JL JOURNAL : So... how much damage did we do to our JL Wrangler?

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
Since getting JET Li, our brand new 2018 Jeep JL Wrangler Rubicon Unlimited a little over 2 weeks ago, Cindy and I have been lucky enough to take it out wheeling, on a few different trails and even over some good size rocks. In fact, a number of you who've seen our videos have let us know just how much it made you cringe, every time you saw and heard its belly screech over them. Needless to say, for this episode of the JL Journal, we thought it would be a good idea to rack up our JL, take a good look underneath it and see what, if anything, actually got damaged. We hope you enjoy.

 

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
ASSESSING the AFTERMATH
A Look Under a Stock JL Wrangler After Rock Crawling
The following photos highlight in detail, all the scrapes and scratches we could find and just got done showing you in the video above. First up, a shot of JET Li racked up and ready to be examined.
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For those of you who watched our JL Journal video, "Stock on the Rocks", you'll recall that I drug our rear license plate over a boulder and almost pulled it off. And, being that it was the most notable thing that almost broke, I thought I would start there. Looking at the driver side rear corner of our JL, you can see what the bottom side of our rear bumper looks like after that incident. As you'll see, the boulder slid across the base of the bumper and then caught the lip of the license plate bezel. This is what caused it to pull away.
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Here you can get a better look at the rear J-hook tow point. Clearly, it's taken a hit or two somewhere along the way.
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Moving over to the hitch receiver, you can see that I just clipped the corner of the safety chain mount and bent it up just a bit.
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Surprisingly, the massive rock magnet known as the muffler actually fared pretty well. Typically, the tail pipe if nothing else would have been flatted out by now but so far so good.
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Okay, on the passenger side rear bumper, I did manage to tag the plastic end cap and give it a bit of rash.
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But really, it's just a light scratch and nothing deep. Some armorall or the like should help hide it.
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Taking a look at the rear axle and starting at the base of the differential housing, you can see that the Dana M220 has an all new design and one that's been improved quite a bit since the days of the Dana 44. As some of you may know, this is a point that always gets hit and on the old Dana 44, rocks could peel the cover back a bit and to the point of causing a leak. Here on the new Dana M220, you can see that it now has a thicker cover, uses a gasket AND sits just above the base of the housing - probably the number one reason why ours isn't leaking.
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Here's a better shot that shows how the differential cover sits just above the base of the housing. Back in the day, I used to grind the base of my Dana 44 covers to do the same thing as that more than any aftermarket cover helps to prevent rocks catching it and peeling it back.
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Moving over to the shock mounts, I think it's no surprise that these low hanging fruit got clipped a bit.
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Front of the lower control arm mounts did a tad as well.
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The driver side rear lower control arm mount took a hit as well.
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The same rock probably hit the driver side rear lower control arm.
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Looking down the belly of our JL, you can see that the gas tank skid took a few hits but then, that was to be expected.
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Over all, the new structural embossing did a great job of helping to reinforce the factory gas tank skid plate and so far, we've found it to hold up much better than what came on our JK's. Even the ribbing that extends downward fared well.
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Of course, being that the gas tank skid hangs lower than the frame rail, most of the hits were concentrated along the outside edge as you can see here.
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The JL has a totally redesigned transfer case skid plate and now has a support bar that extends across the width of the gas tank and is secured to the passenger side frame rail. As you can see here, it took a good hit or two.
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In this view, you can see how the skid plate support bar got crushed a bit.
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Located right at the apex of a 4-door JL's break over angles, the transfer case skid plate is always a point of impact and here you can see some of the scars I left on it.
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In this view, you can see how the plate itself held up pretty well but that the support bars took on a few dents in addition to their scrapes.
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Probably the worst thing we've see so far in terms of damage was done to the transfer case skid plate support bar where it's secured to the driver side frame rail. Here you can see that it took a big enough hit to not only collapse it but tear it as well.
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It really should be of no surprise that the drive side frame rail took quite a few hits as well, especially being that there's nothing hanging below it like a gas tank skid.
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And, here you can see the rocker guard or rock slider did its job well.
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Passenger side rock slider took a hit or two as well.
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Back underneath, you can see the transmission cross member on the JL appears to be beefed up quite a bit and even though it took a few hits, to the bolt heads if nothing else, it held up well.
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Here you can see that the resonator took a hit that pushed it it a bit but nothing too serious. Fortunately, most of it is positioned high above the frame rail.
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If you're putting your tires ON the rocks like you should, it's pretty hard NOT to hit your front lower control arm mounts. As you can see here, I tagged the driver side mount at least once.
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Tagged the passenger side mount as well.
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Passenger side lower control arm took a hit as you can see here.
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Amazingly, the FAD motor, steering stabilizer and tie-rod all came away unscathed.
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Just like the rear, I did manage to scrape the bottom of our front, Dana M210 differential housing. Again, due to it's new design and cover that sits above the base, it took the hit fine and we have no leaks.
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Last but not least, the passenger and driver side rear wheels did get a bit of rock rash.
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And there you have it, a total aftermath assessment of all the bumps, scrapes and bruises we put on JET Li wheeling him up and over some big rocks. As you can see, he took the hits well and most of what you see are just cosmetic blemishes. We hope that you find this information to be useful. :cool:
 

