Scratch- 21 JLU Rubi XR

[BoatTox]

Sold This

While waiting for this

Waiting….so I bought something to bridge the gap

Which I loved riding around with him

So in October I bought this

10 days later I did this

Which helped me realize how much I love my new Jeep. Now I need to mod it so I make less noise on rocks. Hope you all enjoyed my story. Good night.

To keep this interesting I think this is a story told in three parts.

1. Prior to Purchase (PP) - How does someone go from an all electric pickup to my new Jeep.
2. First time off-roading my Jeep to joining the JL Wrangler Forum, I will call this the Recent past (RP).
3. Current Build (CB) where I focus on whatever update/issue I’m currently obsessing over.

The RP should resolve pretty quickly and get us caught up, but the prior to purchase (PP) may help when I drop important journal updates such as “today I installed a CONSOLE DIVIDER”

We are all just here wasting time, fantasizing about our build and other people’s jeeps/trips so I will try to make it a little interesting, give the experienced jeepers a change to drop some knowledge/warnings and hopefully help us new jeepers as we grow and better define our needs/wants for our rig. I hope you enjoy.

This part of the post will grow/change to reflect my build as I post updates, but will start with my initial thoughts on the day I purchased it. Thought- “There is nothing more cathartic than driving with the top down. I loved my bestop for my TJ. We have cats on our hobby farm and I need something that I can put up really quickly and open really quickly! I need to do some research….BestTop Sunrider it is. I’ll order that after we go to the Jeepin 201 class.” After one week of my phone in the space next to the emergency brake, "maybe I need a phone holder."

NOTE: I have tried to provide hyperlinks to all mods and vendors through this portion of the journal and the story sections, hope that helps if someone is interested in a specific mod.

Exterior
Rydonair Antenna - Installed 11.20.21

Interior
Rugged ridge Door Sill Guards - Installed 11.24.21
Outback Adventures Trailgater - Installed 1.24.21

Phone Holder
Considering at the time (will update when I get to that point in the build log)- CMM Off road JLU Gab bar ball mount with ram iphone mount, 67 designs, Offroam Vent Mount

Tops/Doors
Sunrider
Initial plan- BesTop Sunrider in Black Twill
Purchased-

Aesthetics

Recovery Gear

Storage

Local Vendors

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[wesjtx]

Almost identical looking to mine except mine is soft top. Interested to see what all you do with it!

Wes

 

[BoatTox]

Almost identical looking to mine except mine is soft top. Interested to see what all you do with it!

Wes

Hey Wes, nice to meet you. Congrats on the choice. Jeep has a lot of great colors but I was drawn to the Black/white/red contrast and I live on a gravel road and the white helps a little.

Tell me, how are you liking the soft top? My TJ soft top was great, but I travel 2.5-3 hours to see my daughter and son-in-law and the snapping of the top got grating on my nerves and we plan to do some trips from MO to (AR, TX, OK, CO, NM, UT, and Maybe AZ) in the next 3 years. I think the factory soft tops are quieter. My brother has the one touch and says it's been good so far. I wanted the one touch, but it was take what's available in the current market

I've already done some things, mostly minor, but a big part of my build starts Jan 31st. I'm working on catching up this journal where it will reflect what I've done/am currently doing/ and what new idiotic thing I'm obsessing about at the moment. If you start a build journal let me know and I will follow as well.

 

[wesjtx]

Tell me, how are you liking the soft top? My TJ soft top was great, but I travel 2.5-3 hours to see my daughter and son-in-law and the snapping of the top got grating on my nerves and we plan to do some trips from MO to (AR, TX, OK, CO, NM, UT, and Maybe AZ) in the next 3 years. I think the factory soft tops are quieter. My brother has the one touch and says it's been good so far. I wanted the one touch, but it was take what's available in the current market

I absolutely love it. I also had a TJ with a soft top and it was loud, hard to put up and down, and not always rain proof. The JLU soft top is the total opposite. Only slightly louder than the hard top, less than 5 min to raise or lower including removing/installing side and back window, and havent ever had a drop of water come in despite numerous trips through car wash, etc.

Wes

 

[BoatTox]

Chapter 1
​

Prior to Purchase

It’s March 2019 and I have just witnessed my brother's Model 3 performance drive through heavy traffic in downtown DFW while using whatever version of autopilot was available at the time. He kept his hands above the wheel the entire time ready to take over but only 3 times during a 45 min drive did he make corrections. That combined with instant torque, over the air updates that increased his range and horsepower in the previous few months, lead to a truly eye opening experience. This was the future.

The only problem is that we live on a

hobby farm, with 3 kids in the house, and my wife isn’t driving a sedan with all the jacked up pickups to dodge.

My brother asks if we have heard of Rivian. The next day we put down a deposit for the R1S. This begins the road to our first electric vehicle, but takes many unexpected turns. Well I kinda lied, this was our families first electric vehicle…

Recent Past

My new Jeep is bought and a local Jeep club, Ozark Jeep Thing (OJT) is hosting a Jeeping 201 class…”we will introduce you to more fundamentals covered in the previous 101 class last spring” Ummm, that seems a step up but with life in general these days, things get canceled and what if they don’t have the spring class? I emailed the club and they said jump right in. Thanks OJT!

