Ratbert's AEV JL370 JLURD Build Thread

[Ratbert]

@Ratbert, do you feel that the XP suspension was worth the extra cost over the RT? How do those 8100’s feel on road when cornering, freeway driving, braking? Off road are you happy with the ride? Smooth?

Sorry @ChuckQue, somehow I missed your question from a few months ago.

Yes, the XP suspension makes a big difference.

On road it drives very much like my last stock Rubicon JLU on 33s. Off road it sucks up the washboards significantly better. I was chatting with a guy on the trail a while back and he was talking about how his Wrangler would start to drift one direction or the other on washboards. At that point it dawned on me that I hadn't experienced that at all with this suspension.

All I can say is that it's a lot better than stock. The awesome look of the remote reservoirs is just icing on the cake!

I had the 3" high-capacity springs installed yesterday to address all of the weight that I've added. So far I haven't taken it off road, but the squishy bounciness after hitting a bump at 85mph is gone. It's close to an inch taller now, which doesn't really matter to me.

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[ChuckQue]

Sorry @ChuckQue, somehow I missed your question from a few months ago.

Yes, the XP suspension makes a big difference.

On road it drives very much like my last stock Rubicon JLU on 33s. Off road it sucks up the washboards significantly better. I was chatting with a guy on the trail a while back and he was talking about how his Wrangler would start to drift one direction or the other on washboards. At that point it dawned on me that I hadn't experienced that at all with this suspension.

All I can say is that it's a lot better than stock. The awesome look of the remote reservoirs is just icing on the cake!

I had the 3" high-capacity springs installed yesterday to address all of the weight that I've added. So far I haven't taken it off road, but the squishy bounciness after hitting a bump at 85mph is gone. It's close to an inch taller now, which doesn't really matter to me.

Thanks @Ratbert ! I’ve since gone with the RK lift but I’m thinking at some point I may need to move up a spring size due to weight additions similar to yours. Same with replacing the shocks that came with the kit, though since Accutune (@AccuTunedJL ) is local-ish to me I will likely have them set me up with some Fox remotes.

Build is looking good sir! Have you tried towing yet?

 

[Ratbert]

Thanks @Ratbert ! I’ve since gone with the RK lift but I’m thinking at some point I may need to move up a spring size due to weight additions similar to yours. Same with replacing the shocks that came with the kit, though since Accutune (@AccuTunedJL ) is local-ish to me I will likely have them set me up with some Fox remotes.

Build is looking good sir! Have you tried towing yet?

I've only towed our little military-style trailer and only up into the mountain trails behind our place to go camping. No issues whatsoever. Yeah, it's kind of awesome to have a house that backs up to a national forest full of trails.

I wish I had gone with the 3" springs initially. That was a $700 mistake. $500 for them (vs a $300 upgrade when ordering) plus nearly $500 to get them installed.

 

[ChuckQue]

I've only towed our little military-style trailer and only up into the mountain trails behind our place to go camping. No issues whatsoever. Yeah, it's kind of awesome to have a house that backs up to a national forest full of trails.

I wish I had gone with the 3" springs initially. That was a $700 mistake. $500 for them (vs a $300 upgrade when ordering) plus nearly $500 to get them installed.

That sounds terrible, Lord only knows how you put up with that kind of backyard view

I’m betting power wise your Jeep doesn’t even notice the trailer behind you. Which brake controller are you using? The RedArc? I’m really curious to see how your temps are once the weather warms up more out there. Any idea on what your trailer weighs fully loaded?

 

[Ratbert]

That sounds terrible, Lord only knows how you put up with that kind of backyard view

I’m betting power wise your Jeep doesn’t even notice the trailer behind you. Which brake controller are you using? The RedArc? I’m really curious to see how your temps are once the weather warms up more out there. Any idea on what your trailer weighs fully loaded?

Yeah, it's a gorgeous mountain behind us. Some day one of those massive boulders will probably break free and squish our house. Gotta enjoy it while you can!

It's a small trailer designed for hitting the trails. Supposedly Rubicon rated. No clue how much it weighs loaded, but it's too light to need brakes. I do, however, have a RedArc that I bought when we planned on a using different strategy for trips. No idea of we'll ever use the trailer again. Ditto for that tiny first iteration behind it that we haven't gotten rid of it.

 

[yarmo]

Yeah, it's a gorgeous mountain behind us. Some day one of those massive boulders will probably break free and squish our house. Gotta enjoy it while you can!

It's a small trailer designed for hitting the trails. Supposedly Rubicon rated. No clue how much it weighs loaded, but it's too light to need brakes. I do, however, have a RedArc that I bought when we planned on a using different strategy for trips. No idea of we'll ever use the trailer again. Ditto for that tiny first iteration behind it that we haven't gotten rid of it.

