Dave's Jeep JT Gladiator: The 'Gator

But wait, there’s more!

It also has factory electric lockers front and rear, a good old fashioned manual shift lever for the 4:1 transfer case, and a 77.2:1 crawl ratio.

:stir

The debate in my head was long, but V8 won the battle as I can add lockers and change gears. Substantial more difficult and costly to install a V8.
 
Meanwhile back at the paint booth. Remove the AC vents and mask off the bits you don’t want to paint. Once your base coat is nice and even, and dry, I recommend some satin clear coat over the top. YMMV.

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A few shots from yesterday’s shakedown cruise. Big change in height, but not ridiculous. Actually lifted it more than I had thought but again, this is only a modest 2.5 inch kit and one tire size larger than stock. The 4.10 gears are fine with this arrangement, but I have an AEV Procal inbound to update the programming for the difference in tire size.

Drives and steers just as good or better than OEM for sure.

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Looks sharp Dave. What is next?
 
Some things to know about the AEV Procal SNAP for the Jeep JL Wrangler and Gladiator.

This is my second install (I used the AEV Procal SNAP on my 2018 Jeep JL Wrangler), so this guide highlights some of the gray areas in the AEV instructions, and my lessons learned.

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They give you a wiring harness alomg with the Procal SNAP module.

You need port 1 and 9 on the Jeep's OBD II plug. The OBD II plug has 16 slots. 8 on the top row and 8 on the bottom row.

The markings are microscopic. So, opposite of #16 (OEM gray wire with red stripe pictured below) is the open #9 slot you want - 9 is opposite of 16 so don't overthink this part.

See Procal harness blue striped wire below marked #9, and white wire #1 succesfully placed in the OBD II plug.

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Open the retainer clips on the OBD II plug. Get 1 and 9 plugged in. Close the retainer clips on the OBD II plug.

Then, you need to fish the other end of the harness (shown below) across and under the HVAC to the passenger side. You’ll need the glovebox out to expose the "green star connector" plug.

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Below you will see the "green star connector" plug that is revealed when you remove the glove box.

Once there, you need “any open slot on the green star connector”. Simply plug the “B” connector in there as shown.

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Then, follow the AEV instructions to pair the Procal. Once paired, it can only be used on your Jeep.

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Follow the AEV instructions and use your equalizer to set parameters for tire size, gear ratio, TPMS etc.

Now you can enjoy the peace of mind that comes with a correctly tuned vehicle, and a correct speedometer!

NOTE: There are other programmers out there that may provide more features, but I trust AEV and wanted something to address my tire size change and/or any future change in gearing along with TPMS parameters. The Procal SNAP does all that and is simple and reliable.

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Getting this new Trail Ready bumper ready for a winch but first I wanted to lay the groundwork for a few other things, and point out a few details with this bumper.

The core of the bumper (winch tray, recovery points) is steel. The "shell" (the part you really see) is aluminum and designed to be removed via the 4 allen head bolts at each steel recovery point. Pull those and voila! You have full access to the winch for service etc.

This bumper is HiLift compatible via soft shackle through the recovery point to the nose of the HiLift. This is an important feature that provides great utility.

The first thing I added to this new bumper is a set of Baja Designs Squadron-R Pros. The stock LED fogs were good, but these are incredible. They have been added to the OEM fog light circuit and work flawlessly.

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The last thing I wanted to add was a pigtail with an Anderson plug for my solar setup. No more popping the hood, no more Mickey Mouse alligator clips. Just plug in the panel now and forget about it until it's time to break camp. This pigtail is "just long enough" to make it convenient to use, and will tuck away nicely out of sight when not needed.

Now to add a winch to this tray and top the whole thing off with a set of Baja Designs LP9 Racers.

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Upgraded the line - Safe-Xtract 7/16 Plasma with a minimum tensile strength of 21,000 lbs. Made in USA, unlike the 3/8 “Spydura” HMPE the winch came with.

What is “Plasma” rope? It’s considered to be the strongest rope available for its weight, and is a high strength synthetic rope. This rope can be used in all environments and is extremely durable and lightweight, and it is also resistant to damage from UV exposure.

Plasma rope is made of high modulus polyethylene (HMPE). It is made by drawing each strand, which is made of Honeywell Spectra Fiber, through a pressurized and heated system, which aligns the molecules identically within each strand.

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Did you wire direct to the battery vs a cutoff switch? Any tips on routing path from the bumper?

I’ve always wired my winches direct. As for routing, remove the grille, remove the air box, and route from the winch through the area by the passenger side frame rail and core support body mount. Then route the cables under where the air box sits, and to the battery.
 
Dave I think the pack is fine where it is, it does not block radiator so cooling obstruction is not a factor. Looks nice and clean. Why not use a SAE plug for your solar instead of the anderson, flush mount it and it is smaller.
 
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