Truck-Lite / Rigid Industries Jeep JK Wrangler Build by Rock Krawler

wayoflife

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
Hey everyone, our friends over at Truck-Lite/Rigid have teamed up with Rock Krawler to build up their Jeep JK Wrangler and for those of you who are interested, we've started up this thread to highlight it. I will be sure to keep it up to date as new progress is made so you'll want to subscribe to this thread or at least, check back on a regular basis. To kick things off, here's a shot of their Jeep as is it stood soon after picking it up from the dealership.

Truck-Lite.jpg

Below is a build sheet of products that are in the works to be installed:

Suspension:
3.5" Rock Krawler X-Factor Long Arm Stage 1

Drivetrain:
Dynatrac ProRock44 front Axle housing for standard Dana 44 with Detroit Locker
Eaton E-Locker in Factory Rear Dana 44 Axle with Dynatrac HD Rear Differential Cover
Nitro Gear - 5.13 gears
RCV front Axle Shafts
Magnaflow - exhaust
Crown Automotive Replacement Unit Bearings

Interior:
Carolina Metal Masters - grab handles w/ side mirror, gjk grab bar
Daystar - Dash Switch Panel, Dash GPS/Phone Mount

Exterior/Misc:
Factor 55 - ProLink, HitchLink, 1.0 Fairlead, Shackle, Shorty Strap
Warn - Power Plant
sPOD - 8 button
AEV Procal
Driveshafts - JE Reel
Daystar - Hood Wranglers, D-Ring Isolators​

Rock Krawler will be sending me updates on a regular basis and you can be sure that I will be posting them up as soon as they become available. :cool:
 
cozdude

cozdude

Guy with a Red 2-Door
Sounds like it's going to be an awesome build! Are those truck lite fogs? If so when did they release them?
 
wayoflife

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
cozdude said:
Sounds like it's going to be an awesome build! Are those truck lite fogs? If so when did they release them?
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Sharkey said:
X's 2 on the fogs. Also interested in the learning more about the lift.
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Sessoms14X said:
X's 3 on the fogs. Definitely want to know more about those. I just got jw speaker fogs too lol :eek:
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Sorry for not responding to this sooner. What I am told is that the fogs are actually motorcycle lights that Rock Krawler was able to make work on a factory bumper. These will NOT work with a JCR bumper. For those of you with stock bumpers or the like, I will try and get part numbers for you and info on how they got them to work.
 
wayoflife

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
Just got the following update from Rock Krawler. Hope you enjoy following their build of the Truck-Lite/Rigid Jeep JK Wrangler :cool:

We stripped the vehicle down and removed all factory bumpers, flares, rocker guards, side steps, control arm mounts (chassis side), exhaust, and probably a few items I forgot. For the factory chassis brackets, I use a plasma cutter next to the weld. I blow the metal out and then pie cut the pieces that are bent. With a crescent wrench I bend the bracket back and forth until the whole bracket comes off. . . only leaving a small strip of weld.


It doesn’t look very clean when I do it since I use a lower setting to not get into the frame. But it’s the easiest method (least grinding time) I’ve found to clean up the area. And rarely do we have to backfill anything on the frame. You could also use a cutoff wheel and a grinder if you do not have access to a plasma cutter.






The axles were then removed and the front was stripped to build the ProRock44. Knuckles and brakes were removed and will be reused on the build. However, we did damage a unit bearing wheel speed sensor socket when removing it from the hub assembly. We are going to replace it with a complete Hub and Bearing assembly (with speed sensor wire) from Crown Automotive. http://www.crownautomotive.net/Wrangler-JK-Front-Brake-Parts/52060398AC.html


The ProRock and factory rear dana 44 were then stripped of their upper control arm mounts.


We will be using a three link front and rear suspension for both the front and rear. For the front we opted to use our Off-Road Pro passenger side mount, this is the same setup we use on our racecars. Considering the amount of off-road this jeep will see it’s a great upgrade. After welding on the rear axle truss and track bar bracket both axles were sent out to get the lockers and gears installed.








