2001 Grand Cherokee Laredo

[maxfederle89]

I found some naval jelly at autozone in a small town in southern Ohio. Yes, I have a build thread, you've commented on it more than once! Ha!

I found it again! Haha I'm sorry. I've been reaching out to a lot of build threads for any wisdom I can get. I got confused

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[maxfederle89]

Over the last couple days I installed an iron Rock Offroad skid plate. However, I ran into clearance issues with my catalytic converter. So today I took it to the exhaust shop and had them get me more clearance and because I had a stock Muffler that had rusty holes, I asked them to put a new MagnaFlow clone Muffler under it. Couldn't be happier. Everything turned out really nice. The Iron Rock Offroad skid plate is super beefy. I don't see how anything could hurt it.

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[maxfederle89]

On a less Offroad related note, I also got my stereo figured out. It is the Kenwood head unit out of my old Silverado and I got it to work just fine in the Grand Cherokee. The infinity gold sound system sounds really good still, so I don't think I'm going to mess with it anymore than this. Couldn't come at a better time because in another day I am headed on a camping trip that will be a 1000 mile round trip.

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[maxfederle89]

Set out this morning early on our big camping trip. The little WJ can sure hold a lot of gear! Only things I put on top were my axe and shovel. So the rack is handy for that [emoji106]

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[maxfederle89]

Pit stop! In good company on this trip. What's not in the picture is my buddy with the blacked out Ram 2500 Cummins towing his camper. It's a beast!

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[stickel]

Nice looking Jeep so far! I recently (last month) bought my first Jeep. It came with a lift and tires so now I'm looking around for ideas on future mods/improvements to make.

 

[maxfederle89]

Boy I have only been back for a day and we covered a lot of ground on our camping trip. Wish I would have taken more pictures but I'll post what I have. We traveled 1500 miles and I was proud this little Jeep averaged 17.4 mpg over the entire trip! While back at the family ranch I even headed out with my dad to fight a grass fire with all the neighbors and volunteer firefighters. It was the biggest fire of the summer for them. Then on our way home we stopped at Scotts Bluff National Monument and Lake McConaughy. I wanted to do another offroading stop but we ran out of time. Hopefully on the next trip! It was a really great time.

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[maxfederle89]

In the last couple days I also put new pads and rotors on the WJ. Had some serious pedal pulse on our camping trip so decided to just do everything. A couple issues I ran into were siezed caliper slide bolts on the front and getting the new wire retainers on the rear. But it all went OK even though it took longer than it should have. Here's a couple pictures of the rears done. Didn't get pictures of the front. Now I need to get my dang IRO lift on!

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[maxfederle89]

Yesterday I tried to lone wolf install my IRO lift in my tiny garage... Well this was the first lift I've ever tried to install and it got the better of me. I couldn't get my lift springs to fit on the rear and I didn't know any tricks to get them in. So I gave up and put it back together. Now I'm considering having a shop install it or maybe going to an assisted shop where a mechanic can help me along. Oh well. It'll allcome together eventually...

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[adventure_is_necessary]

How big of a lift did you go with? I know the 3in lift I helped install on a ZJ was decent with 2 sets of hands and spring compressors borrowed from AutoZone.

 

[maxfederle89]

How big of a lift did you go with? I know the 3in lift I helped install on a ZJ was decent with 2 sets of hands and spring compressors borrowed from AutoZone.

I did get a loaner set of spring compressors and they helped. My biggest issue was only trying to do one side at a time and not having bigger jack stands. I should have gotten the whole butt off the ground and taken everything apart. But by the time I had figured that out it was getting late and half my Jeep was hanging out of my apartment garage so I decided to just put it back together.

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[maxfederle89]

Not really essential things but fun things to take my mind away from not having my lift on yet...

I finally made a leather axe mask for my Fiskars axe. Been wanting to do this little project for 3 years! Now I can safely carry it.

Also, I never like chrome on my vehicles so I plastidiped my grille. I want to come up with some kind of screen behind it to protect my radiators someday, but for now I at least made it black!

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[maxfederle89]

Another fun thing was I went and got a t-shirt made to represent for one of my friend's offroad club. He has an Instagram account, YouTube, as website to chronicle adventures but no shirts. This was to get him to keep working on shirts! I need more cool offroad shirts.

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[adventure_is_necessary]

Looks good! So you made the sheath? That's awesome! I need to do that for mine. And the mesh behind the grille is a good idea. I dig the shirt but it needs a WJ on it ;)

 

[maxfederle89]

Looks good! So you made the sheath? That's awesome! I need to do that for mine. And the mesh behind the grille is a good idea. I dig the shirt but it needs a WJ on it ;)

Thanks! Yeah I made the sheath. Been messing around with leather for a few years now. I don't make pretty things. Mostly just useful stuff I need and can't find. So I make it.

A WJ shirt is what my original plan was but then I had an idea. Once mine is built up a little more I'll take some pictures of it and vector them. Then take those in and make another shirt [emoji41]

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[maxfederle89]

Got to do another epic 1500 mile road trip to the family ranch. It was a great time!

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[maxfederle89]

Finally had the 3" IRO lift installed at a local offroad shop! I'm so excited to have it finished! It does drive a lot differently but I'll get used to it. It's all about tradeoffs.

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[adventure_is_necessary]

2 questions for ya. #1 what's that badge/sticker on the driver side about the laredo panel? #2 what difference in driveability did you notice?

 

[maxfederle89]

2 questions for ya. #1 what's that badge/sticker on the driver side about the laredo panel? #2 what difference in driveability did you notice?

#1 It says Northland Edition. It was a cool badge I picked up because I'm a vendor for car dealerships. I liked how it looked.
#2 The suspension from IRO is firm. Sort of 3/4 ton pickup firm. And the steering at highway speed is a bit vague now. But I think I'm acutely aware of all this because it is my first lifted vehicle. But it's great being taller. I used to be shorter than pickups and now I sit taller by a touch I feel. But I would absolutely recommend the kit so far. And I think it will soften up with age.

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[adventure_is_necessary]

#1 It says Northland Edition. It was a cool badge I picked up because I'm a vendor for car dealerships. I liked how it looked.
#2 The suspension from IRO is firm. Sort of 3/4 ton pickup firm. And the steering at highway speed is a bit vague now. But I think I'm acutely aware of all this because it is my first lifted vehicle. But it's great being taller. I used to be shorter than pickups and now I sit taller by a touch I feel. But I would absolutely recommend the kit so far. And I think it will soften up with age.

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I can dig the emblem. I have one that has a mountain scene on it and says est 2004 since my WJ is an '04. I'm considering the OME lift. it's about a 2in lift but I'll get HD springs for all the added weight on the rig. Hoping for good driveability