Storm Cloud - 2023 4xe Rubicon Build

[Storm Cloud]

Well, on a brighter note, I got to add on a little bit of bling today. A while back, I installed the Terra Acoustics front speakers to replace the stock ones, and I absolutely love them. They aren’t going to blow you out of the water, but they are a definite improvement over stock. The sound is much more balanced and you can really hear all the little details in the music. They look sharp and come with a little silver ring around where the tweeter is.

That was 6 months ago and last week I got an email from the company saying they had come out with some colored trim rings to jazz these up. They are available in 4xe blue, and I’m never one to pass up on a little splash of color, so I ordered them and they came in today.

The package included everything you need. Glue, an applicator tip, the rings and a toothpick to clean up any overspill.

The install was all of 5 minutes. Pry off the covers for easier access

Apply a few drops of glue

Place the rings

And snap the covers back in place

This post took me longer to write than the install and it’s such a small detail, I doubt anyone else will notice. But I notice it and that’s all I care about.

Happy trails!

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[Storm Cloud]

Well it’s been a minute, but I had to post an update on what’s been going on with the Jeep. I’ve always loved my lift. Clayton makes great parts, but one thing that I haven’t been happy with, was the amount of lift the 2 1/2” kit gave me. Full disclosure, I knew when I purchased it that on the 4xe, Clayton is completely transparent in stating that the 4xe will only get the advertised height, while the ICE Wranglers will get more like 3”. I was fine with that because I didn’t think I’d want more. Unfortunately, Jeeps are addictive when it comes to modding and I got bit by the bug badly and I am stuck in the MORE MORE MORE mentality.

So I bit the bullet and bought 3 1/2” springs from Metalcloak. That kit was a close second for me when I was shopping and they have 4xe specific springs that will give me more of the look I wanted. And since I was getting new springs, I needed new shocks to account for the added height. The Fox shocks I had were for a 2-3” lift and I needed more travel. I went with the Falcon 3.3’s because I wanted the adjustability and, if I’m being honest, I think they look really cool!

As long as I was working on that area, I figured it was also a good time to do a fender chop. I went with the Quake kit over the AAL, only because I’ve read about a lot of issues with the lens fogging up on the AAL. It’s purely anecdotal, but they both look so similar, I figured I’d just go with it.

Lastly, I figured I could address the inner fender liners. Every time I go off-road, maybe because of the heat making the plastic more malleable, the liner tends to warp a bit and get caught up on the spring area. Whenever the tires flex, it gives off an annoying clicking sound that was driving me crazy. I went with the Aztec fender liners, although AAL was a close second. I just couldn’t justify the price along with he wait time for AAL and Aztec makes great stuff anyway. Also, AAL has a cutout for the Falcon shocks, but it doesn’t extend all the way to show the reservoir like the Aztecs do, and that put them over the edge for me. I had to get them powder coated and then to keep in line with my blue accents, I painted the logo 4xe blue.

I finally got everything installed today and here is the end result.

Even though the springs were only 1” more, I measured out a 2.25’ gain. I know it will settle a bit so I will be curious to see where it ends up.

I hope the paint holds up over time, but i can always touch it up or just go all black if it gets to be a pain to keep up. I really wanted to paint the red adjustment knob on the shocks, but when I was taking them apart to do it, one of them was starting to strip and I didn’t want it to cause problems down the road so I just kept them red. I’m kind of glad I did because it breaks up the blue and black.

The rears aren’t vented, which makes sense because why would they need to be, but I think it would look much nicer if they were. In spite of that, I still love the look!

The sequential turn signals are a minor detail, but like most things, the cool factor matters…

 

[mikem20]

Great looking build! How’s the drive now that you’ve swapped springs and shocks

 

[Storm Cloud]

Great looking build! How’s the drive now that you’ve swapped springs and shocks

The drive is great. I’ve read a lot of people complain about Falcon shocks riding too stiff and that Fox are a much smoother ride. That hasn’t been my experience. I felt the Fox were a bit too mushy and that the Falcons ride almost identical on the soft setting. It may have something to do with the heavier 4xe affecting the ride quality. Of course, if you want Fox shocks, I’d recommend going with Accutune so they can be tuned for the added weight and them it will be a different beast I’m sure.

I’m still testing the different settings in the Falcons, so I’ll update in a few days after I check out the ride difference and settle on a daily drive setting.