NFRs2000NYC

Member
The wheeling you did was probably the max that I would ever do, so it really is a great testament how solid the JLU is. Glad to see it. I look forward to you throwing on the 37s and testing the stock components to their limits. I hope you provide us with details as to what failed, why, and when, so we have REAL world testing on "where that limit is" and not some internet bullsh!t. Your videos remind me a lot of Jay Leno's garage (I meant it as a compliment, hope you take it as such lol) and I really find them informative and definitely appreciate the time you and Cindy take to make them, as someone that makes videos as well (for clients) I know the amount of work it takes. :thumb:
 

Cozdude

Guy with a Red 2-Door
Man the front diff drain plug is SUPER exposed! I don’t like that one bit!

I did like your hint to so mfg’s tho to make a new t case skid bar thing lol

Thanks for showing us what was the result of all the noise! Now go touch it up before tony yells at you lol
 

JeepFan

Member
Our JL faired a little bit better than yours but I've already taken care of all the minor carnage. Lol

Have you checked out your air filter? You'll be amazed at the improvement! It's much bigger and unlike the JK, it totally keeps the dirt out of the intake.

Here's a couple pics...

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wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
The wheeling you did was probably the max that I would ever do, so it really is a great testament how solid the JLU is. Glad to see it. I look forward to you throwing on the 37s and testing the stock components to their limits. I hope you provide us with details as to what failed, why, and when, so we have REAL world testing on "where that limit is" and not some internet bullsh!t. Your videos remind me a lot of Jay Leno's garage (I meant it as a compliment, hope you take it as such lol) and I really find them informative and definitely appreciate the time you and Cindy take to make them, as someone that makes videos as well (for clients) I know the amount of work it takes. :thumb:

Oh yeah, we'll push our JL as far as we can with 37's and will share how it does. We're hoping nothing fails but then, we aren't holding our breath. Glad you like the JL Journal - it was really hard for us to go this direction being so raw, off the cuff and without music or effects but we felt it would be the best way to present a journal like series.

Man the front diff drain plug is SUPER exposed! I don’t like that one bit!

I did like your hint to so mfg’s tho to make a new t case skid bar thing lol

Thanks for showing us what was the result of all the noise! Now go touch it up before tony yells at you lol

LOL!! You noticed the hints :crazyeyes: :D

Not bad[emoji106]

Not bad at all really. :yup:
 

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
Our JL faired a little bit better than yours but I've already taken care of all the minor carnage. Lol

Have you checked out your air filter? You'll be amazed at the improvement! It's much bigger and unlike the JK, it totally keeps the dirt out of the intake.

Here's a couple pics...

I haven't pulled the filter but I'm glad to see that your intake is still so clean, in spite of the fact that you were in the back of the pack :thumb:
 

Brute

New member
Enjoyed the video of the JL "greatest hits" compilation...what one would have expected running that trail on 35's...

Not lost on me was the intro shot of you walking past some mighty fine jeeps...
 

RMC2

Member
That is a lot more scrapes than I expected. Of course it was a short off road video. Obviously you did a lot more mall crawling.

Definitely do not like the new drain plug location on the axles. But I did notice in the video the covers were thicker. Then you mentioned it in the write up. Something like a low profile version of a Rancho diff slider may be in order.
 

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
Awesome overview. Never seen an undercarriage in such detail :eek:

LOL!! Why thank you... I think :crazyeyes:


:cheesy: OMG, that's awesome :thumb:

Enjoyed the video of the JL "greatest hits" compilation...what one would have expected running that trail on 35's...

Not lost on me was the intro shot of you walking past some mighty fine jeeps...

LOL @ the "greatest hits". :D

Great overview of Jets under side. 👍👍👍

Thank you :)

That is a lot more scrapes than I expected. Of course it was a short off road video. Obviously you did a lot more mall crawling.

Definitely do not like the new drain plug location on the axles. But I did notice in the video the covers were thicker. Then you mentioned it in the write up. Something like a low profile version of a Rancho diff slider may be in order.

Honestly, I'm not too concerned with the drain plug being that you'd most likely still be able to get a bit in eve if it got biffed up. But yes, it was better on the side.
 

Growlz

New member
Great video showing the damage after the run. On the original trail video I really liked being able to hear the screeching and then on this video pointing out the damage. Thanks for posting all the great videos! Just more selling points that I pass on to the "boss". :)
 

Sierra Nevada

New member
Great video! New to jeeps so I appreciate you naming all the parts that got rock rubbed ... very informative. What size tire for this specific rock crawl trip would of avoided much of the rubbing? ... just wondering. Thx!
 

frenchjk

Member
Sooo now the fun begins...after your - great - assessment of undercarriage damage you get to head over to EVO and pull out the wallet. Don't fret its a JEEP thing ...:yup::yup:

By the way do the rockrails on the JK hold out as well or are they flimsy folded sheetmetal (I'm still running the plastic steps on my JK and still have to tear them off but am careful to keep them clear of rocks and stumps...the trails here are "quite" mild but really narrow!)
 

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