What did you do TO your Gladiator today? [ADMIN WARNING: NO POLITICS, NO GUN TALK]

[TheTrailGeek]

Finally got around to installing my rock lights. 8 lux light RGBW.

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[doc-ketamine]

Myfak Pro. Better to be safe than sorry!

It's good kit. I have one of their packs as well. Got the healthcare professional discount and was able to use my FSA money to buy it.

 

[doc-ketamine]

I did the 5-tire rotation today. Timed it - 95 minutes from starting to drop the spare to putting away the tools. I know I'm old and all but that's a long time right! I had major detours such as replacing wheel weights that came off, which included heat and razor blades and Goo-gone, but I'm glad I did it myself. Last time the teens at the dealer (a) forgot to do a 5-tire rotation, and (b) when I reminded them and they took it back, they didn't torque the driver rear.

 

[Jglad15]

It's good kit. I have one of their packs as well. Got the healthcare professional discount and was able to use my FSA money to buy it.

Yeah I didn’t realize I could qualify for the gov x discounts. Thought it was more of the nursing side. Was bored the other day and checked it out and got approved!

 

[chorky]

Got it back in. Sure is nice to have my compressor working again and being able to hook up the battery tender.

Now just need to sort out a mounting solution for the main panel.

 

[mx5red]

I did the 5-tire rotation today. Timed it - 95 minutes from starting to drop the spare to putting away the tools. I know I'm old and all but that's a long time right! I had major detours such as replacing wheel weights that came off, which included heat and razor blades and Goo-gone, but I'm glad I did it myself. Last time the teens at the dealer (a) forgot to do a 5-tire rotation, and (b) when I reminded them and they took it back, they didn't torque the driver rear.

I’ve only done 4 tire rotation (or swap snow tires for M/Ts) but I have it to 40mins I think. at first I thought an hour to do that was a long time, but I think doing it right with torque wrenches and such is better than getting it screwed up!
It would probably take me 2 hrs to get the spare down the first time?

 

[Dougstdig]

Did a little maintenance. Wasn’t happy with the cabin air filter, so I’ll use this one for backup and find a better one. Looking for one that is impregnated with charcoal like the factory one. Oh, and thankful the fuel filter assembly has a slit plate!

 

[22EcoDs]

Did a little maintenance. Wasn’t happy with the cabin air filter, so I’ll use this one for backup and find a better one. Looking for one that is impregnated with charcoal like the factory one. Oh, and thankful the fuel filter assembly has a slit plate!

How many miles on that engine air filter?

 

[doc-ketamine]

It would probably take me 2 hrs to get the spare down the first time?

Yeah, that took a while. It was my first rotation (previous ones were Jeep Wave). I actually hung the 5th tire/wheel upside down when placing it, had to let 'er down and start over. ?

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Western makes an extension/drop bracket to add onto each reciever point of your existing vehicle mount. I've got the 2" mopar lift on my 2020, and had to add this on to mine. I think the kit was around $80. If your Western shop doesn't know about it, try Storks Plows in western PA. They specialize in Jeeps for plowing.

But honestly, looking at your pictures, I think it's fine. The slight down angle of the setup looks about the same as mine. No matter what, this is still a medium duty plow setup. The amount of snow you would have to push in one shot to force the front end of your jeep up would be more than the height the plow can push. I've pushed enough to have snow falling over the top, and the jeep is still going.

Thanks. The local Western dealer had never mounted a plow on a Jeep and hadn't seen it done. (and yet I saw a JLU with a Western Defender on it parked at a grocery store in December)
So they knew exactly what was needed for parts and pieces, but had never done it.
There's a document that shows what kit to use depending on the measurement - and mine was right at the 22" mark when I started the install with the Synergy 1" springs.
I got the 32114 kit. That's the brackets that bolt to the frame and the mounting bar along the front that goes between the two frame brackets.
The 113 kit has longer side brackets that drop the mounting bar lower - and even comes with brackets to let you use the skid plate. With the 114 you can't use a skid plate - at least on mine with the receiver as there's no space for one.

