What's the hardest Jeep mod/install you've ever done?

[Sazabi19]

I believe that's the same one I have, install was pretty easy, think it took about 15 minutes IIRC. It's also a good dead pedal, feels sturdy and has a decent range of adjustment, it flips up so you can get your mats in & out w/out issue.

Cool, thanks for the insight, I actually just ordered 1 lol. I'm about 5'10" and my dead pedal on my JT is 1 of the side mounting 1s and OMG that thing was terrible to put in. My sides were hurting from trying to bend to get in there to see. I won't be getting 1 of those again.

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[MrGneissGuy]

It technically was not really complicated and maybe not the type of "hardest Jeep mod" you're looking for; but for someone a little on the old and big side, and somewhat out of shape like me, splicing the wires for the Oracle Sidetrack lights into the footwell courtesy light wiring was a pain. The contortions I had to do to get my hands in there and still be able to see what I was doing made me hurt for a day or two.

 

[dragoneggs]

Laying out and taping this, I'm no painter.

Looks like a fantastic job from here!

 

[entropy]

Oh my gosh yes. That stubby bumper looked easy to put on but ended up taking 2 people 8 hours with some slight modifications. Honestly I love how it looks but man it was a pain.
I have been wanting to switch out my headlights but I haven't because I know I will have to remove that bumper so I can work on them without the grill in the way

gosh really there's no way to get to the headlights without having to take the grill? I think there's another way.

I had to remove it and reinstall it to get my winch on. What a massive pita. If I have to remove it again I might order a different bumper.

Me:

Also me:

 

[entropy]

Not so much the hardest, but the most frustrating was installing the Tazer.

what did you have issue with? mine was plug n play

 

[Heimkehr]

gosh really there's no way to get to the headlights without having to take the grill? I think there's another way.

On the 2.0T, I could remove the airbox assembly to gain access to the rear of the pax-side headlight. The intercooler reservoir on the driver's side of things isn't so easily removed (if it can be disturbed at all), though.

The foregoing compels me to remove the grille if I want to pfaff about with the headlights. I'll have do that soon enough, since I've LED bulbs sitting in my To Do box.

 

[brewski]

I think the physically hardest to do on my JL was the Mopar trailer brake. While it isn't that hard if you know where it goes (which now there are good pictures and info on this), it was quite hard to figure out and find the correct location to install it when I did mine in spring of 2021. If I took out the driver seat it would have been easy, but being lazy I didn't which just made it super cramped and hard to figure out from the Mopar instructions.

Most involved install was my AAL compressor and 2nd battery install under the JL false floor. I spent a lot of time figuring out where run wiring/hoses and how to set it up and then many hours trimming OEM parts to keep an OEM clean look. I ended up writing up an How To

 

[sconrad24]

The hardest was on my first JK adding a steersmarts attuenator. You had to remove the drag link and use a hammer on the knuckle to get the end out. I hit the thread by mistake and didn’t know at first so I ended up having to cut the bolt off. That was most nerve racking drive after getting everything back together.

 

[brewski]

I've been 'dying' to add a dead-pedal ... resting your foot at the proper angle is a bigger deal with every birthday that passes.

Problem is, the Quadratech pedal is always sold out & I've heard this about that one too many times now ... it was early-in on this list!

I have the Quadratec one and I would say it is highly worth the wait. Install is super easy and if you set the bolt tightness right the "pedal" will stay in position, but allow for moving up (and holding up) so you can remove mudmats, etc. The large platform allows me to put my foot in a couple different positions w/o having to put pressure down to hold it to the dead pedal. I despise Quadratec and will not give them money if I can avoid it, but theirs is so good I had get it for my jeep. I put the rubber sticker on upside-down so the quadratec logo is as hidden as possible.

 

[Chile1]

what did you have issue with? mine was plug n play

connecting the SGW Extension Cable given the very limited space to work with.

