Let us move up to the body and some of the changes that came about. We all know that it is 5” wider than the previous TJ. Okay now this may seem big at first, but I was thinking, my TJ had 1.5” spacers on each side and 35x12.50 tires (stock was about 31x10.5). Hmm, 1.5+1.5+1+1=5” not really any difference. I did not have any problems out on the trails with that. Part of the width difference comes from the larger fender flares on the JK. I measured the width of the cab at 62” the TJ was 58 1/2” so that is only 3 ½”, so I guess the rest of the five”s is in the fenders. The JK is about 3”s shorter than a regular TJ. Change the doors around a little, move the front axle forward and the new JK looks even smaller than the 3”. Since I am talking about the doors, they are still removable, even with the power window and power lock option. You just need to unclip the electrical connector for the door. Okay, one more step. The doors now have a Torx bolt holding them on instead of that nut like the older ones. Of course, the one thing to be careful about is the new mirrors. Do not allow these doors to swing open without the strap attached. They will make a beeline for the cowl and put a dent in it. The new mirrors take some getting used to. They are squarer than the previous TJ’s. They are about the same width, just shorter and sit further inside the housing. It does take a little while to get used to them. You almost need to put the little blind spot mirrors on them. I did hear at least one comment about if Jeep could put in power windows and locks, why not heated power mirrors with turn signals…. My thoughts on that while having a power mirror for the passenger side (since you can’t reach it) would be nice, imagine the cost of ripping one of them off on the trail. You know the more expensive the part, the more likely a rock is to take it off. The handles on the doors have changed. Gone are the paddle style handles from the past. I was never really a fan of those handles. Too many times, have I had them slip out of my grip, pinch a finger, or leave my fingers hurting for some other reason? The new ones you can really get a hold of and just push the oversized button. I was thinking that this button might be a little too large, but then I remembered all the winters up north when I tried to open the door with gloves or mittens on. I do think that they could be recessed into the door more, but time will tell if we do manage to rip any of these off. |
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| The doors are still removable, even with the power window and power lock option. You just need to unclip the electrical connector for the door. Okay, one more step. The doors now have a Torx bolt holding them on instead of that nut like the older ones. Of course, the one thing to be careful about is the new mirrors. Do not allow these doors to swing open without the strap attached. They will make a beeline for the cowl and put a dent in it. The new mirrors take some getting used to. They are squarer than the previous TJ’s. They are about the same width, just shorter and sit further inside the housing. It does take a little while to get used to them. You almost need to put the little blind spot mirrors on them. I did hear at least one comment about if Jeep could put in power windows and locks, why not heated power mirrors with turn signals…. My thoughts on that while having a power mirror for the passenger side (since you can’t reach it) would be nice, imagine the cost of ripping one of them off on the trail. You know the more expensive the part, the more likely a rock is to take it off. The handles on the doors have changed. Gone are the paddle style handles from the past. I was never really a fan of those handles. Too many times, have I had them slip out of my grip, pinch a finger, or leave my fingers hurting for some other reason? The new ones you can really get a hold of and just push the oversized button. I was thinking that this button might be a little too large, but then I remembered all the winters up north when I tried to open the door with gloves or mittens on. I do think that they could be recessed into the door more, but time will tell if we do manage to rip any of these off. |
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The windshield still folds down, you just need to take off a few more parts to do it. There is just one large hinge in the center of the windshield and new brackets have replaced where the old hinges were. The new windshield is curved, not really much, but having all the edges rounded off and the soft top now tucked in behind the windshield frame makes the top much quieter. |
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The hood is shorter in height and rolls right into the body edge. No more ledge. The only bad thing about this is that there is not that extra space under the hood that we all liked to be able to put things under there. The hood still has the tie down footman’s loop for the windshield and the two bumpers on it. This hood is insulated underneath and feels heavier than the TJ’s. Now with the hood rounded and the windshield rounded, folding back the windshield does not allow for a big contact patch. I would install an extra set of bumpers along this line so that the hood is not dented. |
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The infamous plastic grill. Okay while the Jeep grills on this body style have been metal for many years, why did they decide to go to plastic? I do not really know what their intention was. I do not mind the plastic grill, it is lighter, bends instead of denting, and really does not look any different from a painted metal grill. Jeep did make the slots wider for more airflow. I have had Jeeps for a long time, and have yet to damage a grill. Besides most of us put bumpers and winches in front of the grill anyways. |
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The huge front bumper. I will just say that in my opinion it is ugly, sticks out to far, it is plastic... Okay, the TJ’s were not much better with their plastic boxes on the ends. Bumpers are bumpers, most destined for some dark corners somewhere, so why should Jeep waste a bunch of money on them. Do what we have done in the past, take them off, and put on what we want. Though having the fog lights center mounted and low does really light up things. They just are not moveable as in the past. The one thing that the bumper disguises is the fact that you can mount a winch down in-between the frame rails. The front cross member that was on the TJ’s is gone. |
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The plastic rear bumper. This wraps around and match’s up with the rear fender flares. Now it does not offer much in the way of protection if you come down off a rock hard enough, but it would still provide a cushion. The bumper does look large enough that you could probably mount a winch in a rear bumper with a tire carrier to move the tire up. The one nice thing that jeep did was to move the tow hook from the driver’s side to center of the jeep. This gives a better pulling spot for the whole vehicle. Ideally having a one on each side and one in the center would give you an awesome range of angles to pull from. Center is about as good as it gets. |
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The rear tire carrier is huge on the JK’s. It is now a cast cone shaped carrier that attaches in with eight bolts. Supposedly, it will handle a 35” tire with no problem. Time will only tell since the hinges look to be the same as those on the earlier models. The rear tailgate has the same handle as the doors. |
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| The front fenders are huge and plastic. At first glance they are pretty ugly. Remember the Gladiator that we all loved when it first came out. It had the same front end from as the JK's. Hmmm. The new fenders were designed to bend, flex and return to their shape unlike the older metal fenders that normally required some pulling and pounding. These if you really do hit something hard enough will break away from the body. I took one side off to see how easy it is. Just 5 bolts hold the fender on and they will pop through the plastic if the fender is pulled off by something. 8 plastic clips hold the fender onto the body. They are designed to pop out. You should be able to flat fender this with very few problems. They did move the front turn signal back to the grill, to get it out of danger from rocks. I know I broke a few over the years. |
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| Now Jeep decided to change the bolt pattern to five on 5”. I do not know what was going through their mind about that, maybe they got a deal on rims. It would have been nice to either keep the five on 4.5” or even go back to the five on 5.5”. At least then, we would have had the ability to pull a rim from a friend on the trail and continue in an emergency. You had better hope nothing happens until more JK’s are on the trails. Of course, Spidertrax has spacers coming that will convert the 5” to either 4.5” or 5.5” or just space out the tire. The new rims come in sizes of 16”, 17” and 18”. At the moment 15” rims look like they will be to tight to fit around the larger disk brakes. A steely might work. The 17’s that are on the Rubicon model have a 6” back spacing. This is deeper than the previous years and even the 32’s that are on the Rubicon sit well in from the edge of the fender flare. You just have to think that Jeep was putting a little thought into the owners putting on larger tires and going with less offset on the rims to keep the turning radius. It appears that a 35x12.50 on a 4.5” backspaced rim would still fit under the fender flare. So currently, we are a little limited on rims for the JK. The new tires on the Rubicon are quieter than the older MT/R’s on the TJ’s. Part of that has to be the difference in the load rating. The old MT/R’s were an E load range with real heavy sidewalls. The new BFG’s are only a C load range |
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| A few more pics of the outside. |
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