Ratbert's AEV JL370 JLURD Build Thread

[Ratbert]

There’s a little more to it than that. I had a defective light from AEV on my factory build. They let me take the light off myself and sent me a package to ship it back in and had a replacement light out to me asap. They gave me an option to go to a dealership, or replace the light myself. They honor their warranty either way. Anything to avoid a dealership.

Wow, I didn't realize that they would do that. Pretty sweet.

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[Ratbert]

I was thinking that the Goose Gear table was severely overpriced and we should get something (better?) for significant less, but my gorgeous wife really wanted this one.

It seems to be incredibly well made and installed pretty darn easily. No creaks / squeaks from it at all while driving.

 

[BijanF]

I would love to see what she weighs now you have all the mods on!?! I should be picking mine up from AEV in a few weeks!

 

[Ratbert]

I would love to see what she weighs now you have all the mods on!?! I should be picking mine up from AEV in a few weeks!

I took it to a CAT scale yesterday. All I can say in public is that it's still under the GVWR of 6,100 pounds after adding:

• RSE Rock Sliders w/protection
• NVM aluminum skid plates w/UHMW
• MC roof rack w/kat walk
• ARB compressor / Epic Kraken air up
• OVS 270 degree awning

We're thinking that we're not going to mount the RTT on it since that could make rock crawling a bit "less pleasant" and we'd have to think about building a garage or simply park the beast outside. My wife has discovered that she really enjoys sleeping in a hammock, so we won't be using the RTT on the three-day Rubicon Trail Expedition next month.

Yes, it's still somewhat legal from a weight perspective. I'm really glad that I went with aluminum skid plates though!

 

[BijanF]

I took it to a CAT scale yesterday. All I can say in public is that it's still under the GVWR of 6,100 pounds after adding:

• RSE Rock Sliders w/protection
• NVM aluminum skid plates w/UHMW
• MC roof rack w/kat walk
• ARB compressor / Epic Kraken air up
• OVS 270 degree awning

We're thinking that we're not going to mount the RTT on it since that could make rock crawling a bit "less pleasant" and we'd have to think about building a garage or simply park the beast outside. My wife has discovered that she really enjoys sleeping in a hammock, so we won't be using the RTT on the three-day Rubicon Trail Expedition next month.

Yes, it's still somewhat legal from a weight perspective. I'm really glad that I went with aluminum skid plates though!

The weight does had up fast. Mine should be right around what yours weighed when you picked it up. The only additional mod I’m doing is the MC under cloak skid set. Did you happen to weigh your gas tank and transfer case skid when they were removed?

 

[Ratbert]

The weight does had up fast. Mine should be right around what yours weighed when you picked it up. The only additional mod I’m doing is the MC under cloak skid set. Did you happen to weigh your gas tank and transfer case skid when they were removed?

No, I had a shop do all of that. I started manually weighing all of the parts as I loaded them, but that was too damn painful, especially once I realized that I needed to have a friend come over with his truck. I had a full bed of a Tundra plus my JLUR plus another load for the awning.

Your skids will weigh about 200 pounds more than mine, right? https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/summary-of-available-ecodiesel-skid-plates.90479/

 

[BijanF]

No, I had a shop do all of that. I started manually weighing all of the parts as I loaded them, but that was too damn painful, especially once I realized that I needed to have a friend come over with his truck. I had a full bed of a Tundra plus my JLUR plus another load for the awning.

Your skids will weigh about 200 pounds more than mine, right? https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/summary-of-available-ecodiesel-skid-plates.90479/

Shipping weight for my skids was 204 lbs. my guess is around 80 lbs will be taken off, but I’m still not sure about that.

 

[Ratbert]

Shipping weight for my skids was 204 lbs. my guess is around 80 lbs will be taken off, but I’m still not sure about that.

Oh, I didn't realize that their setup replaced existing skids.

 

[Ratbert]

Shipping weight for my skids was 204 lbs. my guess is around 80 lbs will be taken off, but I’m still not sure about that.

204 seems weird since they list 235 on their site. I would have thought that that weight was without the DEF skid too.

 

[BijanF]

204 seems weird since they list 235 on their site. I would have thought that that weight was without the DEF skid too.

Mine is a 392, so no DEF skid, but I did add the muffler skid. I’ll get scientific and weigh each individual piece and report back!

 

[Ratbert]

CORE Off Road in Castle Rock CO stepped up to bat and made the roof rack happen. It was extremely difficult for them to mount the Metal Cloak / Adventure Rack Systems rack to the AEV bumper, but they were able to fabricate something perfect that mounts directly to the frame. I highly recommend them for any work like this.

@Adventure Rack Systems should be coming out with a solution for the AEV JL bumper soon. I was in a bit of a hurry and couldn't wait on theirs.

I also had CORE install the awning since they needed to figure out where to mount the roof rack rails. I've opened it once and it looks slick, but holy feces it was a pain to put back into that bag. There has to be a trick about it that wasn't obvious on the first attempt.

 

[ChuckQue]

Looking good sir!

 

[Ratbert]

The MetalCloak / ARS roof rack has a loud squeal that seems to come from the front mounting brackets. I've filled in the seams with Sugru, but haven't yet tested to see if the squeal is gone.

If you haven't used Sugru before then watch this video. It's really cool glue / putty.


Suspected source of squeals:

Squeals patched into oblivion?

 

[Ratbert]

I've finally installed the Dometic DC30 as well as the birch platform that my wife built for our last JLUR. For the first go-around I used washers to try to keep the whole thing solid / level. On this iteration I realized that using wood would be a significant better approach. It's 1/4" thick and leveled everything appropriately while also being very solid.

And yes, there's a door to access the cargo area underneath.

 

[Ratbert]

Finally finished wiring up the Dometic today. Finally.

I also moved the propane tank to the top of the Jeep. Hopefully we're not breaking any laws with it, especially as we head to California in a couple weeks.

Wrapping it in a lock should hopefully mitigate any issues if it somehow comes loose.

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