Phoenix 2012 JKU Build Thread

Phoenix

Adventurist
Phoenix 2012 Rubicon Unlimited with just about every option. Phoenix is my second Jeep. Hobbes died loudly and painfully in a garage fire just after midnight on July 12 2013. The cause of the fire was never determined.

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Luckily I had a good relationship with the sales person, Craig, at Flemington Jeep. I actually called him from the beach in Cape May. Suggestion to everyone that have a garage fire, as soon as its boarded up, go away. It just so happened we were scheduled to go on vacation the following Saturday. With the help of some knowledgeable friends I decided to replace Hobbes which was a 12 Sahara JKU, with a Rubicon. I gave Craig the specs I wanted and three days later he told me the Phoenix would be ready to be picked up on the 21st.

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Topless for TaTas was being held on August 4th and I had intended to go, but changed my mind as I wasn't about to take a stock anything to Rausch. Not that it couldn't handle most of it, just because I wanted to lift and get a little protection on prior to Rausch. This is when things started going incredibly right. A local friend had a RK 2.5 max travel that he didn't want. He was interested in the 3.5. I wanted the 2.5, so we swapped. Still needed Shocks and bump stops. Enter JustJeepGear, mission accomplished. Now to get my lift on, we arrived at the House of Magic (where stock Jeeps go to become betterer) met with the Wizard, the Master Technician, the Mid Night Bomber, and just about anyone else within a 100 miles of South Jersey. On July 28th I rolled out of NJ considerably higher than I had rolled in.

Now that I was lifted, needed some new shoes. DiscountTireDirect.com got me the wheels and tires that fit my specs and delivered to my door by July 29th. My son and I installed the new shoes and put in the rear trackbar brackets. Needed at least a little protection from the rocks, called up Adam from Ace Engineering. He actually gave me his cell number during a previous install. Great guy. He gave me the house discount of 15% on everything I wanted from Ace in return for the rights to the pictures of Hobbes all burnt up, but with the Ace bumpers and rails mainly intact. On Aug 1, my rock rails showed up. Added my oldest daughter to the install crew. Borrowed JDam's grinder, and got those installed hours after they arrived.



I think I was the only Jeep at TaTa's with Temp tags. RK Max Travel - Love it. Substantially better than the Rough Country 2.5 that was on Hobbes. Over time added upper control arms and went to a 3.5" spring. One of the benefits of RK is that you can go from A to B to C over time.

Bilstein 5100 shocks - These are firm. I may go with an adjustable shock next time. Not knocking them, just saying. Over time, I found the firmness to be useful.

sPod - one of the few things I have done without help. I think its a $500 insurance policy on my screwing up lights and Jeep electrical. I know it can be built from scratch for cheaper, but I don't have the time. I maliciously enjoy watching people struggle with installing switches. Does that make me a bad person?

MORE Dead Peddle - If you have an auto, get this. It will make long trips more comfortable. Also gives you a place to put your left foot when off camber.

Spider Web Shade - If you have a soft top and like your skin, get this. It keeps the trail out, reduces UV rays, creates shade on a hot day, all while letting in all the good breezes and just enough sun.

Safari Straps - I have the side straps and the rear straps. These keep my stuff in the rear cargo area while on the road, and keeps jack a$$e$ from taking my stuff while parked. They have very high function and cool factor ratings. They are a bit pricey, but also very functional. I also have a cargo net I use to increase storage area in the back when I have the hard top on. Its great to be able to strap into the net. I also buy their straps as they come in a variety of sizes.





I've added Solid Diff covers ,the Ace front midwidth bumper, Rigid Dullys as Fogs.

Solid Diff Covers and lube lockers - Amazing how quickly all the blood leaves your arm when you are working upside down. A quick word on lub lockers. Get em. Diff Covers are heavy and tough to line up just right while you are laying on your back. Now add trying to get it just right so you don't get RTV all over your gears. Plus, if you wack a diff and the RTV seal breaks, your up a creek with no paddle. In most cases with the same scenario and lube lockers, you can make it back home before you need to do any maintenance. Solid makes a nice product. Substantial upgrade over stock at a good price.



