Halley - '17 WK2 Trailhawk Overland Build

malibubts

Adventurer
That receiver tow hook is $$$. I wonder if you should put any grease inside the key slot on the pin lock. I see it has a nice cover, but if you don't touch it for a year or two it would suck if it seized up on you.
Yeah definitely be careful with those receiver locks. I had one on my last truck that seized up and I couldn't get the receiver out. Didn't notice until I was trading the truck in, it was only a cheapie hitch so I just left it for the dealership to deal with.

Sent from my SM-N900P using Tapatalk
 

CCH

Adventurer
Nice, well thought out add ons.

Just to clarify, we still have the JKU in house. It's just that no one but me wants to ride in it. Somehow the odd members of my family prefer leather, heated seats, satellite radio, a quiet ride, etc. ;)
 

stevenboise

Observer
We just recently bought a 2017 Trailhawk.....following along to see where this thread goes. Interesting stuff you're doing. Keep us posted. I like the CB info.....thanks for those links!
 

2180miles

Endurance Adventuring
That receiver tow hook is $$$. I wonder if you should put any grease inside the key slot on the pin lock. I see it has a nice cover, but if you don't touch it for a year or two it would suck if it seized up on you.

Yeah definitely be careful with those receiver locks. I had one on my last truck that seized up and I couldn't get the receiver out. Didn't notice until I was trading the truck in, it was only a cheapie hitch so I just left it for the dealership to deal with.


Thanks guys, definitely a good thought. WD-40 with oil changes? The good news is that by design it's actually rather lose around the hitch, I bought some $1.39 rubber hose O-rings from Home Depot to take up the slack, but if it ever came down to needing a cutoff wheel to take it off, it'd allow me to not screw up the jeep itself during the process. But thanks for the heads up, probably not something that would have come to mind until it was too late.



Nice, well thought out add ons.

Just to clarify, we still have the JKU in house. It's just that no one but me wants to ride in it. Somehow the odd members of my family prefer leather, heated seats, satellite radio, a quiet ride, etc. ;)

It sure is comfy... but I'm glad to hear you still have the JKU. I couldn't bring myself to get rid of the Audi, let alone ever parting with Big Red (the TJ). Felt like if I did, I'd kick myself for a very, very, very, very long time afterwards.

We just recently bought a 2017 Trailhawk.....following along to see where this thread goes. Interesting stuff you're doing. Keep us posted. I like the CB info.....thanks for those links!

Congrats on the purchase! What color did you go with?

As I've said, the plans for this aren't huge, but I'm hoping to build a capable sleeper... not immediately noticeable as something that's able to get me to BFE and back. Glad the CB info was helpful. There will be a few more radio installs in the coming months, so keeping everything organized, wired cleanly, and subtle will be a big thing that I'll document. There isn't a ton of writing pertaining to building these, and those that have build threads seem to skimp on photos. My goal across a few forums is to pull off both the writing and imagery to help others figure stuff out.
 

smlobx

Wanderer
Nice write up!
What size wheels and tires come stock on the TH?
I have a '14 EcoDiesel Limited with the stock suspension and 20" wheels with 265/50R20 tires. Fortunately the tires have finally worn out (35k miles) and I'm going with 275/55R20 at tires. Hopefully they'll be better than the Goodyear Forteras that came stock.
 

2180miles

Endurance Adventuring
Nice write up!
What size wheels and tires come stock on the TH?
I have a '14 EcoDiesel Limited with the stock suspension and 20" wheels with 265/50R20 tires. Fortunately the tires have finally worn out (35k miles) and I'm going with 275/55R20 at tires. Hopefully they'll be better than the Goodyear Forteras that came stock.

Thanks!!

They're 18x8 rims wrapped in the Goodyear A/T Adventures w/ Kevlar... Size 265/60R18 best I remember. I love the way 20s look on these things, but I think the sidewall size will make it a bit more comfortable in the applications I'm hoping for. I've got my eye out to try and find a reasonable OEM spare rim to match the other 4, and replace the stock spare steel wheel. I found them for $600 or so on eBay, and $300 refurb'd on another site.

What tires are you going to put on next?
 

