2022 AEV Gladiator Rubicon build

[Flyin6]

Here is the inlet side. No signs of damage, no 10mm sockets ;-) and the shaft was tight with no lateral play.

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[Flyin6]

Then, onto the drive side. Once again, everything appeared to be fine. I rotated the pulley and felt nothing unusual whatsoever. Then I pulled the drain plugs to see the gearsets, but I couldn't see them; there was no foreign matter or gear teeth in there.
The thing appeared as if it were brand new and in perfect order! How crazy is that???

 

[Flyin6]

Here's the real news: Ripp already shipped me another SC unit without my asking. That is the best customer support I HAVE EVER seen, bar none. Chris and the Ripp team were so concerned that I might have had a bad experience that they clearly went overboard. Oddly, this is shaping up to be a great experience. I go forward knowing these people will go to great lengths to back me up, the customer. That alone stands out as one of the best parts of this whole process.

 

[Flyin6]

On to the bumper.

I gave it a light sanding with #200 grit and dusted on the first of two coats of the bed liner.

 

[Flyin6]

And closed out the night with the thing looking like this:

 

[Cwg33]

Looking good. I do like that rust-oleum for bumpers. Used it to coat a cheap aluminum rubi bumper knockoff and its been great. Easy touch ups, and matches the black fenders well.

 

[JTdiRtyD]

I'm sure you did, but did you check to make sure nothing was against the pulley? Does the system use a different or extra idler pulley that could have been making the noise?

Is it possible and easy enough to briefly start the truck without the blower installed? I would think it would idle fine to check for noises.

 

[ChrisNLA]

Here's the real news: Ripp already shipped me another SC unit without my asking. That is the best customer support I HAVE EVER seen, bar none. Chris and the Ripp team were so concerned that I might have had a bad experience that they clearly went overboard. Oddly, this is shaping up to be a great experience. I go forward knowing these people will go to great lengths to back me up, the customer. That alone stands out as one of the best parts of this whole process.

Got to love good service.

I bought a front bumper for my Chevy truck many years ago from LMC Truck. It arrived with a small dent in the front, obviously from a fork lift fork.

Emailed them with a picture and they put an entire new front bumper in the mail, no questions asked.

I asked, what do you want me to do with this one? To which they replied, what are we going to do with a dented bumper....

Well fair enough. Ended up giving that one to a guy for $25

 

[Flyin6]

I'm sure you did, but did you check to make sure nothing was against the pulley? Does the system use a different or extra idler pulley that could have been making the noise?

Is it possible and easy enough to briefly start the truck without the blower installed? I would think it would idle fine to check for noises.

Great thoughts/suggestions!
Yes, the SC has an additional idler pulley attached to the adjacent side. It is a very high-quality unit, IMO exceeding the stock pieces by a factor of 2 or more, and it's in perfect shape.
I saw zero evidence of that pulley, or any other pulley, touching anything. No scraping sounds or marks, no dust or rubber bits, nothing.
As for starting up the thing sans the SC...Gonna do it. I was toying with the idea, but since you suggested it, I'll take that as confirmation and do it.
So here's a thing: I flew helicopters for decades (along with airplanes and jets and paper airplanes). The gears in whirly-birds are mostly straight cut because of their inherent brute strength. Yep, they are strong, but do you know what else they are? Yup, noisy, as in very noisy. They make a ringing, singing sound that makes you want to go hurt people...Thinking about it, maybe that is why they installed those noisy gearboxes in military aircraft ;-)
I think it's possible that these particular gears are set up with just a frog-hair more clearance than they need. I recall sitting in the cockpit of a Chinook while the crew chief rotates the rotor the opposite direction, then changes direction to get the blades clear of the tunnel cover for starting. The transmission above my knoggin would clank and protest, and anyone riding in the back would get a very worried expression ...Something like that? Did Boeing participate in designing the Vortech Supercharger??? ;-)

 

[Flyin6]

Got to love good service.

I bought a front bumper for my Chevy truck many years ago from LMC Truck. It arrived with a small dent in the front, obviously from a fork lift fork.

Emailed them with a picture and they put an entire new front bumper in the mail, no questions asked.

I asked, what do you want me to do with this one? To which they replied, what are we going to do with a dented bumper....

