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Rhydon the Rubicon

jdubya421

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I figure I would go ahead and make a build journal for my Jeep.

In July of 2019 I started with a 2019 Sport S, 2 door manual, sting grey. We named her Mareep the Jeep and had a custom tag that said "YEEPYEEP". She served me well for a year and I earned 5 badges trails through out the south east.
Jeep Wrangler JL Rhydon the Rubicon 20200209_203335


I put on 33' ridge grapplers, cavfab bumper, smittybuilt x20 winch, and a rubicon transfer case. Man the transfer case made such a difference in my confidence and my ability in this Jeep. Eventually, while looking for Rubicon take off axles I realized I should probably just trade in for a Rubicon.

Enter this year, right around the same time in July, I traded in for almost the exact same Jeep, but a Rubicon. I actually had ripped the fender off my sport 2 days before trading it in and traded it in with only 3 fenders. At this point, I am now the proud owner of a 2020 Rubicon, 2 door manual, in (you guessed it) sting grey. My girlfriend and I decided on Rhydon the Rubicon (if you didn't know we like Pokemon) because it fits a bit better with the grey color - also because I ride-on all the trails ;).

Jeep Wrangler JL Rhydon the Rubicon 20200723_131040


I moved over all my parts and I sold the rubi transfer case from the sport to another forum member. My girlfriend bought me some Quake headlights and those went on too. I immediately started removing all the red from the Rubi. As you can tell from my hard shackles, I like teal. So I bought a pixel decal that is black and teal (still not here yet), removed the red rubicon trail rated badge, and plasti dipped the "JEEP" logo.

Jeep Wrangler JL Rhydon the Rubicon 20200728_161911


And with only 2000 miles on her I went out to Ouray and Moab and did 10 badge trails these past two weeks. As soon as I got home the upgrades went straight on.
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jdubya421

jdubya421

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I have actually had these tires for months, but was waiting till I had rubicon axles (or a rubicon) to put them on. After getting back from my two week trip I decided to go ahead and throw them on. I upgraded to some 37" patagonias, thankfully I could afford them courtesy of Litebrite and E3 offroad.
Jeep Wrangler JL Rhydon the Rubicon 20200822_165018


Before the trip I had called East Coast Gear Supply and ordered master kits for the front and rear, 4.88 ring and pinion, lube locker gaskets, and dana diff covers. Those have been sitting in my garage waiting for the tires to go on.

Jeep Wrangler JL Rhydon the Rubicon 20200824_162832


I also have a Teraflex ST3 kit with Falcon 3.3 shocks on the way.
Jeep Wrangler JL Rhydon the Rubicon 2020-08-24 16_34_04-2020_CW33_JW.pptx  -  AutoRecovered - PowerPoint


I also picked up the mopar reinforcement for the tailgate because I got a pretty decent deal on it and I have seen multiple friends run it with 37s and be fine. I also ordered the Teraflex wheels spacers since it will give me the same "backspacing" the bead locks I plan on getting will. Also on order are the American Adventure Lab DRLs and I already have Motobilt inner fender liners to go in when I do it.

Next up is steering and RCV/chromoly shafts. I am really excited for the future of this Jeep.
 
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jdubya421

jdubya421

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Had to drop the Jeep off at the dealer. On the way back from Moab my rear locker decided to turn on in 2HI. Pulled over and turned it off and it came right back on. I pulled the locker fuse for the drive home and now it just gives me a "service locker" warning.

Having them look at that as well as my ESC seemingly being active in 4LO. I can hear the ESC relays activating when I am crawling around and turning the wheel. We will see what happens.
 
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jdubya421

jdubya421

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Dealer ordered a new rear axle and a new soft top window. Did not find issue with the ESC or the clicking I hear in 4LOm
 

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Dealer ordered a new rear axle and a new soft top window. Did not find issue with the ESC or the clicking I hear in 4LOm
How long are they saying the Jeep will need to stay in the shop?
 

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jdubya421

jdubya421

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How long are they saying the Jeep will need to stay in the shop?
They gave it back to me and said parts should take "2-3 days" which I don't believe at all. I heard there is a back order for axles till november. We will see what happens. The Jeep is totally fine except my lockers don't work and my window pops off sometimes at highway speeds.
 
