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

[Krazy]

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[bastage]

Back for take 2... After getting the rest on I had to put on the inner fenders sitting in my garage for the last week. These are the 1 piece ACE inner's... Exactly the look I was going for & none of the fastening points interfere with my Bushwacker Fenders.

 

[Deleted member 30519]

Back for take 2... After getting the rest on I had to put on the inner fenders sitting in my garage for the last week. These are the 1 piece ACE inner's... Exactly the look I was going for & none of the fastening points interfere with my Bushwacker Fenders.

Nice

 

[-miko-]

SWEET! Nicely done. Bet you could sell plans............

Ha! A side hustle to pay for more parts!

But if folks are interested I'll post some 'as built' plans.

 

[Mightytalldude]

Installed some Rubicon takeoff shocks and springs tonight. Gained about an inch ride height overall. Being that mine is a manual, there's a Bilstein shock mounted from the rear axle pumpkin to the frame, I'm assuming to help with axle wrap? Hardest part was keeping the rubber isolater positioned correctly while clocking the springs into the isolater. Nice little upgrade. Took about 4 hours overall.

 

[Mightytalldude]

Installed Rubicon take-off FOX shocks, Rubicon front springs and max tow rear springs.
Didn't like the DROP in height at the rear, liked the gain of height (1.125") at the front, though.
Maybe I should have put the Rubicon rears in, too.

My understanding of the Rubicon vs Max Tow springs are the Max Tow are progressive 8 coil vs the Rubicon 7 coil non-progressive rear springs. The Max Tow will get you a smoother ride when fully loaded, but you don't get the extra inch as with the Rubicon springs and the Rubicon loses the ride quality firmness when fully loaded. I just installed Rubicon take-offs tonight, and it's a definite improvement over the non Max Tow Sport S suspension, which was very soft. I'll give it a day and then I'll re-torque all the points again to make sure everything is good.

 

[Mightytalldude]

Rack updated
https://www.jeepgladiatorforum.com/...rfect-for-me-gladiator-rack.27705/post-537427

Dammit, you're going to make me spend more money. That looks awesome.

 

[Blknblu]

added a more dead man pedal, what a pain, but all good.

Bruce

 

[jeepguy225]

I've had mine come on a few times... only got it to the dealership twice. The first time they erased the stored code and said "have a good day". Second time they flashed the PCM. A week later the CEL and ESS are on. Already have an appointment for the 29th.... the other forum discussion on this doesnt look promising.... mostly seeing lemon laws...

Dealership flashed it and said to bring it back if it comes on again so they could take a few things apart and check it out. They also said the push button start sometimes glitches and the code appears.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

My understanding of the Rubicon vs Max Tow springs are the Max Tow are progressive 8 coil vs the Rubicon 7 coil non-progressive rear springs. The Max Tow will get you a smoother ride when fully loaded, but you don't get the extra inch as with the Rubicon springs and the Rubicon loses the ride quality firmness when fully loaded. I just installed Rubicon take-offs tonight, and it's a definite improvement over the non Max Tow Sport S suspension, which was very soft. I'll give it a day and then I'll re-torque all the points again to make sure everything is good.

That explanation makes sense. My disappointment is that it DROPPED the back of the truck a half inch empty. I guess if I could gain back the .5" at the rear I'd be happier.
I really liked that it gained me a strong inch up front. I can tell by looking, but that's by the measure. I could also tell just sitting in it the front end looked higher when sitting in my garage.
The ride - nice. There isn't the bouncy feel. Yes I feel certain things more, but it also seems to stick to the road more. Formerly a bump up would make the axle jump and not come down for a ways. Now it's up and right back down - so you feel more, but likely don't risk losing control over really bad rough or slippery roads. Last thing you want is a bump tossing that drive axle up and the tires spin and come back down. Firmer, but not TOO firm. Still has a very nice ride. If it rode like this during a test drive I'd been very fine with it.
I DO have Rubicon rear springs as I bought the whole Rubicon take-off setup - 4 springs, shocks, I believe lower arms, sway bar links, hmmm, I may have gotten a track bar too - if so it's sitting up on a shelf somewhere but it's stock so no reason to replace mine. Same as on all stock JTs.
So if I'm really not happy with the max tow rears, I can always swap in the Rubicon springs but my reasoning was that I will be pulling a tilt bed car hauler with car (if this stupid virus goes away and we have big shows again). My stock setup sagged badly with a load, I figured max tow springs would not sag so much with a heavy load and still give a decent ride.
Maybe I just look for a way to gain back that half inch.
The rear hitch receiver sat 19" off the floor before the swap, when empty. It now sits 18.5" off the floor, empty. Translating that to the axle area I know that means less than a half inch drop.... so maybe I try to fight my OCD and live with it LOL.

Jeep gave us a really neat way to swap springs without a helper - there's a shelf there below the bump stop. I put a piece of pipe about the same length as the rubber stop is tall up inside the rubber stop. Then I sat a bottle jack on that shelf and jacked the jack until the spring was loose - being CAREFUL to NOT stretch the brake line AT ALL. There was JUST enough brake hose to get the Overland springs out. The max tow springs are quite a bit shorter so went in easily. Like another said - the trick was holding the top spring pad up in place with the nipple up in the hole and then clocking the spring so the end was against the pad stop/ramp and keeping it there while letting the axle back up. That's what took a bit of time. The rest of the rear spring and shock swap - under an hour. The real time was getting that top pad to stay. If I had spent any more time at all, I was going to wash that pad up, dry it off, clean the area the pad sat in and put some 3M 008001 super weatherstrip adhesive up there to hold the pad in place. Once that stuff sticks, you would have to ruin the pad to get it back out. If I do another swap, that's exactly what I will do as I bet I could save 10 minutes of fussing with that pad by sticking up up there with 008001.

