Jeep My Overland Project, the RME JKU

[zmotorsports]

The Jeeps looking and turnin' our great Greg.

As for the TPMS, I just set mine to zero. No more dinging when aired down off-road. That drove me batty, and I am half way there to begin with.

Mike.

 

[Greg]

The Jeeps looking and turnin' our great Greg.

As for the TPMS, I just set mine to zero. No more dinging when aired down off-road. That drove me batty, and I am half way there to begin with.

Mike.

Thanks Mike! I'm very happy with it now, it's perfectly driveable and very capable!

I figure that if my tires get to under 25 PSI while driving, I'll let the TMPS save me from destroying a tire. Mine doesn't ding though, just the light on the dash.

 

[Anchor_Mtn]

Im pretty sure thats my next investment as well. Ive nursed the front axle along about as far as its willing to go I think.

 

[Greg]

Im pretty sure thats my next investment as well. Ive nursed the front axle along about as far as its willing to go I think.

I think it's a smart upgrade for any JK running 35's or more that actually spends a good deal of time offroad. The stock axle just isn't built to take the abuse and while a sleeve & gusset kit are nice, the new housing fixes all the issues at once, without any question of strength. It's amazing how much better my JKU drives with the new housing!

 

[zmotorsports]

Greg, now that you have some time/miles on a couple of items can I ask your input.

Are you still glad you put the front mudflaps on? Have they interfered with any obstacles thus far? Have you caught them on anything yet? I ask because if you spill a glass of water and I drive through it, there is mud ALL over my Jeep. We went on a trail run with our local Jeep club over the weekend and there was one little section of mud in which I went up on the sidehill to try and avoid. I avoided about 70% of it but one side still caught the edge. After accelerating the KO2's threw mud everywhere, even up on the hood. When we pulled up to our lunch spot, our Jeep was almost as filthy as the guys who drove straight through and tried to get muddy.

Next question is your Trucklite LED headlights. Now that you have had them in for a while are you still happy with them? Have you had any snow yet to test out the heater grid? I have upgraded the bulbs in my Jeep almost as soon as I purchased it and they are an improvement over stock but still a dismal beam. I would like to try the LED's but I too drive in the snow and need the heater grid.

I would appreciate any feedback concerning those two items.

Thanks Greg.

Mike.

 

[sixstringsteve]

I too am curious about your trucklite LED headlight experience.

 

[Greg]

Greg, now that you have some time/miles on a couple of items can I ask your input.

Are you still glad you put the front mudflaps on? Have they interfered with any obstacles thus far? Have you caught them on anything yet? I ask because if you spill a glass of water and I drive through it, there is mud ALL over my Jeep. We went on a trail run with our local Jeep club over the weekend and there was one little section of mud in which I went up on the sidehill to try and avoid. I avoided about 70% of it but one side still caught the edge. After accelerating the KO2's threw mud everywhere, even up on the hood. When we pulled up to our lunch spot, our Jeep was almost as filthy as the guys who drove straight through and tried to get muddy.

Sorry for the delayed response, we've been in Baja with the Jeep and service/wifi was rare! I didn't check in on RME for over a week.

Yes, I'm very happy with the addition of the mud flaps! They survived the recent Moab trip, where they got dragged over many a rock ledge and show no signs of damage other than some scratches in the plastic. What also helps keep mud off the side of my Jeep was the Teraflex rock sliders, since they stick out a few inches from the body. Between the mud flaps AND the sliders, I see much less mud/dirt on the side of the Jeep. My wheels are 9" wide with 4.75" BS, so they stick out pretty far past the fenders which doesn't help with throwing mud on the Jeep.

While we were in Baja, we came across some road construction and they were currently watering the dirt to compact it, making for a muddy mess. Here's the result of driving thru quite a bit of mud, you can see where the mud flap and slider caught much of the mud before it got to the side of the Jeep.

Next question is your Trucklite LED headlights. Now that you have had them in for a while are you still happy with them? Have you had any snow yet to test out the heater grid? I have upgraded the bulbs in my Jeep almost as soon as I purchased it and they are an improvement over stock but still a dismal beam. I would like to try the LED's but I too drive in the snow and need the heater grid.

I would appreciate any feedback concerning those two items.

Thanks Greg.

Mike.

I too am curious about your trucklite LED headlight experience.

I'm still happy with the lights, they seem to have some uneven light distribution, with bright spots and some minor dark spots. I've only driven in light snow during the day, no heavy night-time snow as of yet so it's hard to say how well the grid heaters work with snow buildup. For the price, I do feel like they should be brighter and put out more light. I think they're the best heated LED headlight option out there... matter of fact, I think they're the only heated LED light!! John Williams @ Impulse Offroad has good prices on them, so talk to him if you're looking.

Hope that helps, let me know if you have more questions.

 

[zmotorsports]

Thanks for the feedback Greg. My wheels are the same and throw crap everywhere. I am going to go with the Teraflex sliders but I am waffling over the front mudflaps, just worrying about catching them coming off a rock or ledge.'

Mike.

 

[Greg]

The Jeep mods have been pretty quiet lately, but there have been some additions! The biggest thing was swapping out the stock exhaust, which was beat up, the joints were loose and squeaking and the engine sound was pretty pathetic. When we were in Moab in October we ran across Chad H. in his built JKU with a Magnaflow exhaust... it sounded amazing when he was on the throttle. I was eyeballing that system, but it's pricey... around $800.

After looking into other options Hickey shared the Dynomax 'Quiet Crawler' exhaust, part# 39535. It uses their Ultra Flo muffler with a Race Bullet, all 2.5" tubing. The cost for the Dynomax kit is 1/2 the price of the Magnaflow kit. Total cost for the Dynomax Quiet Crawler is about $400, much more affordable.

