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TJ's JT
Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2020 2:37 pm
by TJDave
I did a thing. Already swapped the tires I kept from the JK.
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Re: TJ's JT
Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2020 2:41 pm
by Gregandlina
Need to fix your tag line
Re: TJ's JT
Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2020 3:06 pm
by TJDave
Gregandlina wrote:Need to fix your tag line
Oops. Done!
Re: TJ's JT
Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2020 6:19 am
by tobyw
Atta kid!!!! I was waiting to see pics, you're not-so-subtle hints had me convinced I knew what your plans were, I was just waiting to see what color you ended up with. I fully approve
Re: TJ's JT
Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2020 6:31 am
by Gregandlina
I take it they were out of orange models?
Re: TJ's JT
Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2020 9:51 am
by Yrjan
I seen it...
Re: TJ's JT
Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2020 12:34 pm
by TJDave
Yrjan wrote:I seen it...
Yes you did! It has a little bigger tires now....and a matching spare!
Gregandlina wrote:I take it they were out of orange models?
There was an orange one..(pumpkin), but the red Rubicon dash next to the orange door jams was rather disturbing.
White matches the old boat and motorhome.
Re: TJ's JT
Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2020 8:32 pm
by SPR
Nice Dave.
Re: TJ's JT
Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2020 1:38 pm
by TJDave
Re: TJ's JT
Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2020 3:45 pm
by Gregandlina
How’d it tow?
Re: TJ's JT
Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2020 4:20 pm
by TJDave
Gregandlina wrote:How’d it tow?
Awesome! It's no 7.3 diesel, but it did great. Plenty of power, and so much easier to maneuver the boat around to the backyard, and at the boat launch.
#7000 tow capacity on the wide axle Rubicon. The Max Tow optioned Sport S (like the Cunningham's JT) can tow #7650. Max Tows are basically Rubicon axles with no lockers, but 4.10 gears. All other Gladiators have narrower axles and can't tow nearly as much. Something the dealers like to avoid telling people, so they can sell all the Sports and Overlands sitting on their lots. From what I have read, some people see "tow package" on their window sticker and think they are getting the wider HD axles and 4.10 gears. Nope! Read the window sticker. Max Tows are getting harder and harder to find, which is one reason we got this one.
The clarity of the 8.4 screen with the tow mode was pretty nice too for hooking up. Our old 20' boat is a big fat pig with a Ford V8.
Re: TJ's JT
Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2020 6:36 pm
by OldGreen
Exxellletttt.... wrings hands
Whats your use case?
Re: TJ's JT
Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2020 9:03 am
by TJDave
OldGreen wrote:Exxellletttt.... wrings hands
Whats your use case?
For right now, local daily driver, motorhome pull behind, and boat hauler. Campsite firewood hauling volunteer.
Mild spacer lift, 35's and light duty wheeler. Easy wide stuff.
Maybe later when the 35's wear out, a better lift, and 37's.
Re: TJ's JT
Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2020 3:57 pm
by TJDave
Lift #1 done. 1.5" Teraflex front Daystar 3/4" rear. This will get me by until the 35s wear out.
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Re: TJ's JT
Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2020 4:01 pm
by TJDave
Winch bumper, Maximus 3 towbar mounts done. And a new Warn Jamboree score winch.
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Re: TJ's JT
Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2020 10:16 am
by OldGreen
The lift is fine. . .when you to to bigger tires, spend your lift money on really good shocks. This looks fantastic.
Re: TJ's JT
Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2020 7:29 pm
by TJDave
So I had some rubbing last weekend at the dunes. Figured I would with the 7.5" wide JL wheels and no spacers. Quadratec Rubicon wheels to the rescue. On sale! 17x9". I always loved TJ Rubi wheels, and the wheels that came on my old 1982 pos Z28. These are kind of a cross between the two.
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Should be done spending money for awhile.
Re: TJ's JT
Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2020 5:06 pm
by TJDave
Re: TJ's JT
Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2020 5:31 am
by tobyw
Nice work!!