These pieces (#1) are longer and hold the bar lower -

I haven't seen any other parts that extend downward from that bar. All I know is that if this didn't work, I'd have to take things off - remove the whole mounting kit and use the longer side brackets (#1) to lower the mount.

Anyway, with the plow having been on, and used a bit in the last couple of days, and driving the truck more,. I find that things have settled. It used to be 23.25" how I measure and it's now 23".
So it's settled 1/4".
Since stock these are 21.5" by my measure, and these new springs have it sitting at 23" (I took the plow off yesterday with the snow all but melted away in one day) it's 1.5" over stock.
I have Daystar 3/4" spacers under the rear springs.
Figure to make it back to the factory "rake" it would take bringing the front up 3/4" to 22.25', I can figure I ended up with 3/4" leveling up front. Still some rake.
It's like this - if I had put 3/4" spacers on both ends, the truck would be 3/4" higher but with the exact same amount of rake. The springs gave me 3/4" above that, so leveled it 3/4"
As far as the plow is concerned, at 23" now, it's as if I gave it a 1.5" lift (21.5 compared to 23" as measured in the pic below)

This is how I measure so it doesn't matter what tires are on it, or what the inflation is, it's comparing nothing but the suspension - the springs and nothing else.
Stock Overland is 21.5" I'm now sitting at 23". It was 23.25 when the springs first went in.

 

[Summitsearcher]

I grew up in Michigan, one of my friends dad worked for the township doing whatever during the summer but everyone who could drive a truck was on snowplow duty in the winter. They had a pool every year for the first person that hit a car that was parked in the street. He had a picture of the one year he won the pool. The car was parked in front of the sign that said "No Parking When Snow Removal Conditions Exist."

Well… here it comes again! Be plowing it again this week. I’m ready.

 

[Summitsearcher]

It sucks that there are so many thieves that that we have to constantly worry about our own hard earned and paid for things. I greatly dislike thieves. Even worse is so many police departments are actually suggesting to purposefully buy junker cars for recreation because prosecutors won't do anything and there's no significant repercussion - so it just gets worse.

Too bad the key fob doesn’t have a slide switch (like your cell to silence it) to cut off power to the fob when in the house.

 

[Summitsearcher]

I scratched it ? Good times!

The bed bars and hitch skid got a workout. They did their job!

It’s just like a rug burn. Well, almost ? The good ole days of shag carpet.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Maybe it will be like I've heard all winter - here comes the big one, boys. Get ready, it's gonna be bad! 6"-9" for sure.
And hour after hour their updates showed us with big amounts of snow, really bad winds, etc.
What did we get? Well, it snowed Thursday, I cleared things up Thursday evening and by Saturday, all 3 to 4" were pretty much gone. Wind? Well, for a while, but not like they said. Friday was nice, not windy and the snow dropped by about an inch by the end of Friday even though it was in the 20s because the ground is SO WARM.
Yeah, I can still stab driveway markers back into the ground in some spots. The ground is so warm it's destroying the roads, sidewalks and driveways because instead of freezing solid, it's freezing, thawing, freezing, thawing, and it's heaving things badly. Bad for trees for sure.
Bitch of a winter when it never fully freezes the ground and keeps it that way.
It's been in the 40s so much this month, and even the 50s, it's crazy. Not good for plant life.
I think I'll skip the plow this time, Forget it. If we get anything it will be gone the next day anyway, if it even accumulates. The ground is crazy warm. Mud is our issue, and busted up and heaved pavement and destroyed driveways.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Too bad the key fob doesn’t have a slide switch (like your cell to silence it) to cut off power to the fob when in the house.

Your cell phone has a slide switch to silence it? Never seen that before. I have an up/down volume pair of switches, but you have to hold one to get the volume turned down. Never seen a slide switch on a cell phone.
But a simple disable switch on a FOB would be a great idea! Go in the house, press a button - FOB off (save battery, too!)

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