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jdubya421

jdubya421

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Installed the spacers today. The beadlocks I want will stick out roughly 1.75" more so 1.75" spacers it is till then. Got every part of the lift except the shocks, those will be here Monday. I am really happy with the look and if I am not mistaken a wider stance will increase flex a bit too. Also, if you can't tell, I like Teraflex.
Jeep Wrangler JL Rhydon the Rubicon 20200826_143849
Jeep Wrangler JL Rhydon the Rubicon 7262020151327
 

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Installed the spacers today. The beadlocks I want will stick out roughly 1.75" more so 1.75" spacers it is till then. Got every part of the lift except the shocks, those will be here Monday. I am really happy with the look and if I am not mistaken a wider stance will increase flex a bit too. Also, if you can't tell, I like Teraflex.
Jeep Wrangler JL Rhydon the Rubicon 20200901_214543
Love the stance, the stubby bumper, and the teal. Is this your bumper? I couldn't quite tell which one on CavFab's website, it looked a little different in pics. Where did you get the teal shackles?

Looks great!
 
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jdubya421

jdubya421

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Love the stance, the stubby bumper, and the teal. Is this your bumper? I couldn't quite tell which one on CavFab's website, it looked a little different in pics. Where did you get the teal shackles?

Looks great!
Yes, that is it from Cavfab. I believe mine was the first ever prototype and I got it from a forum member who had Cavfab make it for him. The shackles are just rhino shackles I had powder coated at the same time as my bumper. I think it was like 30$ to do the shackles and the bumper was around 100$.

Edit: I think mine is the "pre-runner hoop" option.
 

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jdubya421

jdubya421

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Finally got around to installing the lift. Took me several days working a few days at a time. I thought I read through and had all the tools I needed, but several trips to the hardware store proved me wrong. The install isn't "hard" just tedious.

As for the performance of the lift/tires....just wow. I see thread after thread about how these shocks are stiff and I can't understand that. The lift and tires together are just beautiful. Even the fire roads to get to the trails at Uwharrie felt completely different on the firmest setting. It absorbed everything and where going just 20mph felt bad because how jostled I was, I was hitting 40 and felt fine. Even my mom noted that it felt better. On the trails on sections between obstacles I hated going over like 6mph, now I was cruising along at 10+ without any of the bumps being annoying. I don't know how much of that is the 37s extra side wall or the lift itself. Either way, the setup is awesome and I feel like it was money well spent.

20200908_174515.jpg
 
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jdubya421

jdubya421

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After some time with the lift I noticed there was a significant amount of spring bow, especially on the passenger side. I also noticed that the axle wasn't quite centered, I actually needed to shorten the track bar a bit. So I called Teraflex about the spring bow and ordered a Steer Smarts track bar.

My first call with Teraflex was really not what I was expecting. The guy basically offered no help and basically said "yeah that shouldn't happen, probably need adjustable control arms, thats what I always recommend". Well, they sell the ST3 kit which claims no need for that with the geometry brackets, but I wanted to see if I did anything wrong. I loosened the control arms and re-tightened them and checked the spring perch and isolator to make sure I did it right - which I did.

Decided to email Teraflex this time with pictures and they responded by sending me their spring perch kit, which makes sense. The axle seems pretty well aligned, just judging by how the spring perch on the axle aligns to the one on the frame. I also noticed in their spring perch kit you are to rotate the top isolator to a different orientation than stock if there is outward bow. I am glad Teraflex sent the kit out free and no questions asked. I would have purchased some control arms if I needed to, but I specifically bought the ST3 kit so I didn't have to and could just upgrade to long arms in the future without having to also buy their short arm kit.

First pic is driver side and second is passenger

Jeep Wrangler JL Rhydon the Rubicon 20200923_143302


Jeep Wrangler JL Rhydon the Rubicon 20200923_143312
 

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Finally got around to installing the lift. Took me several days working a few days at a time. I thought I read through and had all the tools I needed, but several trips to the hardware store proved me wrong. The install isn't "hard" just tedious.

As for the performance of the lift/tires....just wow. I see thread after thread about how these shocks are stiff and I can't understand that. The lift and tires together are just beautiful. Even the fire roads to get to the trails at Uwharrie felt completely different on the firmest setting. It absorbed everything and where going just 20mph felt bad because how jostled I was, I was hitting 40 and felt fine. Even my mom noted that it felt better. On the trails on sections between obstacles I hated going over like 6mph, now I was cruising along at 10+ without any of the bumps being annoying. I don't know how much of that is the 37s extra side wall or the lift itself. Either way, the setup is awesome and I feel like it was money well spent.

Jeep Wrangler JL Rhydon the Rubicon 20200923_143312
Nice bumper!
 
 



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