What did you do TO your Gladiator today? [ADMIN WARNING: NO POLITICS]

[Maximusdafarmer]

Got my bumper, winch and lightbar all installed today. Still need to finish wiring a few other odds and ends

Sponsored

 

[azmojave]

New lift,wheels and tires

Nice! Care to elaborate?

 

[Hockeydad55]

Nice! Care to elaborate?

Clayton 3.5” lift and shock extensions,17” Teraflex wheels and 38” Milestars.

 

[azmojave]

Clayton 3.5” lift and shock extensions,17” Teraflex wheels and 38” Milestars.

Thanks. I thought it looked higher than the AEV lift. Looks awesome!

 

[Summitsearcher]

Clayton 3.5” lift and shock extensions,17” Teraflex wheels and 38” Milestars.

Looks like a perfect combination. Sharp ride, great build!

 

[CPTRU1114]

Installed a Rough Country Tubular front bumper with a 9500LB winch. Fairly simple. My hands are larger then most of the spaces, but we figured it out. Need to finish the light bar and install of the rear bumper.

Thanks to @RamRod for support in the lighting.

I also installed some grips from @darksidedesign. He did such a great job on them. Plan to order more soon.

Here is how the bumper came out.

Front Camera View:

Finally finished the Bumper and wiring up all the lights.

Added a Tubular Rough Country Rear bumper to match the front bumper.

 

[Jerhemi]

Finally finished the Bumper and wiring up all the lights.

Added a Tubular Rough Country Rear bumper to match the front bumper.

Love that rear bumper!

 

[CPTRU1114]

Love that rear bumper!

I agree, thanks man!

 

[ryanlsmith]

Swapped out the Rock Krawler adjustable rear end links for fixed Core 4x4 T4 links (biggest reason is because the front Rock Krawlers are too long at their shortest length).

 

[Gren71]

Swapped out the Rock Krawler adjustable rear end links for fixed Core 4x4 T4 links (biggest reason is because the front Rock Krawlers are too long at their shortest length).

Give us your thoughts on these after a bit of use. I see they’re grease able which is pretty cool.

 

[Lrowe]

Got my bumper, winch and lightbar all installed today. Still need to finish wiring a few other odds and ends

I like that light bar/skid plate combo. Can you give us some more info?

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I wanted to find a way to avoid routing the cord for my grill-mounted Christmas wreath clear along the side and into the cabin to plug into the 12v outlet (which is usually tucked inside the glove box these days) so figured I'd add a 12v outlet under the hood.
Two purposes - actually 3, and I'm sure I'll come up with more:
Convenient place to plug in the wreath lights
Can put one of the USB charging adapters in there if I ever get a front mounted camera that requires USB charging to operate
Can plug in my emergency and trouble lights under the hood
may find other uses.
In locating a spot to mount a 12v outlet, I decided the way I had the short cable that runs from the battery side of my winch solenoid up to the plow fuse was a bit in the way and funky looking sticking up like it was so I re-routed that as well.

This is how it was - it worked, it was simple, very easy to connect, but kind of stuck up there, and I wanted the space between the aux switch terminal strip and the aluminum solenoid bracket as the logical location for a 12v outlet ->

First order of business - is it even possible, or even reasonably easy? Will a rivnut fit into that hex hole in the fender and hold?
Yup - sure will. And the way that hole is recessed, it put the shoulder of the rivnut perfectly level with the top of the mounting flange. It doesn't stick up at all ->
(EDIT: the factory bolts for the fender (blue painted hex head) are all M6. The rivnut I used is M6, the stainless screws I used are M6. I tried to keep everything consistent to reduce confusion and tools needed)

Now, how else to hold a bracket - one bolt will allow it to turn or wiggle and not be really secure when plugging things into a 12v outlet or pulling them back out again.............
Since my acrylic bracket for the aux switch terminal strip is mounted on top of the fender mounting flange, and that flange sits high because of insulating spacers between the aluminum fender and the steel below, it allowed for my next idea. Make the bracket for the 12v outlet so that it would fit under the terminal block bracket and run the screws that hold the terminal blow to the acrylic bracket clear through another bracket below it.

So I pulled the top shield off the terminal strip, removed the two screws on the right end so I could locate holes for the new bracket that would hold the outlet.

