A newbie’s gladiator build :)

[ATLthrashers]

I personally wouldn't go that route because of the potential of rain getting inside and rusting the thing from the inside out. Unless you can prime, paint, and completely seal the drilled out area, use black zip ties and wrap the wiring in black. No one will notice. If you're planning on adding a winch to that bumper, you could always do a fairlead mounted light bar. I had that on my JKU, and really liked the location of it. If not, maybe use the winch mount bolt holes to put a bracket on, and you can run the wiring right behind the bumper. Just my $.02

I like the idea of the fairlead mount. I will def be addinng a winch by the end of the year

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[ATLthrashers]

Long overdue update! It’s been awhile since I’ve posted an update but ive done a few thing to the Gladiator just in the past couple days. Finally got a winch! I went with the smittybilt gen 3 9.5k with steel cable. Was looking hard at the same winch but synthetic cable and after reading some of the maintenance and everything i determined that the steel cable should suit my needs just fine and saved me a little $$$. Also finally got my Oracle fog lights installed. I’ve had them for a couple months but i ordered them after i got my bumper installed and did not realize that i needed the bumper off before i could install them. So with me considering a winch and not knowing the install process for that I didn’t want to take the chance on having to remove the bumper 2 more times. This morning i installed the bulltepoint rubigrid phone mount on the dash which worked like a charm and was probably the easiest thing I’ve ever done! Overall everything was pretty straight forward but anyone considering the fab fours stubby bumper should keep in mind to install the fog lights before attaching it to the jeep. The winch is a tight fit to the grill but i believe everything should be fine and really the hardest part of that install besides the fact winches are heavy ? was the routing of the cables to the battery. Next on the agenda is to get oracle led headlights so they will match my fogs. Hope everyone had a great holidays and a happy new year and as always feel feel to give advice or suggest next mods/upgrades to this newbie!

 

[ATLthrashers]

Hey everyone! Hope everyone has been doing well. Well i finally convinced my wife to let me spend some money on the jeep so I’ve got a few things that I’m going to be attempting over the next week or so (yes i hid the toaster from her so she wouldn’t beat me with it when i asked about spending money on the jeep ?). We just got finished with the first thing I ordered. I got a Skyjacker-9208 dual steering stabilizer. It matches the shocks that came with my lift so I thought that was a nice touch. I had heard and read that theres nothing to installing a steering stabilizer and that is pretty accurate. I didn't run into any issues but at the same time my buddy who’s way more mechanically inclined than me stopped by and gave me a hand. We knocked it out in probably an hour. The brackets that come with the kit arent painted so the goldish color really sticks out under the jeep with all the black factory parts so I did put some spray paint on them to make the brackets blend in a little better. I just removed the factory steering stabilizer and it was pretty much just a matter of getting the new brackets in the right place and then pulling the shocks out to the center point so they work properly when you turn and whatnot. We took the gladiator for a spin after and hit a few speed bumps and there is a very noticeable difference in the feedback i felt in the steering wheel. So for about $150 it was a nice little upgrade that I’m happy with. Within the next week or 2 I’ll be doing another larger post when i install my midland mxt275 gmrs radio. Im really excited about trying this install as i also ordered an overhead molle mount from fabtech that i plan on mounting the radio to so it’ll be out of the way. Also i have ordered the tailgate badging kit from hauk offroad. So stay tuned for more posts about me trying not to screw anything up on my jeep?. Also no the beer in the pic did not come with the kit. But i highly recommend it as it is a good upgrade for the install process in this heat?

 

[Rzrhawg]

Very nice build! How are you liking the Skyjacker lift?

 

[Mball488]

This is the gladiator when she was brought home from the dealer. Has Bfg all terrains in 35x12.5x18

what tire pressure are you running, getting rid of my WP 33's and installing the 35 Ko2's next week.

 

[SargeDiesel]

Make sure to post your midland mxt275 gmrs radio installation !

 

[ATLthrashers]

Make sure to post your midland mxt275 gmrs radio installation !

Will do! I honestly have just not had time to get around to installing it yet. I bought the hardware to atleast hopefully mount the radio to the overhead rack just to get something accomplished this week but yea…things don’t go according to plan ?. Hopefully a progress update coming this week!

