I also ended up getting my hands on some Red Rock 4x4 Taillight Guards for the Jeep. Nothing too special of fancy, but I like the look and a little extra protection on trails...but mostly just for the look. They came packaged very well and look to be nice quality. Time will tell, but I am happy with my first impressions. Only really change I made when installing them were to end up reusing the factory screws to fasten the light back to the Jeep, and some of the new hardware provided didn't quite work right or hold. But he existing screws were more than long enough to be able to fasten the lights and guards securely to the Jeep. I won't go into detailed installation as many have covered the taillight guard installation before and it is plenty simple enough to understand.







Some Comparison Shots:





And some Fitment Shots:

 

Also had a chance back in November to attend the AEV Open House in their Michigan shop and that was a blast! Got some nice giveaways and AEV merch, as well as some awesome food! And got to dream of all the nice mods that i just don't have enough money to do right now! Haha! Anyways, here's some pics from the open house!

 

Just a heads up- I have the Mopar taillight guards, essentially identical to the Red Rock ones, and they do look good but they will absolutely fxxx up your corners if you manage to back the light into something. Example: I was in a tight spot and slipped off my line just an ounce- it prevented the lights from getting smashed but put a nice dent in my corners. I have an extra set of lights so that wouldn't have been a problem, but the smashed corner is an issue.

 

Good to note! Thanks! I will try very hard to keep the back end away from anything like that, and these were mostly for looks anyways. but yeah, a new taillight is much cheaper than body work, so I will definitely keep that in mind!

 

Also got one of the famous P0457 GASCAP EVAP Codes on the Jeep, which I am amazed did not come soon! Basically since I got the Jeep, I always had to tighten the cap to just before the click to prevent this message from coming up, and that lasted 4 1/2 years like that with no issues, but then, I got the message over the winter and I already tried my work around to get it to go away. So I counted my luck for getting it to last this long, and ended up purchasing a new gascap. I grabbed the Rugged Ridge Elite Fuel Cap in Textured Black coating, mostly for looks again! But goes nicely on the Jeep I think!

Once again, install was a breeze, just unscrew the cap and pull the arm out of the side of the housing that lets the cap hang, and you are halfway there! Just screw the new cap in until it clicks and you are good to go! And sure enough, it took care of my issue almost immediately! And I have been good since!






Before:


After:

 

Took the Jeep up to Ludington for Thanksgiving and that was one of the longest trips since getting the driveshafts back and reinstalled and all drove well up and back! Was definitely uneventful which is exactly what I wanted!





Also got to see the parade through Ludington, and the Jeeps were very well represented throughout the parade!













Even Santa chose a Jeep to get around!

 

Also finally installed the ball joints after the trip to Ludington back in December! i didn't do much of a write-up on this as plenty have done it before me, but one of my friends from the Wolverine Wheelers Jeep Club came over and we knocked both sides of ball joints out, along with a new tie rod in around 6 hours! That was also working in some cold weather, and not working fastest, along with a store trip for a heavy steel hammer! This was definitely the most involved installation that I have been part of so far but it was really awesome to be able to do this myself (with some guidance of coarse), and to really dive into a lot of the front end components just to have the knowledge!





The ball joints that I installed were the Teraflex HD Ball Joints. They were pretty straight forward to get setup, the only thing was that ball joint press adapters that we needed to install the Teraflex ball joints we a little tricky as the lip was a slightly different size than the normal ball joints, but just took a little extra thought and we got a good enough setup to press it in nicely!

Also to note, when we pulled the old lowers out, there was no structural integrity left in the stud whatsoever! The lower ball joints were definitely trashed! And it is unbelievable how much better the Jeep is driving afterwards and how much i was actually putting up with with the old ones!





Additionally, I also installed a new HD tie rod while I was down there! I got the Steer Smarts Yeti XD Tie Rod, and man is it a nice and beefy setup! And the Jeep definitely feels a lot better with the whole new setup down there! And all it cost me was my old tie rod and a dinner at our next Jeep night! So a big shout out to my WW friend for helping me out and teaching me a lot on that job! It went really well!







We also did a good job on getting the alignment right with everything reinstalled! You can see the before sheet when i took it in, and we weren't too far off on the measurements, but definitely needed some minor adjustments! And it is all sorted out and driving like new again! I still really can't believe what a difference these made! The old ball joints were so bad, and I just wasn't attributing enough to the ball joints! I just thought, oh well, it's a lifted Jeep, this is how it drives now, but it is all sorted up great again and I am so happy I don't have to put up with the steering wheel shaking over bumps and all that now! Definitely keep an eye on those ball joints on the Jeep!

 

Then made it to the NAIAS in January here in Detroit, and the last one in January I might add! It was the 35th anniversary of the Auto Show here I believe too! But next year it will shift to a June time frame to allow for more outside experiences! Anyways, there were definitely some nice Jeep represented there, but obviously the highlight was the new Gladiator!

 

Through January and February the Jeep definitely got to have some nice and snowy adventures! From some good drives to work in the snow and finding the unplowed roads, to climbing snow piles in parking lots, to some up north drives that the pictures don't do them justice, but blind snowfall in 15-20 MPH winds on back country roads and most of the time, no tracks! The Jeep definitely got me everywhere I needed it too! And I had fun doing it!

 

The Jeep then had to go in for a Takata airbag recall on the passenger side airbag in late February...




So the Jeep went out to Suburban Jeep in Troy, and luckily, they had a really nice rental for me to be able to take! I got a brand new JL with the 2.0 Turbo to drive around for the day! And of coarse, the first thing I did was park it on a snow pile! Haha! I mean, it was like a magnetic force, it just had to go there! Anyways, the Jeep was definitely really interesting though, as it was a base sport, so it had manual door locks and manual windows, however it did have push button start! Seemed to defeat the purpose of the push button when you still have to pull your key out to unlock the door, but was still a very nice Jeep! I enjoyed driving it! But I definitely still like my Jeep the best! The two biggest differences i noticed where obviously, the 2.0 turboe had a lot more "Go" than my 3.8L, however the lag in the throttle and the turbo were very noticeable and it could definitely benefit from some better throttle mapping, and two, the JL felt a lot more open inside from the drivers seat, a bit more like the TJ did. I felt like I had more space it and it was a lot brighter in there! Either way though, was definitely a nice rental vehicle to have for the day!