"Bruce" the 2014 Jeep JKUR Build Thread

[KlausVanWinkle]

Comanche Scott asked me what I've been up to. So here's an update:

No new Jeep work. We're still working on buying our house from our current land lords.

And all of my time has been spent,writing, casting, shooting, editing, coloring, mixing and shipping these new Sprint TV and radio commercials. Two more TV spots should start airing later this month. If the embedded videos don't work for you, click these YouTube links instead:

https://youtu.be/1017dc47t40

https://youtu.be/uW2z6EfvESo







The Front Runner Flip Pop tent worked so well on the Mojave road trip that I sold it to my friend and purcahsed a 3 person Oztent version of it, the Malamoo Xtra 3, to fit my dog and wife. It still stowed up above the rear roll bar.

I also went on a 20 mile, 5000ft, 3200 calorie hike up Mt. Wilson this weekend. Trying to be less ExPo and more Outdoorsy.

 

[kojackJKU]

Awesome. I have to get out more now that the winter is over. Doing to low carb thing to get back to my fighting weight. 170 lbs is my target, im 230 now. OUCH!....I made the decision to stay stock on the bumpers, I have the MorRyde hinges, MBRP spare tire mount brace, and VDP high clearance front bumper corners. I am then getting the Olympic 4x4 winch mount and then just cut the bumper where needed to mount the winch inside. Also going to use the Skid row front skid plate.

 

[MTSN]

Wow man I'm sorry to hear about the 100! That's crazy considering you and I discussed the liability of dropping serious coin into an aging platform that is invariably worth far less to an insurance company if something was to happen to it! I've always wondered too if airbags would still deploy like they should when a vehicle gets to 15-20 years old. Looks like the truck still protected the occupants pretty well though. Those commercials are hilarious btw - nice work!

 

[Presto88]

Those commercials are hysterical! "Money doesn't spend itself." Hahahaha!

 

[KlausVanWinkle]

Awesome. I have to get out more now that the winter is over. Doing to low carb thing to get back to my fighting weight. 170 lbs is my target, im 230 now. OUCH!....I made the decision to stay stock on the bumpers, I have the MorRyde hinges, MBRP spare tire mount brace, and VDP high clearance front bumper corners. I am then getting the Olympic 4x4 winch mount and then just cut the bumper where needed to mount the winch inside. Also going to use the Skid row front skid plate.

I hear you. I was the fattest guy on the hike. I lost some weight cutting out beer, fries and pizza for 2 months. But a month and a half of post production has made me fat again. All the post houses have every snack imaginable and order you whatever meals you want. Plus you're just sitting around editing a and eating. Now I'm so sore from the hike that I can barely walk, let alone go to the gym.


I'll have to check some of those parts out. I was looking at the ORfab sway bar disconnect skid plate for the front. The Rock Hard winch mount, and warn vr8000. And the TF tailgate hinge.

 

[Comanche Scott]

Great commercials!

Bummed about the Land Cruiser, glad everyone walked away. Crumple zones are a great engineering feature.
I had *read* (no direct knowledge) that the ARB bumpers are engineered for crumple zones, as that is a requirement for Australia aftermarket mfgs.

Glad to see you guys are doing great!

 

[kojackJKU]

I hear you. I was the fattest guy on the hike. I lost some weight cutting out beer, fries and pizza for 2 months. But a month and a half of post production has made me fat again. All the post houses have every snack imaginable and order you whatever meals you want. Plus you're just sitting around editing a and eating. Now I'm so sore from the hike that I can barely walk, let alone go to the gym.


I'll have to check some of those parts out. I was looking at the ORfab sway bar disconnect skid plate for the front. The Rock Hard winch mount, and warn vr8000. And the TF tailgate hinge.

