[BajaYeller]

Well I decided to start a build thread. I am doing this retroactively, since a lot of this has been done. However, I know that I will end up doing a lot more to it and want to catalog my adventures. I bought it out of Dallas, and drove it about 7 hours home. I had only owned 1 pickup truck for about a decade, and this was the first vehicle that I've bought myself.

The week after I took it home.

 

[BajaYeller]

I bought it slightly used from a dealership. This is what came on it:
130 radio - no bluetooth
Power windows.
Premium soft top.
No-name spray painted matte black lift. I guess 3.5".
17" Pacer wheels
35x12.5x17 Nitro Terra Grappler G2's

On the way back from the dealership, I was worried that I had made a bad decision. It was the roughest riding, most stiffest, most jarring vehicle that I have ever ridden in ullinghair:. It was too beautiful to turn down though. :huglove:

When I got home I checked the tires and they read 40 psi! The tires were like concrete. I let them down to 28psi and it immediately felt better but not a lot. 40 psi in a load range E tire is waayyyyyy too much. This is when I started to google Jeep mods and realize there is a whole world of stuff to fix.

 

[BajaYeller]

First thing was first, do something to adjust the steering. The front end felt flighty and wanted to run all over the road, it was hard hitting on the bumps, and didn't quite want to return to center after a bad pothole. I found out about geometry correction brackets and gave them a try.

The internet said that it would only take about 2 hours, but it ended up taking me about 6 hours. I had the hardest time tightening the bolts, and I even ended up snapping one of the "grade 8" bolts. I used quotes on grade 8 because a real American made grade 8 wouldn't have snapped that easy. I was even using a torque wrench.

If reducing the air in my tires brought the Jeep's drivability from 0 to 3, the correction brackets brought it up to a 4.5. It steered much better and felt much more planted. I could actually drive 70 without it tugging me left and right.

before

after

 

[BajaYeller]

After sorting a little of the steering issues out, I had to work on the sound. It was TERRIBLE with the stock basic system. Like complete garbage. I was actually a little impressed that Jeep had the kahonas to stick it to us that bad. I did the 77Kick10 speaker upgrade for the sound bar, and placed some JL trx350-cxi speakers in the upper dash. It took a little while for them to break in, but it did help improve things.

stock "tweeter"

new JL speakers

 

[BajaYeller]

A couple of months after I got it, I moved to Southern California for school. It was a loonnggg haul driving the UHaul pulling the Jeep in behind it. As it turned out, the weight of the Jeep and a fully loaded UHaul was too much for the UHaul's engine....who puts a gas engine in big ole moving truck anyway?????.... If you come out of Needles, CA and head west about 50 miles, you will get to the Mojave National Preserve. As you pass it, there is a lonnnnggg incline. Too long in fact for that UHaul. The radiator blew out on me. In the middle of July. In the Mojave. It ended up taking 6 hours the service truck to bring a radiator and install it. Thankfully I had the Jeep in back to turn on the A/C for a little while. Shout out to the state trooper who stopped by and gave me a bottle of water after I ran out.

 

[Digger70]

Great looking Jeep!

 

[BajaYeller]

Great looking Jeep!

Thanks! It sure is the flashiest vehicle I have ever owned.

 

[BajaYeller]

I got some time to explore Southern California before school started up.

 

[BajaYeller]

Next order of business was to get rid of the shocks that came on it. It was always a hard riding vehicle. You could feel every dip and bump in the road. The person before me had spray painted the shocks black, so I couldn't tell who the manufacturer was. I started Googling the stamped numbers on the side, as someone suggested. It came up as a Fabtech shock designed for diesel pickups... all the way up to a F-550!!!

Well after reading through some threads, the Rancho 9000XL's seemed right up my alley. I bought a pack of 4 from Allan's Offroad for a good deal. Once they came in I swapped everything out in a morning. It took some pulling with the back ones. The bracket that the lower shock mount sits in was bent, and I had to get a prybar to open it wide enough to accept the Rancho crush sleeve. These shocks are nice! I play around with them a lot, but I think that 3 on the front, and 3 in back are good numbers for my setup.

 

[BajaYeller]

Due to how rough the ride was, my heavy 35" spare tire had been puttin a whoopin on my tailgate. It started rattling at around 13,000 miles. Everyone else seems to get a lot more milage out of the stock hinges, but the cards just weren't in my favor. I pulled the back seats, and put the spare tire in the tub. I just ratchet strapped it down for about three months before I saved up enough money to pick up a new tire carrier. I went with a Teraflex HD hinged tire carrier. I was looking real hard at the Ace tire carrier, but I didn't like the look of the hinges, and it didn't seem to allow vertical adjustment to lower the tire out of the driver's view. The Teraflex really tightened up the tailgate. It is unreal how thin the OEM steel is once you pull it off. The Teraflex is lightyears more sturdy than the stock mount. It was worth the money in my opinion.