Ace Midwidth - love it, but if you have a Rubicon you should get the sway bar motor relocation bolt from Metal Clock, and make sure to trim your crash bar before you try to install. Also always install the driver side upper right (as you are looking at the Jeep) bolt first. Don't tighten down any bolts until all are in the bumper. A floor or bottle jack can be your friend. If you look at the bumper frame, you will notice that only 1 bolt hole is a circle, all others are oval. Diffused Rigid Dullys with the BDF bracket were added.

The Master Technician said that he liked the RECON 10,500lb winch, and I beat him to the punch. Almost lost it a few times during maintenance day. This thing is beefy and the solenoid is waterproofed, perfect for the stuff I do. I won't lie, drilling the holes for this was the most frustrating thing I have ever done with my Jeep. Good news, the winch plate covers up all my mistakes. Create a good tempate. Make sure you have the right clearance. Check it several times. If you are right handed the hole will move to the left by a 1/4. Which is good as long as you take that into account before you drill. RECON Winch - Comes with syn line, remote, and handheld controllers, and a huge hook.

Rigid SR 10" Hybrid - I installed this along with some brackets from Rigid on the bull bar on the Ace Midwidth. With the brackets I was able to install it above and slightly behind the bull bar to allow the bar to keep any brush away from the light. At 1 O'clock if you are standing at the side of the Jeep. The two LEDs on the right and left side are diffused to shed light on the side of the Jeep, the six in the center are spots are give great light 75 yards in front. I really can't imagine needing more light when moving.

Rigid LEDs - Can't find anything bad to say. Love these lights.

Ace Rear Bumper with Tire Carrier - the Monday after the maintenance party my rear bumper showed up. Installed this with the help of my son and wife. They helped lift everything into place as the bumper is pretty damn heavy. A floor or bottle jack helps getting the bumper into the frame as sometimes you need just a bit more support on one side or the other. Wired up the some Rigid D2s for back up / set up lights. Getting the tire carrier just right takes a bit of trial and error. Ace's hardware has gotten better since I installed these bumpers on Hobbes, most of it is Grade 8 now, which is an improvement over the stainless they used to use. I had to replace all that hardware as it had a tendency to bind.

Ace - I drank their Kool aid. They need someone to write directions. I never worry about damaging my front or rear bumper, I have a can of spray paint.

I decided on Evolution Off Road to protect underneath. Right price and nice heavy steel, and it all comes painted with the exception of anything that needs to be welded in. I choose the front LCA skids, the Rock star rear LCA skids with the track bar and shock relocation mounts, and the Evo Protek skids for the 12 Auto. The Conductor pretty much cut, ground, painted, and installed the Evo Rock Stars with some help from he who owns miniature giraffes. Amazing to see a grown man sit in the wheel well comfortably. Make sure you have good cutoff wheels for this job. I ran out to buy some better ones as the Harbor Freight wheels started to self destruct while cutting. Luckily the Conductor was "suited" up with a welding mask, welding gloves, and a good set of overalls when this occurred. Diablo wheels from Home Depot got the job done. I easily gained an inch of clearance at the rear shock mount, and now everything back there is as protected from sliding off a rock or missing a line as I can manage. The Conductor stated that he likes the Evo's better than his Synergy rear LCA skids, which is some pretty high praise for EVO.

