Our 2021 Rubicon - Achillia

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I'll start off with a short back story. Earlier this year we lost my wife's beloved 2017 Wrangler Unlimited name Smoochy to a reckless driver that rear ended us. It was built up nearly perfect for what we wanted but came to a sudden end. Here it is on one of it's last trips.

20201030_103929 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

We had a decision to make. We wanted another Jeep but thought that the Gladiator would make for a better camping rig due to it's increased payload and more space in the bed. We also didn't have the 3+ years to build it up as we already had two planned trips for this year so we decided to start of with a Rubicon. Specifically a 2021 Gladiator Rubicon, manual, soft top, with the tow package. Nearly the bottom of the line for a Rubicon.

20210501_181723 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

We got a pretty decent settlement from the insurance company so we were able to knock out a few accessories right away. We got a new rear bumper with integrated drawer, soft topper, bed rack, and new fenders.

20210509_181344 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

20210509_181430 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

20210509_181451 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

20210523_154905 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

We were also able to pull many of the parts off poor Smoochy that would work with the Gladiator. The wheels and tires (35" Toyo Open Country ATII), front bumper with winch, headlights, and fog lights. We did a quick weekend trip to one of our favorite spots in the Tillamook State Forest for a shake down run and quickly realized that the stock Rubicon suspension was WAY too soft. We felt that we may get sea sick from the way it swayed so we ordered the AEV 2.5" Dualsport lift. That changed everything and now Achillia rides so much nicer especially when loaded down.

20210718_181955 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

Fast forward to August of this year when Jeep announced a new color for the Wrangler. Tuscandero Pink would be an order only color for a very limited time. In all fairness the Gladiator was a compromise for my wife. We wanted a capable vehicle with enough space for us and our gear. What she really wanted, even before her JKU, was a two door Wrangler. With the crazy used car market we were able to sell a couple of our commuter cars ('17 eGolf and '02 Audi allroad) to make room for her new Wrangler.

3cd9dd6b-032f-464d-9ffc-2350e43fa64c by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

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This created a small problem. Since the bumper and headlights came off of her old Smoochy she wanted them on her new Wrangler as a tribute. That left the front of Achillia a bit naked so I got a new front bumper, winch, and headlights so that she could have the older stuff. The good thing about the Wrangler/Gladiator is that they are pretty much legos where it's very easy to swap out parts. After a couple of hours of swapping parts Achillia has a new face. I personally like this look better and it allows me to add a couple of offroad lights a bit easier then the other bumper.

20211121_150652 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

20211121_154114 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

20211122_161015 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

20211121_181911 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

Another thing that I didn't like but my wife did were the fenders on Achillia. She likes the narrow fender look where I prefer the full coverage more. These Road Armor fenders provide that and I think they look pretty good too. You can also see the new Factor 55 link on the front instead of the hook.

20220208_165755 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

Now since this is the most basic Rubicon you can buy except for the tow package it doesn't have the Aux switches. This is fine because we like the little cubby for doggy bags and such (little bastards poop all the time). But we needed to have a few switches for lights that we were eventually going to want. I know the "correct" way was to just buy the OEM switch panel and harness but it is a huge pain to install. Also, we still had the Rough Country Aux switch panel and relays from Smoochy sitting the garage so I got to figuring out the best way to use them in a Gladiator.

 

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I started out trying to figure out where to put the switches. The windshield mount that came with it was for a JK and I wasn't all that fond of that location anyway. I prefer things to be tucked away for a cleaner look so I decided on the center arm rest. It is super deep and tends to be a black hole for most things so I found a tray on Amazon that fits the console. This looked to work perfectly because there was room for four switches (five if I really packed them in there) and still a bit of room for stuff.

20210910_180248 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

20210911_192518 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

20210911_192531 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

20210911_193459 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

20211002_172339 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

That was the easy part. Next I need to figure out a place to put the relay panel. My first thought was under the passenger front seat. We typically don't have any passenger in the back to kick it and it would allow easy access to it.

20211007_170930 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

I routed the power cables through one of the drain plugs in the floor to make for some easy wiring.

20211009_173851 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

Next I needed to cover the panel. The original cover only allowed wire access through the bottom of the mounting plate. This works well if the panel is suspended like it would be in the engine bay (I briefly thought about putting it in the engine bay) but I was mounting it flat so I need access at the sides. I made up a new cover with my 3D printer with cut outs and it works great.

20211010_182103 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

Lastly I had to get the cable bundle from the panel to the switches. I was in a hurry trying to get this together for a trip we had to the north rim of the Grand Canyon so I simply routed it through the little cut out in the arm rest temporarily. This worked well in a pinch but I had more permanent plans.

20211007_170949 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

 

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We had a great time on our trip and got to camp right on the rim (the same place that is shown with the first picture of Smoochy).

20211027_181544 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

But I realized that under the passenger seat wasn't going to cut it. There wasn't a great way to secure the panel and it was right in front of the floor vent. There is also the worry that if/when we do a deep water crossing that it could get wet down there. With that I decided that behind the rear seats was a better place.

20220215_173552 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

20220215_173604 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

Now the relay panel was out of the way of everything and it was still easily accessible. With that mounted now it was time for the switch wires to be better routed. I took out the center console and drilled a 3/4" hole into the center cubby just in front of the parking brake.

