Building a Mojave on 40's

[Elff]

How do you like the Fishbone? Heard some negative things about the loc washers etc but there is bad stuff about EVERYTHING. I think it looks pretty great. I called and they said it only weighs 97lbs - does that seem accurate?

I just installed the same rack on my waaaay smaller, but still Hydro Blue Gladiator.
97lbs seems a little on the heavy side. All 7 of the pieces are very light when carried by themselves. I'd be surprised if it added up to almost 100lbs, but I could be wrong.
I'll put my thoughts in this thread so as to not clog up this one
https://www.jeepgladiatorforum.com/forum/threads/ikamper-skycamp-mini.53899/#post-884998

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[Newlife]

Man love the build. Good job.

 

[khockey02]

I cant get over how absolutely stellar the paint on this vehicle looks. The hydro blue has always been a little too bright/ sharp for my taste but something about all of these pics has me wanting one. Am I the only one who thinks this looks different than other hydro blues? Maybe its just lighting or the accents, but it is hands down my favorite blue gladiator to date.

Also, great choice in bumper. It fits very well

 

[DirkG]

Love this build. And a fellow SoCal bro.

This may be a dumb question, but relevant to me. I see that most dealer or shop builds start with a Sport/S as most of the Rubicon or Mojave gear is stripped out. I know there are hood and interior upgrades of the Rubi and Moj, but how much mechanically is a build like this still a Mojave?

 

[Mojave40]

I cant get over how absolutely stellar the paint on this vehicle looks. The hydro blue has always been a little too bright/ sharp for my taste but something about all of these pics has me wanting one. Am I the only one who thinks this looks different than other hydro blues? Maybe its just lighting or the accents, but it is hands down my favorite blue gladiator to date.

Also, great choice in bumper. It fits very well

Originally I was looking for a Sarge Green Mojave and Blue wasn't even on my radar. When I got on the dealership lot they had this Hydro Blue parked next to the Sarge Green and I was immediattely drawn to the pearl undertones of the Hydro Blue.

The dealer had both a Hybro Blue with color matched fenders and top along with one with the black top / fenders. I think having the black top and fenders actually helps the Hydro Blue pop even more with the contrast.

Of all the upgrades I've done so far the Hydro Blue color easily gets the most compliments from people. Thank you for the kind words. It's turning out even better than what I imagined in my head.

 

[Mojave40]

Love this build. And a fellow SoCal bro.

This may be a dumb question, but relevant to me. I see that most dealer or shop builds start with a Sport/S as most of the Rubicon or Mojave gear is stripped out. I know there are hood and interior upgrades of the Rubi and Moj, but how much mechanically is a build like this still a Mojave?

You're totally right that big custom builds typically start with a Sport. First reason other than just loving the aesthetics was I got a really good price on it ($49,699). The biggest draw of the Mojave is the Shocks. Although I replaced the shocks I was able to sell the Mojave internal bypass shocks for a good amount offsetting much of the cost. I still have features like the stronger frame and axle components (stonger shock mounts and control arm mounts, heavy duty steering knuckles, etc), Hydro Bump Stops, the Mojave specific steering wheel that I love, the more aggressive seats, of course the hood, and lastly the fact that I like to be a little bit different and I hadn't really seen a big badass Mojave in person.

Hopefully we can cross paths in SoCal sometime. I absolutely love your Gator color.

 

[Mojave40]

I got the Mojave out on the rocks for a good hard shake out trip this last weekend. Just before hitting the trail I added some Rock Jock AntiRock Front Swaybars. We did Rodriguez Canyon which is considered a hard to extreme trail. I definetly found both its strengths and weaknesses.

The Good: The ground clearance and flex were fantastic. Very happy with the AntiRock swaybars. The Fox 2.5 resevoir shocks with DSC were worth every penny (the trail starts in a desert wash and then turns into rock gardens). The winch works really good (I really like the wireless remote). It just looks really cool out on the rocks.

The Bad: Not having a front locker was a bigger probelm than I was expecting. That said, I was always planning on adding one. I torn the CV Boot on my rear driveshaft which is still stock. I shoud have added a carrier bearing drop bracket. I need to clearance my fenders more as I still have some rub. Seeing over the huge Mojave hood is difficult.

Conclusion: I'm happy with the capabilites and there are always areas to improve. The jeep now has some rock rash on the wheels and sliders along with some pinstripping so I don't look like a Mall Crawler anymore.

 

[TheSolarWizard]

How was the steering in the rocks and what sliders are those?

 

[Mojave40]

How was the steering in the rocks and what sliders are those?

Steering wasn't perfect but I could tell the Apex steering booster was helping. I was aired down to 12 PSI on the 40's in big tight rocks and it certainly was NO hydro assist.

The rock sliders are Quadratec Brute Strenght rails. They are a combination of steel tubing and aluminum dimple die bottom slides and an aluminum top step plate. Honestly they seemed to be more of a step but I will tell you I beat them up hard on the rocks and they did great. They were like $550 and in stock which is why I bought them but now I'm happy I did.

 

[Elff]

The Bad: Not having a front locker was a bigger probelm than I was expecting.

For rock crawling, it makes such a difference to have your front wheels pulling you up and over a large rock, vs just the rear pushing.

Great build and pics.
Love how you are putting all of yours mods to real world testing.

 

[AZ_Adventure_Clicks]

Many fond memories of bullfrog...and PTSD everytime I'm anywhere near a rock. LOL

 

[Mojave40]

For rock crawling, it makes such a difference to have your front wheels pulling you up and over a large rock, vs just the rear pushing.

Great build and pics.
Love how you are putting all of yours mods to real world testing.

My TJ and my JK were both Rubicons so I had front and rear lockers. I figured I would be puting in a front locker on the Mojave but I wanted to see how it would do without it. My answer....I need a front locker.

 

[Mojave40]

On my last Off-Roading trip I smashed up my front exhaust resonator pretty good. I decided to upgrade my exhaust to a high clearance MagnaFlow muffler with an exhaust dump before the axle. The old resonator hung below the frame rail a little. This new design keeps everything higher than the frame so hopefully it will be better protected. Cutting out the old design that had 2 resonators and a muffler and going with a single muffler not only shaved a lot of weight off but it gave me a nice mild deep tone to the exhaust note without sounding overbearing.

 

[Elff]

Very nice

 

[Invictus Off Road]

I like this build a lot and is close to our build plan. We have a sport with the max tow on 40s and now are changing it up with the mojave. We already picked up the arb front locker and rcv shafts but are waiting on gears to install.

Are you planning on any skids?

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