Jeep Enhancements |
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| 30 Inch Tyre Upgrade | |
| My first enhancement was to upgrade from the 215x75R15 Wrangler RT/S tyres to a set of General Tyre 30x9.50 AP's. The slight increase in clearance (1.5 inches) and improvements in traction where obvious as soon as I took her offroad. Without (hardly) any impact on her onroad characteristics. | |
| Front and Rear Tow Hooks | |
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Since I was geting stuck in all sorts of out of the way places I decided to invest in some tow hooks, two front and two rear.
The two front ones are from "Steel Horse" and started to go orange with rust the moment they where installed. The two rear ones are Mopar and are of much better quality although for the price difference I would expect them to last longer then the Jeep!. |
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| Rear Registration Plate Relocation | |
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Saddly because of my lack of clearance (not to mention my lack of experance at offroading) I had managed to damage not only my rear registration plate but also the plastic mounting. Since I didn't want to replace my plates after every offroad event I decided to relocate the plate to a higher vantage point. I firstly considered the US mounting point just under the passenger side rear light but disgarded this option as the UK regulation plate is too large to fit, also illuminating the plate (Another restriction) would be a hassle. So what I did was remove the old plate and mounting panel and using felcro attached the new plate to the hub of the spare wheel. Then using a DIY car part wired a light to illuminate the new plate using the existing wiring. Quite pleased with the results easy to remove in case I need the spare and the wire does not obstruct opening the back door.
Also gives me the ability to take off the plate for offroading although this does mean I need a stub to protect the felcro from mud etc. Although most of the time I leave the normal plate on. Has yet to fall off, the wonders of velcro. |
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| CB Installation | |
| Initialy I bought and used a handheld CB for talking to my fellow offroaders but found that its capibilites here limited. So I installed a coil based aerial high up on the spare wheel frame and mounted the CB unit itself behind the central console. In fact the bracket I used is normaly used to hold shelves but it does its job as a aerial bracket just as well. My only complaint is that its a tad ugly. |
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| 4 Inch Lift | |
| This was an incredibly difficult thing to decide to do, when I first got the Jeep last then 12 months ago I would never have guessed that I would be getting a lift.
But once I started to offroad and bump, dent and generaly abuse the underside of my Jeep I realised that it was time to bite the bullet and rise above the problem (If you excuse the pun). Now the problem was which lift?, Which supplier and how or who to fit it? I checked with the Jeep newsgroup and visited other Jeep owners web pages in a search for the best lift solution. In the end however it was a conversation with Steve Fagioli of F.T.E. 4x4 Specialist's who could sell and fit a 4.5 inch Rubicon Express lift kit that made my mind up. Steve has a quite a Jeep himself and (Lucky Chap) tests all of his products on his own Jeep. I made the decision early on that I would let an "Expert" fit the lift seeing as I didn't want to risk an amarteur (Me) making a mess of my precious Jeep. Steve also came highly recomended and the only bad thing I could get anyone to say about Steve was that he didn't charge enough!!. |
Click here for pictures of the lift in action |
| Tomken Machine Fuel Tank Skid Plate | |
| This is a serious hunk of armor plate built by Tomken Machine, whilst offroading (unlifted) the stock fuel tank skid plate proved to be flimsy, in the end I had to extract the stock plate and bash it back into shape by hand. The Tomken Machine Fuel Tank Plate addresses this problem.
Installation required two car ramps and the use of a jack, the bolts at front of the stock skid plate are the worst to deal with but its still quite a simple installation. Saddly the Mopar rear tow hooks also use the same rear ladder frame bolt hole so I had to do a little "Improvement" to one of the mounting brackets so that it would fit. Also the extra long (Tamper Proof) bolts which hold the existing stock plate in place needed to be shortened or obstruct the new skid plate. Job for a small hacksaw. Very solid and robust construction gives that ring of confidence when offroading. After driving on/offroad I have the following points to add:-
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| Hand Throttle | |
| Fitted and for a 30 quid parts and installation I must say it was one useful bit of kit. Very useful for crawling along bumpy terrain, it takes some getting used to but now I don't think I would like to offroad without it. |
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| 31 Inch Tyre & Wheel Upgrade | |
| These are AR-767 Wheels (15x8) with General Grabber 31x10.50 MT's.
The General Grabber AP's where great for onroad and I made them do things offroad which most people thought was unlikey. But that time came to go MT. Since all stick UK Jeep Wranglers come fitted with 3.07 diff gear ratio, 31 is the very limit on the I6 powerband I can just get away with. |
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| Full length skid plate | |
| This is the F.T.E. Full length skid plate, had to drill a couple of holes in the stock transfer case skid plate to fit it but otherwise a doddle to fit.
B
This very reasonably priced skid plate stops the transfer case skid acting as a scoop and stops some (but not all) of the muddy water getting to the engines fly wheel and thus all over the engine compartment. Can never have too much protection!. |
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| FTE TK Sliders | |
| These beasties are partial disconnects for the rear swaybar, since its not safe to remove or fully disconnect the rear swaybar. These give an extra 4 inches of travel to the rear axle without the danger of loosing a coil.
Pix soon | |
| Rock Sliders | |
| TBA | |
| 3.73 Ratio diff gears | |
| After learning that I would need to upgrade the rear carrier and thus
loose the stock rear LSD locker by upgrading to 4.11 ratio diff gears. I decided that I would only install 3.73. Thus the Jeep on 33 inch tyres would be about the same as stock gearing. Since the front carrier was being changed I too this opportunity to install a Front EZ-Locker. Although its supposed to be possible to install and deinstall this locker without having to remove the diff I think it would be a cramped job.
The nice thing with the EZlocker is apart from the the occisional click when cornering its is not noticable in 2WD onroad. Offroad the diffirence in traction is fantastic. On my first offroad trip out to test out the gearing and the front locker I could feel from the start a much more solid bite when doing muddy axle-twisters. The steering is effected by the lockers opperation but only in that it feels a little stiffer than stock and there is a greater dendancy to "bind-up" when in four wheel drive on hard surfaces. Otherwise I wholey recommend the EZlocker if you want a cheap traction aid for your front axle. |
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| KC Daylighter Headlights | |
| Bit of awesome candlepower on the front end for night offroading, very
bright and I they where "easy" to fit. Even if it did require two people 3
hours. At 385k (165 Watts) they are no road legal so getting them on a seperate
and illuminated switch was important.
I dare say we could have done a quicker job if I had not
insisted that the relay go in the engine compartment fusebox.
All in all quite a need little installtion kit and it does end up looking very professional. Although the switch is a little tacky I dare say I shall replace it with a stock Jeep headlight switch in due course. |
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| 33 Inch Tyre upgrade | |
| In the end I fitted 33x10.50 BFG AT/KO's, this may seem like a bit of
a comprimise after MT's but to be honest I was fed up with the rough/noisey
onroad performance. The BFG AT's are very smooth and have great grip onroad
and are ok offroad, just so long as its not too muddy. I am now
considering a second set of tyres for offroad pure use.
The combination of 3.73 R&P and 33 inch tyres brings the gearing and ratios to a little better tan stock. Its fine offroad and fifth is useful again. Its also slow enough at a crawl in low ratio. Having driven on 31 inch tyres with the 3.73 R&P I can see the advantage in higher ratios (4.11/4.56) but for my general use my current setup is more than fine. | |