Rust on a new JK and standard height
 

Good evening everyone I have a 2018 JK and after seeing some videos I decided to look under my rig to find out what type of skid plates were under there. While doing this tonight i found that there was a lot of surface rust is a lot of places. The drive shaft for one had a lot and the area around the brakes had a little. I was wondering if this is normal.

Second question while I was there I decided to take a tape and measure the lowest parts of the JK and found that be ~10" is this normal for a JK, How much higher is a Rubicon? How much higher is expected with lets say a 3" lift and 35?

Thank you very much.

Ernesto.

The drive shaft is bare metal. The brakes and rotors are bare metal. Bare metal mixed with air and moisture=rust. So is it normal? Yes, that combination is normal for every vehicle on the planet.

A 3" lift with 35s will give about 5in of total lift depending on the lift.

That primary place I see "real" rust has s where the various skid plates that cover the gas tank come together. I've used primer, POR-15, and fluid film. I also used POR-15 to completely paint my driveshaft. Please note, the balance of the shaft is important. I actually painted mine with the Jeep on jack stands and the shaft turning with engine running in 4-LO.

The suspension lift isn't doing anything to gain you any additional clearance from your lowest measured spots. That's going to be all tires. there are things you can do though that help, like relocate your SS from under the TR to above, and relocate your lower shock mounts in the rear, etc.....but tires are going to make the biggest difference. The rubicons aren't sitting any higher......the rubi 44 and the D30 axles are relatively the same....same mounts and such that have the same ground clearance. Now, above the axle (the suspension) you'll see a very minor difference due to the springs.

Thank you sir, I kind of figured that but it seem strange after only 2 weeks or ownership.

That is very interesting thank you for the information, will do some research.

Understood, the lifts are to get bigger tires, bigger tires equals more clearance. My version (Oscar Mike) came with a lot of the upgrades in Rubicon to include the 3.73 front/rear Dana 44 Heavy Duty Axle. One last question can I put 255 tires like the ones in a Rubi with out a lift. I have 245 right now.

I linked this thread the other day as well -

https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/modi...17/#post211274

Post #3, question #2 - yes, you can put a 255/75R17 on your Oscar Mike without a lift and be fine. Look on Craiglist for cheap options. Around here you can buy brand new Rubi takeoffs for cheap all day long. In fact, if you have a stock wrangler around DFW, there's never a reason to go to a store to pay full price for tires, shocks, steering linkage, axle shafts, drive shafts....the list goes on and on. Cheaper to buy brand new Rubi tires mounted on brand new rubi wheels than it is to go to Discount Tire and buy replacement tires.

You seemed to be confused about the models. You have a sport that has a special edition package and does not include the axles the Rubicon uses. You have a dan 30 front and a standard 44 rear. The rubicon is a model of wrangler (like the sport and sahara). Just because you got 3.73 gears does not mean you have a "rubicon" axle upgrade, it is just a different gear ratio that has been offered in any JK model except the early Rubicons( that cam with standard 4.10 gears).There are basically three things that make a wrangler a Rubicon model and it is front and rear dana 44's with e-lockers (you can't factory upgrade to theses), a 4:1 rock track transfer case (again can't factory upgrade to this), and a sway bar disconnect. Some of the special edition Rubicons came with different hoods and bumpers and the newer Rubicon Recon model came with the new HD dana 44 front axle that basically just has a bigger C casting along with slightly bigger tires. Rubicons can also get 4.10 gear ratios from the factory where you can't do that with the sport or sahara which come in 3.21 or 3.73

This is awesome information, I'm new to Jeep. I knew it was a special edition Sport, but my budget was 40K so Rubicon's were out of the questions unless I bought a use one. I had some requirements and this one filled all those. The information I have provided was based on the configuration sticker (Attached to this reply). Thank you for the info you have provide I really appreciate it.https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jk-...80b892696.jpeg