In the mean time we cleaned up the chassis, installed the long arm mounts, and painted the frame.
 
wayoflife

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
For those of you who were interested in the fog lights, here's more info that I got from Rock Krawler

Motorcycle Driving lights modded to fit jeep factory fog holes:

80275-lr.jpg

Part # 80275 http://www.truck-lite.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10001&productId=92029

They’re a sandwich fit with a aluminum plate mount and some all thread. I found a company called “headlight revolution” that makes an adapter bracket for them too.
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wayoflife

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
Okay, I've been meaning to post up this update but had to put it on the back burner until after SEMA.

We finally got the axles back. They’re fully upgraded with our Long arm mounts, Detroit rear locker, Eaton E-locker front, and Nitro Axle and Gear 5.13 gears.


MCE Fender Flares were fitted and installed. Honestly these were the easiest fender flares I’ve installed. . . every. Great product and great item to help save weight!! Poison Spyder Rear Corners and Tire Carrier are also being fitted and powder coated. The Corners fit surprisingly well on the Jeep. I really expected the contoured surface to give us more issues but they went on well.
mcefront_zpsqvb7q0uu.jpg
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While waiting for the bumpers, corner, and tire carrier to cool from powder coat, we mounted the 38” Falken Wild Peaks on ATX Slab Bead lock Wheels. We powder coated the rings to match Trucklite’s logo. Also to keep busy we installed our JE Reel yoke for the front driveshaft. We’re upgrading the front driveshaft to 1350 joints and throwing the old rezeppa style shafts away. If you have talked with Jim from JE Reel one time you know you’re getting a great product and we’re happy to install this on the Truck Lite Jeep.

​
 
WJCO

WJCO

Meme King
Looks good, but you really should have kept that repezza joint shaft and saved yourself the money.
 
wayoflife

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
WJCO said:
Looks good, but you really should have kept that repezza joint shaft and saved yourself the money.
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:cheesy:

To be fair, rzeppa joints are good joints and ones that are really strong. The TeraFlex fanboys just don't have a clue as to what the real problems are with factory drive shafts on a JK. Of course, these are the same fanboys who would actually buy a HD Dana 30 axle housing :crazyeyes:
 
Tylersilverjku

Tylersilverjku

Member
wayoflife said:
:cheesy:

To be fair, rzeppa joints are good joints and ones that are really strong. The TeraFlex fanboys just don't have a clue as to what the real problems are with factory drive shafts on a JK. Of course, these are the same fanboys who would actually buy a HD Dana 30 axle housing :crazyeyes:
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I haven't had any issues with my driveshaft on my lifted jk but I have recently heard some rattling/grinding, my dad who's a mechanic suggested it could be the cv joint getting water into it or mud or something. so I was looking to the rzeppa cv replacement by teralfex, what are some pros and cons to this? should I save the money for a new shaft all together? It's just the rear I'm noticing the sound coming from. I don't want to spend $500+ if I don't have to at the moment because I'd like to upgrade my steering components.
 
WJCO

WJCO

Meme King
Tylersilverjku said:
I haven't had any issues with my driveshaft on my lifted jk but I have recently heard some rattling/grinding, my dad who's a mechanic suggested it could be the cv joint getting water into it or mud or something. so I was looking to the rzeppa cv replacement by teralfex, what are some pros and cons to this? should I save the money for a new shaft all together? It's just the rear I'm noticing the sound coming from. I don't want to spend $500+ if I don't have to at the moment because I'd like to upgrade my steering components.
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You're welcome to try it, but I don't know of anyone at all who has it. The tried and true method is to replace the shaft with a ujoint style. Most guys that do have a repezza shaft that is failing and replace it with another, run into the same problem time and time again. It's just too steep of an angle for that style joint. Did you see the thread yesterday about this?

EDIT: The info I provided would be for the front shaft, not the rear.
 
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Tylersilverjku

Tylersilverjku

Member
WJCO said:
You're welcome to try it, but I don't know of anyone at all who has it. The tried and true method is to replace the shaft with a ujoint style. Most guys that do have a repezza shaft that is failing and replace it with another, run into the same problem time and time again. It's just too steep of an angle for that style joint. Did you see the thread yesterday about this?
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I did not see that thread! I'm just curious on people's experiences but like you said I don't know anyone who has it either so that's why I'm at a cross road!

Didn't mean to hijack the thread Eddie!
 
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