction, most heat resistant pads that I could find - and from past experiences, that lead me back to EBC. EBC makes great stuff, everything is made in Britain from environmentally friendly materials. I selected the Yellow-stuff brake pads, which is their highest friction compound. While they do dust a lot, its a 3/4 ton truck and the stock pads dust a lot as is, so - whatever.

Untitled by Will Marshal, on Flickr

Im getting a little ahead of myself, so I'm going to do this chronologically. I picked last Saturday to wire up the LED's. I had assumed, that based on the instructions that I would be spending an hour or two running wires parallel to the harness up to the cabin. When I was dropping the LED's and their respective pigtails, I crawled underneath the box and was noticing that in each corner of the vehicle there were harness extensions that were capped off and zip tied out of the way. One of them looked curiously similar to the plug at the end of the LED. So I uncapped it and plugged them together and found that it was a matching set! Unfortunately, the lights didn't turn on. Now, I know this truck has a lot of computer controlled ******** in it, but I was really surprised that this wiring was here in the first place. So after a little bit of internet searching I confirmed my suspicions that the circuit that these plugs were on were shut off at the computer. I finished running the other light and called my friend at the local Jeep dealership and asked him if he could have a tech log into the WiTech system and add a sales code (LPL) for the LED's as well as turn on the rear bulb out detection code (XBC) so I stopped getting "reverse light out" warning indicators. This would also be the time that they calibrated my TPMS system to the changes from the AEV Procal.

anyway, long story short - they added the sales codes and everything is peachy now

Untitled by Will Marshal, on Flickr

Untitled by Will Marshal, on Flickr

Untitled by Will Marshal, on Flickr

then, it was my birthday, so I decided to retire my 65 year old Coleman white gas stove and get something a little more modern. So, I got myself this Camp Chef summit. Im really really disappointed with its build quality, but for $99 bucks you can't really beat it. I wanted the Camp Partner made-in-USA stove, but i can't swallow spending $375 on a camping stove right now when i've got other stuff to worry about

Untitled by Will Marshal, on Flickr

I also got myself a couple rotopax and mount. I adjusted the mounts on my Leitner rack and now i've got space for another gear pod.

Untitled by Will Marshal, on Flickr

Alright! now onto the brakes!

I pulled the front brakes apart to find that my suspicions were indeed correct. The pads were glazed. You can see the reflection from my glove on the left side of this pad I'm holding.

Untitled by Will Marshal, on Flickr

THEN - DISASTER STRUCK! I couldn't find my c-clamps anywhere. No where to be found. This was the first time I've needed them since we moved last summer and i have no ************** idea where they went. So, I had to wing it and used my spring compressors - which is probably the safest and most effective work they've ever done, ironically.

Untitled by Will Marshal, on Flickr


all wrapped up!

Untitled by Will Marshal, on Flickr

Now the bedding process for the Yellow Stuff pads is unique in that you burn the ******** out of them. Yeah - I'm not kidding. You roast these MFers until they beg you to stop. So, I did six 80 to 0 MPH emergency stops until smoke was rolling out of the wheel arches and then let them cool off.

here is stopping with stock pads. Its really hard to tell when I start standing on the brake pedal, but as you can see its super gradual and not confidence inspiring at all. This was a 75MPH stop.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

here is the second video after the pads were bed. Please bare in mind that the rotors are still fairly heat soaked and the pads aren't totally broken in yet. Needless to say that there is a huge improvement. This was also a 75MPH stop.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

So - I'm really happy with this brake upgrade, and my truck is safe to drive spiritedly again.
 
Great looking truck! Been following your Instagram for a while now. Are the EBC pads the DP41847R and DP41848R? I have been wanting to upgrade brakes on my PW and haven't decided between green or yellowstuff.
 

marshal

Burrito Enthusiast
Great looking truck! Been following your Instagram for a while now. Are the EBC pads the DP41847R and DP41848R? I have been wanting to upgrade brakes on my PW and haven't decided between green or yellowstuff.
yeah thats correct. the yellows are a little more aggressive than the greens, and dust more as well. If you dont want to deal with the dust, the greens are the way to go. I wash my truck whenever i can though, because im OCD AF so the dust doesn't bother me
 

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