The install wasn't hard at all, took about 90 min and the new exhaust was hung & clamped. I started it up and went for a spin and noticed that is was pretty loud and even somewhat annoying at 2,000 - 3,500 RPM when at any more than 1/3 throttle. The thing sounds 'raspy' and almost like a Honda ricer.... Hardly what I wanted and was expecting. Around town at light throttle the sound isn't bad, but when there's a load on the engine it gets pretty loud. I'm not too happy with it and it's far from what I expected a 'quiet crawler' exhaust to sound like. I will admit that I'm pretty picky about exhaust tone and was hoping to open up the exhaust and adding a little more healthy sound, without being too much.

Here's an after video.... running the Jeep thru the gears and on the throttle harder than normal, for the most part. I don't think the microphone on the GoPro picks up the sound like your ear would. The video makes it sound alright, but IMO it's more annoying than anything.

[video=youtube;5OWvJWuy8DY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OWvJWuy8DY[/video]


Dynomax offers a 90 day customer satisfaction guarantee... I'm going to drive this Jeep all weekend and see if I'm going to take them up on their offer.

 

[N-Smooth]

And this is why exhaust mods terrify me. I've been wanting to give my Hemi Ram more rumble since I got it, almost 4 years ago...

 

[Hickey]

I feel like this is my fault. I got both of us excited about this new system, and then I couldn't even fit it on my Jeep.

 

[I Lean]

The Jeep mods have been pretty quiet lately....exhaust....pretty loud

I see what you did there. HA. Haha.

Too bad it didn't do what you wanted. Mods that backfire are the worst. (get it? Another exhaust-related word?)

 

[Greg]

And this is why exhaust mods terrify me. I've been wanting to give my Hemi Ram more rumble since I got it, almost 4 years ago...

Eh, I could probably get used to the sound but it's not what I thought I was getting. With their satisfaction guarantee I'm not too worried about going another direction.

I feel like this is my fault. I got both of us excited about this new system, and then I couldn't even fit it on my Jeep.

Seriously Jeremy, don't even worry about it. We did a lot of research and it seemed like it was a good choice, affordable and well-built materials. Even the sound bite that was shared online by the Dynomax rep sounded pretty good but apparently the microphone and camera don't do justice to the real life sound.

I see what you did there. HA. Haha.

Too bad it didn't do what you wanted. Mods that backfire are the worst. (get it? Another exhaust-related word?)

 

[sawtooth4x4]

You need a v8. Lol. Then the sound will be better. I just installed a chambered muffler with a resonator on my disco. It sounds pretty nice and you can't hear it with the windows up much

Sent from my LG-H810 using Tapatalk

 

[LT.]

I ran dynomax exhaust on my old GMC and I also run it on my wife's Yukon XL. Couldn't be happier with their exhaust systems. But, they were both on American V8's. Love the sound and the exhaust isn't too loud in the truck.

Rob.

 

[Greg]

You need a v8. Lol. Then the sound will be better. I just installed a chambered muffler with a resonator on my disco. It sounds pretty nice and you can't hear it with the windows up much

Sent from my LG-H810 using Tapatalk

Nah, I like the V6... the Magnaflow exhaust I heard on Chad's JKU with the same engine I have sounds very good, not too loud but breaths better than stock exhaust. I just thought the "Quite Crawler" exhaust wouldn't be so loud. Besides, I'd much rather have the Diesel engine in a JKU than a V8!!

I ran dynomax exhaust on my old GMC and I also run it on my wife's Yukon XL. Couldn't be happier with their exhaust systems. But, they were both on American V8's. Love the sound and the exhaust isn't too loud in the truck.

Rob.

I think a lot the noise from this Dynomax exhaust is caused because its supposed to be high clearance, so they use smaller mufflers in place of much larger ones and there is less pipe, due to deleting the muffler behind the axle. On top of that, both Dynomax mufflers are straight thru, so the engine sound isn't reduced by much.

Anyway, we drove the Jeep around 700 miles over the long weekend and the Dynomax 'Quiet Crawler' has to go... it's annoying, especially at the RPM's mentioned before... which is where you usually are at highway/freeway speeds. I'm working on it, we will see what happens but something has to change.

 

[Greg]

Well, the Dynomax exhaust came off and the Magnaflow went on! I have to say that the Magnaflow exhaust is extremely high quality, from the material to the welds, you can tell it's built to last. Even the way the entire system was laid out and goes together, it's high quality. It does cost more, but after hearing the difference I'm OK with the higher cost.

Install was easy, took about 30 min and I started it up. Right away it sounded better, a tad quieter but the sound was healthy. After a quick test drive I noticed that the 'raspy' noise from 2,000 to 3,500 RPM was gone and the tone was much easier on the ears. Talking with Jeremy we decided that the 3.6 needs a bigger resonator, my thoughts are that the Pentastar engine is pretty high-strung and makes a considerable amount of power (and noise) for a V6. The Magnaflow exhaust takes the edge off, but still sounds like the engine breathes well.

While that exhaust tip is beautiful, I don't think it will last long at all. First real rocky trail and it's going to get smashed... I'm going to take the Sawzall to the tip. :-\

And video for sound...

[video=youtube;0k2p2v9RsTc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k2p2v9RsTc[/video]

 

[Hickey]

Awe man, that does sound great.

 

[Greg]

Awe man, that does sound great.

It's a noticeable difference, the sound is tamed down but still healthy. I'm happy with it!

 

[TJDukit]

Now you're going to get sued by Metallica.