I went round and round debating what to do for flat towing our JLU-R... MOPAR, Cool Tech, or the Hopkins diode kit... I finally took the easy (and cheap
) route and went with the Hopkins setup because I stalled long enough to put myself in a schedule bind, and simply didn't have time to dedicate to a more complicated install. So far it's been working perfectly, and I even put a secondary harness on my flatbed trailer so when Oscar is hitching a ride 4-up, both the trailer lights and the Jeep taillights function
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Re: TJ's JT
Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2020 6:25 am
by TJDave
tobyw wrote:Nice work!!
I went round and round debating what to do for flat towing our JLU-R... MOPAR, Cool Tech, or the Hopkins diode kit... I finally took the easy (and cheap
) route and went with the Hopkins setup because I stalled long enough to put myself in a schedule bind, and simply didn't have time to dedicate to a more complicated install. So far it's been working perfectly, and I even put a secondary harness on my flatbed trailer so when Oscar is hitching a ride 4-up, both the trailer lights and the Jeep taillights function
That's awesome having Oscar's lights working while on the trailer. More visibility is great with all the flounders on the road playing on their smart phones.
I kept waiting for the Hopkins plug and play kit to come back online for the JL/JT. It was so easy on the JK. I'm not sure why they pulled it. RVupgrades online store returned my email and said the unavailability was due to the Covid shutdown. I'm not sure if that's true. They could of set up a temporary shop in the back of a Walmart or a weed dispensary and kept knocking out wiring kits!
In the end, I am happy with the results. The only wire routing I had to do was from the drain plug under the passenger seat to the front of the Jeep.
Re: TJ's JT
Posted: Sat Oct 17, 2020 3:56 pm
by TJDave
Today was off with the Teraflex 1.5" front spacers, and on with an RC 2.5" front spacer kit. The front end dropped almost an inch after adding the winch and bumper. This fixed it. The RC kit also has extended sway bar links and shock extensions for the factory Fox shocks. Thank you Michael for the extra set of hands!
Hmm. Looks like room for 37's now.
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Re: TJ's JT
Posted: Sat Oct 17, 2020 8:40 pm
by SPR
Did you adjust the caster and that track arm and draglink thing to account for the lift? If so, how?
Re: TJ's JT
Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2020 5:04 am
by TJDave
SPR wrote:Did you adjust the caster and that track arm and draglink thing to account for the lift? If so, how?
Surprisingly the axle doesn't seem to be too far off center from lifting it a little more, and the steering wheel is still centered.
The Black TJ was off enough to bug me, so it got adjustable trackbars to center the axles. Drag link adjustment centers the steering wheel.
Caster is set by adjusting the control arms. Lower adjustable front control arms on the Silver JK fixed the castor and the squirlyness on the hiway, but it had alot more lift than the Gladiator has now. It also needed drag link adjustment to straighten steering wheel.
Re: TJ's JT
Posted: Fri Dec 04, 2020 1:59 pm
by TJDave
After a thousand miles or so after lifting it a little more, and some trips out to work along the heavily rutted river road, there is the slightest bit of squirlyness at hiway speed. The Mopar 2" lift that many install on these truck Jeep things gives about 2.5" lift on Rubicons, and 3" on the other models. The Mopar lift comes with longer fixed lower front control arms to correct the caster. With the 2.5" lift now in the front of my JTR, I thought I would look in to some adjustable lower control arms, like I put on the JK.. Spendy. Then, I saw a thread on one of the Gladiator forums about the AllMoparParts website, and they sell the control arms from the Mopar lift separately.
$30 bucks each! SOLD! Now I just have to find the time to throw them on.
I also been reading about the led lights freezing up in snow and ice. I threw some el cheapo led amber cube fog lights on the bumper that I heard give off enough heat to stay snow and ice free. $34 dollar Amazon find. Wiring stuff is stupid easy with the factory aux switch option.
Yesterday's freezing fog fest was a perfect opportunity to test them out and drive the Jeep truck thing out to work. 40 minutes of freezing fog and the led headlights were halfway covered, and the factory led fogs were completely coated with ice. The cube lights stayed clear. Let it snow!
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Re: TJ's JT
Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2020 11:06 am
by TJDave
I've been putting the dune flag on the front bumper through a hole meant for extra lights. PITA getting my fat fingers in there to put the nut on the flag. A trip to Lowes for $2 of Unistrut parts to make a mount on the factory trail rail. Problem solved, and the flag will sit a couple feet taller. Cheapest, most boring modification yet!
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