Shagles Outdoor Hobby Support Build

[shagles]

Well I never expected to make a build thread, but I think I'm going to be doing some things that I haven't seen in other builds before and haven't found any references. Maybe this will help someone else. If nothing else, I'll have a log of the stuff I've done.

In the summer of ‘24 I started looking for a replacement for my 2010 equinox, with plans to buy around the end of ’24. I settled on a JLU after spending some time in my cousins 4xe and thinking back to my TJ from college.

JULY ‘24

I got back from vacation in July and the equinox decided it was upset with me and didn’t want to go into reverse. It drove like hammered dog shit all the way to the house, and I started looking for an acceptable jeep immediately. Looked at one that afternoon that seemed good online, but in person all the hinges had bubbling paint, lot of which was “touched up” with white out, and lots of rust underneath and in the engine bay. Passed on that one and set up an appointment to look at mine the next day at lunch. I stopped by the dealership early the next morning to look at it without a sales guy and was sold. Started the paperwork while I was still at work and brought it home at lunch. It was a bone stock 2020 Sahara unlimited, 2.0 in Ocean Blue Metallic and I was beyond happy to be back in a jeep.

I noticed immediately that the driver sun visor was jacked like most JL’s, so ordered brackets to fix that from amazon. Then I walked out one morning to a 10 inch tall duck on the hood that my wife’s friend had shipped to her from amazon.

Next up was a phone mount. Trying to decide between 67 designs and bullet point was tough, but I found a full 67 designs setup on the classifieds for a really good deal and jumped on it

Sponsored

 

[shagles]

AUGUST ‘24

I added mopar floor mats from facebook at the beginning of August.

I started having some intermittent death wobble on a couple sections of the road. The bushings in the stock track bar were completely toast, so I started with longer mopar LCA’s and a Clayton track bar. This made it a lot better, but not completely gone.

 

[shagles]

SEPTEMBER ‘24

Next was the MC frame side track bar mount brace since the bolt holes in the factory mount were wallowed out. Like the track bar, the stock ball joints were toast (bone stock, 60k miles) so I added teraflex ball joints. All of that together and making sure all the bolts were correctly torqued (maybe a touch over….) solved the death wobble.

After that I picked up some springs from a Rubicon spec’d with metal bumpers and a hard top. Got those put on for about 1 1/2” of lift all around. Somehow this is the closest picture I have of that.

 

[shagles]

OCTOBER ‘24

Then I picked up a Fox TS steering stabilizer for a JK new in box on facebook and got that put on just for kicks. There was basically no difference that I could feel but its up out of the way now.

I also added LED headlight bulbs since the factory halogen ones suck. And yes, I got ones that are made to work with halogen housings so I’m not blinding people.

At random times through there I also added cowl lights wired through the built in wiring channel in the engine bay, JScan, and door hinge Rockstoppers.

 

[shagles]

DECEMBER ‘24

My stock tires were getting fairly low and it was getting close to the “nasty” part of north Texas winter, which mainly means ice on untreated roads, and occasional snow that doesn’t get cleared. So I started looking at tires. I knew I was going to go up from the stock 32’s, and was planning on sticking with 33’s until I read multiple times that 35’s didn’t change mileage very much over 33’s. SO, our very own @Tredsdert happens to live around the corner from me and was kind enough to let me borrow his wheels with 35’s that he wasn’t currently using. And what do ya know! Mileage only went down 2-3 mpg from the stock tires. 35’s it was!

I ended up finding a pretty sweet deal on a set of 5 Method 315’s with ProComp AT sport tires in 35x12.5x17 for $1300, with less than 5k miles on them. The only downside was they were powder coated powder blue. They did all fit in the back though!

Some very “helpful” friends (@gek and @J.Ferreira ) tried to convince me to run them blue, but I just couldn’t do it. Thankfully I still had a wheel plastidip kit from a previous car that I’d never ended up using, so the wheels got plastidipped bronze before they were put on.

At the same time I ran across so Fox shocks from a JTR for $50 and thought I’d try them out. Some slightly bigger bolts to fit the larger bushings and some spacers I machined at work, and they went on in the parking lot. They’re a better ride than the black Sahara shocks for sure.

 

[shagles]

JANUARY ‘25

It was a good thing I got my new tires, as a week later we got 8” of snow. I know it’s not a lot for most of the country, but in north Texas, that’s a lot and shuts things down since our roads and infrastructure aren’t built for any amount of snow. The tires and jeep did great in 2wd the whole time and the kids had fun riding around and listening to their mom scream every time the back end slid even a little bit.

Then I picked up a smittybuilt tire carrier and tail gate support. Once again a great deal on facebook.

After that I added amber LED fogs, and LED turn signals and DRLs.

