Jeep Wrangler Forum banner

Rocky! - JKURHR Build

14K views 85 replies 21 participants last post by  OVRLND 
#1 ·
Factory ordered my first Jeep on 07.17.15, received her on 9.21.15

2016 Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon Hard Rock
6-speed manual
Dual Top
Radio 130
4.10 Rear Axle
Dana 44 Front and Rear
And everything else that comes on the base Hard Rock

Paid 1% under original invoice (invoice went up some time between order and delivery)

I am a recent college grad, so my build will be slow and drawn out. I'm learning as I go, and plan to do any and all work on it along the way.

Before she arrived, I ordered:
Front and rear grab bars with standard black grips
Maximus-3 Stinger Hoop (without stars)
JW Speaker 8700 Evo 2 and relay harnesses
Quadratec Square Safari mirrors for when doorless
Smittybilt XRC foot pegs for when doorless

Sadly, I have not been doorless yet, only topless

So, wish me luck along the way, feel free to let me know what you think, and give any advice you'd like!
 
See less See more
#2 ·
My most recent purchase has been:

M.O.R.E. EVAP skid
M.O.R.E Oil/Tranny pan skid
Skid Row Lower Control Arm Skids
Rugged Ridge 20,000lb snatch block
Quadratec Q9500is Stealth Winch with Neoprene Cover
MOPAR's original 10A Winch Plate (82213840)
Maximus-3 Black Off-Center Winch Hook Anchor
2 Custom Winch Hook Pull Straps
Hi-Lift Handle All
Bubba Rope (7/8", 30ft long) with Gator Jaw
Pair of 24" x 18" x 1/4" thick Fiber Reinforced Truck Mud Flaps (for making custom front and rear flaps)

I will make write-ups for each install!
 
#4 ·
No worries! I have a detailed write-up coming for the winch install with plenty of pics! And pictures from my trips off road. Just need to get home to post them
 
#7 ·
The next thing I did was install my M-3 stinger and GraBars. Sadly I don't have pics of the install process itself, but honestly, neither were too complicated, and can probably be found elsewhere.

Land vehicle Vehicle Car Automotive tire Bumper
 
#9 ·
I most recently got the MOPAR winch mount plate and Q9500is installed. I plan to make a detailed write-up, but I just don't have the time right now.

View attachment 2743097

My anchor came late, so I installed that after, but the fairlead bolts are short. I'm running as you'll see below for now, but only because I won't get off-road again for the next couple weeks, so I wont be using the winch, and wont need the fairlead til then. I plan to get all new bolts to get it all together as I'd like sometime this week hopefully

View attachment 2743105
 
#12 ·
Not off topic! I'm open to talking about whatever. It's open to the public. I don't know the specifics, but they were going through something earlier where they were really trying to crack down on vehicles, but it all went away. The whole forest is free to roam!
 
#11 ·
Looks like you are off to a good start. Welcome to the Hard Rock club!
 
#14 ·
Awesome... Thank you! I'm in DE so this is probably the closest place for my to take my jeep off road for the first time. I've been searching and can only find Rausch creek but that's a hike.

Your jeep is looking pretty sweet BTW. Love that stinger!
Check out this thread:
http://www.wranglerforum.com/f97/philly-wranglerforum-crew-v3-4-whatever-were-up-to-1129778.html

We go to Wharton a lot, everything from stock Sport TJs, to completely built up YJs, and stock JKUs. First timers, and seasoned vets. We had 9 people last time, it was awesome!

And thanks! I still have a lot to put up here, but my time is limited right now, so I'm posting when I can!
 
#15 · (Edited by Moderator)
So, the next thing I did after my winch install (which technically isn't 100% done because of my anchor plate/fairlead situation) was make and install my custom mud flaps.

Now, I'm not normally a big fan of mud flaps. The hard let plastic ones are not nearly flexible enough for my liking, and any with some kind of logo or imagine on them are tacky.

So, I ordered a pair of 24"x18" fiber reinforced truck mud flaps that are 1/4" thick. I cut a cardboard template to 11"x18" to use to make templates, then transferred them to the mud flaps.

I then drilled through the flap and plastic pieces on the Jeep, and used a small, stainless, screws, nuts, and washers. 3 in each flap.
 

Attachments

#16 · (Edited by Moderator)
After the mud flaps and winch, I got her off-road again, and it was great!

The mud flaps made a huge difference in the amount of mud on the sides. This doesn't concern me as much, but what does concern me is the amount of road salt that will now be blocked by these flaps.

View attachment 2745209



Vehicle Off-roading Off-road vehicle Car Dirt road
 

Attachments

#29 ·
Here are the templates I made in case anyone would be interested in doing the same.



View attachment 2745225
For the record, i suggest making the rear mud flaps longer. I could have gone the full 18", which still wouldn't look bad IMO, and would probably keep more road salt off my rear window.... I don't know how those with a soft top in these areas do it, I need my rear washer in order to see out the back!
 
#19 ·
So here is my winch, anchor, and fairlead all finished. I ordered the exact bolts used on the rest of the Hard Rock bunper, they turned out to be the PERFECT size for the project, and really keep the whole look tied together very well!

I plan to have extra time on Sunday to post write ups on my installs!

View attachment 2760553
 
#20 ·
And after wrapping up the winch install, I took her out once again! This time, my favorite time, and in the snow. It was beautiful out, and all of the Jeeps looked great!

