That is very NICE of the dealer. How much did you pay for the parts?View attachment 158619
Just got my Jeep back from the dealership. Can’t beat a free install to keep my loyalty. It was a nice addition to see the aux options on the uconnect.
So I followed the advice of forum members and added a Warn 400-amp Solenoid to the mix too. I copied another member's mounting plate idea. A 4" electrical box cover, bent 90 degrees, drilled out on top for a body bolt, and 2 holes on the side to mount the solenoid. Painted black (almost thought about going with Blue, but that would delay the assembly to source the correct paint). I like this setup as the solenoid sits low still preserving a path for the eventual @Rugged Ridge snorkel they showed off at SEMA (it runs in the engine bay, instead of outside the Jeep).
Amber fogs look great!!I switched my Rigid Industries D-Series cubes for the Baja Designs Squadron Pro Amber’s.
Do you have a link to the Quick Fists? And how do they mount?Added some Quick Fists to my Jeep roof racks
what are the deets on the vent 'plugs'?Over two weekends I have done a couple big projects. Winch and On Board air. Sorry about the dirty Jeep, its still winter here, and washing the car in the cold just won't happen. I also am including a couple other pictures. They seem to have uploaded in a random order, I'll try to explain each one.
Rock hit. Saved the windshield. Driving I-696 in Michigan, I saw a truck in front of me in the next lane over kick up a fist sized rock. I swerved and for a brief second thought I missed it until I heard the biggest smacking sound I ever heard. I pulled off at the next exit and checked out the Jeep, and didn't see anything. Thought I was lucky. This past weekend while taking care of the Jeep projects, I found the hit. Can I say WOW! Upper passenger side front window frame. That is one heck of a hit. Guess I will need to pick up some touch up paint from the Jeep Informant dude. But its a serious dent. Saved the glass though. Wonder if it would have come through the glass?
SmittyBilt X20 10k Synthetic line winch. This seemed like it would be an easy project. But it fought us every step of the way. Attached the control box to the body with crazy small screws and nuts, and getting it tight seemed to be a trick. Got it done, dropped it on the winch plate, and noticed the switch on the side for the remote was missing. Took it all off, took the control box off the body, took apart the the control box to find the switch inside in a few pieces. Luckily my friend and I have been doing vehicle wiring projects for years, and he had a replacement switch handy. Its not as cool looking, but it snapped right in place. I realized the other day I put it in upside down to the markings on the controller, but it doesn't matter to me. The good news is once the winch was off the the plate, we saw ways we could improve the routing/bundling of the winch wires to keep them looking neater. So it wasn't a total loss. On day two, yesterday, we cut off the SmittyBilt hook, and installed the Warn Sidewinder. A little cheaper than Factor 55 stuff, and I like that it ends in a shackle. Worked great during pretension, as I could connect directly to the towing hoops on a F-350.
So the winch is installed on a @Maximus-3 winch plate with the added on D-ring mounts. I like the D-rings over the hooks. Especially since previously with the hooks and the Warn hoop, some tow straps would not slide in easily if they had thick ends. Had to use a Shackle one time to connect a tow rope to the factory hook. Just the stock SmittyBilt fairlead plate.
The D-rings from Maximus-3 had a heavy finish on them, I tried to drill it out a bit, as the pins from the Warn sidewinder or my other cheaper shackles would not slide through. In the end, I had to use a wire brush in a drill to clean the holes out. Then I hit them with some red rustoluem paint. The pins fit good now, and all is good. I like how low the winch sits in the bumper.
For the D-rings, you do need to trim the skid plate a bit. And it had us confused, as it looked like we would loose 2 holes for skid plate attachment. Really worried about it for a long while trying to figure out if we measured right (we did have metric rulers), and couldn't figure it out as it didn't match the instructions. It ended up being the 2 of the holes where the wire harness for the fog lights clip into. Which you don't reuse anyway. The diagram in the instructions has those holes/tabs clipped from their drawing. Make sure you take that into account when measuring in 80mm. We used a step drill bit to make the holes, and made the holes and slots a bit larger (by a 1/4" wide) just to not have to worry about fitment issues later. Touched up the skid plate with flat black rustoleum.