Alright, let’s see how many youtube videos I can watch between now and the Saturday class. I talk to the fam, now 2 teenage boys, daughter is now married and back in college…”Hey guys, I’ve got this great idea! How about we get up early in the morning so we can be at SMORR at 8:00 AM.” Now that is leaving about 6:45 am but since my family takes forever to actually leave the house once we are ready, I ask for 6:30 am. They agree…good kids, that is a sacrifice as my 16 year old doesn’t like to rise until noon.

So we pack up, I take a pair of gloves and a full cooler for drinks and a second soft cooler for snacky cakes…this is very important to keeping the family dynamics on a level course. We meet some really nice people and it turns out that 5 of us have new jeeps and 3 of us are brand new to jeeping…whew. I’m going to exclude names, but thank you to everyone from OJT that taught us the beginnings and agreed to retrace trails that some of them have probably rode many, many times.

Sweet, one of the new jeeps has my coveted BesTop, I get a chance to show the tower (wife’s nickname) and she asks me to hold the phone and think about getting it when it’s not 30 degrees outside….sigh.

Our group leader asks us if we brought an air down kit…uh oh….Shopping list item number one ARB tire deflator kit. We haven’t gone anywhere and I’m thinking how much am I going to do this, I mean really, how am I going to air down/air up after today? Don’t worry SMORR has 4 compressor tanks/hoses and so no worries…whew. Who's got a radio/cb/grms…sigh I had a small pair at the farm but they were really just walkie talkies. Later that night I watch some videos and I find Jeeping for beginners. He recommends, and I buy a pair of Beofeng G11s. Ok, we are are off and running first up is….Pee-Wee’s crossing. You have Badge of Honor on your phone???

…well I do now!

Off to Pee-Wee’s crossing. We start on the trail and already the fam was having a good time. A few minutes in a we are talking about how cool this is and looking there my first small Branch caressing my right fender

As we go along the trail we get to the waterfall drop off that I had seen on YouTube. While watching from the comfort of my home I thought I can do that, doesn’t look to bad. That was another deal once we got there. Our OJT leaders told us that we could do it but our bumpers were going to get hit/scratched. I looked at the tower…Clearance…

The bumpers scratches and pops on the passenger side, but what a cool thing to experience for the first time. Thank you all for great spotting.

Loved the mud pattern on my new wheels

Finish up before lunch by going up Bronco Buster and stop at the swing tree. Glad I didn’t get the JT, my small extended parts on the fenders barely fit through the trees at the bottom of Bronco Buster. The combination of the turn and narrow trees might have been too much for this new jeeper. Lunch was great, OJT teachers introduced us to needed equipment… which led to more purchases Gaffer tape, Factor 55 Tree Saver, Factor 55 Crosby Shackles in red please, an Avid cordless air pump, and Zip ties. I already have JB weld and bailing wire.

Don’t laugh at me on the air pump, reviews will follow in later posts. I mean how much am I going to do this, really? Do you see how much an ARB compressor costs!!!!

We finish lunch and the assessment is that we are ready to tackle LogJam. This is a lvl 4 out of 6 at SMORR and for a new Jeeper another harrowing experience as I learn the difference between a squeal from rock sliders and screech from scratching my 10 day old vanity rings and the chunk sound/feeling as we strike the bottom a few times.

By now my kids are addicted to the off-road screen and demand that pitch and roll are available thought out the day and all days to come. We got back to base camp and I truly understand how wonderfully capable these machines are off road.

I told my myself that I wasn’t going to sell the TJ and buy this if I was not going to be willing to scratch it. That was definitely tested with the Jeep 10 days old. All 4 wheels scratched, some pinstripes on the fenders, a small chip of paint off the drivers side back door hinge and my plastic back bumper popped loose after my Pee-Wee’s waterfall adventure.

Weirdly the wheels bothered me the most, but after the adrenaline had settled down on the way home I realized that this was the first vehicle that would pull me out of the house to just take driving and searching for adventure.

Thank you to all the people at OJT who helped introduce an new Jeeper to his Jeep. Because of that day all my desires for the Jeep changed, and I was now willing to go do more than just drive it around with the top off on back country roads. Also thanks to my fellow new Jeepers I met that day, it was great meeting people of all ages trying this out for the first time.

And finally my first 2 mods arrive..prepare yourselves.

Rydonair Antenna

And..wait for it…

Rugged Ridge Door sill guards. I mean its sometimes muddy out there. Am I right, Am I right???

Meanwhile an idea is brewing with my brother south in Dallas…stay tuned.

Current Build
Ok, Meat and potatoes time. CB will have simple straightforward build stuff. Skip to here each time if you are not impressed with story time.

Remember I told you the fam needed snacky cakes to stay happy. Well one of our first big issues was after we pull out the coolers, where do we put the mayo and the mustard. I agonized about this decision and was so tempted to spend my money elsewhere, but I’m glad I followed Brad’s advice at TrailRecon. The Outback Adventures Trailgater is amazing. The product is solidly built, came with great instructions.

and I was inspired by something Brad had done in his video.

This Trailgater is an essential piece I have been needing. With the Tailgater installed, I can now put my freedom tops in their bag, secure the bag and measure my total cargo space for our July family vacation to Angel fire/Taos/Santa Fe NM! I’m tired, hope you enjoyed the post. I will try to get my next one done by next week.

Note to myself: Move staging build to bottom of the first post to track changes and update my new mods.

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