Archive for category Project XK (Jeep)

From a pragmatic point of view, tail-light guards are pretty silly. I mean, how often do you ever take a hit to your tail-lights out on the trail?  Honestly, I’ve never done it.

So why did I get tail-light guards?

Oh, I’d like to give you some Boy Scout rigamarole about preparedness, but the truth is I just think they look awesome.  On a vehicle that can be accused of soccer-momminess — which the Commander often is — tail-light guards are a quick and easy visual rebuttal. They make a world of difference, I think, in proclaiming the rough and tumble readiness of the vehicle.

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My last Project XK post was a big one, so today we’re keeping it short and dealing with my ventvisors.

If you don’t know what a ventvisor is, you’re not alone.  I didn’t know much about them until recently.  A ventvisor sits at the top of your window, creating an overhanging edge. This edge means you can crack your window and allow air circulation without letting in a lot of wind noise and/or rain.  Why would a person want to do this?  Well, maybe you want to leave the windows cracked to let out heat while your rig is parked.  Maybe you just want fresh air.  Or maybe you’re parked at 13,000 feet and get hit with a sudden high-mountain hail storm and want to sit inside the vehicle without fogging the glass.

AVS Ventvisors Installed

That’s exactly the situation I was in a couple minutes after taking the above picture, in which you can see my installed ventvisors along the top edge of the side windows.

As I said above, I really didn’t know much about them until I set off to get a set for the XK.  I certainly never put one on any of my CJs.  What I quickly found is that there’s a staggering variety of them out there.  I went with AVS, whose parts on other vehicles have never let me down, and I chose a smoke color rather than a flashy chrome — in part because I only want so much “bling” on the rig, but also because I wanted to reduce visibility as little as possible.  The biggest decision I faced, though, was one of simple design: in-channel or on-body?

Ventvisors used to be almost entirely on-body in design.  They came with two-sided tape and would stick to the outside surface of the body around the door. I don’t like sticking things to my paint on principle, so I wasn’t excited about such a design.

Happily, ventvisors also come in an in-channel design these days: the plastic is formed to “snap” into the window channel between the rubber and the glass.  Tape is again used, but it sticks to a non-exposed surface inside the door.  That difference alone was enough to sell me on the in-channel design, but there’s another advantage, too: the in-channel design has a lower profile, obstructing the view from the cab less (it’s only a slight difference, but I’ll take what I can get).

The other difference between the two designs that’s specific to the XK is aesthetic: the rear window isn’t a full window, so an in-channel visor only covers part of the rear glass (as you can see in my picture above) while an on-body visor would go across the top of the door and cover the whole thing.  I happen to like the smaller in-channel look better, but it’s totally an opinion thing.

Anyhow, there’s not much else to be said on these things.  Here’s a picture of them in packaging:

AVS Ventvisors

And a close-up shot of them installed, with the windows open to give you the effect:

Ventvisor with Window Open

[NOTE: As of May 2010, I have abandoned the 4" BDS lift touted below and replaced it with a 4" Superlift kit; my reasons for this change, and the results of it, are discussed in a separate and lengthy post.]

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Reasons for a Lift

Perhaps the most easily recognized modification — and certainly the most expensive — that most off-roaders perform on their rigs is the addition of a lift-kit.  The increased body height from a lift tends to improve the aesthetic appeal of a vehicle by giving it a more aggressive stance, but more importantly it indirectly provides for better clearance.

Why do I say indirectly?  Well, it’s a common mistake to equate lift with clearance.  I put a 4″ lift under my Commander, for instance, but that doesn’t mean I immediately had 4″ more clearance than I did pre-lift.  Not at all.  While it’s true that the geometry of the lift provides for some basic clearance increase over stock, what it really provides is enough space between the body and the axles (to simplify things) for you to fit bigger tires.  And real ground clearance is all about rubber.

In my case, the 4″ lift enabled me to replace my Nexen Roadian AT II tires, size 245/65R17, with a set of B.F. Goodrich All-Terrain T/A tires, size 285/70R17 (with 1.25″ wheel spacers to keep it all steady).  In more recognizable terms, that means I went from a tire with a diameter of 29.5″ to one with a diameter of 32.8″, an increase of 3.3″.  That’s diameter, of course: my actual ground clearance is a function of the radius (from axle to ground).  Thus my 4″ lift netted me about 1.65″ of ground clearance based on the rubber alone.

And a vastly superior look.  One doesn’t want to forget that!

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Our annual trip pilgrimage out West this summer not only gave us the occasion to visit many friends and family and to see many beautiful sights, but it also afforded us a chance to make a number of modifications to our Jeep Commander.

First, as a follow-up to my previous post on Project XK, I have to give an enthusiastic thumbs-up to the GoGroove Flex Pod.  It did a great job of incorporating the iPhone into a great multimedia system as we meandered across the country. Kudos, too, to the Video Entertainment System (VES) in the vehicle.  I confess that a good quarter of the Hobbit’s time in the car was spent watching his new favorite DVD: a Smithsonian show about bugs in and around the house.

At any rate, we got to Colorado in one piece, and a number of things were waiting for us there. It was a busy few weeks as a result, but the results were well worth the time, as we’ll see after the break.

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The proper build-up of any Jeep begins, of course, with the simple things. For most of us, the first step is always to transfer portable goodies from the old rig to the new one.

Unfortunately for me, many of those goodies happen to be in Colorado still, like my ViAir portable air unit and my beloved first aid kit. (So here’s hoping nobody gets bitten by a poisonous snake on our drive to Colorado in a few days!) I have been able to move over a few things in preparation for the trip, though: the fire extinguisher, a few tools, and some other items of standard equipment. The rest will come soon enough.

Not to worry, though: I’ve done a bit of trip-related work worth reporting about.

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I’ve been doing a lot of staring and measuring and poking around my new Jeep Commander, gearing up for Project XK — for which this post is the inaugural issue, I suppose. As with the build-up of my beloved LJ (sold and living in Texas), I’ll be documenting the process here as I pass the rig through stages en route to its glorious fulfillment. I’ll also be holding to the same general principles I did with the LJ; the build-up will be aimed at creating a vehicle that balances and maximizes:

1. Street-safe.
2. Trail-conquering.
3. Cheap.

First things first, though …

Why Sell the Wrangler Unlimited (LJ)?

As stated elsewhere on this blog, I loved that rig.  Hell, I still love it, even if another fellow has the keys to it.  The LJ Rubicon is an almost perfect foundation for building an off-road dream come true, and some of the upgrades I’d put on ours still make me drool (the Nightcrawler bumper on Stage 3 comes to mind). 

But there were problems.  Not mechanical or anything like that.  More like philosophical.  Or perhaps existential.

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