Holy cow Jeepman, I wound up with a new Hard Rock! SOLD SOLD SOLD

[Comanche Scott]

Looking good. :beer:

There was a guy who remote mounted the contactor box, and put the cover plate back on to cover the winch.
Came out pretty clean. Can't remember what he did for the gear release.

 

[HARDTRAILZ]

Nice find and looks like some solid mods

 

[07BlackSpecV]

Your's looks exactly like our's. Will be following your build closely and congrats.

 

[ratled]

Sorry for the long delay, STILL waiting for the vacuum pump bracket to come in. I did install one more part - a tailgate table. A very nice table and it was engraved to boot. I accented the engraving to make it pop - of course I had to use red to make it match the Hard Rock theme. The grid is MOLLE compatible. It came from alanjk427 on E Bay for $125 to the door.


More to come soon I promise. I also got to stretch it's legs yesterday with the Blue Ribbon Coalition's Mild to Wild run out of Reno.

ratled

 

[ratled]

I also had this thread http://forum.expeditionportal.com/threads/168908-JKU-hinge-mount-for-Hi-lift-who-do-we-like for a Hi Lift mount. I went with the Maximus 3 Front bumper mount

ratled

 

[Comanche Scott]

Nice! Definitely like the AU Jedi with the red backing. That came out really sweet! :beer:

I put the Hi-Lift up front as well. Just used some good penetrating oil in the mechanism, and use the Hi-Lift Neoprene cover. The jack gets covered with bugs on long trips, but works just great. The cover does a great job of keeping the mechanism clean and serviceable.
Once the trip is over, it gets washed, dried, and more penetrating oil sprayed in.

Another thing that helped was cutting in a couple of Hi-Lift jack points in the front bumper. Just to the inside of the crush cans on each side. So now the Jeep can be jacked up in the front, sides or rear.

 

[ratled]

Thanks Scot. It is red and black duct tape so it will not interfere with the table use. I'll have to get a cover now

ratled

 

[ratled]

Sorry for the long delay in updates but life, trips and getting more added has been in the way. I FINALLY was able to solve the motor noise after numerous tries. I finally got a guy to figure it out. He had to rework the mount that came with the plate and tweak the plate a bit. The end result is it is in. I just need to pretension the synthetic still
ratled

 

[ratled]

It really doesn't show up in the winch pic (or this one with 2 tries) but I scored a Safaripal grill insert for less than $50 to help keep the big chunks and bugs from fouling the radiator.

ratled

 

[ratled]

I don't know if it is the added weight, even with synthetic rope, and/or the Safaripal changing the airflow but I developed hood flutter. Rather than spend $100 + on a new latches I added a pair of Daystar replacement bands for about $25. A happy solution to the problem. I was surprised how easy the stock pins broke off that were holding the latches together.

ratled

 

[ratled]

A few more of the updates. I installed a Cobra 75 Cb for the trail. I really didn't want to spend that much on a radio but I just couldn't find a place to mount it that I was happy with. Except for trail times I don't carry the radio with me as this is my DD and seeing an empty mount would only make it worse. With the 75 I can tuck the pig tail up under the center counsel and the only way you can tell I have a radio is the empty mike holder on the dash. I Used a Terraflex spare tire mount, 4' Firestick and spring. Like everyone else I fished it through the tailgate, ran it with the existing cable and up and over to the front via roll bar. I really like the clean look of it

ratled

 

[ratled]

I also installed a set of interior lights for the back. They really light up the area well to work or, as in the case of the last outing, the ability for a late dinner. I had been looking around for some lights to use for this purpose for some time. LED strips didn't seem to do it for me. I saw a poster with the handle theksmith post up on some ground lights he installed and they were only $10 a set http://forum.expeditionportal.com/threads/11148-Post-Pic-s-of-your-Jeep/page693 (about 2/3rds of the way down post #6928) and that seemed to be what I was looking for. I ordered two sets.


I installed one set inside just above the hatch


and one set on the hatch to serve as over head lights


Together they work really well


You can also see the Edgestar 63 qt freezer. I used an ARB harness for ease of the install


I fished all of the wires for those items through the firewall on the passenger side, along the the right side under the carpet and for the ARB harness over to the other side under the back seat. The wires for the lights are roughed in as I am considering a 3rd set. All will be hidden under a Mopar headliner

Please excuse the mess as dinner was late and we still had to set up camp.

ratled

 

[chadwicksavage]

A raspberry pi will take care of the backup camera and stereo placement. a pi zero for 5 dollars should do for the computing piece. if you're into building with small electronics.

 

[chadwicksavage]

I came late to the thread with the quick reply!

 

[ratled]

Just reading through to see where I left off and see I forgot a couple of little things. First on the Edgestar freezer, it works like a champ and we used it a freezer and not a fridge. For a fridge we use a small ice chest and supply that from the freezer. We have a rotation of 3 one liter soda bottles and start with a prechilled cooler. We rotate the bottles out every morning and evening. By the time a bottle has to go back to the cooler it has had 24 hours in the freezer. Keeps the stuff like salad & dressing fresh, open jellies and left overs good to go.

Also I had added a Rugged Ridge dash camera mount. Not only as a holder for the forward facing camera but I want to see if I can rig it as a driver facing Ipad holder for some nav work. I had to cut up a 1/4 20 1/4" bolt for a post to fit the mount and the GoPro but I was surprised how steady the footage was. On the road with the family but working on a very big update for the rig!

ratled