Elbow Grease - '22 JLU Rubicon Ecodiesel

[ChuckQue]

I've been putting off doing a build thread for a variety of reasons, mainly because I am not that creative and also because I pushed it off for so long that now it's going to be a bit of a puzzle to put together. Since I am laid up post spine surgery, I figure now is a good a time as any to finally start working on it.

Elbow Grease is a character in a children's book that I read to my son a lot when he was little, and it's about a monster truck that isn't as big or strong as his fellow trucks, but is full of gumption and so perseveres where he was told he wouldn't. My son took to calling our little beat up '01 XJ "Elbow Grease", and once it was sold the name carried over to our new JL. Our family has the mantra that you always give 110%, never let anyone say you can't accomplish something, and you can't win if you don't play. So, Elbow Grease lives on.

We ordered our Bright White 2022 JL Wrangler Unlimited in April of 2022, were issued a VIN shortly after and then began the long wait. It entered build status July 13th 2022, was built in a few days and then shipped over to the upfitters, or JB as it's known. This is where we ran into issues. Apparently at some point, the rear steel bumper was damaged while at the upfitters which promptly put us into JB Hell. The jeep sat there for MONTHS, until finally, with the help of an awesome Stellantis employee named Mike MacDonald, it was released for shipping November 11th, one day before my birthday. We picked it up a few days later and it was outfitted with the following options:

WRANGLER UNLIMITED RUBICON

• 3.0L V6 Turbo Diesel Engine
• 8-Spd Auto 8HP75 Trans
• Bright White Clear Coat
• Leather Trimmed Bucket Seats
• Integrated Off-Road Camera
• MOPAR Hinge-Gate Reinforcement
• Mopar Doors Off Mirror Kit
• Body Color 3-Piece Hard Top
• Corning Gorilla(R) Glass
• MOPAR All-Weather Floor Mats
• Trail Rail Management System
• MOPAR Stainless Door Sill Guards
• MOPAR Hardtop Headliner
• Steel Bumper Group
• Advanced Safety Group
• Safety Group
• LED Lighting Group
• Trailer Tow and HD Electrical Group
• Cold Weather Group

This was the Jeep the first day it was parked in our driveway. It wouldn't stay this way for long as I already had a mountain of parts that had been piling up and I was eager to get started on building our adventure rig. The second photo was a couple days later after a brand new set of Falken Wildpeak AT3W All Terrains in load range E were mounted up on KMC Tank Beadlock wheels in bronze. No lift was installed yet. Tires and wheels were mounted up by American Tire Depot local to us where we've been going for years and have a good relationship with the manager there.

Sponsored

 

[ChuckQue]

While waiting for the Jeep to be built, I spent a huge amount of time here on the forums reading countless threads on suspension setups. There are so many different manufacturers of suspension kits who themselves offer a multitude of different setups ranging from mild to wild and everything in between. It was overwhelming, but I wanted to really to deep research to find what would best fit our use case. We wanted something that could really rock crawl but also daily well since I have a decently long commute. We weren't so much overlanders as much as we were just weekend warrior adventuring, though the appeal of overlanding was not lost on us. My wife and I are avid backpackers, but with a very recent right knee meniscus repair, a left knee not far behind, neck issues, shoulder issues, etc, we didn't see much backpacking in our near future so we kept our options open.

We anticipated a somewhat heavy build out for the rear cargo area. Our good friend is project manager at Project X Off-road and when he found out we were picking up a JL he told us he wanted to use it for product development, which included retrofitting their JK vehicle fridge/freezer setup. He is also a walking rolodex of connections and knowledge of the off-road industry so I was bouncing ideas and questions off him left and right. In his opinion he felt our use case narrowed down our choices to Teraflex or Rock Krawler.

Eventually I spent about two hours discussing build ideas and our plans for the Jeep with a Rock Krawler rep at an expo. He spent a lot of time helping to narrow down our choices within a budget, and we walked away having purchased their Ultimate Adventure System Stage 1 with their RRD shock package, having also added on their No Limits swaybar links thanks to the prior advice of @Roky .

The JL then went over to G-Force Off-road Performance in Santa Ana, CA to begin the work courtesy of the owner Ricky Gonzalez, formerly of Evo and Rebel Off-road. At his recommendation we replaced the OEM steering setup with Steersmarts' Yeti tie rod and drag link to compliment the Rock Krawler lift.

