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Chad's Colorado 2 Door onroad and offroad fun

SteadyC

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Hi everyone,

I've been working on my early 2018 build 2 door Sport JL, manual, 3.6, for quite some time with lots of mods, some small, some medium sized, just a couple larger ones. My goal for this Jeep, was basically to make it better performing than stock for both, on road and off road. I wanted to make it more capable off road, but at the same time, still very fun to drive on road, as you will see I don't have a tall lift or tall tires.

My previous car was a BMW M235xi, and wanted to keep this fun to drive on road as well, good gas mileage, but able to have fun on weekend trails. This year we went to Moab for the first time, that was excellent, and have done a few trails around Colorado, including Red Cone which is rated Difficult-Severe. This Jeep isn't built to conquer the huge rock trails, but to enable me to get out on the weekends and have fun.

I've been very lucky with this Jeep, only one recall (steering stabilizer) and one TSB have applied to my Jeep, and the steering has always been great, no dead spot, no wobble, no shimmy, nothing. Well, other than the 48psi tires from factory, and a high speed last second swerve around a tire in the road, which scared me a bit, and motivated me to make this a better performing on road Jeep. I still did all the steering upgrades and preventative items (torque lower ball joints, etc.).

I've had hours of entertainment and learning from Ronny Dahl, Brad, @Kevin8086. Not to mention my own new adventures, in some pictures below. And of course this forum and great members like @TTEChris and many, many others.

Exterior
· Bestop Trektop
· TOTL Innovations HERO Hood (perhaps one of my favorite mods, @TOTL Innovations )
· Fuel Beast wheels 18X9
· Nitto Ridge Grapplers 275/70R18 (33X11)
· DV8 inner front fenders
· Rugged Ridge trailer hitch
· Magnaflow muffler
· Artec rear license plate relocation bracket
· Quadratec replacement antenna
· JT grill inserts
· Rubicon front fenders

Suspension and steering
· Teraflex 1.5 inch lift, and bump stops
· MetalCloak adjustable front and rear trackbars
· Rusty’s trackbar reinforcement bracket (frame side)
· MetalCloak adjustable front LCAs
· MetalCloak steering stabilizer relocation bracket
· Teraflex Falcon Steering Stabilizer
· JKS quicker disconnect front sway bar connects

Protection
· Barricade aluminum front bumper
· Rusty’s front bumper skid plate
· ROAM Offroad rear aluminum bumper and lights
· Rusty’s rear quarter panel fascia skid
· EVO transmission and oil pan skid plate (Required modification to fit 2 door)
· MetalCloak rear diff skid plate
· MetalCloak FAD skid plate
· JCR Offroad rock sliders
· Motobilt front and rear diff covers
· Rock hard 4X4 rear lower control arm skid plates

Recovery
· ARB dual compressor and manifold, mounted in engine bay via @Kansascoast mount
· ARB front lockers
· Rear OEM LSD
· Trailfx winch with Masterpull rope replacement
· Factor 55 Prolink
· Factor 55 Hitchlink and soft shackle
· Smittybilt Recovery kit, toe strap, tree saver (2), etc., all stored in https://adventuretoolcompany.com/ recovery gear bag.

Lightning
· PIAA amber fog light bar
· KC bumper amber fog lights
· QuakeLED RGB LED headlights
· Feniex AI 14 inch light Bar
· Diode Dynamics LED replacement bulbs in front turn signals and all rear bulbs

Interior
· Rugged Ridge phone mount
· Cobra CB and Cooltech antenna mount
· CB speaker mounted in Rugged Ridge phone mount
· PRP Seat covers, love these!
· Removed back seat
· JLAudio 3.5 inch speaker replacements (4) in front dash and roll bar
· Mopar floor mats and door still protectors
· Raider Rack tailgate rack system, 3 mole bags and bottle opener
· 2019 interior dome light replacement
· Rugged Ridge fire extinguisher mount

Others
· Tazer Mini
· UPR oil catch can
· K&N air filter replacement (I use the OEM when off-roading)
· Indeflate air up/down
· Switch Pros 9100 switch panel

Next items:
Artec front axle truss
RCV axles
Rear lockers
Please Bestop, release the Core doors for the JL
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wibornz

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Nice travel pics and sweet ride. Keep posting and I will keep watching.
 

