nope, no way, sorry, aint going this route here, AEV all the way, i dont care if it cracks in the sun, it looks alot better and is cheaper,

 

why I went aev:
1) cheaper
2) rather cut into hood than body (ie if I messed up I could get an aev hood)
3) I think I read that other snorkels run tubes that would prevent dual batteries
4) filter top... eventually got both, but mostly run the filter

I prefer the look of rr better, but fir me functionality trumps aesthetics every time

my $0.02

 

My AEV came in last igjt and is sitting on my floor waiting to be installed as soon as I get off work. I went with the prefilter because i prefer performance over looks. The local shops wanted to charge me $360 to install the snorkel so I'm doing it myself. My concern is like yours, I don't have metal work experience and I don't like cutting into painted parts, but i'm gonna do it anyway. I read coutless how to's and reviews, I would suggest downloading the instructions and readig them through. The instructions made me feel confident enough to want to make the cut myself. Just measure twice and right before you cut measure again. I really liked the project-jk snorkel write up too.

 

Weather cracks? it's not as thin as a milk jug, it's thicker than your stock fenders. I'll get a pic of it when I get home before the install. It's heavy duty plastic it's not just gonna crack out of nowhere. Any hit that's gonna break the aev is gonna do the same on the RR.

 

My vote is AEV as well. I am still waiting to see what R/R comes out with this year. I believe the River Raider requires to many mods just to utilize their snorkel

 

Went with the AEV. Considered River Raider until I looked at the install sheet, there's a lot of mod to the stock airbox in comparison with the AEV instructions. I also wasn't keen on losing my dual battery set-up future. The price cost for an epoxy or powder coated River Raider ($600-625) was fairly nuts considering I got my AEV from Northridge @ $370) I'm not going to pay $230 extra for something that's harder to install, looks funkier, limits later options, and does the same exact thing as the AEV. Plus I'm loving my pre-filter bowl. Dump ~3tbl spoons of dirt and road grime every time I drive to Portland and back.

 

Just make sure your template is 1:1 scale some photocopies are not the correct scale.

 

Good call, I'll compare the one I printed out with the one they sent me

 

I got it installed lastnight, took two hours working by myself and having no experience doing it. I'll post a pic or two when I get up to work. I am impressed with how well it fits together into the airbox and on the side of the jeep, but I'm not impressed with that dang template. I used the one given to me in the package and i measured exactly how the instructions said, but I had to cut the back line 3 times because the snorkel wouldn't fit. I ended up using the trim piece as a template on the left side of the cut. It Srill turned out great. I don't have any good pics because it was night, I'll try to take some better ones this afternoon.

 

here is a pic showing the thickness of the plastic used by AEV, its quality stuff!


here it is!