I’ve been spending more time making the Jeep a little more liveable as a daily driver. I just flipped 20,300 miles and have had it almost exactly a year +/- a day or two. While not a ton of miles, it’s a good bit above average. Although I’ve been incredibly happy with the Mastercraft MXT tires (for anyone that isn’t aware, Mastercraft is a Cooper brand thats a little easier on the wallet) with 20k+ miles on them now they are beginning to get pretty loud. Especially on the concrete expressway I spend 40-60 miles on daily. These tires have begun to absolutely roar on that particular expressway. So I’ve decided to pull off the off-road rims/tires and set them aside for off road trips which I expect to be anywhere from 4-8 times/year, maybe more. That will eliminate the daily wear and tear on the MXTs and even more importantly to me, the road noise. Being that I’ve been really happy with the Mastercraft brand otherwise, I’ve decided to swap them for the Mastercraft CXTs a hybrid all-terrain that are really quiet. I recommended them to a friend who leveled a Sahara and I’ve confirmed after a test drive, that those tires are very quiet. But they look really good too as they still have a moderately aggressive sidewall. I will hopefully have them on this weekend. I like the Fuel rim I was running so I just stuck with them. The CXTs will be 35” so the Jeep will maintain a very similar stance with very minimal, if any, calibration tweaks.
Also I’ve upgrade my speaker system and did away with the “premium” system entirely. I decided to just go ahead with the Alpine aftermarket system (PSS21WRA) that comes with a new amp and sub that are both placed under the passenger seat with really nice prefabbed brackets that are included. What a world of difference, the factory Alpine system was okay, but this is on another level. Most noticeably in bass quality, volume levels, and overall clarity. I’m sure I could’ve done a little better for the money but this system as it comes has all* the wiring harnesses preassembled and ready out of the box, so the system does eliminate a lot of grunt work normally required for an all new component system.
* The system is designed to be plug and play with the base radio system (w/o an outboard amp). And should be avoided if you have the OEM Alpine Premium Audio system, unless you want to get your hands a little dirty hacking up your factory harness or making a new harness to bypass the outboard Alpine amp. To bypass the factory amp AND avoid cutting and splicing into the existing harness, I sourced all new MOPAR connectors (9 in total) and built a new speaker harness that is 17.5’ long going thru the dash and up and along the roll bar to the soundbar. I wish I took pictures but for some reason never occurred to me.