Also installed at this time were Rockhard Patriot 4x4 rock sliders and ASFIR's diesel skid plates minus the DEF tank skid.

Ricky spent several days fine tuning the suspension and bump stops, and I swear he paint marked every single dang bolt on the undercarriage. The guy is a true professional and one of the nicest guys I've met.

 

[ChuckQue]

Next up was finishing off the ASFIR skids with their DEF Tank skid and differential skids. Unfortunately once we mocked up the diff skids we realized the front would contact the track bar on down travel. After a bunch of back and forth with @Roky about his setup that works with the RK lift, I ordered up the Dana Advantek 44 nodular iron covers. They came quick via Northridge 4x4, so we were able to get them on before the next wheeling trip.

ASFIR Def skid went on fairly easily. The website claims it doesn't work with the steel bumper but it does. In the circled area below there is a flared tab for the bumper that is bolted to the frame there. There's a matching flared bracket on the opposite side, and that's where the interference with the skid is because it causes the skid to sit poorly and thus the other bolt holes wont line up. Just pound those flares flat, add some stacked washers to the third additional mounting point on the skid and it works perfectly. I made ASFIR aware of this and sent photos but they still haven't made changes to the website to indicate this'll work. Shame.

Also around this time I added Raingler's full coverage rear cargo net barrier. There were some fitment issues I documented in my install and review thread which were rectified by different mounts for the bottom corners of the net which Raingler provided free of charge. I really enjoyed working with them to refine the barrier net for future customers. They made a great product that is extremely well built and their customer service is excellent. The net will help keep gear in the back secure in the event of a crash, making it far less likely to have something become a deadly projectile. You can see from the net photos how loose and crappy it looked on the bottom part. The final photo is of the cargo area with gear strapped down but you can make out the net is taught and functional.

 

[ChuckQue]

Communications were the next focus. My wife, son and I often wheel as a solo rig so we knew we needed something that had more range than the handheld GMRS radios we carried. GMRS seems to be the standard anymore, with more and more people or events switching to it. Knowing that, I ordered up the MXT575 from Midland. After many attempts to find a place to mount it I realized the 575 was going to be too big. The only spot large enough to accommodate it was under one of the front seats and that wasn't going to work for our rig. I planned on mounting an ARB or similar air compressor under one of the seats, and my wife's much needed step stool resides under her seat.

I talked to @CoolTech at length about what setup would work with our rig and he recommended the MXT275 Micromobile from Midland. He sent over the radio plus all the required parts for a clean install including his grab bar mic mount, Magnetic Mic mount, ghost antenna and the JL cowl bracket mount for the antenna. Installation was easy, though the only spot that I found I liked for the radio brain was inside the dash, just below the steering column.

All of the Cooltech supplied items worked great. I know some folks have had complaints about the mic mount on the grab bar causing issues with the radio tuning knob. I found with the Magnetic Mic it provides a bit more stand off from the dash, and the magnet is so powerful that if you cant the mic a bit it keeps the cord away from the radio tuning knob and it doesn't budge.

While installing the radio I also put in a rear cargo light bar which mounts to the hard top glass. This was a huge improvement for cargo area lighting, as the factory dome lights are woefully inadequate for anything more than use as a reading light. At night I couldn't see a dang thing in the cargo area.

Here’s a link to the page where I ordered the light. They’ve since updated the design to a RGB instead of just white, so that’s cool:

https://donerightled.com/products/jeep-wrangler-led-lift-gate-dome-light-bar

 

[ChuckQue]

I knew I would get something out of order. So, before I installed the DEF tank skid, I received the Teraflex Alpha Tire Carrier setup. Talk about BEEF. They didn't play around when they designed that thing, and I was immediately impressed by the overall fit and finish. It's considerably more expensive than the other tire carrier reinforcements from competitors. For me the attraction was the more refined looking design and the fact it had all sorts of additional accessory mounting points on it. Teraflex did so with the anticipation they would be releasing accessories for it at some point which, last I heard, they have a few things in the pipeline.

Install was very simple and easy. The only hard part is aligning the whole thing if you are by yourself. An extra set of hands would be handy at that point but I still got it done. Once it was on, I felt it was worth every bit of what it cost.