 

[blnewt]

With all the others that said Dead Pedal - installed mine two years ago and my back still twitches when I look at the down at all the corners, edges, etc in the driver's foot well.

Is this why your back still twitches???

 

[entropy]

connecting the SGW Extension Cable given the very limited space to work with.

ohhh yeaa I forgot about that. lol, yeah it was a little painful.

 

[jaardappel]

Mishimoto JL 2.0 Turbo Intercooler Pipe. Slow-burning panic mode engaged about 1 hour in when I realized that I'm not seating it in either end's fitting and then when I did....every time I turn the worm-gear of the pipe clamp (odd angle, way the F down there, hard to hold in place)...the pipe popped out again. Panic mode engage. Wife waiting for pickup from work...engine in pieces...sweat...torn fingers...thirsty...crazed-coyote look in my eyes....literally was sitting on TOP of my engine (not even touching the sheet-metal around the engine) using all the ass my short-man body could muster to get this thing into place. I have not swore so much outside being electrocuted while renovating an old house as I did trying to get that pipe and the accompanying pipe-clamps in place so I could drive it. Bejebus came and allowed it all to fit nicely 10 minutes before I needed to leave to pick up wifey. Who didn't know about aforementioned Mishimoto pipe. At all. So obviously I couldn't say, "hey babe--uh....the Jeep is in pieces because I'm sneaking in an intercooler pipe and I'm not quite sure it'll run if I can't get it back on."

Side note--it's on. I checked it a year later (three days ago) and it's tight and no leaks or looseness, all hose-clamps in the right place, no tearing of the sleeves....whew! But holy crap. The video Mishimoto demos and some online videos should include the frustration, the grunting, the literal cascade of common-mechanic-problem expletives and just run at normal time so instead of a 9:26 video (That's the Mishimoto video), it should be 2 hours of "WTF....I'll NEVER do that again!" hahaha.

Outcome: It's a noticeable gain in HP. And it's quite a bit louder (the turbo wheeze and grumbling of the engine...including past warm-up idle...) and the torque at low-end is surprisingly more responsive. So...I got that goin for me, which is nice.

Anyways, I might be a total idiot tho and/or not be mechanically inclined enough or smart enough to have done it correctly. There are a million good pointers I should have read on this forum before beginning the install. Cheers!

 

[U EEDIOT]

Amazon now has a ton of dead pedals like the 1 on Quadratec for like $25. I'm going to get 1 of these. Told my brother I'm going to take the 1 I had on my JT for my JL but I'm NOT going to get back in there and try to take it back off. This 1 seems SOOO much easier to mount!

Here is a link to their top one:

https://www.amazon.com/JeCar-Pedal-Steel-Wrangler-2018-2021/dp/B08T1N9VWZ/ref=sr_1_2?crid=3RL0EYG6MM9HH&keywords=jeep+jl+dead+pedal&qid=1659708131&sprefix=jeep+jl+dead+pedal,aps,103&sr=8-2

Just avoid the ones with too many cutouts in them. They buckle real easy if you use it for leverage when entering/exiting.
Imagine a line going across the width of the pedal and see how much metal is still there.
Read the reviews.

 

[Mocopo]

Not on my jeep, but a buddy's JL. He bought a DV8 front bumper that was meant for a JK but had a JL adapter, really just a spacer to give more room for a winch. Long story short, it's 8 stinkin bolts, it should not be that hard, but there was no room to get the final bolt tightened on each side, and i accidentally got a ratchet wrench stuck, that took forever to get out. And we monkeyed around with the dang fog lights, there were next to zero instructions, and the ones that were there didn't make sense. Like the pics didn't match the bumper. It was about an hour before we realized the supplied bracket was not correct.

2 guys, 5 hours later, we had a bumper installed, no fog lights. Then we went to install the hood latch lock, discovered my rivet gun didn't go big enough, so we tried to do nutserts instead, broke my nutsert tool....

I needed more than a few drinks after that...

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