Ratbert's AEV JL370 JLURD Build Thread

[Ratbert]

Did you decide on track bar yet?

I have an appointment at a local AEV-certified dealership to see what they have to say about it. It doesn't seem right that that's expected.

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[QwikKotaTx]

So far it's been pretty impressive. We did China Wall (CO) Sunday with a local group. It's not that difficult of a trail (6/10 per onX Offroad), but it was significantly simpler this time than when we last did it in our stock JLUR.

Some members invited us to join them to a "not available to the general group" run up Holy Cross. That's a 9/10, which is a bit intimidating.

Great. From the quick image search that does not look like a place you want to be in a stock Jeep.

 

[Ratbert]

Great. From the quick image search that does not look like a place you want to be in a stock Jeep.

Definitely not, but mine is only stock from the JL370 perspective.

I'm not sure if adding skids and sliders would be sufficient. Lots of comments about people rolling their Jeeps on it.

 

[OldBlue]

Looks fantastic! Love the AEV wheels, great choice!

 

[QwikKotaTx]

Definitely not, but mine is only stock from the JL370 perspective.

I'm not sure if adding skids and sliders would be sufficient. Lots of comments about people rolling their Jeeps on it.

I don't think anyone considers an AEV a stock vehicle. I'm on the lookout for some mild offroad areas near Houston, definitely not anything that will have me wheels up!

 

[Ratbert]

I don't think anyone considers an AEV a stock vehicle. I'm on the lookout for some mild offroad areas near Houston, definitely not anything that will have me wheels up!

I see a ton of people from Texas on our ski slopes in the winter. I was thinking that you could do that to the Telluride area, but damn...Houston is a looong ways away.

 

[Ratbert]

I just chatted with our credit union as to why the loan hasn't showed up on our account yet. Their response: Loan? What loan?

Apparently Dan Cummins (Paris, KY) hasn't submitted the paperwork yet!?!?!? It's been three weeks.

 

[mikej]

I just chatted with our credit union as to why the loan hasn't showed up on our account yet. Their response: Loan? What loan?

Apparently Dan Cummins (Paris, KY) hasn't submitted the paperwork yet!?!?!? It's been three weeks.

I guess that means it's free.

 

[Ratbert]

I guess that means it's free.

Yeah, we wondered how long it would take them to realize it themselves. Probably not until the yearly audit?

 

[PhoenixM3]

Ok, it's time for me to start trying to keep track of it all!

My starting point is my 2022 JLURD that was upfitted by AEV into a JL370. AEV JL370 JLURD just flows off the tongue, right?

It started as a relatively well-equipped Granite Crystal Metallic JLURD from the Toledo factory:

• Rubicon
• 3.0L EcoDiesel
• Sky One-Touch
• Safety Group
• Advanced Safety Group
• Cold Weather Package
• Towing Package
• LED Lighting Group
• Body-Color Fenders
• Front trail camera

When it was finally built (5 months) Jeep put it on a truck to Wixom Michigan where AEV took possession and started upgrading:

• AEV JL370 standard stuff
  • 37" BFG KO2s
  • 2.5" lift
  • 4.63 gears (supply constraints on the 4.56s)
  • Steering stabilizer
  • 7" LEDs
  • Hot stamped boron steel bumpers
  • Hot stamped boron steel front skid plate
  • Swing-out tire carrier
  • Borah wheels - satin
• AEV JL370 upgrades
  • DualSport XP suspension with Bilstein XP8100 reservoir shocks
  • Warn Zeon 10s winch
  • Front and rear differential covers
  • 20" amber LED light bar below the front bumper
  • LED light in the rear bumper
  • Expedition recovery kit
  • 10.2 gallon fuel caddy (between the spare and rear window)
  • Front trail camera mount

AEV finished it three weeks after it arrived at a local dealership in Michigan. I flew to Michigan to pick it up at AEV, drove it to meet my wife and friends for a vacation in Missouri, then drove it back to Colorado a week and a half later.

Note: make damn sure that your dealership has a temporary tag waiting for you at AEV. Lindsey at Dan Cummins in Paris KY did not. I'd recommend going through Martin (their AEV specialist) instead. It was stupidly painful to get a temporary tag on it.

To get a baseline I took it to the nearest CAT scale and it weighed in at 5,660 pounds with a full tank. My GVWR is just 6,100 pounds. That's quite a portly starting point, but oh well.