Is that an FJ? I’ve always thought those things looked so cool.

 

[Ratbert]

Is that an FJ? I’ve always thought those things looked so cool.

Yeah, it's my inlaws'. It looks cool, but I really hate to drive it since it feels so damn big with horrible visibility through those slivers of windows. We definitely don't take it on any of the tighter trails around here. It's on 33s and I'm pretty sure it's a 2" lift.

 

[Ratbert]

I recently updated my AEV 2.5" springs to the stiffer 3" HD version to deal with the extra weight that I've added to it beyond a stock JL370 (aluminum skids, sliders, roof rack, 270 awning, etc.). Those springs bumped up the height be about an inch.

I'd been putting off installing our Goose Gear drawers until the suspension could deal with their weight. It was finally nice enough out to get that done. Most of the time was spent mounting the Dometic fridge on it.

And yes, the height of the 3" springs is fairy obvious. And living on a dirt road means that your Jeep will always look as intended. It looked like that after driving home from the car wash.

 

[Ratbert]

The AEV event on the beaches of Oregon was a blast! It started with intense classes learning the fundamentals of keeping our wheels pointed down in the steep dunes, lots of hands-on instruction on the proper ways to use our winches and recovery gear, and driving a half mile to the dunes down narrow trails in reverse. Yes, you need to be proficient in reverse to get out of some of the bad predicaments that you can get into on these massive dunes.

Over the two days we progressed through more and more challenging scenarios. At some point dropping 40 to 50 feet down the face of a dune at a 30 degree angle became commonplace.

AEV sponsored the whole thing and had six rigs of people there to help train us in our nine vehicles. One of their Jeeps was for their professional photographer, but he won't have his shots and drone footage available for a while.

I'd never aired down to 12 psi before, but that's what everyone went down to.

By the end of day two we were flying across the incredibly steep faces of massive dunes at about 30 mph. On some runs we'd intentionally slow enough for the tail to drop a bit, then you keep it below you and control it by steering into the curve. It's a lot like drifting, but on a wall!

Hats off to AEV for putting this together. Hell, they even paid for dinner tonight!

 

[yarmo]

The AEV event on the beaches of Oregon was a blast! It started with intense classes learning the fundamentals of keeping our wheels pointed down in the steep dunes, lots of hands-on instruction on the proper ways to use our winches and recovery gear, and driving a half mile to the dunes down narrow trails in reverse. Yes, you need to be proficient in reverse to get out of some of the bad predicaments that you can get into on these massive dunes.

Over the two days we progressed through more and more challenging scenarios. At some point dropping 40 to 50 feet down the face of a dune at a 30 degree angle became commonplace.

AEV sponsored the whole thing and had six rigs of people there to help train us in our nine vehicles. One of their Jeeps was for their professional photographer, but he won't have his shots and drone footage available for a while.

I'd never aired down to 12 psi before, but that's what everyone went down to.

By the end of day two we were flying across the incredibly steep faces of massive dunes at about 30 mph. On some runs we'd intentionally slow enough for the tail to drop a bit, then you keep it below you and control it by steering into the curve. It's a lot like drifting, but on a wall!

Hats off to AEV for putting this together. Hell, they even paid for dinner tonight!

That looks like a blast! Great pics.

You definitely need to air low in sand and 12’s a pretty good number. I’ve been down to 8 in deep snow with no beadlocks; it’s actually a lot harder than you’d think to blow a bead as long as you aren’t completely off kilter on a sidewall.

 

[KevinC11]

Sounded like a informative event, something to take away and use and teach to others.

KevinC

 

[Ratbert]

That looks like a blast! Great pics.

You definitely need to air low in sand and 12’s a pretty good number. I’ve been down to 8 in deep snow with no beadlocks; it’s actually a lot harder than you’d think to blow a bead as long as you aren’t completely off kilter on a sidewall.

We were at high speed and steep angles at the apex of the dune, then sometimes we'd intentionally slow sufficiently to start crabbing. At that point your rear is dangling down below you while you turn into the curve. Somehow 12 psi was sufficient. Somehow.

Yeah, absolutely a blast!

 

[Ratbert]

Sounded like a informative event, something to take away and use and teach to others.

KevinC

The recovery stuff? Yes.

The dunes-related stuff? Not a chance since we're 23-ish hours from home.

We'll head to Moab Friday to get a completely different type of fun under our belts before returning to Colorado next week.

 

[fastfatdude]

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 w/walls
• 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.

Hi, can i ask what the vehicle height was when you collected her? with the 2.5in lift and 37s?

thank you.

 

[Ratbert]

Hi, can i ask what the vehicle height was when you collected her? with the 2.5in lift and 37s?

thank you.

Sorry, I didn't measure it. I've subsequently added a lot of weight and installed their 3" HD springs.

AEV should be able to give you those measurements.

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