2180miles

Endurance Adventuring
A silly little mod, but with the intention of being out and about photographing/hiking in the WK2, I went ahead and had some vinyl lettering done for the rear side windows to hopefully drive some traffic to the blog and social media accounts. The lettering/logo measure 22" wide and 4" tall. I found a place called Sticker Genius on the web who printed me 3 copies of the sticker (1 as a backup) for $35 delivered. I haven't yet decided if something will go on the rear window of the tailgate, but I wanted to get this done first so that I could see what would look best on the back.

Looks pretty clean, in my opinion.




2180 Decals by 2180miles


Vinyl Mock-Up by 2180miles


Rear Window Panel Installed by 2180miles
 

Comanche Scott

Expedition Leader
I like it! :beer:
Very classy. Gets the message across without being "in your face", so to speak... er... write... er... well you get the point. ;)
 

2180miles

Endurance Adventuring
Well, I've got a rather cool update for the WK2 build...

About two months ago I reached out to an Austrailian company called Chief Products who makes skid plates, push bars, etc. for the Grand Cherokee platform. Reading about their recessed winch mount, and noting their comments about looking for a 2017 M.Y. & Trailhawk platform test vehicle, I emailed them volunteering myself to assist with the test-fitting of their new WK2 Hidden Winch Mount. In a few long e-mails back and forth between myself and Bill, the owner of Chief Products, we decided that he'd ship me one of their winch mount systems at a reduced rate in exchange for install and final-product photos, and measurements of the fitment within the 2017's new sloped grill style. This was an immense first step in making the Grand more capable on its own.

Knowing that this winch mount would need a winch to go in it, I reached out to Warn and asked about their corporate sponsorship opportunities for the Trailhawk build. In doing a fair amount of research and speaking with Bill at Chief about what winches he already knew fit the mount, it became pretty clear that the Warn Zeon Platinum was going to be the most ideal option for the WK2. Yeah, okay, it's insanely expensive - $1750 - (this especially emphasized due to me being a guy who has rocked a Smittybilt XRC-8 for 6 trouble free years on the front of my TJ), but the Platinum is the best winch on the market in Warn's 4WD product line, and has one key quality that will prove immensely useful in the Grand Cherokee: an electronic clutch. Once this puppy is recessed into the front end, accessibility of the free spool/engage clutch would become rather difficult as far as I can tell. It's waterproof, wifi-based remote operable, has an accessory 12v port for driving lights (bypassing the need to run wiring through the firewall) and is wound with the Spydura Synthetic line. After a few e-mails with a woman in the sponsorship department at Warn, she informed me that while they couldn't give me a Zeon Platinum for free, she could send me one at a deeply discounted rate. So for about a thousand dollars under retail, I'll have the most highly regarded unit they're currently manufacturing in the front end of the WK2 on the Chief Products mount.

These, combined with a discounted FrontLink winch hook courtesy of Factor55 which I'm equally excited to install, will transform the front end and my self-recovery abilities immeasurably. For now I've got some stock imagery, but should have some great photos coming when I tackle the install with my buddy Rob in a few weeks. In the mean time, I'm pretty excited for these upcoming modifications to the rig.



Chief Products WK2 Hidden Winch - Product Image by 2180miles


Warn Zeon Platinum - Product Image by 2180miles


Factor 55 FlatLink - Product Image by 2180miles
 
Last edited:

HercDriver

Adventurer
I love everything about this jeep. Good work on the sponsorship deals!

Id love to get my wife in a GC Trailhawk!
 

2180miles

Endurance Adventuring
I love everything about this jeep. Good work on the sponsorship deals!

Id love to get my wife in a GC Trailhawk!

Thanks man! Appreciate the nice comments and encouragement.

Definitely worth looking into, I love everything about this thing...
 

2180miles

Endurance Adventuring
Aux Lighting Switch Panel

I was home this weekend between work trips, the last two weeks in Orlando and Vegas, the next two in Northwest Arkansas and then Orlando again… This left a very narrow window to get any work done on the Jeep, but Rob and I had anticipated the winch mount and winch having arrived by then… Unfortunately, they hadn’t, so we decided to move forward with another project I had been working on.

One of the most important things for me in vehicles is visibility. The TJ has a LOT of LED lighting, strobes, etc. - so the plan for the WK2 was bound to be pretty intricate as well. First step for any additional lighting is figuring out how it’s going to be controlled, and from where it’s going to be controlled. After Googling a fair amount of options, seeing if anyone had built vehicle-specific panels, I went ahead with my initial plan to install a switch panel to the lower left side of the steering column. There was a great write-up by a guy on JeepForum a few years ago that followed along the same lines as my idea.