I haven't upgraded anything yet other than the ludicrous gangly antenna. Fortunately my wife was smart enough to take the stubby off of our old / totaled JLUR back in October, so replacing that was simple.

Here's what's waiting in the garage. Yes, it's a mess due to having our To Extreme trailer taking up a bunch of space, but every cardboard box in the foreground and background in this picture is something for the Jeep. This picture was taken before some of the later gear arrived.

Here's a rundown of what's waiting to be installed:

• Next Venture Motorsports Alum skids w/UHMW
• Rock Slide Engineering sliders w/guards
• MetalCloak / Adventure Rack Systems roof rack w/Kat Walk
• Overland Vehicle Systems Awning 270
• EPIC Kraken Tire Inflation System (ordered)
• Goose Gear w/40% seat delete (ordered, but won't have it in time for the Rubicon Trail trip)
• Midland MXT275VP4 GMRS radio
• Power Tank propane mount
• Dometic CoolMatic CD 30 (transfer from JLUR)
• Tazer JL Mini (transfer from JLUR)
• 67 Designs Phone Mount (transfer from JLUR)
• ARB Dual Air Compressor (transfer from JLUR)
• Max Coupler hitch (transfer from JLUR)
• iKamper xCover (transfer from JLUR / To Extreme trailer)

I have an appointment to have the RSE sliders, NVM aluminum skid plates, and MetalCloak roof rack installed in a couple weeks. The rest will be installed as I find time.

It looks like I've got an awesome "starting" point for this beast. We'll see how it goes.

Beautiful build! I'm about to pull the trigger on a JLURD and have been reading up on cooling issues with the diesel engine. Have you experienced any high temps/derate conditions? Front light bar portion of the bumper obstructs a good sized chunk of the grill.

 

[Osunut]

I just chatted with our credit union as to why the loan hasn't showed up on our account yet. Their response: Loan? What loan?

Apparently Dan Cummins (Paris, KY) hasn't submitted the paperwork yet!?!?!? It's been three weeks.

I also ordered from Dan Cummins but from their Georgetown, KY dealership. Mine has not been delivered yet but hopefully I don’t have this issue also.

 

[QwikKotaTx]

I see a ton of people from Texas on our ski slopes in the winter. I was thinking that you could do that to the Telluride area, but damn...Houston is a looong ways away.

My parents drove all over the country in their Transit 250 that my Father ghetto converted into an RV of sorts. I don't see how they did it, especially at their age. After about 5 hours of driving I am done for the day. Definitely not going that far in the Jeep. We have been taking back roads as grooved concrete makes a terrible noise from the factory Goodyears.

 

[Ratbert]

Beautiful build! I'm about to pull the trigger on a JLURD and have been reading up on cooling issues with the diesel engine. Have you experienced any high temps/derate conditions? Front light bar portion of the bumper obstructs a good sized chunk of the grill.

It derated once on the interstate when I touched the brake with my left foot in an attempt to get a tailgater off my bumper, but it explicitly told me why it was doing that. It does not want you to ride the brakes. At all.

The hundreds of pounds that I'm adding is still sitting in the garage and we haven't driven up any significant slopes at speed, so no, we haven't hit what we think are the trigger points.

AEV has stated that they did lots of airflow testing while designing the bumper, bull bar, and lights. I trust them to do it right more than a typical aftermarket fabricator.

We were at about 9,500 feet last night, but that was rock crawling in the dark. First time that we've done it and it was a blast. The dual 7" LEDs are really incredible.

One of the roads that we go down has really bad washboards. We were both commenting on how well the new suspension and tires mitigated those.

Being able to "scratch that itch" after logging off from work is what this is all about! We even found a great new camping spot.

 

[PhoenixM3]

It derated once on the interstate when I touched the brake with my left foot in an attempt to get a tailgater off my bumper, but it explicitly told me why it was doing that. It does not want you to ride the brakes. At all.

The hundreds of pounds that I'm adding is still sitting in the garage and we haven't driven up any significant slopes at speed, so no, we haven't hit what we think are the trigger points.

AEV has stated that they did lots of airflow testing while designing the bumper, bull bar, and lights. I trust them to do it right more than a typical aftermarket fabricator.

We were at about 9,500 feet last night, but that was rock crawling in the dark. First time that we've done it and it was a blast. The dual 7" LEDs are really incredible.

