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Northridge4x4's Firecracker Red 2018 JLUR Build

arcticaaron

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JL1LE

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wow! You are right, that looks like rust.
 

JL1LE

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eek - Thats unacceptable. I have these rims in my garage, but they are not installed yet. If you find a Zinc / Gold replacement bolt please share the spec's. KMC should be offering free replacements.
 

Tech Tim

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That is rust. We do have another set of bolts that we've submerged in water for many weeks and no rust. So we're going to try them out.

Just waiting for the beadlock rings to come back from powder coat!
 

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Tech Tim

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The scratches on the door sills from climbing in and out were really starting to show in the red paint.

Scratched-Sills.jpg



Sooooo.... we grabbed the first set of genie Mopar Sill Guards (pn# 82215394) that showed up here at Northridge4x4 and installed them.

Apply-Front.jpg


Super simple to install and the sills sure look better with them covered and we're sure it'll help limit future scratches.


Sill-Fini.jpg



Sometimes it's the little things....

Full DIY install write-up here: www.northridgenation.com/mopar-jl-sill-guard-install
 

Tech Tim

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We received our first shipment of Artec Bellypan kits for the JLs a few weeks back, so we convinced the warehouse guys to bring one to the Northridge studio to install in the Boss' JLUR.

ARTJL4101_After.jpg


What a beautiful bit of armor! All that aluminum sure looks nice. Artec uses CNC cut 1/4" 6061 aluminum for the skid plates. The tolerances are quite tight, so the plates all fit together real tight. All the bottom bolts are countersunk giving you a nice smooth belly, which will make sliding across trail obstacles a lot easier. It is also modular, with three separate removable skid plates, making it easy to service drivetrain components.

We decided to go with the aluminum mainly due to the weight differences. The complete aluminum bellypan kit only weighs 10 lbs. more than the stock Jeep skid plate/crossmember assemblies. The steel bellypan kit is less expensive, but weighs in at 96 lbs. more than the OE assemblies.

It wasn't a hard install, but definitely took a bit of time and it was very helpful to have an extra set of hands on this one. If you do the steel kit, you may want to have a couple extra sets of hands to help.

Quick tip: If you decide to pick one up of these bad boys, do yourself a favor and run your fuel tank down as empty as you are comfortable with. We did our install with 3/4+ tank of fuel and it was a pain to wrestle that heavy tank around. Would've been much nicer had we ran the tank down a bit.

Check out the full install write-up on our Northridge Nation blog site: http://www.northridgenation.com/jeep-artec-bellypan-install/

For those wondering about how stout the OE skid plate is.... Last April we spent a week down in Moab. UT for the 2018 Easter Jeep Safari and had a great time trying out the trails in our new JLUR (it was new back then, LoL). The JL came through pretty unscathed except for the OE fuel tank skid and cross-.

After-Moab-2.jpg


Yep, those are supposed to be flat, not flattened, except for the crossmember, that should be a little more rounded and hollow... ;)

Want to get one for your JLU? We have both the Aluminum Bellypans and the Steel Bellypans in stock ready to ship.
 

SHYUperman

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How do you guys like the milestar patagonia tires?
 

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We like them real well.

We probably have 6500 miles on them now and they still ride great, are pretty quiet for an aggressive tire and so far they've hooked up everywhere we've taken the rig.

The price is pretty dang good too!
 

SSVi

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It’s posts like this that are making it REALLY hard to wait for the 2019 diesel orders to open up.
 

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Tech Tim

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We feel you. Look at it this way, at least you'll get to see all the stuff that works and what doesn't work before you start modifying yours!
 

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We feel you. Look at it this way, at least you'll get to see all the stuff that works and what doesn't work before you start modifying yours!
How's the Patagonia on the road? I'll admittedly (like the majority here) be DDing mine more than offroading. Looking to move from a 315/70 ko2 to a 37 Patagonia Mt.

Also, that LoD riser: how long have you been running that with the 37? Any tailgate issues? Wondering if I should spring for the Mopar bracket ($800) or just that riser.
 

Martindfletcher

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We received our first shipment of Artec Bellypan kits for the JLs a few weeks back, so we convinced the warehouse guys to bring one to the Northridge studio to install in the Boss' JLUR.

ARTJL4101_After.jpg


What a beautiful bit of armor! All that aluminum sure looks nice. Artec uses CNC cut 1/4" 6061 aluminum for the skid plates. The tolerances are quite tight, so the plates all fit together real tight. All the bottom bolts are countersunk giving you a nice smooth belly, which will make sliding across trail obstacles a lot easier. It is also modular, with three separate removable skid plates, making it easy to service drivetrain components.

We decided to go with the aluminum mainly due to the weight differences. The complete aluminum bellypan kit only weighs 10 lbs. more than the stock Jeep skid plate/crossmember assemblies. The steel bellypan kit is less expensive, but weighs in at 96 lbs. more than the OE assemblies.

It wasn't a hard install, but definitely took a bit of time and it was very helpful to have an extra set of hands on this one. If you do the steel kit, you may want to have a couple extra sets of hands to help.

Quick tip: If you decide to pick one up of these bad boys, do yourself a favor and run your fuel tank down as empty as you are comfortable with. We did our install with 3/4+ tank of fuel and it was a pain to wrestle that heavy tank around. Would've been much nicer had we ran the tank down a bit.

Check out the full install write-up on our Northridge Nation blog site: http://www.northridgenation.com/jeep-artec-bellypan-install/

For those wondering about how stout the OE skid plate is.... Last April we spent a week down in Moab. UT for the 2018 Easter Jeep Safari and had a great time trying out the trails in our new JLUR (it was new back then, LoL). The JL came through pretty unscathed except for the OE fuel tank skid and cross-.

After-Moab-2.jpg


Yep, those are supposed to be flat, not flattened, except for the crossmember, that should be a little more rounded and hollow... ;)

Want to get one for your JLU? We have both the Aluminum Bellypans and the Steel Bellypans in stock ready to ship.
Just did mine Friday,

Your tip on taping the zip ties to the straps was a massive time/frustration saver, i had a few ideas to push the rope so they speak, but this worked great. I taped 3 of the with clip cut off. I stopped for dinner and an extra pint and your instructions online. Thanks!
 

Tech Tim

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How's the Patagonia on the road? I'll admittedly (like the majority here) be DDing mine more than offroading. Looking to move from a 315/70 ko2 to a 37 Patagonia Mt.

Also, that LoD riser: how long have you been running that with the 37? Any tailgate issues? Wondering if I should spring for the Mopar bracket ($800) or just that riser.

The Patagonias are surprisingly quite for being that aggressive. You've got to be at the right rpm and the stereo off before you can hear them over the top of all the other noises.



Tech Tim said:
Check out the full Artec Bellypan install write-up on our Northridge Nation blog site: http://www.northridgenation.com/jeep-artec-bellypan-install/
Just did mine Friday,

Your tip on taping the zip ties to the straps was a massive time/frustration saver, i had a few ideas to push the rope so they speak, but this worked great. I taped 3 of the with clip cut off. I stopped for dinner and an extra pint and your instructions online. Thanks!
Awesome! Glad it helped.
 

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The Patagonias are surprisingly quite for being that aggressive. You've got to be at the right rpm and the stereo off before you can hear them over the top of all the other noises.





Awesome! Glad it helped.
Thanks for the info! Would you recommend that over the slightly more expensive sst pro? That's what I'm in between and I'll be ordering one or the other in an hour.
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