2016 Wrangler JKU Build

Now, fast forward to a finally good bumper and my switch to KC Hilites and Metalcloak. Before I move on, dont worry I know that 35s and no lift and wheel spacers is not the right play. But hey, you win some and loose some! This Metalcloak life you see on the right was my first real experience with a real build. I was finally able to hit real trails and I actually had enough capability to start testing myself on the trails. That loosely translates to doing dumb things. This is the first real step into really learning how to offroad, and this is where I never looked back! 

As you can tell from the pictures the trails got harder and the build got more armor. I embraced the Soft top life and really started to take the harder lines and get more technical. Now even though it looks good, yes I still did drop my door the first time I took them off. It left a mark that im sure is still there. But in true offroad fashion, my tires got bigger and so did the rocks. So I had to find a way to push for bigger, Which triggered the next phase of this build.

Phase 2:

The JT axle swap was a true shift in this build. From a Dana 30 up front in a sport JKU, to Dana 44s front and rear out of a Rubicon Gladiator. This lead me to lockers and better streingth for bigger tirs. The biggest trial with this was not realizing the Jt has a 3 piece front axle and the JKU did not. This lead to about a week of thinking the axle swap did not work because no one we knew of or could find had done it. But I got under it and learned that It simply needed new axle shafts and then worked like a dime. This being how I got RCVs oddly enough. The three piece axle shafts in the Newer platform tripped out the speed sensors on the JKU and that is what sent it into limp mode. With that fix, everything else worked perfectly, the rear axles needed some mounts adjusted, but the front was perfect!

I realized once I got to 37s I needed to start to beef up some other pieces on the jeep. The steering needed some love and well so did the shocks, and I guess the travel needed some love so I wanted to go long arm. Long story short, I wanted to go further and have the jeep perform better than it was. At this point it was doing great, I just had higher goals, if I am being honest with myself. Do you need long arm suspensions, no.. But man do they ride nice.

Like I said, Biger tires = Bigger rocks. And boy was the Long arm kit worth it. Being able to feel stable while driving over some crazy big boulders made the jeep feel unbeatable. With this new excitement I didnt want to stop. I will say, from this point on the jeep put in work. I could have stopped here and been perfectly happy. But I didnt see a reason to stop making it better than ever!

From the 37s set up to adding a 4.5" spring just to fit 39s. The road was heading to 40s, but we werent there yet! At this point I knew I wanted 40s. The more I wheeled and the more people I met and wheeled with, I started to want to keep up with the harder trails and the growing movement in the offroad communits that 40s were the new 37s. looking back I did not need to, I still hit every trail I wanted to. But the bigger tires really helped. From Moad, to Shaver Lake, To the Big Bear Mountains, I did it all. But I still didnt want to stop.

Here is where It got interesting, Instagram was booming and I was starting to collaborate with new people and get a little further into the offroad industry. I got the chance to work with a few Bigger names and they taught me a lot about what the industry was really like. Great people all around and I got to enjoy some great times with them at a variety of events. This is where I started to rethink what I was doing with the build and Elevate. I knew I wanted to keep going but how? Here I was leading trail runs, helping people out on the trails that broke or just were trying to learn to wheel. So I started to teach people the proper ways to offroad and to do it safely and how to get back off the trail too. This was where Elevate for me started to be more about helping people learn from my mistakes and be better offroad and to get out and explore more, safely and properly. 

It started to make sense to me that this could be a platform to help people offroad. I started to go to more meets and expos, helped more people on and off the trails from getting stuck in the snow to breaking down on the trail and fixing driveshafts with my buddies. Elevate had a reason now. That is where I decided that the build was going to be more to be ready for any situation and be able to help in any situation. That is where this last chapter of the JKU build begins.

Elevates story was born and I stepped up to dana 60s to push twards 40s. This to push twards my goal of helping people on and off the trails and being able to learn the rest of what I was excited to learn. I felt like it was the last level of a game where I have Learned so much but there was one more thing I needed to know before I get to the final level. I had so many amazing oppertunities to chare my journy and talked with so many companies about their products and how they worked and showed all that knowledge with so many people.

This is sadly where this build ends. I had a lot of people ask me why I sold my JKU and the answer is actually pretty short. to quote dom from fast 5, "Family.". Yes I was about to have my son and I knew that this build was not the one I was going to raise a family in. I wanted to shift to something with a different focus, and couple extra airbas would help. This build taught me so much over the time I drive it, and yes this was my daily! The people I met and places I went I will never forget. But this build has helped me learn what to and not to do! It is also providing me a base of knowledge to really start Elevates educational base of teaching people the who, what, when, where, why, and how of building their jeeps. This allowing my to start my new build of a Gladiator Rubicon that will be my Family build. This JKU that you just read about was more than a rental car from Hawaii. It was my teacher when it came to offroad, and it helped me learn what Elevate is meant to be. so please join me as this adventure continues with the new build! and thank you for coming with me on this journey so far!