20220215_185639 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

20220215_185834 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

WARNING!! Super blurry picture. Sorry.

20220215_190505 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

20220215_190551 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

 

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Routing the switch wires wasn't too difficult. The bundle came down on the passenger side with another wire bundle and then went under the carpet straight back to the rear seats.

20220215_191046 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

20220215_192734 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

20220215_192914 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

20220215_193315 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

I normally like to cut the wires pretty close to length but I didn't have the correct Deustch connector tool to separate the connector and it will be nice if I have to move it to have a little slack.

20220215_193740 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

20220215_193931 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

The cover fits nicely as well. I may need to reprint that with the name the other way now.

20220215_194005 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

Now with that harness tucked away nicely the switch panel portion is all done.

20220215_200440 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

Even the little light still is usable.

20220215_200451 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

 

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Now I needed to route the lighting wires. The reason for the temporary stuff earlier was we were going to be on about 70 miles of dusty trails in Arizona with about 20 other rigs. We learned that having chase lights in that situation was very beneficial to seeing the vehicle in front of you so we had to mount some up quickly.

20220225_161738 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

The wires used to route through the drain plug with the power wires but there is a drain plug under the rear seats that would work much better now.

20220217_164148 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

20220217_165707 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

I added some clips to help keep things tidy and we were in business.

20220217_165859 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

20220217_165832 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

Now with that all buttoned up it should be pretty easy when I have other accessories to power. I have a couple of KC Cyclones that I got for free that I'll probably use as rock lights and I want to get a pair of spots for the front bumper. That leaves one switch left that I'm not sure what I'll use for it.

 

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I almost forgot about the tail lights. In May of 2021 my wife pre-ordered the Oracle LED tail lights because we both hated the stock ones. They stuck out way too far and being halogen they weren't very bright. Fast forward to November and they finally came in. Like most things on the Gladiator they were super easy to install and we think look great.

20211130_155836 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

20211130_161247 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

20211130_161307 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

 

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I just realized that we did suspension as well. This was back last year when we just got the rack and topper on. We decided to go on a short weekend trip to the Tillamook State Forest to a semi-secret spot that we found a couple of years ago. It's not difficult to get to but you need 4WD and some clearance so it's usually pretty empty. Anyway, after that trip we realized that the stock Rubicon suspension is WAY too soft for the type of things that we want to do. Loaded down it felt floaty and bobbed around like an 80's Cadillac.

Here is where we set up camp and we loaded it up like we would if we were going to be gone for about a week. Way overkill for this trip but a good way to shake things out.

20210531_090754 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

After a bit of looking we decided on the AEV 2.5 Dualsport kit. Like most kits like this it's pretty easy to install. Just springs, shocks, and relocation brackets.

20210705_101756 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

20210705_151348 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

20210705_182242 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

The ride is so much better loaded and unloaded.

 

[Elff]

Damn

This was a great writeup and build.

 

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Earlier this year my parents gifted us their old 18' travel trailer. We've towed it a few times over this last winter within a couple of hours of home but without a brake controller. This wasn't too bad since it only weighs around 3500lb but we are going on a trip down to Nevada with it soon. This would be about 600 miles one way over some passes and we wanted to have control over the trailer brakes.

With that I decided on the Redarc controller because the module can be mounted just about anywhere and looked to have some good features. It was very nice that all Gladiators are pre-wired for a brake controller so it's all plug and play and I just had to decide where to mount the module and the dial.

I decided to put the module behind the trim panel right under the steering wheel. This gave good access to the OEM controller wiring and opened up plenty of options to mount the dial.

20220503_170920 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

Sorry for the blown out picture. It was a rare sunny day in Portland. Running the dial wiring to the center console wasn't hard but it looks like the dash exploded.

20220503_171029 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

After mulling around with possible locations to put the dial I decided to put it in the cubby where the OEM Aux switches usually reside. This let me keep it within easy reach while driving and not drilling noticeable holes in the trim panels.

20220503_170928 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

We'll see how this location works. I originally wanted to place it in the top right corner of the 12V outlet but I would have had to cut away a lot of the support on the back side for that to work. In this location the hole in the back is hidden so if I want to move it somewhere else it's not a big deal. I may in the future 3D print a little cover for the back side of this plug but for now this will work.

20220503_172549 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

Here is the trailer that we'll be toting around. It's a perfect size for my wife and I and our pets.

FB_IMG_1644280525366 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

 

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Also, the 35s shown in the picture above had finally reached their end of life. For the next set we decided the 37s would fit nicely so we ordered a set of 37x12.5 Milestar Patagonias. I wasn't really wanting to go with a mud terrain tire since this is our overland rig so we do a lot of miles on the highway and not necessarily a lot of trails. But there was an amazing sale on them and they were in stock so why not. We also wanted these before heading down to EJS so there was a time crunch to get these.

*Note: EJS was awesome! Moab is such and amazing place.

Here is it fresh out of the tire shop.

20220330_165335 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

And here it is on the Top of the World trail in Moab. Such an awesome trail.

20220412_125221 by Wayne Larson, on Flickr

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