B-MOW's SCX10 V3 JLU RTR Rubicon Recon Edition

[GA Dawg]

I like the look of those sliders. I think I'll pick up a set.

[B-MOW71]

Originally Posted by OSRC

Truck look great and wow, Honey Run looks like a cool place to play!

Thanks! It's a fun place and luckily it's not to long of a drive to get there. Waterfall, trails, cliffs and rocks! It has a little of everything!

Originally Posted by GA Dawg

I like the look of those sliders. I think I'll pick up a set.

They're nice for the price. Be aware, that there are a few different sellers on eBay selling these. I found these for $19 bucks. The KYX cost about $10 more but look to be the same slider as the one's that I bought.

[GA Dawg]

Originally Posted by B-MOW71

They're nice for the price. Be aware, that there are a few different sellers on eBay selling these. I found these for $19 bucks. The KYX cost about $10 more but look to be the same slider as the one's that I bought.

I grabbed them from the only seller that wasn't shipping them from China. $18 plus tax and shipping.

[B-MOW71]

Originally Posted by GA Dawg

I grabbed them from the only seller that wasn't shipping them from China. $18 plus tax and shipping.

Nice! Mine luckily shipped out of the US. I didn't want to wait till next spring to receive them!

[smog]

You put together an entertaining thread B. I am not typically taken by the Jeep, however what a great looking rig. You finished it up beautifully. The addition of some beautifully fabricated parts is such a nice touch, and I think you took care of that to perfection.

Now I want another crawler. Addiction is terrible for the pocket book...

[B-MOW71]

Originally Posted by smog

You put together an entertaining thread B. I am not typically taken by the Jeep, however what a great looking rig. You finished it up beautifully. The addition of some beautifully fabricated parts is such a nice touch, and I think you took care of that to perfection.

Now I want another crawler. Addiction is terrible for the pocket book...

Thanks smog!

I hear ya, my wallet has taken a beating this year with all the cool rigs that were released!

And still on my list to get is the Gatekeeper like all the other cool kids picked up recently!

[B-MOW71]

Video up on YT of last Sunday's trail run at the Honey Run Waterfall.

[B-MOW71]

I added some more useless but cool scale items to the JLU.

The exhaust is from Club5 Racing. Nice black molded piece with stainless steel tips.




I found these taillight accent plates on eBay. You've got your choice of stars, American Flag and the word Jeep. They come with microscopic screws to hold the plates on and metal side plates for the sides of the taillight.




I had to drill out existing holes in the rear bumper chassis brace to bolt it up. The inside of the muffler is recessed to hold locknuts so it makes it easy to thread screws down thru bumper brace into the muffler. I guess I should have snapped a pic of the inside!




Here is a look of the rear end. The exhaust tips look cool, but they will definitely be a rock magnet and will probably eventually get ripped off.

[derekmac]

Those tail light covers look really cool, and I wasn't sure what I'd think about the exhaust, but that looks good too!

[Phyro]

Hey B,

Do you prefer this truck or the Enduros? I am looking at picking up a second truck, and was looking at the kit version and a Gatekeeper.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[B-MOW71]

Originally Posted by derekmac

Those tail light covers look really cool, and I wasn't sure what I'd think about the exhaust, but that looks good too!

Yeah, I like the taillight covers. I'll probably try to find some for my Gladiator.

I do like the looks of the exhaust, but man it hangs down low! I think it may only be good for show! It's going to get hung up on everything!

Originally Posted by Phyro

Hey B,

Do you prefer this truck or the Enduros? I am looking at picking up a second truck, and was looking at the kit version and a Gatekeeper.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That's a tough question to answer since both are great rigs! I love the looks of the JLU body and the new chassis design of the 10.3 really works out great out on the trail and rocks. The new shock design is super smooth and leak free and the suspension is nice a plush and takes bumps and obstacles well. I really don't have anything bad to say about the rig.

I have the Element Enduro Sendero and the Trailwalker with IFS and both of have been great! They have a simple yet very effective chassis design and they just work great on the rocks. These shocks are also very smooth and leak free and I have always loved Team Associated shocks since my racing days many years ago. And the transmission with the included overdrive gearing is great right out of the box and can take quite a bit of abuse. It is smooth and very quiet.

Both the Axial 10.3 and the Element Enduro's can be made to be great rigs with the right upgrades to take the abuse of rugged trail and rock crawling.