One of the roads that we go down has really bad washboards. We were both commenting on how well the new suspension and tires mitigated those.

Being able to "scratch that itch" after logging off from work is what this is all about! We even found a great new camping spot.

I'm in COS too. I'm a complete newb at off-roading. The Jeep will be the Wench's (wife) daily, so I can't modify it too much.....

 

[Rangemaster]

Ok, it's time for me to start trying to keep track of it all!

My starting point is my 2022 JLURD that was upfitted by AEV into a JL370. AEV JL370 JLURD just flows off the tongue, right?

It started as a relatively well-equipped Granite Crystal Metallic JLURD from the Toledo factory:

• Rubicon
• 3.0L EcoDiesel
• Sky One-Touch
• Safety Group
• Advanced Safety Group
• Cold Weather Package
• Towing Package
• LED Lighting Group
• Body-Color Fenders
• Front trail camera

When it was finally built (5 months) Jeep put it on a truck to Wixom Michigan where AEV took possession and started upgrading:

• AEV JL370 standard stuff
  • 37" BFG KO2s
  • 2.5" lift
  • 4.63 gears (supply constraints on the 4.56s)
  • Steering stabilizer
  • 7" LEDs
  • Hot stamped boron steel bumpers
  • Hot stamped boron steel front skid plate
  • Swing-out tire carrier
  • Borah wheels - satin
• AEV JL370 upgrades
  • DualSport XP suspension with Bilstein XP8100 reservoir shocks
  • Warn Zeon 10s winch
  • Front and rear differential covers
  • 20" amber LED light bar below the front bumper
  • LED light in the rear bumper
  • Expedition recovery kit
  • 10.2 gallon fuel caddy (between the spare and rear window)
  • Front trail camera mount

AEV finished it three weeks after it arrived at a local dealership in Michigan. I flew to Michigan to pick it up at AEV, drove it to meet my wife and friends for a vacation in Missouri, then drove it back to Colorado a week and a half later.

Note: make damn sure that your dealership has a temporary tag waiting for you at AEV. Lindsey at Dan Cummins in Paris KY did not. I'd recommend going through Martin (their AEV specialist) instead. It was stupidly painful to get a temporary tag on it.

To get a baseline I took it to the nearest CAT scale and it weighed in at 5,660 pounds with a full tank. My GVWR is just 6,100 pounds. That's quite a portly starting point, but oh well.

I haven't upgraded anything yet other than the ludicrous gangly antenna. Fortunately my wife was smart enough to take the stubby off of our old / totaled JLUR back in October, so replacing that was simple.

Here's what's waiting in the garage. Yes, it's a mess due to having our To Extreme trailer taking up a bunch of space, but every cardboard box in the foreground and background in this picture is something for the Jeep. This picture was taken before some of the later gear arrived.

Here's a rundown of what's waiting to be installed:

• Next Venture Motorsports Alum skids w/UHMW
• Rock Slide Engineering sliders w/guards
• MetalCloak / Adventure Rack Systems roof rack w/Kat Walk
• Overland Vehicle Systems Awning 270
• EPIC Kraken Tire Inflation System (ordered)
• Goose Gear w/40% seat delete (ordered, but won't have it in time for the Rubicon Trail trip)
• Midland MXT275VP4 GMRS radio
• Power Tank propane mount
• Dometic CoolMatic CD 30 (transfer from JLUR)
• Tazer JL Mini (transfer from JLUR)
• 67 Designs Phone Mount (transfer from JLUR)
• ARB Dual Air Compressor (transfer from JLUR)
• Max Coupler hitch (transfer from JLUR)
• iKamper xCover (transfer from JLUR / To Extreme trailer)

I have an appointment to have the RSE sliders, NVM aluminum skid plates, and MetalCloak roof rack installed in a couple weeks. The rest will be installed as I find time.

It looks like I've got an awesome "starting" point for this beast. We'll see how it goes.

John

I am running a diesel also, I have a high mounted winch on my front bumper. What is your temps offroad? I am finding my jeep is running a little hot because of little to no air flow because of low speeds. Next week I have a 300 mile trip to big trees and the temps will be 100’s outside. I been offroad all around my area in this heat and she is running warm to hot on some trails. My rig is very over weight right now with all the mods I have done. I can not imagine pulling a trailer in this heat what the temps will be.

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