Barn Door for JK factory hardtops

[jgaz]

I love your idea for the tool roll to hold your socket rails. I might have to copy it.

After you live with your set up for a while you might give these rails a try.
http://www.offroadtrailtools.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=65

They work extremely well, especially when you’re working in the dirt.

 

[jscherb]

I'll be molding another JL-style grille tomorrow so I prepped the mold this afternoon. This one will be molded with recesses for the LED turn signals; in this photo the forms to make the turn signal recesses are installed in the mold (these LEDs don't need a very deep recess) and the mold is prepped with wax and mold release, ready for the molding process to begin in the morning.

 

[jscherb]

Shot the mold with gelcoat first thing this morning. As soon as that cures to the appropriate point (about 2 hours) I'll do the fiberglass layup.

 

[jscherb]

Fiberglass done. It'll cure overnight and I'll pull it out of the mold tomorrow.

 

[jscherb]

I pulled the second grille out of the mold this morning. This picture shows it after a preliminary trimming and washing. After it dries from washing I'll snap the turn signals in place and post more photos.

 

[jscherb]

The grille with the LED turn signals installed. The grille is still slightly "rough around the edges" (I mean that literally), I've only done a preliminary trimming after taking it out of the mold this morning.

 

[jscherb]

When fully loaded with a roof top tent, fridge+kitchen and all the other gear required for an expedition, the factory JKU suspension struggles with the load, so yesterday I installed an Air Lift 1000 air bag kit in the rear springs. I've got similar kits in both my Retro Wrangler pickup and my LJ Safari and they've worked great for many years.

As I did with the kit in my other Jeeps, I've plumbed both bags together - I've never felt the need to adjust the pressure in one side differently from the other side. I've also installed a pressure gauge to monitor the bags, I have found that to be very useful in the other Jeeps.

The kits I've got in the LJ are better thought out than the JK kit - the JK instructions show the air bags installed with the air fitting on the bottom, but it won't work that way in the JK - there's no hole in the spring mount for the air line so it would be crushed. The bags need to be installed with the fitting on the top. Also, the kit provides what they call "lower protectors" which are plastic discs supposed to sit inside the spring and protect the air bag from the lower spring mount on full compression, but there's no way for them to be secured in place - they'll fall out in the first few miles of driving. Not well thought out, the TJ/LJ kit doen't have those issues.

In spite of those issues, the kit works well; the suspension is much stiffer now with 20 lbs. of air in the bags. I'm looking forward to the next full-load expedition to give these a workout.

 

[jscherb]

At the SEMA Show last fall a company asked me to test a tire-mounted trail table. I was leaving for a camping expedition in Death Valley right after the show, so I took the table along and used it when I camped. It's mounted on the rear tire in this photo:

I found it useful, but because it didn't fold it was very hard to store in the Jeep between campsites. Also, because of the way some of the parts stow on it, it rattled like crazy on the trail. The summary of my report back to the company was that it was useful, but not practical on the trail because it's too large to find a place to store it in the Jeep.

To address those shortcomings, and to provide even more capability, I deisgned something I think is better.

First, I had to come up with something that stows very compactly, so this one does - roughly 15" x 22" x 3". And to keep it quiet, a strong vinyl storage bag.

The table folds in half, so when it comes out of the bag it looks like this:

And here it is set up on the tire. Unlike the table I tested, which has an expanded sheet metal mesh top, this table has a solid top that matches the Trail Kitchen.

Ans speaking of the Trail Kitchen, I didn't want to stop at designing just a tire table - this one is also an extension table for the Trail Kitchen. The Trail Kitchen already has more counter space (about 5 square feet) than pretty much any other kitchen/slide product on the market, but this takes it to a new level, it adds almost 4 square feet more for a total of 9 square feet of counter space (without the sink - the sink takes up about a square foot and a half):

 

[rubicon91]

At the SEMA Show last fall a company asked me to test a tire-mounted trail table. I was leaving for a camping expedition in Death Valley right after the show, so I took the table along and used it when I camped. It's mounted on the rear tire in this photo:

I found it useful, but because it didn't fold it was very hard to store in the Jeep between campsites. Also, because of the way some of the parts stow on it, it rattled like crazy on the trail. The summary of my report back to the company was that it was useful, but not practical on the trail because it's too large to find a place to store it in the Jeep.

To address those shortcomings, and to provide even more capability, I deisgned something I think is better.

First, I had to come up with something that stows very compactly, so this one does - roughly 15" x 22" x 3". And to keep it quiet, a strong vinyl storage bag.