Skid plate took us 2 weekends to get back on nicely. No matter what we did, we couldn't get 1 bolt back on. The key of course is to get them all started very loosely. But the clip-on capture nuts on the bumper really don't cooperate. Glad that is done, hope I don't need to touch it for a while.
The completed look. Also added my "Wicked Jeeps" club sticker to the windshield. I like the red accents on the Blue Jeep. But when this wears out I might need to see if @pixeldecals can make one that is red outline, with granite middle like the Rubicon decals. Someday.
Wow pictures are out of order. The other big project was adding a twin ARB air compressor on a JK innovations mounting plate under the seat. I have had the seat out a few times, as this is where my Cobra CB box is too (under the carpet, screwed to sheet metal). I was worried that I would have to move the CB to fit the air compressor. Started taking that apart when we realized the air kit plate really sets pretty far back and both could work there. More below. But here is a picture of the installed air chuck on the front passenger seat, there is an identical one on the driver side too. Really clean look. You need small hands. Security allen key in front, and tiny lock nuts behind. Took some time, but in the end it fits perfect.
The instructions from "Innovative JK products" were great. Great step by step instructions with good color pictures. The only modifications I made from the instructions were the the following:
1. Since I had the seat out to fit everything, there is a drain plug right under the seat. The wiring from the engine bay comes up that drain plug (hole cut in plug, silicone sealed) instead of the one in front of the seat. That front hole will not work if you have the all weather floor mats.
2. You need to cut off about 3" of the rear floor mat to allow for fitment. Surprisingly it cuts nicely with a pair of regular scissors.
Oh and for some reason we missed connecting the 4 white plugs on the ARB together until after everything was installed. Didn't see any step in either the ARB or JK instructions to do that, and its sort of required to make it all work.
First time powering up we leaked badly too, we know we tightened the T-fitting to the compressor on the 1st weekend, but the 2nd weekend it was finger loose. Maybe we just were crazy. All is good now, kit works great. I am using Aux-2 for it. I originally though it would get its power from Aux-2, but in the end its just a trigger wire, the ARB needs to go directly to the battery with 2 30-amp fuses.
JK's instructions, have you install the whole kit without needing to remove the seat, but its really quite easy to get the seat in and out. Just a tip.
So the JK kit comes up with air up/air down hoses that do all 4 tires at the same time. I may want to upgrade, DIY, an air gauge into the mix, but really the kit works great without it. I also own tire deflators I might keep using just so you don't need to pull out all these tubes for deflation. But that being said, once this was hooked up, you can deflate 4 tires from 37 to 16 in a couple minutes.
Air up from 16 to 37 took between 3-4 minutes. We did it a few times to set the air pressure switch. Its cool, the pressure release switch opens at 37 (you have to set it through trial and error). Works great. I rolled up the air lines a bit tighter, added Velcro ties on the 4 lines, and 2 bundles, and they fit in the Jeep "trunk" nicely. Really nice air chucks on the kit, a little hard to actually attach to the factory stems though as they are pretty tight to the rims.
Back to the Winch. There is no way I am leaving battery juice on the front bumper all the time. And I have to use my cool Aux switches, really c'mon guys.
Between the battery and distribution box you can see 1 of the 2 30-amp fuses for the ARB compressor too.
Since I am dumping pictures on you guys, I actually did this a couple months back. Added "plugs" to the windshield vent. Really helps. And I can tell when its really cold outside, as these pop out in sub zero weather with remote start (full defrost blower). I will probably remove them for the summer months. Easy enough to do. They look factory, same color and finish as the dash plastic.
Enjoy!
