Smoochy's Build Thread (JKU Build)

[G0to60]

First and foremost this is my wife's Jeep. I usually do the heavier installs but she is very comfortable with a wrench. But since I like to take pictures of it and share them I'll try to write up what we've done so far.

The goal for her rig is you typical overland type vehicle. We want to be able to spend a week or so out in the sticks if we want and be relatively prepared for most things. Yeah, I know. That's what this place is all about.

First a little background. My wife bought her 2017 JKU Sport new in November of 2017. The only option is AC so it pretty much as bare bones as it can be. She really wanted a two door with half doors but they just didn't exist. The dealers we talked with also weren't ordering any JK's anymore either since the JL was just around the corner. We were lucky that a local (Portland, OR) dealer had this one on the lot.

Here it is in all of it's stock glory.




That weekend, with not even 100 miles on it, we went up into the Cascades and drove up a pretty easy road with a decent view of the valley.




Shortly after that we went up to visit my parents in Yakima, WA and while we were up there joined up with some Jeepers to go up a route called LT Murry from Selah to Ellensburg. She drove the whole thing as best as the stock highway tires would allow. This is the only time she got stuck but one of the tires did get mud down into the bead so we went back down after about halfway. Still a lot of fun for sure.




Finally the last stock picture is the aftermath of the mud we went through. We washed up under the hood and sprayed the radiator out.




After all of that it was time to do some upgrades. Her brother in law also has a JKU so many of the first parts were given because he had upgraded to something else. Headlights are a must since the stockers are dim at best. Her brother had these multi LED lights laying around so we threw those in. I like the look and they had great output to begin with but as of right now about a year later they are almost as dim as the stock lights. We will likely go with some JW Speaker or KC's in the near future.

At the same time we also put on the flat fenders, also from her brother who went to Poison Spyders, and a Tereflex 2.5" lift. These were necessary because we got a good deal on a used set of Toyo Open Country AT's and some take off 17" wheels. No pictures of the lift or fender install though. It's just nuts and bolts anyway.

I must say, even being used the Toyo's are an excellent tire. They are quiet on road and have been great wherever we've gone. They are now getting a little worn and I think we'll be getting a new set later this spring.





Next up after that is a new front bumper. I wanted one that could handle a winch. She wanted one that had an obnoxious stinger on the front so this is what she chose. Fits both bills I think . You can also see the side steps that were also a take off from her brother's Jeep. They work great as steps but get hung up on everything so they later go away for some tubular rock sliders.




With a lot of the goodies installed it was time to hit some trails and do some camping. One of our go to places is called LaDee near Estecada, OR. It's not a big place with only a handful of trails but it has a little of everything and is a good place to test out the new parts. We also camped up near there to with her brother. Good times.








Next up will be our trip to Moab!

Also, when we started this I didn't think I was going to make a thread like this so I didn't take many pictures. Hopefully in the future I'll remember to snap some more. I also realized that I have a lot more pictures on my camera sitting in the memory card so maybe this will be a good poke to get them out of there. Thanks for looking!

 

[G0to60]

Like I stated in the previous post I'll dig out more pictures because I know I have more then this.

Last year we decided to go visit a friend of ours in Denver. June was a good time because it was our anniversary and we had some time off. Since we did have the time we decided to swing down through Moab on the way home and check it out. I hadn't been there for 20 years and "all" I did was mountain bike and hike.

In order to get the Jeep ready for the trip we needed a way to mount a 35" spare since the stock carrier just doesn't cut it. We also wanted to carry extra fuel, water, and a jack on it to try and keep as much usable room inside the Jeep for other stuff. With that in mind we went with the Smittybilt Atlas XRC rear bumper and carrier. I love this bumper. It carries all of what we wanted it to and is rock solid in doing it. No rattles or creaks even going over some tough terrain. It is very heavy which we felt on the way down there. The reason I don't have any pictures of the install is that we got it a couple of days before we were leaving so time was of the essence. You can see it in a few of the pictures below.

*Edit: found some better pics when we got the gas cans.









On the way home from Moab we decided to change it up a little and headed west out of Salt Lake City instead of north up to Idaho. We went this way to go out and see the Bonneville Salt Flats. Yes, this is pretty much the complete opposite of Moab but was worth the detour and was amazing to see in person. If you have the option go for it and check out the salt.







After Moab we took a breather to get the poor bank account back up a little. One thing that came in after our trip but was ordered before were the rock sliders. We were worried that we would tear off the steps on the rocks but with some careful driving everything went great. Sorry again about no real pictures of them but you can see them in one of the camping pictures above that was actually after Moab.

Since we are in the PNW there are lots of trees and many low branches. Both of us have been smacked in the face by a branch or two so we did something about it and installed some limb risers. Yes, it's pretty easy to make your own but these were on sale so it made better sense. Go figure though. We haven't had to really use them yet.



It was finally time to focus on self recovery and a winch was bought. There was a sale at 4WheelParts and we got this Smittybilt XRC 9500 with synthetic line for a good deal. We also got a basic recovery set with straps and such. We haven't used it yet but we plan to head up to LaDee again with her brother (who also just got a winch) and practice in a more controlled environment before we actually need it.