The EVO Protek skids went in over time. It is a 3 part system. The first part is the oil pan. They suggest doing this as you change your oil, and I did so at the service party. This takes as long or longer than the other parts as you have to remove and reinstall 14 screws that hold up the oil pan. The screws on the corners are a particular pain to put back in place. The next section to install is the Auto trans skid. This locks into place using some blots on top of the tranny, as those bolts are on an angle and have plenty of lock tite on them, they are difficult to remove. Then you get to use a floor jack to lift the transfer case just enough to slip the driver side connection over the bolt. This takes a bit of trial and error. One error you do not want to experience is raising the transfer case to high and having the bolts move out from under the rubber bumpers. We managed to avoid that. After this is accomplished, there is the cross member / belly pan to install, but then it is much more of an alignment, and drive the bolts home effort. I have 1 area under the passenger side door that needs to be opened up an 1/8 to get the bolt home. Will do that while things are frozen outside and warmer in the garage.

** The names of many helpful friends and Jeeple have been changed to respect their privacy and online foot print. Vendor names have been left in tact as they actually make a living off this stuff. I have no financial interest in any of the companies that are included in this thread.
 
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Since the initial install

High Rock tube doors with metal skins and cloth uppers.. If I had to do it again, I would do it again. I love these. Anyone who tells you the uppers will do anything but flap in the wind at highway speeds or will keep more than 75% of the rain out should not be trusted. These should not really be confused with doors, more like deflectors for large things. Wind, rain, mud, other small items will always get past these. I only use the uppers when my daughters are acting like princesses, which is only about half the time they ride in the Jeep.










These rattle like crazy. Will work on more better weather stripping this fall and maybe some plastic washers on the hinges. Tape on the latch helps, but is worn away fairly quickly.

I have found with just the lowers on, you get a similar open air feel as when you have the top down. Since most of my family aren't sun worshippers, we go soft top up, no windows in the soft top, and lowers for most of the season.

River Raider Fenders. Saw these and decided they were the one's for me. My daughters can actually climb on these and dance. Probably not what was intended, but you need to keep the ladies in your life happy. You can also put these on a tree and pivot the Jeep without any damage to the Jeep. Not that I would do that because I tread lightly, but, I've seen it done.
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Been running the stock ball joints and drive shafts for 18 months with a 2.5 lift and 35s, so figured before something went south I'd upgrade those parts. Went with Synergy ball joints and Adams drive shafts.

Decided on Adams as I understand they don't suck, and they had the best pricing. After comparing my shaft to Klink's Wood's, I can honestly say, mine came with a tshirt.

As my Jeep is my daily driver, I've mainly limited myself to Blues at Rausch, but had a hankering for some Black trails. Figured if I was going to do that, and drive home, I might want to truss my axle and gusset my Cs. Decided on Artec truss and gussets as the thought of drilling holes in my axle was unappealing. After watching a sleeve install and a truss install, I feel perfectly comfortable saying that I don't ever want to drill that many holes in anything. Artec makes a nice product, but some instructions or a youtube video would be nice. Their gussets are a full 1/4 of steel, which is nice.



Watching the Wizard weld up the truss was really (descriptive vulgarity removed here) cool. The time he takes and the "cleaning it up" afterwards, insert grinding on welds and steel here, was very much appreciated.





Hit the axle with a couple coats of self etching primer and rustoleum flat black.

So all of this requires you to remove the front axle, and as it was out, and I had aftermarket drive shafts, my self imposed 2.5" restriction was removed. So we slipped in some 3.5 progressive rate coils from RK.

Kobbs had posted up about Daystar Stinger bump stops in a thread and they intrigued me. When we installed the first lift on the Phoenix it was a bit of a rush so I used whatever bump stops were available. The install on these requires you to cut a way the existing bump stop cans at the weld, which is much easier with a fully functioning sawzall, as opposed to the saw that the Master Technicial broke. Once the existing cans are removed, you weld in some caps to hold the bump stop in place. The caps allow you to screw in the bump stop, which has foam inserts that allow for a progressive rate of compression. You can chose soft, medium, or stiff, and you can replace the foam inserts over time. Looking forward to trying these out.