I will never cut out beer. that one is out....or single malt, or jim beam, or......fill in whatever you want. ha ha. I don't drink a lot of anything. but I enjoy one or two a day! I have an issue with the ole ticker somehow, I cannot walk up a flight of stairs at the moment without getting massively winded. I have a full home gym in my house, plus a couple of multi thousand dollar mountain bikes, I can just get on that stuff and burn shiznit off but I probably would not make it off my property without dying. I have been through lung function, etc testing. next up is a die test to see if there are blockages from my days at college. ha ha.

The morryde hinges are 160 Canadian, so they are 1/4 the cost of the teraflex unit here. I love teraflex products, but I want to spend money elsewhere. as for the winch mount, this one mounts under the frame rails, and you have to do some cutting of the factory bumper to make it all work, but the end product is more along the lines of aev in execution....the winch is lower, and the fairlead is right between the two fog lights. I will find a photo or two of the setup.

 

[kojackJKU]

this is the Olympic 4x4 mount without the bumper attached.

Here is the winch mounted. This allows me to use my MBRP light bar still as the mounting fits beside the winch. using the upside down winch method, I lose my bar. Also, he has the vdp stubby caps, I am using the vdp high clearance bumper end caps.

Here are the end caps, I like them for changing up the looks of the stock bumper.

 

[KlausVanWinkle]

this is the Olympic 4x4 winch mount

Do you know what thread this is? Id love to not have the winch blocking the radiator. I'd assume you'd need to move that canister thing that's down there. I can't find install instructions for the Olympic.

 

[kojackJKU]

I don't. I saw it on one of the fourms and remembered they used the Olympic. I would say you would need to move the canister on your rig, I don't have one. I keep forgetting about that. but Many companies make relocation kits. I like that the winch is down out of the way, Just like in the AEV bumper. Mine will be an AEV lite version ha ha.

 

[KlausVanWinkle]

I hadn't seen this mounting before. The upside down ones look clean but rewinding the winch would be near impossible.

 

[Lord Al Sorna]

Liked reading your updates, especially regarding the hike... I hope you can get some of your "distractions" settled so you can focus on the most important stuff: Modifying thyne Jeep ;P I like where your thoughts are, as the finished product is going to be super squeaky clean!

Bummer about your old truck, that was a sharp rig to chase around last year. Insurance on a modified truck is a very important thing to consider, and this is a good reminder.

 

[kojackJKU]

I hadn't seen this mounting before. The upside down ones look ice but rewinding the winch would be near impossible.

I haven't either. I am glad I stumbled on it. I can use my light bar, the winch is low in the frame rails, its cheap at 99 bucks for the mount, and its not vulnerable hanging upside down under your bumper.

 

[KlausVanWinkle]

Took "Bruce" out for the weekend. My best friend finally got his '95 Discovery (which we named Disco Joe) trail worthy. We went to the Mojave Preserve for the last weekend of desert season. The weather was supposed to be a perfect 70/51 and mostly sunny. Turned out to be in the 50s and rain all day. Then ice rained with 40 mph wind gusts until 10pm. Tacos and top-shelf margs were scrapped in favor of jetboiled cups of noodles inside the trucks. Luckily the girls were better sports than me. And the weather cleared up considerably after 10pm, giving us a beautiful sunday to hike up to some mines.

I installed this rear seat net from Dirty Dogs. It worked great to stach my sleeping pads and bags and freed up a bunch of room in the back while not adding much weight that high up.

We're still in the middle of buying our house, so the lift is still a ways off. In the mean time, I bit the bullet and installed a set of Air Lift 1000 air bags in the rear coils. At 25psi, these kept my rear tires in line with the flat spot in the fenders, which is where they are when unloaded. They worked well and stayed in place even on the numerous cross axle ditches, washes and drop offs. It looks like I bottomed out on the last trip. And the panhard rod dented the exhaust pipe. The airbags are upside down in this picture. I read conflicting theories on mounting them but ended up running the air line out of the bottom of the spring perch and along the ABS wire to the frame.

Loaded Stance in the rear:

 

[Bennyhana]

I'm pretty sure that dent is ther from the factory. Mine has it as well.