 

[AC77]

Nice setup, enjoy it all the way .
just throwing it out there, if you looking to get a bit of more boost and power, i have a brand new Derringer tuner, i bought 2 , one for my diesel and one for my cousins gladiator diesel, but he ended up going a different route.

Im looking into a 2 way radio as well

And which light/brand did you install for the rear glass ? that's nice and bright

 

[ChuckQue]

Nice setup, enjoy it all the way .
just throwing it out there, if you looking to get a bit of more boost and power, i have a brand new Derringer tuner, i bought 2 , one for my diesel and one for my cousins gladiator diesel, but he ended up going a different route.

Im looking into a 2 way radio as well

And which light/brand did you install for the rear glass ? that's nice and bright

Thank you! I’m running an EOC tune so I’m set for power Prior to that I did have a Pedal Monster and just that was a huge improvement.

The light setup for the rear cargo area is this one:

https://donerightled.com/products/jeep-wrangler-led-lift-gate-dome-light-bar

 

[jberry187]

I've been putting off doing a build thread for a variety of reasons, mainly because I am not that creative and also because I pushed it off for so long that now it's going to be a bit of a puzzle to put together. Since I am laid up post spine surgery, I figure now is a good a time as any to finally start working on it.

Elbow Grease is a character in a children's book that I read to my son a lot when he was little, and it's about a monster truck that isn't as big or strong as his fellow trucks, but is full of gumption and so perseveres where he was told he wouldn't. My son took to calling our little beat up '01 XJ "Elbow Grease", and once it was sold the name carried over to our new JL. Our family has the mantra that you always give 110%, never let anyone say you can't accomplish something, and you can't win if you don't play. So, Elbow Grease lives on.

We ordered our Bright White 2022 JL Wrangler Unlimited in April of 2022, were issued a VIN shortly after and then began the long wait. It entered build status July 13th 2022, was built in a few days and then shipped over to the upfitters, or JB as it's known. This is where we ran into issues. Apparently at some point, the rear steel bumper was damaged while at the upfitters which promptly put us into JB Hell. The jeep sat there for MONTHS, until finally, with the help of an awesome Stellantis employee named Mike MacDonald, it was released for shipping November 11th, one day before my birthday. We picked it up a few days later and it was outfitted with the following options:

WRANGLER UNLIMITED RUBICON

• 3.0L V6 Turbo Diesel Engine
• 8-Spd Auto 8HP75 Trans
• Bright White Clear Coat
• Leather Trimmed Bucket Seats
• Integrated Off-Road Camera
• MOPAR Hinge-Gate Reinforcement
• Mopar Doors Off Mirror Kit
• Body Color 3-Piece Hard Top
• Corning Gorilla(R) Glass
• MOPAR All-Weather Floor Mats
• Trail Rail Management System
• MOPAR Stainless Door Sill Guards
• MOPAR Hardtop Headliner
• Steel Bumper Group
• Advanced Safety Group
• Safety Group
• LED Lighting Group
• Trailer Tow and HD Electrical Group
• Cold Weather Group

This was the Jeep the first day it was parked in our driveway. It wouldn't stay this way for long as I already had a mountain of parts that had been piling up and I was eager to get started on building our adventure rig. The second photo was a couple days later after a brand new set of Falken Wildpeak AT3W All Terrains in load range E were mounted up on KMC Tank Beadlock wheels in bronze. No lift was installed yet. Tires and wheels were mounted up by American Tire Depot local to us where we've been going for years and have a good relationship with the manager there.

Nice Jeep! Sell me the endcaps to that bumper :P

 

[AC77]

Thank you! I’m running an EOC tune so I’m set for power Prior to that I did have a Pedal Monster and just that was a huge improvement.

The light setup for the rear cargo area is this one:

https://donerightled.com/products/jeep-wrangler-led-lift-gate-dome-light-bar

nice ! and thanks for the link!

 

[ChuckQue]

Nice Jeep! Sell me the endcaps to that bumper :P

I’ve been the recipient of help by others here. I’ll gladly pay it forward. DM sent.