But if I could only keep just one, I'd probably keep my Enduro. It is easy to work on and just plain work great out on the rocks. It's super quiet and so smooth to drive! Element did a great job designing these rigs.

I do not have the Gatekeeper (YET!), but from what I see and hear, it is very similar to the Enduro Sendero except that it has trailing arms, a longer wheel base and a few other different features. I believe it would be a great rig fitted with a truck body.

In the end, this is just my opinion and it would be difficult to give up either one! I think either one would be great for a second truck.

[Levi]

What a good looking jeep build. Love all the extra little scale details you keep adding, makes it look that much better. This honey run looks like a sweet place to crawl.

[B-MOW71]

Originally Posted by Levi

What a good looking jeep build. Love all the extra little scale details you keep adding, makes it look that much better. This honey run looks like a sweet place to crawl.

Thanks Levi!

Yeah, I'm trying to keep this rig more of a scale trailing rig.

The Honey Run is a great place to go to and is really the only place I can go to that is close to home.

[cinnabun]

What foams are you running in the OG rock beasts?

[smog]

Sexy tips B!

..but seriously, they are a genuinely nice touch. How/where are they attached to the rig

[B-MOW71]

Originally Posted by cinnabun

What foams are you running in the OG rock beasts?

For now they are the stock foams. Once they get too squishy, I’ll put a set of CI Deuce’s Wild Dual Stage foams in. I have these in another set of OG Rock Beast and I really like them.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[B-MOW71]

Originally Posted by smog

Sexy tips B!

..but seriously, they are a genuinely nice touch. How/where are they attached to the rig

Gee thanks!

Yeah, they are a nice scale touch, but I gotta feeling they are going to get beat up pretty bad!

Well, I wish I would have taken a few pics before I bolted them on. It's too much work to unbolt them, so here are a couple pics as it sits now. Kinda hard to tell, but there is a recess inside the muffler to hold the four nuts. I just drilled the bumper brace to insert the four screws thru into the muffler.

[B-MOW71]

Awhile back I purchased the Axial SCX10.3 Standard Axle Conversion Kit and wasn't really sure which rig to put them on. I decided to try them out on my GCM J2 Skeleton build that has been on and off the bench for the last couple years and still has not been completed yet. The rear axle went on and fit like a glove, but the front axle not so much. I was struggling with getting the panhard bar installed correctly and decided to scrap that idea.

So today, I installed the conversion kit on my JLU. All went well with the help of RC Driver on YT. The supplied instructions weren't exactly that easy to follow. I knew what needed to be done, but there were a few steps I wasn't quite sure about.

The kit is nice and comes with complete axles (pre-built), replacement shocks with shock fluid, gears to replace the stock transmission gears and straight panhard bar. I opened up both axles and replaced the stock grease with marine grease and checked to make sure all screws were tightened properly.

There was one issue I ran into when installing the new panhard bar that is supplied with the kit. I am currently running the Samix alum shock towers and the panhard mount matches the stock shock tower profile that is made for the portal axles. The conversion kit comes with a replacement panhard mount that moves the panhard bar farther forward. With the Samix shock tower, I wasn't able to move the panhard forward without grinding down the alum mount, so I decided to run the stock "bent" panhard bar instead. The slight bend in the stock bar allows it to mount to the Samix shock towers without it binding up when the suspension is fully compressed. Pic of the underneath below.






Before I took the trans out, I noticed that the front lower links at the skid plate were in a bind when I would try to move the links by hand. I noticed that the rod ends were wedged in right up against the trans oil pan. While I had the trans out, I lightly Dremeled a spot out on the bottom of the trans to give a little more space for the rod ends to move around. This little bit of was just enough to let the rod ends move freely.




And here are a few shots with the new straight axles installed.









Edit: I forgot to mention that I used the stock 90mm shocks instead of using the 100mm shocks supplied in the kit. The 90mm's work just fine and I wanted to keep the JLU sitting low.

[4RunnerKid]

new axles look good under there curious to see how you like them

[B-MOW71]

Originally Posted by 4RunnerKid

new axles look good under there curious to see how you like them

Thanks!

Hoping for better weather soon to get it out and try it out!



I forgot to mention that I used the stock 90mm shocks instead of using the 100m shocks that came with the kit. I made an edit to my original post.