 

[BLK HOLE]

Saturday install

Shrockworks, out of Houston. I have this exact same bumper (different color) on my JKUR.

OK...the day has come Saturday.

Bumper
10K Warn (adding a synthetic line)
Rigid lights (to replace fogs)
Replacing my 3/4 spacers with Teraflex 1.5" to offset and level the truck. Leaving the 3/4" rears on (truck already has a MOPAR lift).

Red Jeep is just a pic of the bumper...Silver Jeep is mine.

Also decided to add front and rear adjustable track bars. I THINK I might try my hand at centering the axles myself but only for fun...its only 109.00 bucks to have my local Jeep shop align them right. Any tips or suggestions on that, for those who've done it before? Its more of experiment to me but I assumed, without any research yet whatsoever, that I'd just have the truck on jack stands and find the best point to use for fixed measurements from the frame as I could. The truck has a slight pull to the right that I'm tired of.

 

[trust]

On my mj I think I got the thing on the ground, track bar loose, cycled the steering and centered it dead straight (tire not steering wheel) then tightened it down after checking that the tires stuck out equally on each side (as equal as possible with a vert level and tape)

Good luck

 

[Mightytalldude]

That explanation makes sense. My disappointment is that it DROPPED the back of the truck a half inch empty. I guess if I could gain back the .5" at the rear I'd be happier.
I really liked that it gained me a strong inch up front. I can tell by looking, but that's by the measure. I could also tell just sitting in it the front end looked higher when sitting in my garage.
The ride - nice. There isn't the bouncy feel. Yes I feel certain things more, but it also seems to stick to the road more. Formerly a bump up would make the axle jump and not come down for a ways. Now it's up and right back down - so you feel more, but likely don't risk losing control over really bad rough or slippery roads. Last thing you want is a bump tossing that drive axle up and the tires spin and come back down. Firmer, but not TOO firm. Still has a very nice ride. If it rode like this during a test drive I'd been very fine with it.
I DO have Rubicon rear springs as I bought the whole Rubicon take-off setup - 4 springs, shocks, I believe lower arms, sway bar links, hmmm, I may have gotten a track bar too - if so it's sitting up on a shelf somewhere but it's stock so no reason to replace mine. Same as on all stock JTs.
So if I'm really not happy with the max tow rears, I can always swap in the Rubicon springs but my reasoning was that I will be pulling a tilt bed car hauler with car (if this stupid virus goes away and we have big shows again). My stock setup sagged badly with a load, I figured max tow springs would not sag so much with a heavy load and still give a decent ride.
Maybe I just look for a way to gain back that half inch.
The rear hitch receiver sat 19" off the floor before the swap, when empty. It now sits 18.5" off the floor, empty. Translating that to the axle area I know that means less than a half inch drop.... so maybe I try to fight my OCD and live with it LOL.

Jeep gave us a really neat way to swap springs without a helper - there's a shelf there below the bump stop. I put a piece of pipe about the same length as the rubber stop is tall up inside the rubber stop. Then I sat a bottle jack on that shelf and jacked the jack until the spring was loose - being CAREFUL to NOT stretch the brake line AT ALL. There was JUST enough brake hose to get the Overland springs out. The max tow springs are quite a bit shorter so went in easily. Like another said - the trick was holding the top spring pad up in place with the nipple up in the hole and then clocking the spring so the end was against the pad stop/ramp and keeping it there while letting the axle back up. That's what took a bit of time. The rest of the rear spring and shock swap - under an hour. The real time was getting that top pad to stay. If I had spent any more time at all, I was going to wash that pad up, dry it off, clean the area the pad sat in and put some 3M 008001 super weatherstrip adhesive up there to hold the pad in place. Once that stuff sticks, you would have to ruin the pad to get it back out. If I do another swap, that's exactly what I will do as I bet I could save 10 minutes of fussing with that pad by sticking up up there with 008001.

I would look at a spacer to get the ride height to the level you want. Keep the payload capacity with the Max Tow. You'll be into the back end either way, so why not just get the best of both.

 

[d k]

I've been there....

Countless times.

Seawater and metals don't mix well.

Neither do Italian made boats that require you to dismantle permanent structures to get to stuff....

Very true, but the back of the item has to be rock-solid otherwise you flex the part, or it moves, and you lose the advantage. I use the hammer impact a lot, almost daily in my work, I've broken them and broken their bits. Unless the part is back by something heavy or rock-solid, they don't work so well.
Here I am milling out a bolt after the impact failed.
I have had to remove three this way in the past few weeks and had it centered so perfectly, all that was left was the threats and a foil-thin layer of the bolt I just peeled out.
If I can get the item up here, if it will fit, if there's room, it's not on a car or truck, this is my solution. I control the exact depth and can dial in center near-perfect.
But it's a last resort........ yes.

 

[BLK HOLE]

On my mj I think I got the thing on the ground, track bar loose, cycled the steering and centered it dead straight (tire not steering wheel) then tightened it down after checking that the tires stuck out equally on each side (as equal as possible with a vert level and tape)

Good luck

Thanks.


After a bit of reading I learned it really does need to be on the ground and sitting like it normally would.

Using a level...measure all 4 tires from the fender. In my case my front and rear axles have shifted to opposite sides by about a 1/4". So they're offset 1/2".

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