New owner, advice please

[Lateapex]

Welcome to the family, Rufus!

I think the black steelies look great on your Punk'n as-is. If you do decide to upgrade your rims/tires, consider take-offs; stock Sport S aluminum rims/tires and stock Rubicon rims/tires can be surprisingly affordable. As for side steps, the factory "plastic" ones are actually quite rugged and look good, and don't rust like steel can...but are steps only; definitely not suitable as a substitute for rock rails...but they do hide the pinch seam.

You've received a lot of good advice above, so I won't repeat...but just for fun, you might want to check out the Mopar goodies at:

https://www.mopar.com/content/dam/mopar/pdf/performance-catalogs/JeepPerformancePartsCatalog.pdf

Sponsored

 

[JeepU4IA]

Thanks all!

As far as Car Play, I want to be able to use Waze separately from the Uconnect. Am I ignoring a perhaps useful feature? My Uconnect 3 that came with it does not have a Nav system.

Also Brazos, can you clarify “plasti-dipping the badges and lug nuts?” Not sure what you mean.

Any any opinions on the Mopar undercoating?

I’ve attached a picture showing it with the black steel wheels.

The steel wheels look great. No need to change.

The Sport only comes with Uconnect 3 which does not have CarPlay.

Great color choice!

 

[RichD]

3) The dealer offered me the Mopar undercoating. It seems inexpensive. Should I get it given that I will be driving on salted roads in the winter?

Rufus, regarding undercoating, definitely look into it. So much salt and brine used here in the northeast. I went with a product called "Fluid Film". It was recommended to me by a local Jeep club, and it applied at a specialty Jeep shop last Fall. The stuff is used in the marine industry and pipeline industry - good enough validation for me! Cost me under $100. You can easily find tons of info on this product through this forum, and I'd bet a local Jeep shop near you would be happy to apply it.

 

[melendez69]

^ ^ ^ DO NOT talk to Jerry Lundegaard. ^ ^ ^

 

[Rufus]

Thanks Rich D, very helpful, I will look around for shops that use that film.

Thanks everyone for all of the great advice. On the car play subject I wonder if down the road I could get a different Uconnect head unit and replace the one I have with an upgraded one.

 

[wrangster]

Cell phone holder check out the silicone dashboard car phone mat by Vansky, works great and sells for $12.99 on Amazon. I lay it directly in front of my steering wheel using a S10 sideways into it with no problems viewing the road.

 

[Bryce]

^ ^ ^ DO NOT talk to Jerry Lundegaard. ^ ^ ^

"Yeah, but I'm sayin', that TruCoat, you don't get it and you get oxidization problems. It'll cost you a heck of lot more'n five hundred"

 

[Morbo101]

Check out RAM Mount. I’ve used them for motorcycle phone mounts and use it for my wrangler now. It is also GoPro compatible and many options available as to how to mount. As for tires, i went with rubicon take offs. Love the look and also keeping my stock tires for now. Amazon has a lot of options for running boards

 

[Nomad]

Very helpful I will keep an eye on that thread and also see how it is to drive around at night. It won’t be a problem in the city but when I get to more rural areas I will be curious to see how the stock ones perform. Thank you.

As far as Headlights, I bought bulbs from Headlight Revolution, and they are awesome. Three times as bright, nice pattern, installed as easy as they say, no funny codes on the dashboard.

 

[Rufus]

As far as Headlights, I bought bulbs from Headlight Revolution, and they are awesome. Three times as bright, nice pattern, installed as easy as they say, no funny codes on the dashboard.

The Beamtechs look good too

 

[WES IV]

Hi, I just bought a 2 door JL sport with the 3.6L V6 6-speed, sunrider soft top. It’s my first Wrangler. I live in a city and will be using it for weekend trips out of town. Off road driving will be limited to dirt roads, fire trails, and driving on the beach, mostly in the summer months. Winter months will include driving in the snow. I won’t be a high mileage driver. I don’t plan to trick it out with giant wheels or a lift kit or anything like that. I won’t be towing though I may get a hitch just to be able to mount a bicycle carrier. I will have only 1 human passenger with me at most times.

A few basic questions, and apologies in advance if they are obvious. I did do some searching here before posting this to see if they had been answered already.

1) Break in period. The manual says to keep it under 55-60mph or something like for a bit. How important is that?
2) IPhone holder recommendations? I’ve read a few things, and the one that seems to be popular that came out in 2018 (Rugged Ridge?) gets mixed reviews in so far as it scratches the dash and keeps a tenuous grip on the phone in bumpy conditions. How about a mount for an iPad mini? Ideally I’d prefer to not block any air vents. And it’s a 6 speed manual so I’ll need to not interfere with the shift pattern of course.
3) The dealer offered me the Mopar undercoating. It seems inexpensive. Should I get it given that I will be driving on salted roads in the winter?
4) I want to get side steps, the tubular kind. Any recommendations? I didn’t see any official ones on the Mopar website.
5) It came with steel wheels which I didn’t think I would like but they’re painted black and actually look kind of cool, retro. They are the 17” size. I might go for aluminum replacements though. Suggestions? (Or am I getting in to a religious debate with this question?)
6) Anything else I should be thinking of? Extra driving lights for night? Where I go in the summer isn’t artificially lit. Any other handy accessories?

Thanks so much for anyone who will take pity on a newbie and answer my questions. Again, apologies for their simplicity.

Thanks in advance.

Greetings! I appreciate your questions as I'm expecting my first Jeep by July sometime. Like you I bought a Sport Wrangler but with automatic transmission and some other nice additional upgrades.
I look forward to seeing the results of your questions.

 

[TrailTorque]

I just had dealer install
Mopar 82215386 7" LED Offroad Light
They wired it to Aux 1 switch but directions clearly state to use Aux 3 or 4 only. Seems to be working fine.
Does it matter?

I didn’t see that anyone had answered your question and a felt bad so here ya go.

You’ll be fine as Aux 1 and Aux 2 are rated to 40 AMP’s each. While Aux 3 and Aux 4 are only rated to 15 AMP’s each.

In English, you will be fine as the small 7” LED they installed will not even come close to 40 AMP’s while in use. But, you’re wasting your Aux 1 potential.

Aux 1 & 2 should be reserved for big stuff and Aux 3 & 4 should be used for the smaller stuff.

If you plan on doing more mods down the line that would require a beefier AMP rating I would just switch it. It’s super easy. But if you don’t plan on hooking anything else up for now don’t worry about it.

Hope that helps ya.

 

[Rufus]

One more question: for a hitch, should I go to Jeep or aftermarket?

 

[GreyFox]

@Rufus Did you ever get side steps?

 

[gofastguy]

One more question: for a hitch, should I go to Jeep or aftermarket?

Aftermarket, unless money is no object. Just got mine yesterday from Quadratec...only took 1 day and about a third of the cost and looks real good.

Sponsored