While everything was out, the Master Technician took a look at my upper and lower control arms which had all been installed by an Offroad Garage when I went from Flex to X Factor. None of the upper or lower arms were the correct length, none. Not only that, but none of the pairs of arms were the same length. Some of the joints were mis-aligned. I'm not going to go into a full blown rant, but I would not pay to have them work on my Jeep ever again.

Watching the Master Technician fix these was one of the more enjoyable aspects of the weekend. Part rant, part watching someone measure 3 or 4 times to make sure that everything was the correct length and on the correct plane.

I had a nasty bumping in my passenger back, like bolt to frame bump. With all the arms at the correct length, no bump.

Still need to install the day star stinger bump stops in the rear as we ran out of hours, but my Jeep sits taller, is far stronger underneath, and drives like a dream.

Big thanks to the Wizard for hosting, welding, the use of his tools and garage.

Big thanks to the Master Technician for continuing my education, going above and beyond on a bad back, and fixing all the poor work done.

Another round of thank yous to Klink, Big Tom, and he who makes Bacon Sticky Buns.
 
Not sure how the River Raider snorkel install didn't make it into the thread above, but here are some pics. The install is a full day job as there are modifications to the air box which requires dry time, and cutting a hole in your cowl and fire wall. Not for the light of heart. Pics are split between the install on my prior Jeep and my current Jeep.

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Love it. Great for dusty and wet conditions. Much lower profile than the style that runs up the A column.
 
Love it. Great for dusty and wet conditions. Much lower profile than the style that runs up the A column.
Thanks. It looks great.
I strongly considered it for my LJ, but went a different route. If I had it to do over I might go RR.
 
Ball joints and shafts are on my short list of things to do over the winter. Not that they need to be replaced but they will later so I'd rather do it before I have an issue. RE: the flat fenders, any reason you choose the River Raiders over others? Seems so many people make them and in various widths, metals etc. Sorry to hear about your other Jeep. Just curious but did the fire start on the front passenger side by any chance? Passenger side interior have the most melting of the dash? When you say never determined did no one from FCA or your dealership contact you or can you not discuss that? If it's the latter I understand, know someone that has been down that road. Great work on the new Jeep.
 
Thanks for the kind words.

Regarding flat fenders, in PA you need "full coverage" by law. I also wanted a fender that tied into the frame, not just connected to the sheet metal. At the time, this left me deciding between River Raider and Metal Cloak. It came down to visual preference and price. Things may be different now. I'm very happy with the RRs. They have held up well with no chips or wearing of the material they use to "paint" the fenders. It is something like a plastic bed liner and is sprayed into any gap. I can move the entire Jeep up and down by pushing on the fenders, very stout.

The hottest part of the burn was the front passenger side. Not sure if that was Jeep or items that may have been stored in the garage. Front passenger tire was the only one that lost pressure. Battery dropped straight through to the floor of the garage. Not much left in the engine compartment. We had local fire marshals from 3 townships and a State Farm national fire marshall inspect the garage. All very nice people. No conclusions. But I got paid, my garage got rebuilt, and I got a new Jeep, so in the end it was just a bad experience, and a week of a dirty job trying to catalog and throw away the contents of the garage in a dumpster. The scrap guys were at my house 2 or 3 times having a blast. Probably saved a few bucks as they took some large items out of the dumpster.

Funniest conversation with the insurance company. I gave them a picture of some burnt, empty, metal shelves and a list of 40 items that were previously on those shelves. The person asked me how to verify the items as the picture didn't show any contents. My response was, "you realize all those items are highly flammable, right?". Her response, "ohh fire, not flood, never mind."
 
Glad you got it all worked out and your family was ok. Now that I think about it I am not sure what NC's rule is on coverage. I will have to check into that fore sure. I've trimmed the flares on TJ's and the last JK but it was a very mild chop job and nothing was ever said at inspection time. Not sure if you are going to AR but if you see a guy in a Red Sox hat all up in your fender wells looking at your flares that would be me!
 
