ONDROX - 2015 JKUR Hydro Blue Build

ONDROX

Member
Hi, just joined Wayalife, and I’m starting out early on a build thread because I want to get feedback on some of the decisions I need to make on the next phase of upgrades. Before I get to that, I’ll go back and detail what I started with and what I’ve done so far.

I bought my 2015 JKUR in April, 2016 with 22k miles on it. I was searching everywhere for a Hydro blue one but was having no luck finding a used one since they hadn’t been out long in that color. One Friday night I was out to dinner with my wife and we were driving down Shelbyville Rd (busy road with lots of car dealerships) and I noticed a dark gray Rubicon at the Acura dealership.

The dark gray and silver were my next favorite colors so I stopped to take a look. A sales guy comes out and we start talking and I mentioned I wanted a Hydro blue one and he said, “Did you see the one we have?”. So he points to the other end of the lot and there is my Jeep sitting on a pedestal with a street light shining down on it! I swear I thought I heard some dramatic music in my head when I saw it! :rock::bowdown::

Anyways, I went back the next day and looked it over, drove it, and bought it. I was really excited because it already had 37x12.50 Nitto Trail Graps on stock Rubicon wheels with 1.5” spacers, a Rugged Ridge Spare Tire Hinge, 4.5” BDS Long Arm lift, 1310 f/r drive shafts, , and a JKS J-Cal programmer to correct for the tires. So first thing I did was call all the Jeep shops around town to find out who did the work, and it ended up being Moab Offroad here in Louisville, so I went over to their shop and had them go through all the work they did to it. I was skeptical of the long arm lift but it wasn’t enough to keep me from buying the Jeep, I knew I might have to change it at some point. Here’s a couple pics of pics of how it looked when I bought it:
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ONDROX

Member
So, once I got it home, I immediately put on some Rigid Trucklites LED headlights and a Havoc Offroad Bumper with some cheap LED lights on the A-pillars and in the front bumper. (I had won an $800 Amazon gift card in a contest at work and it paid for all of that) I wish I had waited and bought a nicer front bumper and lights but at the time, it seemed like a good buy. Since then, I added a Smittybilt 10K winch, a factor 55 flat link, and Poison Spyder fairlead. Had to cut off the recovery points as they weren’t safe to use and added Rugged Ridge bolt on recovery points. Also added some factory matched paint to dress it up a bit as the bumper had some really shitty powder-coating on it.
 

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ONDROX

Member
For a while after that, I just did a bunch of little mods, 67 Designs phone mount, new hood decals, Tuffy security drawer, rear seat recline kit, rubber mats, etc. Also added Ace Engineering sliders to protect the rockers and to provide a step to get up in the damn thing! Had to modify the rear-most mount on the sliders to avoid contacting the rear long arm mount on the frame. That worked great for a year, took it wheeling/camping a couple times and was loving it. For the next year, I drove it as is contemplating my next mods.
 

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ONDROX

Member
After driving it for 2 years like that, it was pretty obvious by the way it drove and handled I needed to turn my attention to the underside of my Jeep, the braking sucked, the steering sucked, it was under-powered, and the suspension was floaty.

Brakes:
So I added a Teraflex front big brake kit with larger 2 piston calipers, rotors, and pads along with rear big rotor kit and EBC orange brake pads. This made such a difference in braking, it was probably the most dramatic change/improvement of anything I’ve done so far.

Steering/Suspension:
My steering was terrible and I couldn’t take it anymore. First thing to go was the shitty drop-pitman arm from the BDS kit. Put a stock one on and added Yeti Steersmarts Top-mount drag link with attenuator, Yeti tie-rod, new steering stabilizer, and Yeti clamp mount for the stabilizer, along with a Teraflex front track-bar and sway bar end links. I still had some steering issues and later found out it was the track-bar hole on the frame that was ovaled out so I added a Synergy Track-bar brace and that finally locked in steering and it’s been really solid ever since. Forgot, the attenuator on my Yeti drag link took a dump last year so I called them up and they sent me an adjuster tube free of charge since I didn’t want to go back to the attenuator anymore.

Gearing/Axles:
Next up underneath the Jeep was the gearing, 3.73’s and 37’s is not a great match so I took it to V3 Jeep Shop and had them install Yukon 4.88’s and Yukon chromolly shafts, along with diff covers. This was also a big improvement over stock, it felt like a new Jeep with a lot more useable power/torque.
 

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ONDROX

Member
Once I had a lot of the drivetrain mostly upgraded, I went back to armor and electrical upgrades. I added a new Poison Spyder rear bumper, Rock Hard engine/transmission skid plate, Poison Spyder aluminum fenders (narrow width fronts). Still working through the color match for the powder-coat on my fenders.
 

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ONDROX

Member
Electrical Upgrades:
Added an S-Tech switch system with custom switch covers, lights for my rear bumper, JW Speaker Tail lights, and KC Cyclone Rock Lights (8 ct.). I also wanted to add a fridge and power my winch and other electrical needs so added a Genesis Offroad dual-battery system with twin Odyssey batteries and G-screen.
 

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ONDROX

Member
I needed new tires about a year and a half ago so got a great deal on some Cooper Discoverer STT Pro’s on a Black Friday deal from Discount Tire, they’ve been great!
 

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ONDROX

Member
Last year, I wanted to clean up the cargo area on trips/wheeling, etc so built a new rear cargo drawer system out of ¾” plywood. Also built a removable panel that mounts to the front of the drawers to create a sleep platform on winter trips, much warmer than in a tent.
 

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ONDROX

Member
About a month ago, I decided to buy a Dometic 30 qt. drawer fridge so I took my drawer system apart, made it 3” taller and then redid the drawer to fit the fridge in the other side. I just ordered the fridge so don’t have it yet, but should be installed in the next 2 weeks.
 

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ONDROX

Member
Also, just recently pieced together a 10 lb CO2 tank (tank, regulator, tank boot, Powertank mount and regulator cover) and mounted it to my Rock Slide Eng. spare tire mount along with dual 2 gallon Rotopax water cans.
 

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ONDROX

Member
I think that pretty much covers all the upgrades I’ve done, thanks for taking a look at my progress so far!
 

ONDROX

Member
Got motivated over the weekend, took the drawer system apart, and painted with spray-on bedliner. Trimmed out the drawer-front with 3/4” aluminum channel. Also the new Dometic drawer fridge showed up, got it in the drawer system but waiting on my Anderson plugs to show up before I can wire it up. Will post up when I get it wired.
 

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wjtstudios

Hooked
That has to be one of the nicest setups I’ve seen in the back of a Jeep, well done. How many Quart is the Frig drawer?


2015 JKUR AEV JK350
1985 CJ8 Scrambler
 
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