Now that it was time to begin the installation of the electronics and wiring, we needed to have a good plan to ensure proper and reliable operation.  I also have an aversion to exposed wires and like equipment to look more like factory issue rather than added on. A couple of days were spent mocking up communication equipment and house battery and battery management gear until we got it to all located properly.  One key rule we wanted to follow is that the Jeeps wiring, and electronic systems needed to stay as intact as possible.  All aftermarket equipment needed to be installed as a stand-alone system that could easily be disconnected should something go wonky on a trip leaving the Jeep in factory and hopefully operational condition.  The decision was made that all external and equipment mounted in the cockpit would be controlled via a Switch Pros control unit mounted on the driver’s A pillar.  All the gear in the house area behind the front seats would be run from a house battery through a RedArc battery management system. Now it was time to tear apart the Jeep, all interior and exterior trims, molding and panels were removed to allow access for routing of wires and antenna cables.  The next few days were spent running cables all over the Jeep leaving plenty of length to trim and make final connections after the trim was reinstalled and equipment mounted. Aside from properly routing wires to protect them from damage, choice and quality of terminations play a huge role in providing a reliable electrical system. Off road vehicles are subject to lots of vibration, moisture, heat, and abrasion that can cause shorts, breaks and intermittent connections that can be a pain to track down. Our primary connectors are Deutsch automotive style weatherproof connectors, when those do not make sense, we use pre soldered heat shrink connectors.  Larger cables get heavy duty crimp fittings with heat shrink applied afterward. Having the correct crimping and connector tools makes all the difference.

Switch Pro Controller:

The primary controller for the cockpit and exterior electrical is the Switch Pros system, we have this on our Ram truck, and it is amazing to use and simple to install.  For Eeyore the controller operates driving, rock, and chase lights.  Also serves as the master switch for comms on the interior.  The system is fully programable and can be remote controlled from tablet or cell phone.

House Battery System The heart of the house power system is a 100ah lifepo4 battery mounted under a cabinet behind the driver’s seat. #6 ga wire provides power from the engine battery and is protected by a 50-amp circuit barrier under the hood which also allows easy disconnection from the Jeep’s electrical system. A dedicated ground also runs to the main battery. Charging functions are handled by the Red Arc manager 30 which allows charging from the alternator, solar, or shore power. We get full 30-amp charge at idle, full charge is obtained in a couple of hours.  The house battery feeds into the Red Arc Redvision system that provides remote control of all houses electrical functions and under awning lighting from either the remote display panel or from the tablet in the cockpit.  With the limited space in a Wrangler, we chose to build a custom mount for the control unit that mounts to the ARB fridge so that it can be used while in the kitchen. Since we travel and camp in well below freezing temperatures, we can run into issues with charging the lithium battery so we installed a heated pad under the battery that will activate at 34 degrees when the master switch is on so that the battery temp remains warm enough to allow charging. Ventilation of the electrical cabinet is provided by a computer fan on a snap thermostat. Finally, a 1000 watt inverter is provided for charging laptops or camera batteries.

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As usual we have been busy doing things out of order, Tent and other roof top accessories installed prior to installing the new suspension. Driving Eeyore in his factor livery became an unnerving experience at best. In addition, it seemed that we were dragging his behind down the road, not a good look for a Jeep. We had originally thought about a 2” lift to keep the build drivable under all conditions.  The current handling and stance convinced us to seek out a 3” lift, question was which one.  We ended up with a short list of three systems: AEV, Clayton, or Tera Flex.  Watched a lot of reviews, probably the best apples to apples comparison was from Brad at Trail Recon.  We ultimately went with a 3” Tera Flex Outback kit with adjustable Alpine control arms.  A set of Falcon 3.3 adjustable shocks and steering stabilizer, Steer Smarts Yeti track bars rounded out the package. The instructions provided with the Tera Flex and Falcon goodies were super clear and easy to follow Installation of the entire kit was very straight forward even in a one car garage. The engineer in me took plenty of stock measurements and angles for front end, driveshafts, and diffs. Liberal use of lasers and measuring tools got everything lined up properly where it should be, and the alignment was withing specs.  We did decide to install SS extended brake lines, spring retainers and replace the tie rod ends with factory parts. With everything double checked and torqued to specs, we temporarily bolted the factory wheels and tires back on so we could complete the comparison measurements as our new ones had not yet arrived.  We fully expected to get 3” or a bit more of height gain due to 100k miles and some sag on the old parts, what we got was 5-1/2” of gain. A bit of investigation revealed that the previous owner had replaced the springs with shorter ones, probably from a sport. We can only assume that this was to make it easier to get in and out of combined with the running boards in place of sliders, who does that? Probably the only Rubicon in history to have a lowering kit. lol.  That also explains the poor handling and sagging rear end with the roof mods added.  The suspension works fantastically, the adjustable shocks were well worth the super expensive cost, not getting beat up all day on the highway or trail – priceless.  Two things we will change down the road.  Would like a touch higher spring rate for the rear due to the weight on extended trips, might consider a set of airbags, some more research needed here.  The second thing will be the steering, will be adding heavy duty ball joints, tie rods & ends and most likely a better steering box and brace.  Works ok now, but a weak link on the undercarriage.

Wheels and Tires: Tire selection can be a hot topic, everyone has their favorites, ours is BFG.  Have been running them on off road rigs for years. As this Jeep will be seeing some remote and difficult trails, we would like to run the KM3 mud terrain for its off-road performance.  However old age and a wee bit of common sense won the battle, and we went with the tried-and-true KO2 all-terrain. Since we love to explore all over and a lot of our trips are long distances, that means plenty of highway miles, with a good portion of them in winter conditions. The

KO2 offers a quiet ride, much longer tread life, and has the 3PMSF rating which many states will let you bypass chain up areas with 4-wheel drive. We opted for the heavy weight E rated tires for the extra plys in the sidewall and better stability on the road.  Airing down to 18psi works well for most off-road situations, down to around 10psi in soft sand.  For wheels we wanted something a bit different than mainstream. We ended up selecting Dirty Life Mesa wheels in matt black. The only issue we do not love about the wheels is that the valve stem hole is not recessed far enough for my liking. We wanted to keep the TPMS and found it very difficult to find shorty valve stems with TPMS sensors We finally found parts from two different manufactures that we could modify to work together, now we have a ¾” stem which works great and does not stick out waiting to get removed by a passing obstacle.

Gears and axles:

With larger tires and Eeyore playing the part of pack mule he had become somewhat lethargic in the performance department, not that he had an abundance of power to start with.  Unfortunately, Randy’s ring and pinion, our long-time favorite gear shop had closed. Finding a good gear shop was harder than we had thought. We have been doing business with Northridge 4X4 in Silverdale for a while but had not thought of having work done there. Turns out they have a capable shop and good pricing. We had planned on Yukon gears, but they convinced us to use gears from 10 factory with a 4:88 ratio, great quality and a much better warranty at no extra cost. While we were there, we had them replace all seals, wheel bearings at all four corners. We appreciate the work Northridge did, as it is one of only two things, we will not do ourselves on this project. The other will come later at the end of the project.

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