What did you do TO your Gladiator today? [ADMIN WARNING: NO POLITICS]

[WILDHOBO]

I will be really curious to hear how this works out after some trail time

I can say that after an unplanned trip down the mountains this afternoon. It’s night and day better at 75mph on terrible rutted interstate. Truly amazing difference.

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[b-roc]

Took the opportunity to put in delrin hinge liners while I briefly had the tube doors on

 

[HooliganActual]

Took it to Big-O this morning and ordered a new set of Yokohama Geolandar MT’s, because I ran over a creosote bush yesterday the size of a redwood. Put a giant chunk of lumber through the sidewall of my driver side rear. Lucky for me it’s acting like a plug and holding pressure pretty good. Only losing a couple pounds Every few hours or so. The new tires won’t be in till tomorrow afternoon at the earliest. These were getting due anyway. On the bright side, I will now have three full sized spares.

Took advantage of the the down time in the driveway. Pulled the air filter out for some maintenance. Of course I dropped one of the air box screws somewhere into the engine compartment and couldn’t find it for the life of me.

You'll have to give us a report on the Yokohamas. I've been considering those when my number is up.

 

[RudeJeepin]

Swapped out my headlight bulbs for a set of Sylvania Silverstar Ultras H13.

Low beam, passenger new, driver OE. Passenger was a royal pain, I have a diesel. After much fiddling around I managed to get the cap out of the way.

Highbeam, pass new, driver OE again.
The wall is the same color all the way acrossed.
The driver side was cake, just pull the airbox out of the way.

This last weekend I drove my wife's Wrangler twice after dark. Once in the rain and once in decent weather. Both times I was thinking to myself that it seemed kinda dark out. Monday morning in the dark on the way to work in my Gladiator I decided that the replacement headlight bulbs I put in were definitely brighter. I will be buying a set for her Wrangler before long.

 

[Blade1668]

You know it's bad when a 15" breaker bar can break such a bolt, but then I'm used to wrenching bolts so maybe I just over-do it a bit?

His solution was pretty invasive, IMO
I mean, cutting the spot weld, removing that whole piece, putting washers in there to reinforce the body where it's bolted....
Looks like if he ever wants to remove that bolt again he's got to remove the fender liner and pull his cover plate off to access a nut in that recess.
Guess I'm not ready to start cutting out chunks of structure on a <12 month old truck quite yet.

Bill you need to use the blue or yellow wrench on them first or now that you got the electric one.
I'm with you on not wanting to start hacking sheet metal or stuff.

 

[redman43]

Got the Falcon rear shocks installed. Need to find some time to do the fronts.

 

[kennyp]

Light brand?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B096VP2GTP?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B096VP2GTP?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1
5" dont say it comes with the black covers but it dose.

 

[azmojave]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B096VP2GTP?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B096VP2GTP?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1
5" dont say it comes with the black covers but it dose.

Those look great. Much brighter than my little square lights too. Thanks.

 

[JRobes]

Today was the big day for the last of my upgrade push to be ready for Overland Expo West!!!!

First thing I had to do was pull the hardtop. I had already lined it with Boom Mat a week or so ago in preparation for the CoverKing Topliner:

After a little cutting and shaping and massaging (because of the Rhino-Rack Back Bone and the thickness of the Boom Mat), I did get the rear portion of the Topliner on:

Once the top was back on, I feel like it looks pretty good!

Now I needed to reinstall my rear molle panel. I get asked all the time where I found this and it is simply a BuiltRight Industries Cab Wall Panel meant to go in the bed...but it fits!
https://builtrightind.com/products/2020-jeep-gladiator-bedside-rack-system-front-panel

Fits like a CHAMP! I also got my homemade gear attic installed.

If anyone is interested in doing the molle panel this way, I simply made "L" brackets that bolt through the molle and down to the Hardtop hold down bolts. That alone is pretty sturdy and I've run it that way for about a year and a half with no problems. Now with the Back Bone braces I was also able to fab a bracket to capture the top of the molle panel as well. Now it is bomber!

Not much left to do other than some minor tinkering. This particular evolution in total was:

1. Sound deading the hard top​

2. Install CoverKing Topliner​

3. Install Rhino-Rack Back Bone​

4. Install Pioneer Platform​

5. Mount a total of 200W Photovoltaic panels on Pioneer Platform​

Phew...I'm done for a few days!!

