Red Rocker Mods

[RedRocker]

At the request of a few members, here's a summary of some of the mods I've made to my 2008 WK:

I wheel mainly in Colorado and Utah - I needed full rear bumper protection for my usual trails, so I designed and helped a friend of mine fabricate the protection, which includes space in the stock spare tire location for a 33" spare, covered by a custom skid plate...

Here's a shot of the (incomplete) structure, which is hidden by the bumper cover:

http://www.travelerz.net/public/wk/wkrearslidersstructuretwo.jpg


Here's a few shots of the finished project:
http://www.travelerz.net/public/wk/wkrear.jpg
http://www.travelerz.net/public/wk/wkrearright.jpg

For the front, I really didn't want the weight and depth (length) of an ARB, but I wanted a steel bumper that was light weight, improved my approach angle (in front of the wheels anyway) and could house a winch. So, I went back to the drawing board (and back to Bob, my fabrication friend) and came up with this solution - we replaced the front crossmember with a universal winch mount, built a structure to hold 3/16" bumper endcaps (where I need the most protection for the trails I run) and I had a sheetmetal shop bend the center section out of relatively light 14 gauge metal...

http://www.travelerz.net/public/wk/final with crossmember.jpg

I also had to replace the stock windshield washer reservoir, which is normally in front of the driver's wheel (a vulnerable place for trail use) to a nice void on the firewall:

http://www.travelerz.net/public/wk/reservoirinstalled.jpg

The finished product (almost - after these pics were taken we tightened up the seams and fabbed up mounts for some Dodge Ram towhooks, which double as mini-skid plates):

http://www.travelerz.net/public/wk/5.jpg

http://www.travelerz.net/public/wk/8c.jpg

[robpp]

welcome to the garage :thumbsup:

looks great, is it Tom?

[Scottina06]

very cool....too bad its red rock....LOL! J/K

[RedRocker]

And here are a few trail shots:

You can see the Dodge Ram tow hooks just under the lip of the bumper..

http://www.travelerz.net/public/wk/wkhellsgate.jpg

http://www.travelerz.net/public/wk/wkhellsgate2.jpg

http://www.travelerz.net/public/wk/wkgoldencrack.jpg

http://www.travelerz.net/public/wk/fins.jpg

http://www.travelerz.net/public/wk/tomconey.jpg

[Megatron]

Neat bumper. Nice jeep also!

The last pic, is amazing!

[robpp]

that water shot is insane..........

thanks for sharing.

[RedRocker]

welcome to the garage :thumbsup:

looks great, is it Tom?

Yup. I'm Z and TRZ on other forums, but couldn't use either of those screen names, due to the restriction of 4 characters or more on this forum.


very cool....too bad its red rock....LOL! J/K
I was very disappointed when I couldn't get Inferno Red on my 2008, but I've grown rather attached to Red Rock Crystal.

---------- Post added at 10:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:03 PM ----------

Neat bumper. Nice jeep also!

The last pic, is amazing!

Thanks, I love it too. A friend of mine had to take that shot (obviously, since I was driving), he was using my semi-auto camera and needed about 5 tries to get the right exposure and composition, so I had to do that run 5 times!

I was quite impressed with the WK's fording capabilities - if that had been a ZJ I would have hydrolocked as the air intake is just above the bumper. The WK's intake is as high as they could possibly get - again, very impressed with the WK's intake design.

[w87will]

Thats a nice looking jeep you got there. You did some great work to is also.

Looks like ALOT of fun in those pictures. If I was in your jeep when that first picture was taken there would be shit all over the place from me shitting myself. I'd be freaking out!

Nice job on everything you've done to it!

[Scottina06]

I'm just kiddin ya....the red rock is very nice.

I love the water forging pic!

[jeeppro]

How can you do that to a jeep lol...jk

[pkang21]

hey just a offroad newbi question but how deep can u go with a grand cherokee till it ****s up?

in water*

[White WK Swagga]

http://www.travelerz.net/public/wk/tomconey.jpg

Can you say Jeep of the month!!! LOL Very nice clean looking work!!!! Welcome to the garage from NY.

[RedRocker]

Thanks for the comments, guys...

hey just a offroad newbi question but how deep can u go with a grand cherokee till it ****s up?

in water*

Do you see the flat black piece of plastic in back of the upper left portion of the grill? That's your air intake - there's a baffle in front to keep water out...so as long as you keep a bow plane going, you could probably have water over your hood. However, if you got stuck and lost your bow plane, you'd hydrolock. So, to be safe, you want to keep water below the start of the baffle, so that would be maybe 3-5 inches above the bumper.

http://www.travelerz.net/public/wk/8c.jpg

---------- Post added at 06:06 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:01 AM ----------

How can you do that to a jeep lol...jk

Well, you start with an idea, create a few drawings, then you buy some metal and get out the angle grinder!

:D

[NHWK05]

Dude, i loved reading your front bumper build on the other site before i came here. I never knew what you did to the back. that looks amazing. Got any more pics of the rear under the bumper skin or is what is in the top pic all of it?

[RedRocker]

Dude, i loved reading your front bumper build on the other site before i came here. I never knew what you did to the back. that looks amazing. Got any more pics of the rear under the bumper skin or is what is in the top pic all of it?

Probably more information than you want to know about it, here: http://www.mallcrawlin.com/forum/http://www.mallcrawlin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15622showthread.php?t=15622
(http://www.mallcrawlin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15622)

[Robert Palmer]

I totally missed this thread! Welcome bro! Glad to see you here.

[Redsand]

I am impressed with the fabrication work on the front and rear bumpers. Its so pretty I wouldn't want to beat it up on the trails lol. Welcome to the boards!

[NHWK05]

Did you paint your AEV wheels that color or is that just the argent color?

[RedRocker]

Did you paint your AEV wheels that color or is that just the argent color?
They're painted to match the color I choose for the armor. It would have been a lot cheaper to have painted the armor to match their Argent color!

[Scottina06]

I thought you had argent grey headlights too......

or is that someone else?

[RedRocker]

I thought you had argent grey headlights too......

or is that someone else?

Not me. Headlight covers aren't really my thing.

[JAYBEE3]

Red Rocker by any chance you saved your front bumper??? is it For Sell??

[RedRocker]

Red Rocker by any chance you saved your front bumper??? is it For Sell??

It's been sold.

[Scottina06]

Not me. Headlight covers aren't really my thing.

nah,......I thought the inside of your headlights were painted....but its another guy on JU

[DJ BoNiOmArIo]

one amazing ride

[JAYBEE3]

Noooo lol ok thanx By the way Jeep Looks Sick!!!

[Scottina06]

yes it is

[nikates]

what would you charge me to build me one? im in CO..

[BOYCHIKS]

Wow, awesome red rocker!

[RedRocker]

what would you charge me to build me one? im in CO..

You probably don't want to know!

$1000 for a shop to bend the sheetmetal (fab the 3 sections you actually see). Add another $100 for the winch plate if you want that. Maybe another $100 for additional metal.

The guy who helped me fab and weld is in Boulder and charged me $40/hr. Look for at LEAST 16-20 hours, maybe more like 30 hours if you need him to do everything for you (I did maybe half the work myself).

So, you can do the math. I love the bumper but it was a lot of work. If I were you I'd consider the Saguaro bumper with perhaps some mods (I still don't like the bumper-to-fender transformation and not quite sure about those crossmember bumps, but everything else about it is nice.