 

[shagles]

FEBRUARY ‘25

I noticed one day that the bolt on the bottom of the radiator support was crashing into the top of my steering stabilizer on really big bumps, so I made some good old hockey puck bump stop extensions. Then the ride was very stiff and harsh. Thinking that the factory bump stops were too hard in the cold, I put on some MC durobumps and it didn’t get better. After some help from some buddies and some forum digging, I realized that the durobumps were an inch longer than the stock ones, so I didn’t need the hockey pucks anymore. Pulled those back out and everything was golden again.

 

[shagles]

MARCH ‘25

I found a sunrider (thanks @gek ) in essentially new condition for a steal, about 20 minutes from a friend down in Houston. It was just missing some bolts. Some digging through the instructions, a couple extra photos from the seller, and a trip to Lowe’s and I had the hardware I needed. After some messages between all three of us, I paid for it and he picked it up and held onto it for me for over a month.

 

[shagles]

APRIL ‘25

I met up with my buddy in late April for an archery event and I put the sunrider on in the parking lot before heading home.

 

[shagles]

MAY ‘25

For my birthday, my wife told me to just pick something out and buy. So the headliner for sunrider by Hothead was ordered, delivered, and installed. So far, I’m very happy with it. It cuts a good bit of noise and stays in place well once all the velcro is used. I wish I’d asked them to put velcro on the headliner fabric side instead of just sticking to the headliner fabric like normal though.

That pretty much takes it up to now.

 

[shagles]

Now for the next stage of mods.

I’ve gotten back into mountain biking and found that my bike fits very nicely inside the jeep with the front tire off and the 60 side of the backseat folded down. I’ve got it bungie corded to the passenger side roll bar and rear grab handle. However, I would like to make it cleaner and more secure. I plan to put some L Track or something similar across the cargo area right inside the tailgate, possibly mounted to the rear most tie down bolts. I’ll then put a fork mount on the L Track to mount the bike to. This should eliminate the need for any bungies.

I also want a clean, organized way to carry my tools, spares, gear, and a bulk water container at the same time. My current thought is to use a fridge slide in the driver side cargo space with a platform that my mini toolbox, bike washer, floor pump, and water container/cooler can all mount to. The slide would let me put the water container further inside the jeep, and slide it out to use it. I also scuba dive, so ideally I’ll make that platform semi hot swappable and build a second one for my scuba gear. Then the L Track will get used to attach a mount for my aluminum cylinders.

I'll grab some photos of everything packed up and start playing around with layouts in photoshop

 

[shagles]

Well I've ended up having to haul my kids on the days that I go biking, which leads to extra driving to drop them off and then go back to the house for the bike. So I caved and bought a hitch and hitch rack on fb marketplace. Kuat Sherpa 2.0. It's super nice, but wouldn't you know, my stupid huge XL bike is too long of wheelbase to fit on it by 4+ inches. I'm sure I'll have fun trying to sell it and then I'll do what I should have from the beginning and get a 1up QuikRack. Its the only long enough that isn't basically $1k.

 

[shagles]

The 1up rack has been working great. I'm currently working through some design ideas to get it mounted to the rear door hinge reinforcement so that it swings with the door. Having to take the bike off and then step around the rack to get stuff out of the back is kind of annoying.
In other news, I used the jeep to pull a 100+ pound crepe myrtle stump out of my yard yesterday. It took me and my brother in law 3 1/2 hours of digging around it and chopping roots to get it out. But that damn tree is finally gone. I've been trying to kill it for 2 years and it just wouldn't die.

 

[Deleted User 38384]

The 1up rack has been working great. I'm currently working through some design ideas to get it mounted to the rear door hinge reinforcement so that it swings with the door. Having to take the bike off and then step around the rack to get stuff out of the back is kind of annoying.
In other news, I used the jeep to pull a 100+ pound crepe myrtle stump out of my yard yesterday. It took me and my brother in law 3 1/2 hours of digging around it and chopping roots to get it out. But that damn tree is finally gone. I've been trying to kill it for 2 years and it just wouldn't die.

You should have hit me up. I know the secret to killing the trees super effectively!!

Get you a half inch drill bit, drill three holes around the base of the tree, at a downward angle, and then pour muriatic acid into each of the holes.

Guaranteed to kill the tree within 3 weeks!!!

Good stuff though!!

 

[shagles]

You should have hit me up. I know the secret to killing the trees super effectively!!

Get you a half inch drill bit, drill three holes around the base of the tree, at a downward angle, and then pour muriatic acid into each of the holes.

Guaranteed to kill the tree within 3 weeks!!!

Good stuff though!!

I put 15 holes in it about 8" deep and filled them all full of salt. Supposed to be guaranteed to kill it too and the fucker just laughed at me and grew 4' sprouts in 2 weeks.

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