Hydro Blue JTRD Build Thread

[Cascade253]

After an 11 month journey of incorrect orders, stop sales, and union strikes, I finally took delivery of my JT Rubicon Diesel. Below is the day after I picked it up on the way to the tire shop to put on the 35" Baja Boss A/T's that have been patently waiting in my garage since April. I picked up a matching spare wheel off ebay so I can do 5 tire rotations as well.

Back from the tire shop, had to take the opportunity for a quick photo with ol' red. The Grand's served me well, but it was time for an upgrade and update.

The OEM offset with the 35/12.5 fit the fenders very nicely. However, the passenger tire was catching the fender liner when turned which was not expected as everything I had read was 35's fit Rubicons flexed without rubbing. Maybe it's a difference with the diesel. I noticed the fender liner on the passenger side near the frame rail where it makes contact sticks out about 2" more than the drivers side.

Added Teraflex 1.75" spacers. As much as I liked the stance before, now it added a bit of an aggressive touch. This also solved my rubbing issue..... at least on the street. Also installed the Mopar hard tri-fold tonneau cover that I found a great deal on marketplace a few months back. Overall, the fit and sealing of the cover is great.

Sponsored

 

[Cascade253]

Took the jeep out hunting and got the first mud on it. I had already bought Rokblokz front flaps but didn't put them on before the trip. Ended up with my first chip on the door hinge and a few minor marks on the door. I guess it's a Jeep thing but I did put in an order for some touchup paint, afterall I did only just roll over 500 miles!

I have not taken any pictures yet, but a bulletpoint dash mount was also installed with the standard phone holder and a tablet holder.

Also installed the Tazer JL to recal the speedo and make a few other changes.

 

[Stan H]

After an 11 month journey of incorrect orders, stop sales, and union strikes, I finally took delivery of my JT Rubicon Diesel. Below is the day after I picked it up on the way to the tire shop to put on the 35" Baja Boss A/T's that have been patently waiting in my garage since April. I picked up a matching spare wheel off ebay so I can do 5 tire rotations as well.

Back from the tire shop, had to take the opportunity for a quick photo with ol' red. The Grand's served me well, but it was time for an upgrade and update.

The OEM offset with the 35/12.5 fit the fenders very nicely. However, the passenger tire was catching the fender liner when turned which was not expected as everything I had read was 35's fit Rubicons flexed without rubbing. Maybe it's a difference with the diesel. I noticed the fender liner on the passenger side near the frame rail where it makes contact sticks out about 2" more than the drivers side.

Added Teraflex 1.75" spacers. As much as I liked the stance before, now it added a bit of an aggressive touch. This also solved my rubbing issue..... at least on the street. Also installed the Mopar hard tri-fold tonneau cover that I found a great deal on marketplace a few months back. Overall, the fit and sealing of the cover is great.

Hows about
" Nameless" ?

 

[Alan SOBX]

Took the jeep out hunting and got the first mud on it. I had already bought Rokblokz front flaps but didn't put them on before the trip. Ended up with my first chip on the door hinge and a few minor marks on the door. I guess it's a Jeep thing but I did put in an order for some touchup paint, afterall I did only just roll over 500 miles!

I have not taken any pictures yet, but a bulletpoint dash mount was also installed with the standard phone holder and a tablet holder.

Which size RokBlokz did you go with? I get sand on my doors constantly which isn’t a big deal until I go naked. I am looking at XL long but not sure I need the long with a standard Mojave lift on 33s.

 

[Cascade253]

I got the XL standard. What they are waiting on for me to install are my rockhard sliders as I opted to not get the OEM rail cutouts. Maybe this weekend they'll go on, but waiting on some touchup paint to spray the couple of holes in the pinchweld that have to be enlarged.

 

[Brandon Glads]

Looks great ! love it

192.168.100.1 192.168.1.1​

 

[Cascade253]

A few more things went on from the install pile I had in my garage, first up was the ARB dual compressor with the 813 under front seat mount. I decided to mount this on the drivers side for easy access when hopping out of the rig. Overall the install went pretty smooth with only one hiccup.

Based on where I was mounting it, I knew I was going to have to extend the supplied ARB harness. I snipped off the connector side and left around 8" to allow me to splice (crimp) in additional cable. For the other end that goes to the battery, I ended up putting wire loom over it and running it between the cowl and the factory wire tray as seen below. If you don't know what you're looking at, you'd assume that it is factory.

From here I routed the extended cable down to the frame rail by the washer bottle. Along the frame rail, I zip tied it to the insulated fuel line that also runs along this rail.

For going into the cab, under the drivers seat there is a drain plug. I popped this out, cut out one of the sides and slid the harness through.

I just about didn't leave myself enough cable length as I trimmed the cable before I zip tied everything.

I used some barrel crimps to connect the pigtail to the extended wire, then slid in the compressor on the mount. A few things to note here, the picture shows the compressor mounted all the way to the right side, this caused a clearance issue when sliding the seat back. I ended up having it slid about an inch to the left which allowed it to clear. Secondly for the air line, I had to attach the air line with the fitting turned a quarter turn to the left, then after this was done tighten the fitting to the position shown.

Last thing was installing the switch and air hookup bracket. I will say, it was a pain to hold the nuts in place. Also, these were the first holes I drilled in the new Jeep. I have the switched power running over to the aux wire bundle, and I left the dimmer power unconnected as I can't see it while sitting in the seat and it's not that bright.

