FishChowder
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Dave
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2019
- Threads
- 10
- Messages
- 93
- Reaction score
- 138
- Location
- Nova scotia
- Vehicle(s)
- Ford Cmax
- Thread starter
- #1
I found my perfect Gladiator on Tuesday! I picked it up and immediately added a few mods. Here is what I've done so far:
A rack for the RTT I have wanted. Yeah, I only get out like once or twice a year but frig it, the rack is badass and the tent will look great, even when I'm not using it. Does anyone have any recommendations? I was hoping to be able to fit the whole family so a 6-12 person tent would be ideal.
I have seen many people comparing 35s to 37s and after weighing the pros and cons of both, I decided that 35s would look a little small and 37s just weren't going to work either so I took the leap and went with 40's. I also upgraded the bit and pieces per my local shop's recommendation so the rig will handle the beefier tires. I found these wheels from a '93 Viper that I loved back in the day and used some 3M tape that had been recommended by many people here to secure the beadlock rings to complete the tough off-road look. That tape holds crazy good! They're never coming off.
There were so many lift kits out there and I didn't want any rubbing so I went with a road 5.5" slam 'er n' level kit. It was a concept I came up with and a local shop made it come to life. It will not be made again so I'm proud to have a one-of-a-kind kit!! Be jealous! I designed this kit as I suspect it will give me better mpg than other lift kits I looked at, it will give me that stuffed look that is pretty dope and I don't plan on doing any water crossings (short of big-ish puddles when it rains) so it is perfect for my needs. After a few days in the shop, I got 'er back today and only minor rubbing at minimum flex. So happy!
I threw on some nerf steps yesterday. Not so much because I needed them but because I found they covered the pinch seam. If you happen to look for it from across the parking lot, you could see it and I hated that. You couldn't see it when you were close to the Jeep Truck, but whatever. Make it your own, right?
I took the rig out and snapped a quick shot. Clearance is deceiving in the picture because of the angle. It is definitely lower than it seems as my belly scraped a few times on the dirt road heading there just hitting some potholes doing about 15 km/hr and it sits almost level now.
A handful of decals and good to go!
Next upgrades....I'm thinking of putting on one of those slanted headlight type bumpers on the front. They almost look like they're angry -- LOL.. Has anyone seen those before? Thoughts?
Also, I found a cold air intake to warm air outgive conversion kit on HF that I think is a must have. It had great reviews. Sorry, no link. Once I put my dremel to the vents on the Mojave take-off hood, it will complete the install. This bolt on kit works differently than your normal cold air intake if you've never heard of it. This system will use the cold air taken in by the intake, convert it to warm air and send it through a smaller hose to create pressure and direct the new warm pressurized air to the outgive and through the dremeled hood vent. As you'd expect, this creates a constant stream of super high pressurized air that will then blast any foreign particles (bugs, rocks, etc) up and over the windshield before any damage is done, much like an eagle soaring on warm updrafts....but with massive force. The ECU needs to be reprogrammed to really ramp up the output for really big rocks. I'm sure @KurtP could explain it better in a video.
Anyway, I love it. after the first day. I'd love to hear your thoughts on my build so far.
Shout out to the forum and its members for helping me make some tough choices a little tougher.
Oh, and April Fool's, by the way.
A rack for the RTT I have wanted. Yeah, I only get out like once or twice a year but frig it, the rack is badass and the tent will look great, even when I'm not using it. Does anyone have any recommendations? I was hoping to be able to fit the whole family so a 6-12 person tent would be ideal.
I have seen many people comparing 35s to 37s and after weighing the pros and cons of both, I decided that 35s would look a little small and 37s just weren't going to work either so I took the leap and went with 40's. I also upgraded the bit and pieces per my local shop's recommendation so the rig will handle the beefier tires. I found these wheels from a '93 Viper that I loved back in the day and used some 3M tape that had been recommended by many people here to secure the beadlock rings to complete the tough off-road look. That tape holds crazy good! They're never coming off.
There were so many lift kits out there and I didn't want any rubbing so I went with a road 5.5" slam 'er n' level kit. It was a concept I came up with and a local shop made it come to life. It will not be made again so I'm proud to have a one-of-a-kind kit!! Be jealous! I designed this kit as I suspect it will give me better mpg than other lift kits I looked at, it will give me that stuffed look that is pretty dope and I don't plan on doing any water crossings (short of big-ish puddles when it rains) so it is perfect for my needs. After a few days in the shop, I got 'er back today and only minor rubbing at minimum flex. So happy!
I threw on some nerf steps yesterday. Not so much because I needed them but because I found they covered the pinch seam. If you happen to look for it from across the parking lot, you could see it and I hated that. You couldn't see it when you were close to the Jeep Truck, but whatever. Make it your own, right?
I took the rig out and snapped a quick shot. Clearance is deceiving in the picture because of the angle. It is definitely lower than it seems as my belly scraped a few times on the dirt road heading there just hitting some potholes doing about 15 km/hr and it sits almost level now.
A handful of decals and good to go!
Next upgrades....I'm thinking of putting on one of those slanted headlight type bumpers on the front. They almost look like they're angry -- LOL.. Has anyone seen those before? Thoughts?
Also, I found a cold air intake to warm air outgive conversion kit on HF that I think is a must have. It had great reviews. Sorry, no link. Once I put my dremel to the vents on the Mojave take-off hood, it will complete the install. This bolt on kit works differently than your normal cold air intake if you've never heard of it. This system will use the cold air taken in by the intake, convert it to warm air and send it through a smaller hose to create pressure and direct the new warm pressurized air to the outgive and through the dremeled hood vent. As you'd expect, this creates a constant stream of super high pressurized air that will then blast any foreign particles (bugs, rocks, etc) up and over the windshield before any damage is done, much like an eagle soaring on warm updrafts....but with massive force. The ECU needs to be reprogrammed to really ramp up the output for really big rocks. I'm sure @KurtP could explain it better in a video.
Anyway, I love it. after the first day. I'd love to hear your thoughts on my build so far.
Shout out to the forum and its members for helping me make some tough choices a little tougher.
Oh, and April Fool's, by the way.
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