Arrowhead

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But wait, that's a Sport. You can't do any REAL wheelin with a Sport. Only Rubicons can do real wheelin and go to those cool places with epic scenery. :)
 

Aranimus

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I just came across this thread, and I have to say, I'm glad to see there are mods available for 2-door JLs! Being a fellow JL Sport owner, with the same color and soft top (mine is just the stock soft top), I will bookmark this post for future possible upgrade ideas! My wife and I would like our JL to be both an on and off-road vehicle --- reasonably capable in both realms (hopefully!) --- so we get where you are coming from. Anyway, thanks for posting!
 

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SteadyC

SteadyC

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Look what has arrived. I can’t wait to swap out the old for this bad boy. I have been working on my daughter’s Subaru, and our old Dodge Dakota needs a new radiator, so I have some other priorities, but soon, very soon, this will go on, can’t wait.
https://www.feniex.com/scene-lights/ai-lightbar

I also bought Gladiator grill inserts to replace the Wrangler grill inserts, they are more open, more air. Got the idea and info here.
https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/fo...diator-grill-inserts.31271/page-2#post-867924

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SteadyC

SteadyC

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JT grill inserts installed, old LED bar removed, new Feneix AI LED light mounted, ran the wires, but didn’t hook them up, ran out of time. Also replaced radiator in old Dodge Dakota this weekend.

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Aranimus

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  • Looks like you are having fun with this! The positioning of the license plate on the front bumper made me smile, as I was thinking "Well, that negates the whole bridge toll thing, as it's pointed at the ground" :) Anyway, the reason I am posting is to ask a quick question: Most pictures I have seen that show LED replacement bulbs for the JL seem weirdly "small-looking" to me. Is there some size difference with after market parts and the new JL?
 
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SteadyC

SteadyC

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  • Looks like you are having fun with this! The positioning of the license plate on the front bumper made me smile, as I was thinking "Well, that negates the whole bridge toll thing, as it's pointed at the ground" :) Anyway, the reason I am posting is to ask a quick question: Most pictures I have seen that show LED replacement bulbs for the JL seem weirdly "small-looking" to me. Is there some size difference with after market parts and the new JL?
Yeah, Jeep moved from a 7 inch headlight in the JK to a 9 inch headlight in the JL. So, what we saw were few scenarios, after market companies are finally coming out with true 9 inch lights where the housing is 9 inch and the light inside if finally 9 inches as well. Secondly, there were a couple vendors that released their old 7 inch light in a 9 inch housing, which is my scenario (I think). And then thirdly, taking old 7 inch JK lights and putting them in a headlight bracket that will fit in a JL for the 9 inch mounts/bolts. I was very impatient and didn’t want to wait for the true 9 inch lights, so I made the purchase of the QuakeLED headlights that appear to be their past RGB lights now mounted in a 9 inch mount. They are fine, I like them well enough, and my today money needs to go elsewhere. ;-)

On the license plate, yeah, I did that the hour before leaving to Moab since here in Colorado they are required on the front. I didn’t want to drill any holes, and found a way to mount it to some open slats on that bottom facing part of the bumper. ;-)
 
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SteadyC

SteadyC

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Feniex light installation completed, part of wiring in SwitchPros panel and switch board. The SwitchPros solution is amazing, it has a wire that goes to an ignition controlled fuse, and they provide the fuse cabling, thus now all accessories aren’t drawing power unless ignition is on. This can be programmed too, either ignition controlled, or battery, if your accessories need power all the time. It also has a wire that connects with one of your lights, detection of night or day driving, to dim the panel automatically. It is also programmable with a mobile phone app, which I haven’t played with yet. Very impressed.

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