I wanted to use the thicker acrylic for strength but then it wouldn't slide under the terminal block bracket so I used a belt sander and took away some thickness where it mounts to the body. I messed up and gouged an area so it didn't clean up like I wanted, but oh, well.......
And then I didn't account for how far down the 12v outlet stuck with the spade connectors - and that plastic wire holder below so I had to spread the terminals left and right to clear that piece (red arrow points to that "obstruction" I didn't account for)

And to tidy things up and open up the area for the outlet, I re-routed the short cable that runs from the hot side of the winch disconnect solenoid to the snow plow fuse that's mounted on the same bracket that holds the winch solenoid.
Because the dealership is going to have this truck on Thursday to, as they say, fix the weird misfire issue, I wanted to be sure all things were marked so no one got hurt, or confused or whatever.

It's really tight down in there, but hopefully this will be pretty much maintenance-free.
Now to figure out how/where I want to take power from for the 12v outlet. I prefer it be accessory/ign switched otherwise there's a spare stud - I think it's #4 on the high current fuse array, I could connect to but that's hot all the time, battery power.
I guess for now I could run to the #1 aux switch in the terminal strip and program that switch for acc/ign and have it remember last condition.

 

[Maximusdafarmer]

I like that light bar/skid plate combo. Can you give us some more info?

It’s the AEV RX bumper with their skid plate. They have provisions for mounting a 20” lightbar, I went with the Baja designs S8.

 

[slim chance]

son @B.rad put my @Quadratec QRC full width bumper on for me (do to my eyes) .. here are some pixs ..... GREAT FAST delivery .. first pix is stock plastic bumper before

 

[drewcnit]

I wanted to find a way to avoid routing the cord for my grill-mounted Christmas wreath clear along the side and into the cabin to plug into the 12v outlet (which is usually tucked inside the glove box these days) so figured I'd add a 12v outlet under the hood.
Two purposes - actually 3, and I'm sure I'll come up with more:
Convenient place to plug in the wreath lights
Can put one of the USB charging adapters in there if I ever get a front mounted camera that requires USB charging to operate
Can plug in my emergency and trouble lights under the hood
may find other uses.
In locating a spot to mount a 12v outlet, I decided the way I had the short cable that runs from the battery side of my winch solenoid up to the plow fuse was a bit in the way and funky looking sticking up like it was so I re-routed that as well.

This is how it was - it worked, it was simple, very easy to connect, but kind of stuck up there, and I wanted the space between the aux switch terminal strip and the aluminum solenoid bracket as the logical location for a 12v outlet ->

First order of business - is it even possible, or even reasonably easy? Will a rivnut fit into that hex hole in the fender and hold?
Yup - sure will. And the way that hole is recessed, it put the shoulder of the rivnut perfectly level with the top of the mounting flange. It doesn't stick up at all ->

Now, how else to hold a bracket - one bolt will allow it to turn or wiggle and not be really secure when plugging things into a 12v outlet or pulling them back out again.............
Since my acrylic bracket for the aux switch terminal strip is mounted on top of the fender mounting flange, and that flange sits high because of insulating spacers between the aluminum fender and the steel below, it allowed for my next idea. Make the bracket for the 12v outlet so that it would fit under the terminal block bracket and run the screws that hold the terminal blow to the acrylic bracket clear through another bracket below it.

So I pulled the top shield off the terminal strip, removed the two screws on the right end so I could locate holes for the new bracket that would hold the outlet.

I wanted to use the thicker acrylic for strength but then it wouldn't slide under the terminal block bracket so I used a belt sander and took away some thickness where it mounts to the body. I messed up and gouged an area so it didn't clean up like I wanted, but oh, well.......
And then I didn't account for how far down the 12v outlet stuck with the spade connectors - and that plastic wire holder below so I had to spread the terminals left and right to clear that piece (red arrow points to that "obstruction" I didn't account for)

And to tidy things up and open up the area for the outlet, I re-routed the short cable that runs from the hot side of the winch disconnect solenoid to the snow plow fuse that's mounted on the same bracket that holds the winch solenoid.
Because the dealership is going to have this truck on Thursday to, as they say, fix the weird misfire issue, I wanted to be sure all things were marked so no one got hurt, or confused or whatever.

It's really tight down in there, but hopefully this will be pretty much maintenance-free.
Now to figure out how/where I want to take power from for the 12v outlet. I prefer it be accessory/ign switched otherwise there's a spare stud - I think it's #4 on the high current fuse array, I could connect to but that's hot all the time, battery power.
I guess for now I could run to the #1 aux switch in the terminal strip and program that switch for acc/ign and have it remember last condition.

Thanks for the detail and write up, stealing some of your ideas for my setup.

Sponsored