 

[SargeDiesel]

Will do! I honestly have just not had time to get around to installing it yet. I bought the hardware to atleast hopefully mount the radio to the overhead rack just to get something accomplished this week but yea…things don’t go according to plan ?. Hopefully a progress update coming this week!

After reading your post, I am looking at the MXT575... it's quite a jump in $$ , but seems worth it (if you use all the functionalities).... if not, the MXT275 would do just fine. Keep use posted !

 

[ATLthrashers]

Hey Everyone! Hope you guys had a great week and weekend! I finally got a little time squeezed in to during the week just to do a couple minor things to the gladiator. First thing I started messing with was fixing my driver's side visor. Apparently some jeep have an issue where the "arm" of the visor that goes up up into the plastic and holds the visor up breaks and this cause the visor to slide out (see pics). The reason is there is a black plastic "cap" that seems to be pretty cheesy and breaks off. I found some ways of fixing it and you can buy some supports from amazon but where is the fun in that? So I found a youtube video where a guy use a push nut to fix his. So I got the push nuts i needed and proceeded to take the visor off and i started sanding the hole that the visor slides into and also sanded the arm so that way I can get the silver part to go through the plastic enough so the push nut can grab it and keep it all together (see pics). unfortunately the sandpaper just wasn't cutting it for me so I didn't get it completed but tomorrow I'll be pulling out the dremel and as my grandpa used to say "We gone fix this SH** real quick" ? . I also got one small part done on my GMRS radio install done. I actually got the radio mounted to the overhead rack where I think i want it! I put some velcro on the bottom of the radio mount so that way it will reduce any rattle that may come from the metal on metal. I figured It'll be a headstart if i ever decide i just want it velcro'd to the overhead rack in case i want to remove it for some reason. I just used 2 screws with a washer and nut to mount that and it came out great in my rookie opinion! There is plenty of clearance for the soft top and so far i have yet to hear any noise from it rattling or anything. Tomorrow I'll be planning out how I want to route power to the radio and then Ill have to decide where I want to mount the antenna. Once again as always I'm kinda learning as I go and I'm hoping this thread helps someone out in someway and I also welcome any input from you guys because that's all part of my learning!

 

[ATLthrashers]

I also got my first taste of some light offroading today! Me and my buddy went to Earl's Ford Road in Clayton, Georgia. We started by grabbing lunch at the Universal Joint and I will say that the pimento cheeseburger is on point! I highly recommend it. the ride was a Nice short dirt road with a really nice river crossing and a couple rutted out spots and one little spot of going up some rocks. The Gladiator did great! I was very happy with how it did and also met some other nice jeepers and saw some great scenery with a couple cold beverages! I heard a pretty loud pop as I was coming back down the spot with the rocks but after a quick inspection nothing looked broken but when I got back home I went out and grabbed some food and had a very very severe case of death wobble. Hopefully the pop and the wobble aren't related. over the past couple weeks I've had some light steering wobble but it wasn't anything that I was really concerned with, This time was different I had to practically come to a complete stop to get it to stop and it felt like the Gladiator was going to shake itself apart. Ill be doing some torqueing on bolts and doing a better look over tomorrow and hopefully nothing is broken and I've just got some loose bolts. If you guys want to submit ideas on what to check or suggestions or what may be next for me to try to correct this after torqueing everything down I'd love to hear the tips!

 

[ATLthrashers]

I also got my first taste of some light offroading today! Me and my buddy went to Earl's Ford Road in Clayton, Georgia. We started by grabbing lunch at the Universal Joint and I will say that the pimento cheeseburger is on point! I highly recommend it. the ride was a Nice short dirt road with a really nice river crossing and a couple rutted out spots and one little spot of going up some rocks. The Gladiator did great! I was very happy with how it did and also met some other nice jeepers and saw some great scenery with a couple cold beverages! I heard a pretty loud pop as I was coming back down the spot with the rocks but after a quick inspection nothing looked broken but when I got back home I went out and grabbed some food and had a very very severe case of death wobble. Hopefully the pop and the wobble aren't related. over the past couple weeks I've had some light steering wobble but it wasn't anything that I was really concerned with, This time was different I had to practically come to a complete stop to get it to stop and it felt like the Gladiator was going to shake itself apart. Ill be doing some torqueing on bolts and doing a better look over tomorrow and hopefully nothing is broken and I've just got some loose bolts. If you guys want to submit ideas on what to check or suggestions or what may be next for me to try to correct this after torqueing everything down I'd love to hear the tips!

