A boy and his dog (and his Jeep) at the end of the world.

[BroncoHound]

A teaser of a “mod” to come…

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[TheBirdie72]

A teaser of a “mod” to come…

You are going to upgrade your spare tire?! whoa…

 

[BroncoHound]

You are going to upgrade your spare tire?! whoa…

Yep, that one too!

 

[BroncoHound]

Part 15 - Updated rolling stock
So when I first installed the Method NV's, I liked the look but it wasn't exactly what I was hoping for. The bronze color from Method was a little too bright and flashy (I wanted a bit more muted a bronze), and I've noticed through several sets of wheels over the last decade or so, that Method's quality was starting to slip. It's natural; you make a top echelon product until your brand takes off then you have to make sacrifices for the sake of production volume. This last set I put on Evelyn have taken more weight to balance than any Method wheels I've seen or heard of before.

When the 392 pictures were first release, I was lustful for more than just the thought of a factory V8. The beadlock-capable wheels they installed were EXACTLY what I wanted. So, I've been on the passive lookout ever since and it just so happens a set came available locally for a fair price.

What came off: Method NV Bronze; 17x8.5; 0mm offset, Made in China

What went on: Jeep 392 wheels in bronze; 17x7.5; 44.45mm offset, Made in Mexico

I took the takeoffs over to Discount Tire and they swapped over my Duratracs to the 392 wheels and put the 285/70R17 KO2's from the takeoffs on the Methods for me to sell afterward. The trim ring had to come off the 392 wheels in order to get the KO2's off and Duratracs on, so it took a loooooong time to make the swap.

Note: the trim rings take a T50 torx bit; you have one in your top removal toolkit in your center console, in case your tire shop doesn't have one. I have since added a 3/8" socket adapter and 3/8"-1/2" adapter so they can put it on the airgun in the future as opposed to removing all of them by hand.

Initially, we left the TPMS sensors from the 392 on the 392 wheels and installed them on the Jeep and left my old TPMS sensors in the Methods. But, Evelyn never took to the 392 TPMS sensors (I figured they would just automatically sync since they were both Jeep JL sensors but that wasn't the case) so I took her back today and they swapped the TPMS sensors around.

The end result: obviously the wheels sit back inside the fender flares in stock fashion but I actually kindof like that look. However I thought about possibly splitting the difference between where the 392 takeoffs sit and where the Method's sat by adding a set of 3/4" or 1" spacers, but after measuring the wheel lugs and seeing they are 1-5/8" long, it looks like 1-3/4" wheel spacers are the minimum size which would kick them right back out where the Methods were and I'm not going to do that (for now, at least). I also kicked around the idea of looking for shallow black lugnuts to replace the OEM chrome plated ones, but those don't bother me as much as I thought they would (I'm generally fairly anti-chrome) so I think I'm just going to leave it alone and enjoy the living hell out of an absolutely stunning set of wheels on my handsome little green buggy.

 

[RagTopDeluxe]

Those wheels look fantastic on your Sarge Green!

 

[BroncoHound]

Well, I ran the numbers, I searched the soul, I threw the bones, I peeked into the future, I asked the 8-ball, I looked up the skirt of a dancing girl, and all these avenues of prognostication all told me the same thing: time to make a change. Yesterday I authorized Kent Shurtleff of Peterson Jeep to order me an Ecodiesel replacement for Evelyn.

Kent is estimating 12-15 weeks for delivery, and I'm probably in the minority by hoping it takes all 12-15 weeks of that. Once the new Jeep is here I'll need to bring it home and move over all the aftermarket add-ons from Evelyn to Evelyn 2.0 (yeah, I'm being lazy with the name on the 2nd one). I'll be doing this all by myself and in my driveway, so I'd rather it be well into spring when the Jeep arrives so both my fingers and any plastic clips or tabs are all sufficiently warm enough that I don't do any damage to either vehicle swapping everything over. After everything is swapped, I'll clean Evelyn up real nice and list her for sale. If she doesn't sell privately in a couple months, I'll send her off to Carvana (I got quoted $300 more from them, now, than what I paid for Evelyn brand new 18 months ago).

Evelyn 2.0 will look the exact same. The only 2 options (other than the Ecodiesel and the corresponding automatic transmission) that I added, which weren't available when I ordered Evelyn, are the front trail camera and the Gorilla Glass windshield; so from 10ft most will be hard pressed to tell I'm driving a difference vehicle. I'll continue the story on this thread rather than building a new one, because it will simply be a continuation of the story I started with the first Evelyn (and because, well, lazy).

So, for now, let the thumb-twiddling begin!

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