Crashnburn80's Supercharged Gladiator Mojave Build

With 37s, the OEM jack will no longer be sufficient. It barely cut it on the 35s when I punctured a tire on the trail and we had to dig out under the tire to get clearance to install the fully inflated spare, not exactly something you can do on the street. Jeep/Mopar and AEV both make scissor jack bases which seems like the ideal solution. I'm not interested in a highlift. AEV's spacer will work for up to 37s, the Jeep spacer can work for even larger tires, but is also larger in size. These bases are not small, the AEV unit measures 10.5"x7.5"x3.5", and the Jeep unit is about 1" larger in every direction. Storage is a concern, as there isn't much of it in a Jeep. Since I don't plan on larger than 37s, the smaller AEV unit seems more ideal.

AEV base


Then I saw AEV had an under dash mount kit. Couldn't find photos anywhere. But this forum post had some good pics.
https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/aev-under-dash-mounting-kit-for-jack-base-jl.44475/

Picture below lifted from the above link.




Would have been nice if they made it black for the interior install. But that is a great storage spot of unused space. I'll try it out and see what it looks like. Maybe I'll paint mine black, or possibly orange to match the interior orange Mojave theme.

 

Would a HF jack + pro eagle extension be a solution? That looks awfully compact which is nice, but those scissor jacks always make me nervous.

 

Apparently you've never used an OEM bottle jack like the one that came with my 4Runner. Changing a tire on anything other than a perfectly flat parking lot is an exercise in blind faith.

 

Yeah, the only time I ever had to change a tire on the oem jack was my 1st gen in a flat parking lot, but for sure, neither is a great option.

 

I hear ya! I had to change the left rear on my 4Runner this past July. Fortunately, I was close to a flat parking lot. I left my 22' boat on the trailer attached to give me a little more stability since I had a gusting 25 MPH cross wind. Talk about a pucker factor!

 

Had a coworker's wife get a flat on the highway the other day right by my house. Between my jack above and my impact gun, I pulled off a NASCAR level tire swap. Felt so dang good, and the case of beer brought to me afterwards was even better.

 

I now carry this jack to use with my Mac 20volt impact. I'm all done with the tippy OEM POS.

$314 ARCAN Tools 3-Ton Quick Rise Aluminum Floor Jack with Dual Pump Pistons & Reinforced Lifting Arm (A20018_A20019)

Amazon.com: Arcan 3-Ton Quick Rise Aluminum Floor Jack with Dual Pump Pistons & Reinforced Lifting Arm (ALJ3T / A20018) : Automotive

 

If you flip your spare over can you store it inside the wheel without hitting the hoist?

 

Floor jacks are definitely nice to use, but not something I’d want to carry in the truck with me at all times. Wrangler/Gladiators have solid axles, so using the axle housing as the jack point there is no need for an extension on a floor jack unlike IFS.

That sir is simplistic genius, if it fits.

 

But what about possible abrasion from sand / salt / road debris caught up in there on your nice alloy spare wheel?

 

Hmm, cling wrap / tracwrap comes to mind...

 

It would be on the inside of the wheel, so not very concerned. But I wouldn’t want it bouncing around freely either. My first thought was to bungee it to a spoke. I’ll have to toy with it in person.

 

According to Cold Case, the Jeep has an engineering design flaw. The OEM radiator design does not have bushings and is hard mounted. Facepalm. No bushings means that the radiator has no give in the mounts, so when the vehicle flexes (off road) and you have a large square rigid structure mounted at all 4 corners, something has to give. And it is the radiator. Googling this, early OEM radiator failures appear common, due to cracks and weeping from the plastic to aluminum joints. Why Jeep would design something like this in what is arguably the most off road based massed produced vehicle is a ridiculous oversight. Even street vehicles use bushings on the radiator mounts. I need to confirm this on my truck still. But if true, as much as it pains me to say it those cuts could be a reliability improvement over stock, due to the poor initial design. I'd much rather see something with flex in the mounts though using traditional bushings rather than flex in the product.

 

What about just adding bushings? Wouldn't that be easier?

Maybe fox mini shocks with remote reservoirs?

 

On the surface it certainly seems like it, but really depends on the mounting design. But if the fix was that simple it seems aftermarket would have done it and/or Jeep would have a TSB. I’ll need to check it out on my truck.

 

I hear through reliable sources who did not wish to be identified that Jeep is working on an innovative cure for your issue. Without getting into too much top secret detail, they're currently testing prototypes of a radiator built completely out of rubber. Yea, that should do it.

 

My 3rd fender vent light tested. This XK Glow Amber unit is supposed to be "amber". It is very yellow. Sigh.


What is also interesting is recall how the fender vent I removed was surprisingly a functional vent?


Turns out these vents are designed to eliminate hood flutter at high speed, a problem that existed on the JKs. So by eliminating the vents with lights, I'd likely be reintroducing the hood flutter issue these are designed to fix. With 440+hp my truck sees plenty of high speed. Needless to say with the existing low quality products on the market and eliminating an OEM engineered solution to a real design problem, I am scraping this idea.

 

Rip to the hours of work we did trying to get the lights to work

 

And hacking up the OEM wiring. I’ve got one more possibility to explore which would retain the vent. We’ll see.

 

Why not make your own? I dig your adherence to quality and function. I’d buy one of these sets from you if you made some.

That’s how I solved my shark fin antenna problem.