The table folds in half, so when it comes out of the bag it looks like this:

And here it is set up on the tire. Unlike the table I tested, which has an expanded sheet metal mesh top, this table has a solid top that matches the Trail Kitchen.

Ans speaking of the Trail Kitchen, I didn't want to stop at designing just a tire table - this one is also an extension table for the Trail Kitchen. The Trail Kitchen already has more counter space (about 5 square feet) than pretty much any other kitchen/slide product on the market, but this takes it to a new level, it adds almost 4 square feet more for a total of 9 square feet of counter space (without the sink - the sink takes up about a square foot and a half):

That is awesome Jeff. I saw the other table at expo east last year and was not a fan for the reason you stated of storage.

 

[jscherb]

Thanks Donny.

I did make one improvement since posting the photos - Mostly I used junk-box parts to make the table, and that included making the legs from an extremely cheap camera tripod. That was ok since I considered the table a proof-of-concept design, but it worked out so well I wanted to beef it up so it could stand up to some tough use so I picked up a much stronger tripod yesterday and adapted that to be the legs.

It was still inexpensive - a $35 tripod that was on clearance for $21, but it's way stronger than the original lightweight one.

 

[jscherb]

I'm still working on variations of the JL-style grille; here's the second grille showing some tests of the LED marker lights/turn signals:

In case anyone's interested, these are the LEDs: https://grandgeneral.com/auto-parts/led/2-12-prime-led-marker-light/. They also come in clear lenses with amber LEDs. At 2 1/2", they're smaller than the 3 1/2" factory lights. They're dual function (high and low intensity), so they're easy to connect to the Jeep. They do need a load resistor on the turn signal side, but that's part of the plug-and-play wiring adapters I made.

In this next photo the passenger side light is at high intensity (turn signal).

[/QUOTE]

I'm planning to mold a third grille, this time I'll mold in recesses for the factory turn signals (the LEDs above are 2 1/2" vs. the factory 3 1/2" lights). I'll put the turn signals in the "Safari Concept" position:, which is inboard from the factory JK position but not as far inboard as the grille above.

[/QUOTE]

 

[OregonJKU]

When fully loaded with a roof top tent, fridge+kitchen and all the other gear required for an expedition, the factory JKU suspension struggles with the load, so yesterday I installed an Air Lift 1000 air bag kit in the rear springs. I've got similar kits in both my Retro Wrangler pickup and my LJ Safari and they've worked great for many years.

As I did with the kit in my other Jeeps, I've plumbed both bags together - I've never felt the need to adjust the pressure in one side differently from the other side. I've also installed a pressure gauge to monitor the bags, I have found that to be very useful in the other Jeeps.

The kits I've got in the LJ are better thought out than the JK kit - the JK instructions show the air bags installed with the air fitting on the bottom, but it won't work that way in the JK - there's no hole in the spring mount for the air line so it would be crushed. The bags need to be installed with the fitting on the top. Also, the kit provides what they call "lower protectors" which are plastic discs supposed to sit inside the spring and protect the air bag from the lower spring mount on full compression, but there's no way for them to be secured in place - they'll fall out in the first few miles of driving. Not well thought out, the TJ/LJ kit doen't have those issues.

In spite of those issues, the kit works well; the suspension is much stiffer now with 20 lbs. of air in the bags. I'm looking forward to the next full-load expedition to give these a workout.

Hi Jeff, we are considering adding air bags and pressure gauge to our JKU. Where in did you install the pressure gauge? Could you post a pic?

 

[jscherb]

Got together with Donny this evening to talk Jeeps, etc. We installed slider windows in his new half door uppers, and we also tested the fit of his ARB50 fridge in the Trail Kitchen. It fits as expected.

 

[jscherb]

Hi Jeff, we are considering adding air bags and pressure gauge to our JKU. Where in did you install the pressure gauge? Could you post a pic?

I installed it just inside the rear barn door for now, here are a few photos. I considered installing it in the dash somewhere, but based on my years of experience with the AirLift kit in my two other Jeeps the pressure isn't something that needs to be constantly monitored - mostly it needs to be checked when the Jeep gets loaded for a trip and air added if necessary, and periodically checked to monitor for slow leaks. I'll run with it in the back for a while and if I find that I want it up front instead I've got two places I could mount it.

 

[OregonJKU]

Hi Jeff,
Thank you for your quick reply. We were thinking about a dash mount for the gauge but couldn't find a good location. We like your reasoning about not needing it located in the dash area.