Confirmed: SOME 2020 JT's built on 8/14 (2020) and after got the Steel Steering box

[mountainpass]

EDIT: This thread was a crowd sourced exercise and hopefully helps someone in future, thanks to all that responded. I'm pretty confident that the change-over was during the day on 8/14 and continued until they switched over to 2021's which of course all have the new box. Based on info below basically appox. a week or less of 2020's got it.


I want to learn if any 2020's were built with the steel steering box.(we have conformation that some 2020's were made with new steel box, now looking for date after 8/14 with of a 2020, basically looking for last day 2020's were built. An inmate here has confirmed the 2021's have the steel box. Another has confirmed his 2020 that was built near midnight on 7/21/2020 is the bad aluminum one. The reason I inquire is I'm hot to buy but can wait til 2021's arrive, the issue is I like gobi and gator so am looking at some 2020's and don't want the drama of the TSB. On door sticker is an MDH #(month, date, hour), on the same sticker is a simple (month-year) if year is 20 post your MDH # if after 072123(7/21/ 23rd hour) and let me know if your steering box is aluminum(silver) or steel(black). It's easily viewed by lifting the inner fender liner on front driver side kinda in front of wheel). Help a brother out.

Edit: badluckbill has reported his 7/30 build has aluminum box, so changed title to reflect.

Edit2: catdaddy63 has reported 8/12 has aluminum box and 8/14/2020 has steel. Still looking for changeover date.

Edit3: GAD90 has a 2021 with a build date of 8/24. So only a very few days of 2020's were produced with steel steering box.

Edit4: 93civejl has confirmed his 8/14/2020 built at midnight has old box. So that means sometime during the day on 8/14 the production was changed to the new steel boxes.

Edit5: chrisddc confirmed his 2020 has new box and was built 8/17/20.

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[Jeeperjamie]

I haven't had a opportunity to look for the build date on mine but when I read about the bad steering boxes I checked mine out and it's Black. For reference I bought my Gator Max tow in February 2020 and the dealer said it had been on the lot for 7 weeks.

 

[Renegade]

I haven't had a opportunity to look for the build date on mine but when I read about the bad steering boxes I checked mine out and it's Black. For reference I bought my Gator Max tow in February 2020 and the dealer said it had been on the lot for 7 weeks.

This doesn’t sound possible unless you had the TSB done. Please post a picture.

 

[johnparjr]

My Gobi Mojave was built 7/7/20 at 8pm I’ll look in the morning to see what box I have

 

[ZTMAN]

If you are worried about the TSB, negotiate your deal, and tell the dealer you will take it if they do the TSB before delivery.

 

[unsocbl]

Not sure if this helps (is that silver piece what you're talking about?) :

 

[mountainpass]

Not sure if this helps (is that silver piece what you're talking about?) :

That's what I'm looking. Yours was built on 7/20 and has aluminum steering box. So again if your JT was built on or after 7/22/2020 look and see if box is black or aluminum. Thanks folks.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I haven't had a opportunity to look for the build date on mine but when I read about the bad steering boxes I checked mine out and it's Black. For reference I bought my Gator Max tow in February 2020 and the dealer said it had been on the lot for 7 weeks.

Look again - the new one is a shiny black, a semi-gloss finish.
The old box may be black, but mine was that way sort of due to dirt, overspray from undercoating and other stuff. Check the PART NUMBER.
There is simply no way for a JT that old to have the new box.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Not sure if this helps (is that silver piece what you're talking about?) :

Sometimes folks have to take a closer look in better light. In my not well lit garage mine looked "dark" but in the light of outdoors it was definitely aluminum.
Yours is very very obvious, no mistake about it. But any that are dirty or have any overspray from undercoating if they opted for that (I always do - after having multiple truck frames and other parts rust after only 6 or 7 years in Iowa winters) they may look black.
The NEW box is a semi-gloss finish - absolutely black - folks can look back at some great photos in this thread that show it clearly.

If all else fails, look at the PART NUMBER.

Again, my bet is that nothing made up through the first week or so of August will have the new steering gear. Will be interesting to find the cut-off, though.

 

[mountainpass]

If all else fails, look at the PART NUMBER.

Again, my bet is that nothing made up through the first week or so of August will have the new steering gear. Will be interesting to find the cut-off, though.

Yep.

 

[Hootbro]

Would not surprise me if they built out the rest of the 2020 model year JT's with Aluminum gear boxes to just use up already built parts and leave the rest for attrition replacements.

 

[Stonesolo]

Mine was built on 7/20 has the aluminum one but not really having issues

 

[Stonesolo]

Sometimes folks have to take a closer look in better light. In my not well lit garage mine looked "dark" but in the light of outdoors it was definitely aluminum.
Yours is very very obvious, no mistake about it. But any that are dirty or have any overspray from undercoating if they opted for that (I always do - after having multiple truck frames and other parts rust after only 6 or 7 years in Iowa winters) they may look black.
The NEW box is a semi-gloss finish - absolutely black - folks can look back at some great photos in this thread that show it clearly.

If all else fails, look at the PART NUMBER.

Again, my bet is that nothing made up through the first week or so of August will have the new steering gear. Will be interesting to find the cut-off, though.

Can't wait till the dealer asks me how I like the truck and I say she wanders a bit...what's up with that...see if they come clean.

 

[Luxy60]

Not to hijack the thread but just so I understand correctly, the steering rack TSB 08-074-20 replaces the current alum steering unit with a steel design? If that is the case, then all new 2021's will come from the factory with the steel unit?

 

[johnparjr]

So looked this morning mine is black 7/7/20 build


edit would help if looking at the right part but its black now after being replaced

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