My new favorite picture, thanks to @Higgles30

Land vehicle Off-road vehicle Vehicle Car Off-roading
 
#24 ·
So I finally got my Skid Row LCA skids in. But them and the M.O.R.E. EVAP canister skid on today. Both straight forward and relatively easy. Then I took the 5 minutes it takes to do the Hard Rock good vent mod.




It'll make a big difference in air flow
 
#25 ·
Installed the M.O.R.E. oil pan/tranny skid plate last weekend. VERY solid and I recommend it anyone looking to protect that area of their Jeep. Seems especially crucial on the JKUs with the longer wheelbase. Only speed-bump of the install was a bolt that was too long, running into the motor mount. But I was aware of the issue going into it, I saw it mentioned on a thread somewhere, and just cut about half an inch off and was all good!

I don't plan on making write-ups for the skid installs because they were very straight forward, but I am starting the winch install in about 5 seconds.....
 
#26 ·
Installed the M.O.R.E. oil pan/tranny skid plate last weekend. VERY solid and I recommend it anyone looking to protect that area of their Jeep. Seems especially crucial on the JKUs with the longer wheelbase. Only speed-bump of the install was a bolt that was too long, running into the motor mount. But I was aware of the issue going into it, I saw it mentioned on a thread somewhere, and just cut about half an inch off and was all good! I don't plan on making write-ups for the skid installs because they were very straight forward, but I am starting the winch install in about 5 seconds.....
good luck on the winch install!
 
#28 ·
So first thing I had to do was take off all of the trim, and my hoop I installed months prior. All easy and straight forward.

The 2 red screws hold in the plastic trim that covers up below. They're plastic, and stripped instantly, so I had to drill them out and replace them with real screws in the end.

The 4 yellow bolts hold the winch delete plate in, you'll have 4 more if you don't have the M-3 stinger installed.

And the 8 green bolts hold the M-3 stinger and its reinforcement plate (below) in place.

Take them all out and set aside. I tried to leave the hoop on, to save time, and I thought it would make handling the bumper easier, but the reinforcement plate hangs down to tie into the frame and was in the way



Next I needed to unbolt the steel skid plate to be able to reach up underneath and get to anything and everything.



This picture kind of takes you back to the 1st step, the 2 red arrows here point to 1 (seen) and 1 (unseen) bolt hole that ties into the stinger's reinforcement plate. Remove those.

The yellow arrow points to the fog light plug that needs to be taken off.

And the 2 green arrows point to the 2 outer nuts that need to be removed (with a washer plate behind) along with 2 nuts and another plate on the other side of this frame mount.

This whole step then needs to be repeated on the opposite side.

 
#30 ·
I then had to assemble the MOPAR winch mount plate. The green arrows point to the bolts (4) that secure the the reinforcement plate to the mounting plate, and the 2 red arrows point to the bolts that secure the pump's relocation bracket to the mounting plate. There is one other mount that bolts to the MOPAR winch mount plate, but that is only needed for a MOPAR winch I believe.



I then cut off the original pump mount at the red line, and had to drill a 1/2" hole to fit the bolt that ties the mounting plate to the frame at the green arrow.



Then I cleaned and painted it all up to protect from the elements. Specifically road salt >:|

 
#31 ·
I then slid the mounting plate in place and screwed in the bolts at the red arrows through the provided nut plates on the other side (all on the inside of the 2 bumper frame mounts).

Tire Automotive tire Motor vehicle Auto part Tread


You can see the nut plate pointed out with a green arrow here. And the pump now attached to the relocation bracket at the red arrows.



Once the winch mounting plate was all in place and properly secured, I tightened everything down! Then set the winch in place (a quadratec Q9500is stealth in my case), slide the nuts into place where pointed out with red arrows, and tighten.



Now, after all of this, I learned I should have put the grille back on BEFORE mounting the winch itself, because it will be a bitch later on if you do not. Then wire it up! Once it is all wired up, you can cut the plastic "Rubicon" winch delete plate out of the bumper and reinstall everything!
 
#32 ·
M-3 sells steel infills to replace where the plastic one was when I started, but instead, I trimmed the plastic one to fit. Had I done this before reinstalling the bumper, I could have left it as 1 piece, but since I did not, I had to separate it into 2, cut somewhere around the red line, but it sill covers up some of the open space nicely.



Once everything is back in place, a little drilling had to be done. I mounted an old MOPAR winch mount on a new HR bumper (intentionally). So I had to drill 1 hole at the red arrow through the bumper on the right side just above the existing hole for the fairlead, and 4 holes at the green arrows through the mounting plate's reinforcement plate for the hook's M-3 anchor plate.

Automotive exterior Bumper Auto part Electronics Vehicle


So I believe I mentioned in another post, I order the bolts used on the rest of the bumper to use on the fairlead and anchor plate so it would all tie together. Once everything was drilled, I first bolted the anchor plate on using longer bolts to close the gap (pointed out in yellow above) between the bumper and the reinforcement plate (the HR's M6 bolts were just a hair short, as were the M10 bolts). Then with the gap closed, it was a perfect fit to bolt the fairlead on with the M10 bolts, which kept the gap closed so that I could put the M6 bolts through the anchor plate. I had to pick up some nuts from Home Cheap-O since they do not come with any themselves.



That is my final product, and I could not be happier :)
 
#36 ·
It seems like a lot of people are doing that. I plan to keep most of what makes it a Hard Rock.

I haven't updated in a while, but this weekend I'll be cleaning up the used hitch I bought and installing that. Washing my beautiful, but dirty girl inside, out, up, down, left, right, ALL OVER! Applying fluid film underneath. And swapping for the soft top! I'll post some pictures when she's done.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top