With the compressor install complete, I moved to the next order of business, sliders! I've been putting this one off because I was dreading the body mount bolts. All in all though it wasn't too bad. I used a 1.5ft breaker bar and just slowly kept turning the bolts out. I could definitely feel the catch washers in there and occasionally I got a pop which I initially thought was the bolt breaking, but all was good. I will say the fronts are the hardest, followed by the middle, then the back. Something that I did notice was the middles seemed to have some sort of captured nut that was free to move around. At first I was worried that a weld broke, but all the bolts were able to be tightened back to spec. Also waiting on this install were my rockblokz XL mud flaps. I elected to order them without the rubicon slider cutout as I knew I was putting on the Rockhards.

 

[Cascade253]

Been awhile since I have posted but the build has not stopped!

The front received a Relentless offroad bumper paired with a Warn Zeon 10s and Baja Designs S1 with ambers to round it all out. Absolutely love the look of it. Also installed were the Teraflex 1.5" leveling pucks up front to compensate for the added weight.

Next to the battery I elected to wire in a 500A relay (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KMBKWZ0?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1). Figured it would be a good idea to have the power to the winch be switched and wiring it into aux 4 was simple enough.

Something else I had installed awhile back was the Metalcloak rear sway bar brace. I've heard reports of the sway bar mount cracking, so this is just preventative.

I had also picked up a set of desertdoesit shorty seat jackers. I'm 6ft with a 32" inseam and the 0.75" spacers are in my opinion perfect.

 

[Cascade253]

Over the weekend had some big things happen! Made my way down to Portland to get my Super Pacific installed.

Also had to get a shot with my 1/24 scale mini-me

While we were down in the area, decided to go out to Brown's camp and run the two badge of honor trails, Cedar Tree and Fire Break 5. Can definitely feel the long wheel base compared to the Grand Cherokee I came from.

Picture of the old rig, 4.5" with front long arms and 32s.

Couldn't pass up some beach cruising as well.

 

[Reddout99]

Really nice additions. I dig the WJ too

 

[Cascade253]

Nothing major, but got around to building my bed mount bike rack. The t-slot attaches to the bed using two harbor freight 95lb magnets. The fork mount is from RockyMounts. Bike is pretty much a perfect fit in the bed

 

[Cascade253]

This is going to be a big update....
Have not posted in some time, but the build has not stopped. This time the focus was on the SuperPacific camper buildout. On the list is installation of 200ah of battery in the bed, 400W solar on the roof, interior lighting and a diesel heater.

First off is what I'm calling the house battery. This is 2 100ah LiFePo4 batteries wired in parallel. I wanted something that didn't take up alot of room, was modular enough to be able to expand and relatively easy to remove if needed. I ended up creating a CAD model of the bed of the truck and designing a battery/power box using 8020 (actually TNutz) that would fit ontop of the passenger side wheelwell. The below pictures are the result.

,

Power comes from the battery, through a 200A fuse, the disconnect, then to the large terminal block. On the negative side, this runs through a victron smartshunt to monitor battery charge state and temperature. From the terminal block one line is connected to a victron 100/30 mppt solar charge controller which has a 40amp resettable fuse on the output, and a 20amp resettable breaker (out of view) on the input from the panels. A fuse block is connected to another output on the terminal block, this provide power to the front panel 12v connections which I added later and also send power to the 12v fridge I have in the cab. The fourth terminal block connects to an auxbeam switch panel mounted in the camper.

In this photo you can see the auxbeam module mounted to the back wall molle panel. All wires were run through the wiring channel chases on the camper.

The box mounts using two points on the SP camper shell and the factory tie down bolt of which you can see the access hole in the lower left.

 

[Cascade253]

To provide the solar input, I mounted 2 200w panels from Renogy on the roof. They fit exactly the width of the camper roof structure. For attaching these, I used 45series 8020 (TNutz) and corresponding corner brackets to attach to the t-slots on the roof. Mounting the panels to the 8020 I drilled through the exterior frame and directly bolted the panels to the cross members. The two panels are also bolted together down the centerline. The panels are wired in series to keep the amps down, they are rated at 23v open circuit and maximum 11.05A. While I've been enjoying the amount of power it pulls in and not having to worry about getting into the perfect spot for collection, this setup came out to be fairly heavy at 26lbs per panel plus the weight of each crossbar at 5lbs each. Looking at around 70lbs added to the roof

I also added a Darche 270 awning to the drivers side which has been great to have.

 

[Cascade253]

Next up was the switch panel, interior lights, and diesel heater.

The lighting kit I got from ASG offroad which provided 3 19" Hardkorr light bars and a custom switch mount for the SP camper. The lights have 3 different color settings and are dimmable. A great part is they have memory so I can activate them into their last state through the auxbeam switch controller.

All the controls are mounted on the aft pillar, which makes it easy to get to from either the tailgate or from up in the sleeping area.

For the diesel heater, in the past I've used a suitcase style but never liked having to set it up, storing it, and just the space it takes up. So decided to fully integrate it into the camper. I elected to mount it to the door which was inspired by SP's own heater setup albeit theirs is propane based. The exhaust runs out the side through a hull passthrough fitting. I left the combustion intake on the inside with a PCV filter attached to it. Time will tell if I route this outside as well due to causing a draft.

For the fuel situation, since I have a diesel I wanted to tap into the main fuel tank. After some research I found a post on here of someone adding a standpipe to the lift pump assembly. I ended up doing the same with the results below. The end of the standpipe is about 1.5" from the bottom of the tank and where the fuel pickup is for the bucket sits about another 0.5" lower so I won't have to worry about the heater leaving me stranded.

I mounted the fuel pump under the bed. I can still hear it from in the camper so I may try to isolate it more.

 

[Free2roam]

How's the diesel heater working out? How did you wire it?

Sponsored