Cheers

I'm not sure if they intentionally shadow dropped it or what, but JCR now offers an interior rear window molle panel for the JT. Noticed it a couple days ago on their website.

https://www.jcroffroad.com/product/JTRWP.html

 

[HooliganActual]

I'm not sure if they intentionally shadow dropped it or what, but JCR now offers an interior rear window molle panel for the JT. Noticed it a couple days ago on their website.

https://www.jcroffroad.com/product/JTRWP.html

Well that is baller. That is essentially what I with did mine. Only a year late to the party...LOL!!

 

[Dryfly24]

You'll have to give us a report on the Yokohamas. I've been considering those when my number is up.

They are my favorite MT’s by far. I wheel every day but I also do a lot of highway traveling because my son and grandsons live in Minnesota. Haven’t found an Mt yet that can compete with the Geolandars.

Having said that this time around I decided to go with the Geolandars XT’s only because I’ve been wheeling so much. I‘ll report on them once I get some miles on them.

You can see how much more aggressive the XT’s are than the G003 version.

 

[kennyp]

Those look great. Much brighter than my little square lights too. Thanks.

I was surprised how bright they are also

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Bill you need to use the blue or yellow wrench on them first or now that you got the electric one.
I'm with you on not wanting to start hacking sheet metal or stuff.

My impatience got the better of me. I was waffling about buying an induction heater - I had the tab open on my browser for 2 or 3 days but figured, no, I can do this and save a few hundred bucks.
Well......
Right AFTER the bolt broke, I came in and ordered the induction heater.
These are LONG LONG big bolts. The broken part alone is 55mm long. The shortest body bolt MOPAR lists is something like 107mm. That means that over 50mm of that bolt is THREADS and sticking up above the "nut" up there. Stupid long. All it needs to do is engage all of the threads in the nut above with almost nothing sticking through. Others are something like 115 or 120 mm long.
The broken end has a really thick layer of red thread locker on it. I figure they used about 1 tablespoon of thread locker per bolt.
My comment on the length of the bolt is that - there's 55mm of bolt shank between the bolt head and the threads.
You have to heat a bolt head with a big round thick flat washer under it before the shank would even start to get hot. Then there's 55 mm of shank to heat hot before the thread locker gets hot. In the mix is rubber body cushions ready to melt.
I made the mistake of trying to weigh the risks of heating a long heavy bolt really hot, flat washer up against body mount and melting or destroying that and doing damage before the thread locker got warm enough to let go.
So, expensive mistake. I've decided that with my hand issues going on, I'd pay the dealer shop to fix my mistake. While they have it, I can make about half of what I expect the repair to cost by doing some restoration work in my shop. That will help. But I know me - and if there's not a big consequence for such a thing, it might get repeated. This way I can't say "oh, well, no big deal" next time as I won't let there be a next time.
I guess I know me - I've got to shoot myself in the foot at least once before I remember to check the chamber and eject that last bullet first.

 

[chorky]

Sitting here waiting for the sun to warm up things so I can go work on L-track tie downs in the bed (ugh, more hole drilling....)

But was watching the Jeep concept video from Brad at TrailRecon and he made mention of a historic Jeep expedition through the Darien Gap - a video I haven't been able to find until now. Not Gladiator related, but it is part of Jeep's history, and it is amazing! What these things have accomplished years ago before lockers were really a thing, on a stock rig with no lift either. Just goes to show Jeeps are pretty darn capable in their stock form.

Makes me want to start working on rebuilding my TJ!

 

[azmojave]

Sitting here waiting for the sun to warm up things so I can go work on L-track tie downs in the bed (ugh, more hole drilling....)

But was watching the Jeep concept video from Brad at TrailRecon and he made mention of a historic Jeep expedition through the Darien Gap - a video I haven't been able to find until now. Not Gladiator related, but it is part of Jeep's history, and it is amazing! What these things have accomplished years ago before lockers were really a thing, on a stock rig with no lift either. Just goes to show Jeeps are pretty darn capable in their stock form.

Makes me want to start working on rebuilding my TJ!

Thanks for posting that! I’ll watch when I get home

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