A Story of Indecision and Frivolous Spending

[Mike_H]

That's true. It's never hard to fit things with a rattle can, that's for sure. I'll have to see if I can find a DupliColor paint that matches the satin silver finish you commonly find on wheels.

Check my link in the original post...Duplicolor Brilliant Silver Metallic.

 

[Chris]

Check my link in the original post...Duplicolor Brilliant Silver Metallic.

Just saw that! Sounds like a good plan. I should have my Jeep back in the next day or so, so I'll probably give this a try!

 

[Mike_H]

Just saw that! Sounds like a good plan. I should have my Jeep back in the next day or so, so I'll probably give this a try!

Should work out well for what your trying to do. Its a very "bright" silver. Pretty high metallic content too, so it sparkles...its a fine sparkle, vs the big chunky metallics of the 70's. If you don't like it? No harm no foul.. its only 25 bucks a quart or so. MUCH cheaper than new wheels. I would shoot a test sample first though.

 

[Starrs]

These are still my favorite wheel. Cheap way to replace some tired Moab’s.

https://www.quadratec.com/p/quadrat...p-wangler-yj-tj-cherokee-xj-grand-cherokee-zj

 

[Clint Rivera]

We do hydroboost a fair bit. I run it on some of my stuff as well. In fact, if I had my way, every big brake kit would be run with hydroboost.

The factory calipers can handle it. The factory knuckles will suffer. The cast sliders that the brake pads react against to stop the rotor will bend and the ends of the pads will bend over once that has happened and they are subjected to enough high energy brake events.

I subscribe to the philosophy that those who give up function over form, deserve what happens.

I had hydroboost on a build with 03 superduty axles and brakes. That thing had amazing braking power.

I suspect he went with 17s because they're a better option than a 16" wheel, we all know that. The tire choices for 16s are absolutely horrible. Not to mention that with JKs and JLs being 17s all around, I'm finding that it seems the off-road tires are shifting more and more towards 17s being the primary size. Maybe I'm wrong about that, but 17s have a ton of tire options, whereas it used to really be 15s was the best bet.

I'm not sure why people are crapping on the JK 17's They look great, are cheap, and unless you like riding around on seriously heavy rated e tires for 16" wheels there really isn't a better buy for the money.

 

[Starrs]

I had hydroboost on a build with 03 superduty axles and brakes. That thing had amazing braking power.



I'm not sure why people are crapping on the JK 17's They look great, are cheap, and unless you like riding around on seriously heavy rated e tires for 16" wheels there really isn't a better buy for the money.

You can sometimes find them free haha. It really is crazy how many of them are out there. Tire options are plenty that’s for sure with 17s

 

[mrblaine]

I'm not sure why people are crapping on the JK 17's They look great, are cheap, and unless you like riding around on seriously heavy rated e tires for 16" wheels there really isn't a better buy for the money.

You've already seen folks recommending a rim selection regardless of how much it has the potential to affect braking. Is it really hard to understand after that? Given that I run a couple sets of the JK take-offs on two rigs and a set of the TJ Moabs on Kat's, I'm a fan of the design, more so a fan of cheap rims that are high quality, with good tire selection. I buy the tires and rims together when I find new ones for sub 450. I've bought 3 sets like that and I have at least 4 more sets of the rims. I'm looking for 3 of the black JK versions to finish out another set.

I like the design and looks, the amount of dish one has or doesn't have doesn't bother me in the least. From 15 feet away no one notices anyway and given how which rim was on the Orange one had to be pointed out??? You can probably guess the rest.

If you pinned me down to my all time favorite rim, it's this one. Drop dead gorgeous in person.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/...cKWN0ZqNLfdJnp4-_DT72K59COG9TFLYaAscvEALw_wcB

 

[Starrs]

You've already seen folks recommending a rim selection regardless of how much it has the potential to affect braking. Is it really hard to understand after that? Given that I run a couple sets of the JK take-offs on two rigs and a set of the TJ Moabs on Kat's, I'm a fan of the design, more so a fan of cheap rims that are high quality, with good tire selection. I buy the tires and rims together when I find new ones for sub 450. I've bought 3 sets like that and I have at least 4 more sets of the rims. I'm looking for 3 of the black JK versions to finish out another set.

