tonygiotta
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Tony
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2018
- Threads
- 15
- Messages
- 459
- Reaction score
- 665
- Location
- Turlock, CA
- Vehicle(s)
- '18 Firecracker Red JLUR
- Build Thread
- Link
- Occupation
- Fire Captain
- Thread starter
- #61
A couple of issues arose during the install of the Genesis JL Dual Battery Kit. First off, no matter how hard I tried and no matter what angle I pulled at, I could not get the factory battery tray to come out. It looked so easy in the video! I was super frustrated...
I did some digging in the engine compartment and wheel wells to figure out what exactly was causing my issue, and it turned out it was my coilovers! In order to get every last inch of travel out of the system that they could, EVO designed the bracket to occupy the little bit of space just in front of the auxiliary battery box. Apparently this space is what provides the wiggle room needed to get the factory tray out. I ended up having to cut my factory tray in half so that I could remove it. I probably could have just removed the fender and fender liner instead so I could drop the ESS battery box, but the tray was going in the trash anyway...
So... did your keen observation skills catch issue number two? Take a little closer look...
As I mentioned, EVO squeezed every last bit of travel that they could out of this kit. The coilover tower comes all the way up to the bottom of the battery tray support bracket (which is part of the body). I guess they took it up just a bit too high. I don't think there is any contact while the suspension is at rest, but due to the oblong shape of the shock eye, its radius effectively increases as the suspension cycles. I very carefully trimmed the bracket with my Dremel and found this:
There was a pretty good chunk missing out of it, but I'm sure there's still plenty of meat left on the bone. I reached out to Andrew over at EVO again to give him a heads up about this, but my two emails with pictures documenting the problem went unanswered. I think he was deep into developing the Gladiator kits at this point in time. I also tried to get some feedback on the EVO coilover thread on a different forum, but ponytail was quick to jump on me and tell me I had somehow caused the damage myself by installing the Genesis kit...
Hopefully this was addressed by EVO with a minor redesign at some point, but I'm not sure. Many people with this kit could have this damage and not even know it because you can't see it unless you remove your factory battery tray (or unless you remove your coilover for some reason). I think my trim job should prevent any future contact. I applied a little touch up paint, and carried on.
I did some digging in the engine compartment and wheel wells to figure out what exactly was causing my issue, and it turned out it was my coilovers! In order to get every last inch of travel out of the system that they could, EVO designed the bracket to occupy the little bit of space just in front of the auxiliary battery box. Apparently this space is what provides the wiggle room needed to get the factory tray out. I ended up having to cut my factory tray in half so that I could remove it. I probably could have just removed the fender and fender liner instead so I could drop the ESS battery box, but the tray was going in the trash anyway...
So... did your keen observation skills catch issue number two? Take a little closer look...
As I mentioned, EVO squeezed every last bit of travel that they could out of this kit. The coilover tower comes all the way up to the bottom of the battery tray support bracket (which is part of the body). I guess they took it up just a bit too high. I don't think there is any contact while the suspension is at rest, but due to the oblong shape of the shock eye, its radius effectively increases as the suspension cycles. I very carefully trimmed the bracket with my Dremel and found this:
There was a pretty good chunk missing out of it, but I'm sure there's still plenty of meat left on the bone. I reached out to Andrew over at EVO again to give him a heads up about this, but my two emails with pictures documenting the problem went unanswered. I think he was deep into developing the Gladiator kits at this point in time. I also tried to get some feedback on the EVO coilover thread on a different forum, but ponytail was quick to jump on me and tell me I had somehow caused the damage myself by installing the Genesis kit...
Hopefully this was addressed by EVO with a minor redesign at some point, but I'm not sure. Many people with this kit could have this damage and not even know it because you can't see it unless you remove your factory battery tray (or unless you remove your coilover for some reason). I think my trim job should prevent any future contact. I applied a little touch up paint, and carried on.
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