 

[Storm Cloud]

Just an update, I swapped the shocks from the soft setting at “1” to “2.3” and it’s not noticeably stiffer over bumps but it handles soooo much better in the turns. I’ll try out the stiff setting next and see when or if that ever is a good setting for my driving style.

 

[mikem20]

I’d read the same about the falcons being too stiff too. Sounds like a solid upgrade.
I do have the accutune springs and fox non adjustable. No real complaints other than I this like adjustable shocks.

 

[Storm Cloud]

I’d read the same about the falcons being too stiff too. Sounds like a solid upgrade.
I do have the accutune springs and fox non adjustable. No real complaints other than I this like adjustable shocks.

I was definitely nervous about that but I can honestly say I don’t have that experience at all. I wonder if some of the complaints have to do with improper installation. The shocks are set up so that you can “tune” them to either soft or sport before installation by rotating the shaft one way or the other. Maybe people are installing them on sport and that’s why they seem so stiff. It still has settings but it’s all relative to the installation setting.

 

[Storm Cloud]

So I figure it’s about time to post another update. Once I went to the 3.5” shocks, the Jeep started suffering from an awful Death Wobble. It was crazy, I’d be driving along and all of a sudden the steering would go into seizures that wouldn’t stop. Once o had to pull over on the freeway just to allow it to reset, and then go back along my way. I found that changing the shocks back to the soft setting helped minimize the occurrences, but it still happened a lot.

I checked it all out and it turns out that the change in geometry was causing issues with the drag link connection to the steering box. The only fix wa Ms to replace the drag link, so I took it as an opportunity to upgrade. I ended up getting the RPM tie rod and drag link and I upgraded the steering stabilizer from the Fox TS to the ATS.

Problem solved.

I now have a roof rack, truss and ball joints on my wishlist…

 

[Bigbend24]

enjoyed looking at your build on your Jeep. I have a quick question on the Grimm hoop. Does the bar block the front camera very much as I’m looking at purchasing this and I have the front camera also. Thanks

 

[Storm Cloud]

enjoyed looking at your build on your Jeep. I have a quick question on the Grimm hoop. Does the bar block the front camera very much as I’m looking at purchasing this and I have the front camera also. Thanks

It does block the view somewhat. But it’s not bad.

 

[E4wd]

Your build is coming along well, I'm a fellow 4xe owner and spent a ton of time/money modifying mine as well, did you end up installing the Clayton lift? Curious about what you think of it, I went with the Metal cloak game changer since it was 4xe specific. Happy trails

 

[Storm Cloud]

Your build is coming along well, I'm a fellow 4xe owner and spent a ton of time/money modifying mine as well, did you end up installing the Clayton lift? Curious about what you think of it, I went with the Metal cloak game changer since it was 4xe specific. Happy trails

I did go with Clayton. I love all the components, but I wasn't happy with the net gain of the lift. They were completely transparent in that on a 4xe, it wouldn't get more than the 2.5" advertised lift, but after I installed it, I got hit by Jeep envy every time I pulled up next to another jeep that was lifted more. I ended up swapping out the springs for Metal Cloak 3.5" springs and I couldn't be happier.

If I was to do it again, I would have bought the Clayton lift anyway, but without the springs and still gone Metal Cloak. Nothing against Metal Cloak, it's a fantastic lift, I just don't like how many gold components there are and my OCD didn't like that.

 

[Storm Cloud]

It's been a while since I posted, but I haven't been doing much. I took the top and doors off about a month ago and was loving it! I had some long drives coming up, so I put them back on and noticed I had a really bad sound coming from the gearing. It sounded like a jet engine trying to take off. I don't know when it started, since it's so loud with the top off, but now that it went back on, it was awful. I took it in to my local shop and they noticed that my gears were going bad and needed to be replaced, before it grenaded on me. Like I always do, I take it as a sign to improve things, so I decided to upgrade my gears to 4.88.

The thing with the 4xe is that the electric motor makes up for a lot of the loss in power with the 4.10 gears when you go to 37's, so it wasn't anything I noticed or felt I needed, but I did notice I rarely hit 8th gear until about 70mph. The 4.88 should give me that back and hopefully improve the overall feel.

Yesterday, I finally took it in and when they were installing the gears, they sent me a picture of how bad the etching was all over the bearings. There was a lot of crap floating around in there, and it's not like I haven't maintained things on track.

Here is a picture of all the etching

It was a matter of time before a bearing got stuck and the thing blew up on me, so I'm happy I caught it when I did.

I'll update this post after I've had time to break it in and then drive it a bit to see how much better, if any, it drives.

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