I also got my first taste of some light offroading today! Me and my buddy went to Earl's Ford Road in Clayton, Georgia. We started by grabbing lunch at the Universal Joint and I will say that the pimento cheeseburger is on point! I highly recommend it. the ride was a Nice short dirt road with a really nice river crossing and a couple rutted out spots and one little spot of going up some rocks. The Gladiator did great! I was very happy with how it did and also met some other nice jeepers and saw some great scenery with a couple cold beverages! I heard a pretty loud pop as I was coming back down the spot with the rocks but after a quick inspection nothing looked broken but when I got back home I went out and grabbed some food and had a very very severe case of death wobble. Hopefully the pop and the wobble aren't related. over the past couple weeks I've had some light steering wobble but it wasn't anything that I was really concerned with, This time was different I had to practically come to a complete stop to get it to stop and it felt like the Gladiator was going to shake itself apart. Ill be doing some torqueing on bolts and doing a better look over tomorrow and hopefully nothing is broken and I've just got some loose bolts. If you guys want to submit ideas on what to check or suggestions or what may be next for me to try to correct this after torqueing everything down I'd love to hear the tips!

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[ATLthrashers]

Hey again everyone! Well think I finally got my death wobble issue figured out but it wasn’t pretty. Ended up that the tie rod and drag link ends were shot. Also have a guy from my jeep club stop by to try and make sure I wasn’t missing anything and he noticed that my track bar is flexing when i turn the steering wheel. So with all that being said i ended up just buying a bunch of new stuff. I got new tie rod and drag link setup from RPM steering, falcon nexus 2.2 stabilizer, steersmarts yeti track bar, and a clayton offroad stabilizer relocation bracket. So with all this stuff needing to get put on and finishing up the midland gmrs radio install this weekend is shaping up to be pretty busy. Ill be sure to post pics of the process and also any issues or “learning experiences” i run into! Until then here is a sneak peak of the tie rod and drag link. Hope everyone has a great rest of the week!

 

[ATLthrashers]

Hope you guys are ready for a big update ??

 

[ATLthrashers]

Well BIG update time! The death wobble seems to be no more! Spent the weekend with my buddy installing the new 2” aluminum drag link and tie rod from RPM Steering. Also got the Steersmarts yeti track bar! First off if you need a heavy duty track bar that steersmarts one is no joke its heavy! I also went agead and treated myself to a falcon nexus 2.2 stabilizer and the stabilizer relocation bracket from Clayton Offroad. The RPM tie rod and track bar came in very well packaged and disassembled but there was nothing to the assembly. They also have great customer service and will make sure you have all necessary info you need to get these put on. I started with the track bar. As with any track bar this is pretty straight forward. The clayton offroad bracket went on fairly easily but beware you will have to drill one hole in the trackbar bracket on the axle side. One the nuts on that bracket was a little bit of a pain to get onto the bolt but nothing too major. The tie rod and drag link went on next. Those things went on super easy and adjustments are even easier by just turning the “silver” part of the bars. The falcon stabilizer was a little trickier not the stabilizer itself but more so the tie rod clamp that is supplied by Rpm. The clamp wanted to rotate backwards when i would turn the steering wheel. This would cause the stabilizer to not be in line on top of the tie rod. Not too sure if this is an issue but i cant seem to find anything showing it any other way than sitting directly on top of the tie rod. The clamp just wouldnt stay put no matter how tight i got the 6 hex screws. After getting all these installed i took it around the neighborhood and i didnt lose any parts or any tires so it seemed ok ?. The alignment shop fixed it up perfectly and even got my traction control light off from where my steering wheel wasnt centered. I set the falcon stabilizer to “medium” setting and so far everything has been great no wobble or anything!!! So after a day i can confidently recommend any of these products if youre wanting to beef up all the stuff under the front of your jeep. Just make sure you order the right tie rods/drag link if you have a rubicon or sport. I only have a couple of pics but ill be sure to post more in the comjng days. Next i will be getting back on the gmrs radio install since ive had a couple people interested in seeing how that turns out. Until next time you guys take care!

 

[ATLthrashers]

Just a pretty picture update?

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