Going to do a separate build thread so I don’t clutter up the products thread too much.
First the Jeep. It is a 2024 Gladiator Rubicon. I am a Wrangler guy at heart, but with two small kids, and my love of cold weather camping I really need the ability to tow my trailer. At 3200lbs it is too heavy for the Wrangler to tow well, so a gladiator fit the bill. I actually almost bought a ZR2 Bison Colorado, but after thinking about things I enjoy rock crawling and more serious trails much more than high speed or overlanding and a solid axle and the jeep aftermarket is hard to beat for that use case.
The long term plan is to do 74 Weld Portals and 40" tires, but it will be at least a few years of saving my pennies. I want to build as many things as I can vs bolt on parts and maybe even develop a product or two around the platform.
On the way home from the dealer I stopped and got some 35" BFG KO2s as the stock size just looked too small with the large wheel opening. The 35s still look too small in my opinion, but will get me by for a bit and are much easier on the vehicle when towing.
I am sticking with stock wheels until I go to beadlocks,so to get enough clearance for the 35s at full lock I went with some Synergy wheel spacers to push the wheels out 1.75"
I didn’t get the Trail Rail system with the Jeep but wanted some tie down points so went with some L-Track using the factory threaded holes. I love the Freedom Coast bike racks and Mod Mounts so happy to have L-track to utilize their stuff. The L-track was generic so there are some extra holes, but I couldn’t find black that was undrilled.
My first part to build is going to be a front bumper. I like the stubby look and need a place to mount my winch I pulled off the RAM. I am going to do a steel inner winch plate and an aluminum outer bumper to save some weight. I pulled off the factory bumper to get some measurements.
I want the bumper to be as low profile as possible so I did the swaybar disconnect rotation mod. I was able to find everything I needed at the local hardware store to do it. Why jeep doesn’t do this from the factory is beyond me. You can see in the pic how low and exposed the motor and plug is.
The 74 Weld portals will be amazing! When building the Tacoma they were still under R and D so went with the RCLT from Marlin. Looking forward to the process!!!
Made some progress on the new front bumper. First I made a tray for the winch out of 3/16" steel and tied it into the frame horn supports using the factory holes and hardware.
Then I tacked them together on the Jeep, removed it all and finished welded it along with some braces to stiffen it up around the holes. My thicker material tig skills need some work for sure.
After that I hit it with some Steel-It paint, and mounted it up. So stoked on how close the the grill it is. This is just the winch plate and I can now start building the aluminum bumper around it.
The factory Rubicon skids are pretty good and help up great on my JK, but I needed to get the engine oil pan and transmission lines protected for the rocks. I went with an ASFIR aluminum skid to keep weight down as much as possible. I’ll be curious how long they last in the lava rocks we have here in Central Oregon.
It worked well overall, and was obviously awesome in the rocks compared to the RAM, but the break over angle is pretty bad and I did a lot of dragging and even got turtled once. Definitely understand why a 3.5" lift is the standard for Gladiators. My 4 year old loves the winch so overall it was a success! Not quite as new and shiny underneath anymore.
I have ASFIR plates on my Gladiator. They have been used very heavily all over my multiple times and they are still working just fine. I think you’ll be very happy with them.
Nice! Eugene area guy here. I run a full set of Asfir skids on our 22 Colorado but I have not tried running them across any central Oregon lava rocks yet. What trail are you on in that photo? Part of Hoodoo or something?
leaning towards some Steel-it so I can scrape it on rocks and touch it up.
