aTX427

Being the glutton for punishment that I am, I decided to take on a second garage project, so in addition to the custom 4-link I have going on with my TJ, I my girlfriend and I just picked up a 2014 black on black hard loaded JKU Rubicon that we plan on using for overlanding. My TJ is 15 year old has 160k on the clock and has taken us all over the country and back. Not that it's on its last leg, it's just time for it to take a new role in the family. Short distance around town travel and rock crawling.

*My plans for the Rubi is simple - keep it light and low, which means as much aluminum as possible and as close to stock lift as I can on 35's without adding bump stop.Here is the short list of parts I plan on picking up next week to start phase one of the build.*
- 1.25" body lift
- .75" BB- 35" MTR's
- Black Moab wheels
- 2" wheel spacers
- ARB stubby front fender
- Warn VR8000s winch
- ASW Offroad aluminum safari rack mounted to Yakima hard top rails
- Blue lens Dually's mounted on the bumper
- Air-lift 1000 load assist for the rear
Still need to make decisions on fenders and tire / can carriers.
- Genright aluminum fender flares or Smittybilt XRC armor. I am honestly still on the fence with this one. I want the weight savings of the Genright, but need the clearance and protection of the XRC amor. May have to give up some weight here, but it's only about 40lbs difference total when you factor in the XRC has full corner armor built in.*
- OR-Fab tire can carrier - once again, I have to sacrifice weight for practicality. The OR-F carrier is double the weight of the Genright aluminum, but I cannot figure out a better way to carry a pair of Specter military containers and would rather not have them on the roof, but I may end up going that route if the lbs start adding up.*

Phase 2 will include:
sPod switch system
50" dual row LED to PSC aluminum mounts
ARB onboard air
Custom rear aluminum bumper plate
Low profile muffler
Rock lights

aTX427

GarageI decided to go with the XRC armor front fenders and rear corners. They give up weight, but are by far the strongest and have the best clearance as far as I can tell. Also decided to get another OR-Fab tire / can carrier. Once again, I'm giving up some weight, but it's best in class for carrying extra fuel. Should be a long weekend building the JK, but I want to give it a shake down run next weekend in the Ozark National Forest in preparation for a two week trip to the San Juan and Santa Fe National Forests in November

aTX427

I received a bunch of parts last Friday, but had a party to attend, so I worked off a hang over in the garage and started on the project late Saturday morning.The first thing I did was take some base weights and measurements:
Heights:Front cross member to ground
- 11"Front frame to ground
- 13.5"Rear frame to ground
- 15"Roll height (centerline of axle to ground)
- 15.5"13.75"
- Rear / LCA z-dimension (z)
- frame11.75" - Rear / LCA z
- axle19.5"
- Rear / UCA z
- frame20.0"
- Rear / UCA z
- frameRear spring ride height (distance from upper to lower coil pad) - 11"
Front spring ride height - 10.25"
Front up-travel = 3.75"
Front down-travel = 5"
Rear up-travel = 5"
Rear down-travel = 3.2525" - centerline of axle to bottom of the front fender

Weights:
XRC front fender (single) with edge guard - 30lbs
Stock front fender (sheet metal), with fender flare - 18 lbs The clearance and strength of the fenders was worth giving up 24lbs total.
Front door: 63lbs each
Rear door: 46lbs each

boots

It seems that a 1.25 or 1.5 suspension lift would be more beneficial than any body lift ?

The little rise in center of gravity would never be noticed.....

aTX427

aTX427

I'm feeling pretty good about the alignment of the parts.







knew I was going to give up some weight running these fenders compared to an aluminum replacement fender, but I really like the look of this kit and it is WAY stronger than the factory sheet metal. I like that the XRC designers were thinking out of the box and it looks different than 99% of the JK's running around town and there are a lot of mall crawlers in Austin.

aTX427

You have to really want these corners, because the installation is a PIA. It took the better part of the day to add the body lift, tear the rear apart for the OR-Fab tire carrier and install one of the rear corners. You have to add five rivnuts and two of the holes are very difficult to get to. Fitment wise, they are not as clean as the fronts, but it's a Jeep and is going to be used off road as much as possible, so function of finesse. Needless to say, two people, along with six speed clamps make the job a lot easier.*The Teraflex body lift was as easy as their video suggests. This was my first time doing one and it was no more than an hour start to finish.*The OR-Fab tire carrier is also a PIA, maybe more so than my TJ was, but I already had my interior ripped out and the tailgate removed.













Ok, the other side went on smoothly and I tightened the first side, so everything since up nicely. So far, I am very happy with the XRC fenders. Now that they are on, I need to start on the OR-Fab tire carrier. They are oneof those ccompanies that supply steel fasteners, so $75 later and I have all stainless. Also decided on a Poison Spyder BFG rear bumper. It looks about as clean as it gets. Will post pics when it comes in.*

aTX427

Stock wheels with 2" spacers for 4.5" of total backspacing

aTX427

I installed the front bumper last night. I like the look, but wish it was a little lighter weight. Fitment requires grinding the top edge of the frame mount and chamfering the outer corners. Next came the driving lights and the winch fit like a charm.

aTX427

I wrapped up the tire carrier and fenders last night. They were a lot of work, but worth the effort. OR-Fab makes a great product, but their instructions were not the best. Luckily, there was a good youtube on theinstall that helped with part of the install. This morning I had my tires (35" Goodyear MTR's) mounted to a set of black Rubicon wheels. I favor the older five star design over the newer ones.