I wanted/needed to keep the switches refined and purposeful, so I had to decide which each of the four Contura switch spaces would control. For me, reverse light is hugely important… second to that is forward facing light, so recessed driving lights or some kind of LED bar will get a spot. Third up in my mind is a strobe light system, as I’ve spent many years with one in the TJ and often find myself pulling over to help people on the side of the road, or utilizing them for other situations in bad weather and the like. Spot 4 then became a catch-all, or an expansion slot.

So:

Switch 1: Reverse LED Lights
Switch 2: LED Bar (likely roof mounted)
Switch 3: LED Strobe System
Switch 4: For the mean time, VHF radio power.

With a quick Amazon order for switches, wiring, heat-shrink crimp connectors, and the 4-space mount, I got to work. The VHF switch cover was from eBay for an extra seven bucks.


Switch Panel - Front by 2180miles


Switch Panel - Rear by 2180miles


Switch Panel - Side by 2180miles
 

2180miles

Endurance Adventuring
The Contura switches I bought were 5-pin versions… Inputs: +12v for the status light and power source, +12v for the locator light (to find the switch when it's off), and a ground. Outputs: ground loop, +12v for the light itself. It took some research to find out the exact way to wire this, but once I knew I got to work on an 18awg wire loom for them all. The night I put it together I was sitting in my girlfriend's office as she worked late and finally had to reassure her coworkers that I wasn't building a bomb in their workplace. Final results were clean, I was happy.

From there I had to figure out what kind of wire loom I would use to get from the eventually-will-be-built control box (relays, fuses, flux capacitors, etc) to the switches. I knew each of the 4 switches would need an individual wire strand to trigger each respective relay, then all would need a +12v lead which they could share, and a ground which they could also share… this brings us to 6-strands of wire for those who can't count fast.

I work in the live events industry; so 5 and 7 pin cable is a common thing in my life. The issue that I had was the fact that most of those wires, as well as DB9 data cable, are mainly 22-26 AWG, which although it's okay to push ~0.33A down through, I didn't want to mess with having to crimp 24 gauge cable to the switch pins. A quick run to Home Depot for 7-strand thermostat cable yielded me a more substantial 7-strand (solid core vs stranded) wire for sprinkler system installations. The other benefit of sprinkler versus thermostat is that the latter was brown, while sprinkler wire housing is black… cleaner to install and easier to hide.

Once I had the wire in hand, I cut each strand to the appropriate length. Red and White would be my hot and ground lines for easy decoding, and the color-coding of the rest would be easy enough to remember for when it's time to install the control box. In order of (ROYGBIV) I continued past red with Orange on switch 1, Yellow on 2, Green on 3, and Blue on 4. I cut each of the wires to specific lengths to make the sprinkler loom sit cleanly against the switch panel, and then went ahead and crimped/heat shrunk the wires to mate with their female crimp-on ends. I added a separate +12v line made of a miscellaneous five foot section of 14awg wire to tie into an ignition-based +12v line to turn on the locator/indicator LEDs in the bottom of the Contura switches, separate of the ignition.

In laymen's terms, I wanted the indicator lights to come on with the ignition of the vehicle, but the lights themselves (strobes/rev/LED) to be able to remain on even when the vehicle is turned off. The latter will get their +12v lead from a fuse panel directly tied to the battery.

The result was a rather clean switch panel, parallel grounds and +12v for the leads and switch LEDs, and a 15-foot wire-loom for the relays to be triggered by.


18-7 Sprinkler Wire by 2180miles


Switch Panel Template by 2180miles
 

rob cote

King in the Northeast
Awesome! I didn't know your intent with wiring the indicator lights and actual switched power separate like that. That is slick, I like it! You're definitely putting switches in my truck.
 

TTEPHOTOS

Organizer
Nice build, only non-wrangler I am following so far! Would love to talk to you about how you managed the sponsor pitch as I am currently about to start my 17' JKU build and am actually looking at the same winch! Have a blog and social following with plans to travel around Europe for at least a year or two before possibly vanlifing with it in the states when I get out of the service so I don't think it will be to hard to pitch but help is always better!

Clean build looking forward to where you take it and awesome blog as well!
 

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