 

[ChuckQue]

Full disclosure: my close friend is the brand director at Project X Off-road. They are a company under the umbrella of Horizon Brands, which owns several brands and rights to various products from home to automotive. He was tapped to lead their foray into the off-road market because of his years of experience working for Magnaflow and other companies. They began offering lighting solutions, fridges, auxiliary switching, things like that. They were already making stuff for Bronco and the JK when I bought my JL so Jared asked me to lend my vehicle for development of a JL line. No way was I going to say no to that! It helps that they make some damn good gear and I was excited to put it to use.

I brought the Jeep in for the first phase of testing fitment of their JK specific stuff in the JL to see if it would work with little to no modifications as that would save a ton in tooling and such. The fridge slides were a tight fit due to the difference in the JK and JL cargo areas. It seemed the JK was a little more narrow but a tad bit deeper, while the JL was the opposite. We started building a frame that would tie into the factory bolt holes where my Trail Rail was. Getting their 41 quart Blizzard Box fridge to fit on the driver’s side was proving very difficult because of the latch hump on the tailgate. It would only fit on the passenger side which isn’t ideal if you are planning on using a tailgate table.

I knew many users who install a fridge will use a tailgate table. We found that by removing the rear handle of the fridge and dropping the frame down as low as possible to the floor we could mount the slide close enough to the tailgate to clear the back of the rear seats and fit it on the driver’s side. Success!

I used some lashing strap tie downs in place of the handle on the rear of the fridge to secure it to the slide. With the dual slide setup I could more easily stow and secure my gear boxes, a huge help for me because of medical issues making it very difficult to lift gear in certain ways.

So far the most recent mounting frame is working perfectly. It’s held up great to a bunch of hard wheeling, road trips and daily driving. We’ve beat on them, used them a ton, and loaded them down with a good amount of weight with no issues. It’s been really nice having them on the trail, and the fridge is just amazing to have. There’s something about having nice cold drinks and lunch on hand all the time that is just hard to beat. Not dealing with ice is a boon.

The fridge slide mounts were very prototype and will be scrapped ultimately for a CAD designed setup that I can’t wait to test out.

The photos below show the progression of trying different mounting positions and height until finding what worked to make it fit the driver’s side.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

Very nice. It's too bad you are not creative, I feel asleep twice reading this.

 

[ChuckQue]

Very nice. It's too bad you are not creative, I feel asleep twice reading this.

It does read a bit dry, doesn’t it? Probably years of writing police reports

I do plan to post some video reviews on specific mods, keeping the videos short but informative and hopefully lively enough to be interesting haha.

 

[Roky]

Wasn’t that bad…..

 

[Tredsdert]

Communications were the next focus. My wife, son and I often wheel as a solo rig so we knew we needed something that had more range than the handheld GMRS radios we carried. GMRS seems to be the standard anymore, with more and more people or events switching to it. Knowing that, I ordered up the MXT575 from Midland. After many attempts to find a place to mount it I realized the 575 was going to be too big. The only spot large enough to accommodate it was under one of the front seats and that wasn't going to work for our rig. I planned on mounting an ARB or similar air compressor under one of the seats, and my wife's much needed step stool resides under her seat.

I talked to @CoolTech at length about what setup would work with our rig and he recommended the MXT275 Micromobile from Midland. He sent over the radio plus all the required parts for a clean install including his grab bar mic mount, Magnetic Mic mount, ghost antenna and the JL cowl bracket mount for the antenna. Installation was easy, though the only spot that I found I liked for the radio brain was inside the dash, just below the steering column.

All of the Cooltech supplied items worked great. I know some folks have had complaints about the mic mount on the grab bar causing issues with the radio tuning knob. I found with the Magnetic Mic it provides a bit more stand off from the dash, and the magnet is so powerful that if you cant the mic a bit it keeps the cord away from the radio tuning knob and it doesn't budge.

While installing the radio I also put in a rear cargo light bar which mounts to the hard top glass. This was a huge improvement for cargo area lighting, as the factory dome lights are woefully inadequate for anything more than use as a reading light. At night I couldn't see a dang thing in the cargo area.

Here’s a link to the page where I ordered the light. They’ve since updated the design to a RGB instead of just white, so that’s cool:

https://donerightled.com/products/jeep-wrangler-led-lift-gate-dome-light-bar

Interesting, I never thought about hiding my CB radio before. Though the thought of it getting stolen has always been there, not a bad idea!

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