I like the design and looks, the amount of dish one has or doesn't have doesn't bother me in the least. From 15 feet away no one notices anyway and given how which rim was on the Orange one had to be pointed out??? You can probably guess the rest.

If you pinned me down to my all time favorite rim, it's this one. Drop dead gorgeous in person.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/...cKWN0ZqNLfdJnp4-_DT72K59COG9TFLYaAscvEALw_wcB

Ben Hedrick had those on one of his Brutes I believe. Awesome wheel

 

[Chris]

I had hydroboost on a build with 03 superduty axles and brakes. That thing had amazing braking power.

I was planning on adding hydroboost to mine. I'm not sure if it's overkill or not, but does it ever really hurt to have more braking power?

I'm not sure why people are crapping on the JK 17's They look great, are cheap, and unless you like riding around on seriously heavy rated e tires for 16" wheels there really isn't a better buy for the money.

I don't know why they're crapping on the 17" JK wheels either. Truth be told, the first time I saw them on that Impact Orange build Blaine did, I thought they were the factory 16" Moab wheels until others started pointing out the very subtle differences.

I truthfully think they look good, even if they are flat, and less concave. I'm going to throw them on anyways at least to see what they look like.

 

[jjvw]

Style and fashion (and brake rotors) aside, doesn't this lead to a discussion of 15" vs 17"?

 

[Chris]

Style and fashion (and brake rotors) aside, doesn't this lead to a discussion of 15" vs 17"?

Perhaps, but when I look at the everything after 2006, all I see is 17s, 17s, and more 17s.

 

[Chris]

The Wizard brackets finally got here today, so I went to drop them off at the shop. They're getting very close to being done with my TJ, and he said he expects it will for sure be sometime this week. They are still finishing some things and figuring out how to mount the rear shock reservoirs without the hose line being in the way. It seems like a 90 degree bend fitting would be very useful for this, but he said that would require draining all the nitrogen from the shocks and such, so he's going to look at other ways people have done it.

The total is going to end up at $5000 even he said, the extra being because they installed my RubiCrawler at the same time as well.

Here's some progress photos I snapped while I was there:

 

[jjvw]

How much up travel on the front?

How many bolts are holding up the t case skid?

 

[Chris]

How much up travel on the front?

How many bolts are holding up the t case skid?

All things I wish I had asked when I was there. I'll have to ask him next time.

I'm guessing there's only 4 bolts holding up that t-case skid now, given the size of the notches that had to be removed from it.

 

[jjvw]

 

[Chris]

View attachment 66289

I see what you did there. I'm going to show them this when I go back in.

 

[jjvw]

I see what you did there. I'm going to show them this when I go back in.

I made a point to keep the bolt since it contributes to the strength of the skid. So I cut a bit off of the bracket and a bit off of the skid. I don't know if my way is the best way. That's just what I came up with as a solution.

 

[Chris]

I made a point to keep the bolt since it contributes to the strength of the skid. So I cut a bit off of the bracket and a bit off of the skid. I don't know if my way is the best way. That's just what I came up with as a solution.

Yeah, I totally get that. It looks like they welded the bracket over the old frame mount hole. However, drilling it out again and putting in a replacement rivnut wouldn't be difficult.

 

[jjvw]

Yeah, I totally get that. It looks like they welded the bracket over the old frame mount hole. However, drilling it out again and putting in a replacement rivnut wouldn't be difficult.

The bracket material is thicker than the flange on the nutsert. I see them at the very least chopping out the same square from the bracket that I removed. Then they need to put back the piece of the skid that they cut out so a bolt can go through it.

 

[Chris]

The bracket material is thicker than the flange on the nutsert. I see them at the very least chopping out the same square from the bracket that I removed. Then they need to put back the piece of the skid that they cut out so a bolt can go through it.

I'm still waiting on my new Savvy skid to get here, so this skid will just end up in the trash or something anyways. But yes, I meant to say that they would have to remove a portion of the bracket as well, since the material from the bracket would make it impossible for the skid plate to sit flush with the frame.