Well fair enough. Ended up giving that one to a guy for $25

Good customer support is not to be dismissed. I'll be singing the praises of Ripp superchargers even if their kit dissolves, cracks the frame and causes my political affiliation to change. They are what America is all about. A small(er) company who knuckles it through and wins by offering a good product and backs it up without questioning. They have certainly earned my loyalty.

 

[Flyin6]

With all due respect, why did you buy an AEV build to swap everything out? Things like that front bumper and the wheels are super desirable and expensive and you paid for them and then you removed them. Change of plans? My apologies if this has previously been discussed. It’s 51 pages and counting.

Don’t get me wrong, I like your Jeep. Also, good luck sorting your supercharger. I’m glad that ripp customer service is stepping up. I’ve heard good things about them from way back in my 3.8l JK days.

Get yourself a B I G cup of joe and start readin'...
Yessir, all been discussed over the pages of chapter 22 or 23 of this novel that I have unintentionally written here.
But, since you asked, AEV makes some good stuff, but not that good
The 2.5" suspension is simply not enough. The Clayton swaps out the stock arms that AEV uses, gives you overload springs, and so forth.
The AEV front bumper is way overbuilt, too wide, and very heavy. Replaced it for all those reasons.
The AEV lights, although fantastic, weighed several times as much as the replacement units.
AEV installed 4.56 gears, which are way too short. I had to fix that with the 5.13's
The AEV wheels were not bead locked, my bad, so I tossed them too.
But, hey, I kept the AEV striping, the AEV painted grill, the AEV painted dash and the AEV instrument panel (Has their logo in there).
Did I mention my hobby was starting campfires with $50 dollar bills? Paying for a $75K jeep, then getting rid of everything that made it cost that much just seemed to make sense to me ;-)

 

[NC_Overland]

Get yourself a B I G cup of joe and start readin'...
Yessir, all been discussed over the pages of chapter 22 or 23 of this novel that I have unintentionally written here.
But, since you asked, AEV makes some good stuff, but not that good
The 2.5" suspension is simply not enough. The Clayton swaps out the stock arms that AEV uses, gives you overload springs, and so forth.
The AEV front bumper is way overbuilt, too wide, and very heavy. Replaced it for all those reasons.
The AEV lights, although fantastic, weighed several times as much as the replacement units.
AEV installed 4.56 gears, which are way too short. I had to fix that with the 5.13's
The AEV wheels were not bead locked, my bad, so I tossed them too.
But, hey, I kept the AEV striping, the AEV painted grill, the AEV painted dash and the AEV instrument panel (Has their logo in there).
Did I mention my hobby was starting campfires with $50 dollar bills? Paying for a $75K jeep, then getting rid of everything that made it cost that much just seemed to make sense to me ;-)

Haha. Fair enough. I appreciate the explanation and figured it was something similar. I love that AEV bumper but I never thought about the weight. I’d think that AEV stuff would be easy to sell to at least recoup some cost.

 

[ChrisNLA]

Haha. Fair enough. I appreciate the explanation and figured it was something similar. I love that AEV bumper but I never thought about the weight. I’d think that AEV stuff would be easy to sell to at least recoup some cost.

I love the whole AEV truck - I'd probably buy one, call it a day, and mod it minimally (if I was in the market).

It would even be hydro blue like Don's.

Actually it would basically be Don's truck before he got ahold of it

Not picking at the build - I think its great, and if you have the money

 

[Flyin6]

Haha. Fair enough. I appreciate the explanation and figured it was something similar. I love that AEV bumper but I never thought about the weight. I’d think that AEV stuff would be easy to sell to at least recoup some cost.

That stuff sold quickly for sure and for a good price. If you look through the build closer to the beginning pages, you will see where I weigh every component coming off and going back on. All in all, I think I had stripped over 250 pounds from my truck before its first big adventure in the San Juan range in Colorado

Oh, and I have inbound tracking on the replacement supercharger...Yippee!!!!

 

[NC_Overland]

That stuff sold quickly for sure and for a good price. If you look through the build closer to the beginning pages, you will see where I weigh every component coming off and going back on. All in all, I think I had stripped over 250 pounds from my truck before its first big adventure in the San Juan range in Colorado

Oh, and I have inbound tracking on the replacement supercharger...Yippee!!!!

Nice. 250 lbs is significant. I noticed with how my suspension behaved after adding bumpers and a winch, before i upgraded my shocks. I used to live in CO and explored as much as I could. IMO, the San Juans near Ouray is the most beautiful part of CO that I saw.

Nice on the replacement supercharger being shipped.

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