Glad you got it all worked out and your family was ok. Now that I think about it I am not sure what NC's rule is on coverage. I will have to check into that fore sure. I've trimmed the flares on TJ's and the last JK but it was a very mild chop job and nothing was ever said at inspection time. Not sure if you are going to AR but if you see a guy in a Red Sox hat all up in your fender wells looking at your flares that would be me!

Just stay out of my grille till I've had some coffee. (See what I did there?)

Plan is to arrive Thursday evening near sunset.
 
Stock battery finally gave up the ghost over the weekend.

Was able to locate and install an Optima Yellow top. Got lucky as the River Raider snorkel install turns the battery by 90 degrees allowing for a Group 34 battery. Could not find a Group 91 which is the stock size for 2012. Also could not find any Die Hard Platinum batteries in my area.

Feeling fairly fortunate this happened this weekend rather than while on the drive to North Carolina.
 
Installed some TruckLite/Rigid Heated LED headlights with the anti-flicker harness

Followed shortly thereafter by the Ace License plate relocation to the center of the spare. Doing this in preparation for cameras. Priority will be the backup camera, but would really like to do one in the passenger front wheel well and a diff cam.

Also two maintenance items.
  1. Reinstall the cross member skid after removing it for the dealership and cleaning up some rust and scrapes.
  2. Will also be reinstalling the winch as I removed it to allow the dealership to get easy access to the radiator grille. Note to the next person who installs a winch, give enough clearance for the grille to be removed without having to remove the bumper and the winch.
Anti-flicker harness did not want to lock in to the Jeep socket. Tried a few times, kept coming out when I pulled on them after I locked the tab. Put them back in as tight as I could and used to zip ties in an X to make sure they don't bounce out.

To aim the headlights I drew chalk around my tires and put tape on the garage door where the center of the stock headlights hit. Installed the truck lights and put the Jeep back in the same position. A few twists of the adjuster and the center beam was right on the tape. I just hope my stock headlights were aimed correctly!

Reinstalling the cross member skid was pretty damn easy. Although I may have applied a little too much impact wrench to one of the bolts as it now simply spins. I'll deal with that next year when it's time to touch them up again.

Started on the license plate relocation. Found the parking lights hot wire, used some RTV over the pin pricks I put in the other wires when trying to find the hot. It was the white wire with a purple stripe, just for future reference.

Mixing wrenching and being a Dad makes for slow wrenching.

Used a self drilling screw into a freshly sanded area on the tub (wow did I do a good job of bedlining!), to run the ground. Hit the area with some self etching primer and rustoleum flat black. Covered the whole area up with the subwoofer. Works.

Removed the front bumper again, reinstalled the winch on the bumper.

Time to take the family out to dinner.

Bumper is back on. Amazing what a shower, a good meal, and some q time with family will do to your attitude. Probably the most relaxed and funny wrenching session with my son, ever! My son and I took our victory lap. We started taking victory laps after any time one of the kids helped with anything on the Jeep. It has become a very fun tradition, and much squawking about who did most occurs ahead of time. Who did most gets to ride shot gun.

The TruckLite's are a huge improvement over stock. I have this funny little white dot dead ahead of me. I believe it to be where the two beams cross over. When I add the fogs, the entire road is bathed in light. When I add the high beams, it throws light longer than I can read. I knew there was a stop sign down the road as it was lit up like a beacon, but I couldn't read the word STOP as it was so far away. With the high beams on, the 10" single row Rigid isn't needed. I have a yellow lens on it now, and it was almost completely washed out by the high beams.

Early day tomorrow as a goalie went down with a broken thumb and my youngest daughter got called on to play. 8 AM and 9 AM games. Up and out at 6:45, hopefully back home by 10:30. Planning on rotating the tires, greasing the ball joints and other greasable items, and start packing for AR. So freakin psyched.
 
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