 

[G0to60]

Now we are up to date with the latest bits put on Smoochy. We did some research on roof racks that would meet a few of our criteria. This is the second piece to making it more of an overland rig. First it had to be able to handle the weight of a roof top tent and us. Next it had to be able to tilt back (unloaded) to be able to take the top down. And lastly it had to be somewhat affordable. With all of those we came across two options. One was the Garvin Adventure Rack or the Gobi Stealth Rack. I really like the Gobi but it's price and lead time just weren't in the cards so the Garvin it is. This time I took some more pictures of the install but they were mainly focused on the rear hoop since that's the hardest part. The front hoop attaches to the A pillar bolts like many other racks.

The rear hoop requires that the rear bumper be removed to mount the support brackets to the body. I unloaded all the extra weight I could off of the bumper and slid it out of the way just enough to get the supports in.



They attach through the cavities behind the tail lights. On the passenger side you have to trim out some of the expanding foam for the nut plate to sit flush.



Now I fished the rear upright around the bottom pitch weld and rear bumper. I had to persuade things a little because the support slightly rests on the rear bumper but everything lined up.





Here you can see it loosely bolted up. After some fiddling that upright finally ended up upright and in it's proper location.



And here it is all buttoned up. Aside from the rear hoop it all went together pretty easy. The limb risers do rest slightly on the front hoop so we'll decide if we just want to add some clear film protectant or reroute them to the rack. As expected you do hear and feel through the soft top some wind noise so we'll likely get some sort of wind deflector for it. Also, while it does hinge down it's not that easy to do. You need a couple of different size wrenches to get it down so I'll be replacing the front connection nuts with some larger plastic knobs that can be done by hand. Also, there are rear body rubber spacers (see near the tail light) that need to be loosened so I'll add some wing nuts to those as well.





So that's where we sit right now and you may (or may not ) be asking what's next. We have a list of things that we want and need but I think tops on that list is gear and lockers. This has the stock 3.21 gears and with the extra weight and the larger tires it is a dog. It helps that it's a manual but it's still not the best. It's still up in the air on what she wants but I think the front runner is 4.88 gears with Tru-trac in the back and Eaton E-locker in the front. We have a couple of months to think it over before we have the money to do this. Up until now we've both installed everything ourselves but gears are a little out of our comfort zone to do. Especially since it would be a first time for both of us so we'll have a shop do it for us.

Goals for trips this year will likely be somewhat limited since my wife is getting knee surgery next month so we don't want to aggravate that with bouncing around on a trail. We may try to do part of the Oregon Backcountry Discovery route in the summer time. Likely from eastern Oregon (La Grande area) to Bend. That should be fun. Anyway thanks for reading.

 

[jadmt]

looking good.

 

[G0to60]

My wife's birthday was a few days ago so we got a couple things for the Jeep. No it wasn't gears like I said was coming next but some camping gear. There is a great sale going on right now for the Smitybilt tents so we picked up the standard size one along with their 6.5' awning. Install on these is pretty straightforward and the only modifying that we had to do was we had to put a slight bend in the brackets that go around the rack bars so the bolts would reach. We could have just gotten longer bolts but we didn't want to make the trip to the hardware store and this worked perfectly.

Here it is getting prepped. All that is needed is to pull the hardware out of the tent (that's why it's open on a table) and then bolt the aluminum extrusion on the base. Pretty easy.




I didn't get any pictures during the install but it's pretty easy as long as you have a friend. Our extra friend was a step stool for my wife to stand on to help lift this up onto the rack. It sits up there pretty well.



Here it is all closed up with our dachshund Mya in for scale.





After this we decided to do an easy shakedown run this last weekend. We decided to do a beach run from Gearhart, OR up to Ft. Stevens State park. It's about a 10 mile drive all on the beach and is a lot of fun even if it's just flat sand. The weather was about as good as it can get for late April on the Oregon coast. Mid 60's and partly cloudy with just a light sea breeze made for some good hanging out weather. We met up with a couple of friends in their Outback and my Brother-in-Law came along as well with his JKU. Actually, we installed his RTT that very morning at ~9am so this was his first time out with it as well.



After this we went up to the shipwreck near Ft. Stevens. This was a four masted ship named the Peter Iredale and wrecked on the coast in late 1906 when it misjudged where the entrance to the Columbia River was. There isn't a whole lot left but you can see the bow and a couple of the mast supports.



Finally we made it to the campground and Ft. Stevens. We both took up an RV spot and got familiar with setting up the RTT's. I think that we and my BIL will look into possibly getting a ladder extension or maybe just drill a couple of more holes on the existing ladder to gain an inch or two. It wasn't too bad though.



On the way home the next day we both stopped at a closed weigh station to see what we are at. Smoochy came in at a portly 5900# and my BIL's Jeep came in at 5300#. The difference between the rigs (not counting the people) is likely the rear bumper. The Atlas XRC is a heavy damn thing but works great.

Ours included both me and my wife, a little over 1/4 tank of fuel, our gear, and ~5 gallon of fuel in the cans. We will likely move the RTT closer to the front of the rack to better distribute the weight. I did each axle and the front was at 2300# with the rear at 3600# so it is squatting a bit in the rear. We are also going to put a basket up there too and it will work a little better towards the back anyway.

Thanks for reading.