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tiltz

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I received mine yesterday and haven't installed yet. I was pretty disappointed in the packaging. The carrier was sitting loosely in the box and the additional parts were wrapped in one layer of paper (also unsecured) so there are a bunch of scratches and chips in the powder coat from everything banging around during shipping.

I would have expected everything to be shrink wrapped and secured in the packag. Knowing this now, I would have just ordered it bare and painted it at my house.

Marcus - would you mind sending along that feedback?
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I received mine yesterday and haven't installed yet. I was pretty disappointed in the packaging. The carrier was sitting loosely in the box and the additional parts were wrapped in one layer of paper (also unsecured) so there are a bunch of scratches and chips in the powder coat from everything banging around during shipping.

I would have expected everything to be shrink wrapped and secured in the packag. Knowing this now, I would have just ordered it bare and painted it at my house.

Marcus - would you mind sending along that feedback?
That doesn't sound right based on what I've heard from others on the packaging. I'll get with EVO now. Email me a couple pictures if you don't mind.

Thank you!
 

tiltz

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I'll email you some over later tonight. Thanks
 

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OK so I just finished getting the Evo Tire Carrier installed, and pics are at the link at the end of the post.

Overall I'm happy with the carrier, but one thing that irks me is they didn't allow enough of room in it to account for the two vents on the back of the swing gate. The nature of the beast is that it's low-profile (a very good thing), and as such you can't really see how good of a fitment it is as you're doing the install. In my case, things were looking good but as I started tightening the main bolts down I heard a loud POP! Talk about a heart-attack. I feared the worst but it was just the plastic clips at the bottom of the vents breaking off on the back. Still, it's a brand-new JL so I'm annoyed it happened. Anyhow, be cognizant of this if you go to do the install yourself.

Speaking of the install, you'll need a fair amount of tools if you plan to install yourself. I won't bash the instructions too hard because I know this product is hot off the press, but clearly they were rushed to get it out to market fast. The pictures are good for the most part, though a few don't reflect the state of the step they correspond to. Some steps were also out of order and probably the result of an incorrect cut and paste (no big deal, easy to fix using common sense). The procedure for removing the backup camera was completely omitted as well. Hopefully they polish up the instructions and don't leave it this way for future customers.

I actually have a boatload of additional install pics I can upload if needed (I learned the hard way long ago that I easily forget what parts originally went where :swear:), but a quick summary of what you'll need from what I wrote down for myself:

1. Breaker bars, ratcheting socket wrench (2 will make it easier in some spots), extensions
2. Sockets: 1/2, 13/16, M15, T8, T25, T40, T55 (don't take these as gold, test-fit them for yourself)
3. Torque wrench
4. Hex keys (forgot to write down the size)
5. Screwdrivers
6. Pry-bar might make aligning tailgate with body easier
7. Sandpaper
8. WD40
9. White pencil (for black carrier - for marking depth adjuster)

There's two spots in the instructions to pay particular attention to - the height adjustment and adding shims to the hinge flanges.

For the height adjustment, the instructions don't give any guidelines but there are 3 settings. There's about 1.5 inches apart between each one. My vehicle is a JLUR (steel bumper upgrade) and the tire in my pics is a 35" Discoverer STT pro (actual height is about 34.5"). I chose the middle setting and got lucky and didn't need to readjust. I have about 2 1/8 inches of clearance to the bumper, which should leave me enough room should I choose to upgrade to 37s in the future. Hopefully this helps calculate what setting to use for your tire because it's a PITA not only to take the carrier back off, but to readjust the height (not a lot of room for fingers).

For the shims, I'm not as knowledgeable on this one but the instructions do suggest 1 shim for 33" - 35" and 2 shims for 36" - 37". I went with 1 shim and opening and closing the swing gate seemed OK? I checked for any kind of "give" by the hinges and it seemed rock-solid with no unwanted movement. Again, pay particular attention to this to avoid having to take the carrier off a second time.

And lastly to remove the backup camera from the tube it's three T8 bits, and the camera itself just pulls away from the wiring harness.

I took it for a bumpy test drive and it was solid with no wobble for me. I'll be sure to provide updates if that changes as I add on miles.

Overall, it seems like a damn good carrier and at $715 is a far better value than Mopar's offering.

Here's 1 pic:
bo55fK8.jpg


and the rest of the pics can be found here:

https://imgur.com/a/9HseHvs
Having done this over the weekend can’t agree more. The instructions were fair at best. Remove the camera though as soon as you can. Having it dangling there as the instructions would you have you do isn’t adviseable. Also, be careful on torque specs for installing the new hinges. I snapped a bolt and didn’t have but 29 ft lbs according to my torque wrench. I verified it against a second on the other bolts. It definitely took me a lot longer than I expected.
 

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Thanks for the review. Question, how hard is it to pull off the center section if you needed to take the spare off?
You don’t remove the center section per say. The brake light assembly is mounted to the camera tube with the previously mentioned t8 bolts (tiny little things). Remove them, unplug brake light, and disconnect the camera. Remove spare and re assemble. Not exactly user friendly or trail friendly since those little torx bolts are tiny. I actually had to run out as my torx set didn’t go
That small.
 

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Thanks for the review. Question, how hard is it to pull off the center section if you needed to take the spare off?
The backup camera fastens into the Evo bracket AND the camera mount via 3 small T8 screws. Honestly it's a bit of pain. At some point I might just get one of those rings to put behind the wheel, which I think would allow me to use the factory bezel and would make taking the spare off easier.

I already almost lost one of those screws and was looking to buy extras, but I'm not seeing them on Jeep's diagram. Going to talk to the dealership when I go there to pick up extras of the plastic clips I broke on the quarter panel :swear:
 

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That doesn't sound right based on what I've heard from others on the packaging. I'll get with EVO now. Email me a couple pictures if you don't mind.

Thank you!
I can confirm what he said. Some of my parts had the black coating stripped off, but they were on areas facing the swinggate where they're not visible. Some of the parts were well protected, but some were just out in the open which was pretty poor imo.
 

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tiltz

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FYI I looked up the torque spec and that one is only 21 ft lbs
 

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tiltz

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The rest of the on mopar tailgate/ body torque specs:

Spare tire carrier 13 ft lbs
Tailgate side hinge 35 ft lbs
Body side hinge 21ft lbs
Wheel on carrier 59 ft lbs

Evos torque specs probably only apply to tire adjusting brackets
 

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Remove the camera though as soon as you can. Having it dangling there as the instructions would you have you do isn’t adviseable. Also, be careful on torque specs for installing the new hinges. I snapped a bolt and didn’t have but 29 ft lbs according to my torque wrench. I verified it against a second on the other bolts. It definitely took me a lot longer than I expected.
EXACTLY. I had the camera resting on a platform so it wouldn't strain the wires and I was constantly moving it back and forth whenever I would open/close the tailgate. Finally I got more than halfway through the instructions and reached a point where they depicted the camera and brake light being completely off, but never told you to actually do it lol. Would have disconnected the camera and brake light first if I knew that.

Overall if I knew going into the install not to treat the instructions as a literal step-by-step, I could have avoided a few of the headaches. Not the end of the world though, I've seen much worse.

As for torque, if you were using a chart (the one they supplied with doesn't cover metric), did you convert from nm to ft-lbs? (Edit: I take back what I previously said, I DID write down that the hinge flange bolts were M8/10.9 which is 30lb ft, so I must have gotten lucky in not snapping off the bolt).

I also cross-referenced the torque settings from a few other sites and opted for whichever was highest for the application:

http://www.wtools.com.tw/STANDARD-BOLT-TIGHTENING-TORQUE.shtml
http://electronicfilters.tpub.com/TM-10-4330-237-13P/css/TM-10-4330-237-13P_105.htm
 
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EXACTLY. I had the camera resting on a platform so it wouldn't strain the wires and I was constantly moving it back and forth whenever I would open/close the tailgate. Finally I got more than halfway through the instructions and reached a point where they depicted the camera and brake light being completely off, but never told you to actually do it lol. Would have disconnected the camera and brake light first if I knew that.

Overall if I knew going into the install not to treat the instructions as a literal step-by-step, I could have avoided a few of the headaches. Not the end of the world though, I've seen much worse.

As for torque, if you were using a chart (the one they supplied with doesn't cover metric), did you convert from nm to ft-lbs? For the hinges, unfortunately I only noted the socket type I needed, and do NOT take my word on this, but I feel they may have been M8's, which on Bolt Depot's chart (https://www.boltdepot.com/fastener-information/bolts/Metric-Recommended-Torque.aspx) are listed as 30nm, which comes out to about 22 ft-lbs. I don't remember what setting I used on the hinge flanges but it was the lowest of all the bolts, and I felt that even that setting was starting to push those bolts to their limits and I was worried about snapping them as well.

I also cross-referenced the torque settings from a few other sites and opted for whichever was highest for the application:

http://www.wtools.com.tw/STANDARD-BOLT-TIGHTENING-TORQUE.shtml
http://electronicfilters.tpub.com/TM-10-4330-237-13P/css/TM-10-4330-237-13P_105.htm
That is a great way to put the instructions, they are not a step by step but a general snap shot of the overall process.

With regards to the bolt, not the end of the world. Extract and replace. Just wish I would have realized it. My own fault there.

In terms of the cameras performance, it’s like looking through a port hole as my wife puts it. She is running 37 x 13.5 Cooper SST and you can see the inside of the bead ring some. Still functions fine just not as clear a shot now.
 

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In terms of the cameras performance, it’s like looking through a port hole as my wife puts it. She is running 37 x 13.5 Cooper SST and you can see the inside of the bead ring some. Still functions fine just not as clear a shot now.
So are you saying that the camera is now more sunk in compared to stock?
 

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So are you saying that the camera is now more sunk in compared to stock?
I don’t think it is more sunk. I’m saying that with the offset of the rims and 13.5 wide tires you lose field of vision. This isn’t an Evo design flaw just a flaw of having a camera mounted there unless someone comes out with an adjustable camera tube length or spacer for the camera to push it out for larger tires with different offsets
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