A Story of Indecision and Frivolous Spending

A few more photos I just took:

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And here's my Savvy license plate relocation bracket which I installed today. Not too shabby for a simple piece of aluminum! I know you were wondering about this @StG58.

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What headlights are those again. Damnit I thought I was done spending money. And is it a pretty easy install? Plug and play possibly. I know you covered it somewhere in your build lol
 
Are you not happy with it because it doesn't hide the upper screws of the mount? BTW the winch condom looks messy.
 
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Chris said:
A few more photos I just took:

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And here's my Savvy license plate relocation bracket which I installed today. Not too happy for a simple piece of aluminum! I know you were wondering about this @StG58.

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Yup, thanks Chris! I'm going with a third brake light / license plate mount in my spare tire. Get that plate off the corner of the tub and a little more protected. It'll still work with my offset spare.

How far do those taillights stick out from the tub?
 
Starrs said:
What headlights are those again. Damnit I thought I was done spending money. And is it a pretty easy install? Plug and play possibly. I know you covered it somewhere in your build lol
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Yes, they are plug-and-play. They are the Vision X Vortex LED headlights, which you can see my review on them here:

My review of the Vision X Vortex 7" LED headlights & Vision X 4.7" CG2 Light Cannon LED Fog Lights

bobthetj03 said:
Are you not happy with it because it doesn't hide the upper screws of the mount? BTW the winch condom looks messy.
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Oh no, I don't mind it at all! I never meant to suggest I was unhappy with it. I think I just worded it wrong.

And yes, the winch condom does look messy, but with all the rain and sun, these things prolong the life of the winch rope by protecting it from UV rays.
 
Chris said:
Honestly, maybe 1" at the very most. I need to measure, but they barely stick out, which is one of the things I like about them.
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Nice...I've been putting off replacing my taillights. I found a set of LED's that are about 7/8" deep, but they are pretty cheaply constructed. I can move my spare to the right another inch and some with the shallower tail lights. A little less stress on the hinges, a little more room for my spare gas can when I carry it.
 
It just occurred to me that you are going from a larger lift to an OME 2". What about upper and lower control arms? Are yours still stock? I have a long arm lift on mine and will need to go back to stock and the prices on these arms are SUPER expensive! My lift is a 5.5", so no stock arms on my Jeep. Oh well. I might start a thread on this as it is a bit of a drag on my build as far as cost! Damn!
 
StG58 said:
Nice...I've been putting off replacing my taillights. I found a set of LED's that are about 7/8" deep, but they are pretty cheaply constructed. I can move my spare to the right another inch and some with the shallower tail lights. A little less stress on the hinges, a little more room for my spare gas can when I carry it.
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These ones aren't cheap, but I figure it's buy once, cry once. The safety in the LED taillight upgrade alone makes it worth it!

gg1 said:
It just occurred to me that you are going from a larger lift to an OME 2". What about upper and lower control arms? Are yours still stock? I have a long arm lift on mine and will need to go back to stock and the prices on these arms are SUPER expensive! My lift is a 5.5", so no stock arms on my Jeep. Oh well. I might start a thread on this as it is a bit of a drag on my build as far as cost! Damn!
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It's got aftermarket lower control arms, but I have a brand new set of OE control arms that I'm going to put back on there with the OME lift. $205 for a set of brand new stock control arms wasn't that bad, and the stock arms are actually very capable.

FYI, incase you wan't a set of stock control arms for a great deal, here's where I got mine:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MPVWEBY/?tag=wranglerorg-20
 
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gg1 said:
It just occurred to me that you are going from a larger lift to an OME 2". What about upper and lower control arms? Are yours still stock? I have a long arm lift on mine and will need to go back to stock and the prices on these arms are SUPER expensive! My lift is a 5.5", so no stock arms on my Jeep. Oh well. I might start a thread on this as it is a bit of a drag on my build as far as cost! Damn!
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I have a 5 inch lift and I want to lower mine to a 2.5 inch lift. My lift works well but I don’t like the high center of gravity. I’m still trying to figure out what I will be dealing with.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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Chris said:
These ones aren't cheap, but I figure it's buy once, cry once. The safety in the LED taillight upgrade alone makes it worth it!
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Those are the $250 Savvy taillights that Blaine designed, right? I know they're good kit, but day-am, that's a chunk of change. I'll probably go with my $35 cheapos for the time being just to get the back end done for summer. Still saving up for gears and lockers etc. That's what I really need.

Your Rubi looks really nice, by the way. Really nice.
 
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StG58 said:
Those are the $250 Savvy taillights that Blaine designed, right? I know they're good kit, but day-am, that's a chunk of change. I'll probably go with my $35 cheapos for the time being just to get the back end done for summer. Still saving up for gears and lockers etc. That's what I really need.

Your Rubi looks really nice, by the way. Really nice.
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I'm not sure if @mrblaine designed them, but I think you're right. And yes, they were $239. They use the LED lights from the other cheaper ones you see on the market from what I can tell, but they pair it with a really nice (and flush) CNC aluminum shroud, which looks great.

Trust me, I know they are expensive, but I'm one of those lightning nuts, where I seem to have a thing for really nice lighting. Not sure why, that's how I've been with every vehicle I've owned.

Thanks! I'm over half way done, and I'm going to be a lot happier with this one than my last build, only because I'm not going overboard with stuff I don't need.
 
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lowranger said:
I do like the way your Jeep sits now. JMO.
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I actually like it too, it's not bad. But this lift rides poorly, which is likely the shocks, and I noticed that it seems like it sags just a tiny bit in the rear.
 
Chris said:
I'm not sure if @mrblaine designed them, but I think you're right. And yes, they were $239. They use the LED lights from the other cheaper ones you see on the market from what I can tell, but they pair it with a really nice (and flush) CNC aluminum shroud, which looks great.

Trust me, I know they are expensive, but I'm one of those lightning nuts, where I seem to have a thing for really nice lighting. Not sure why, that's how I've been with every vehicle I've owned.

Thanks! I'm over half way done, and I'm going to be a lot happier with this one than my last build, only because I'm not going overboard with stuff I don't need.
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If they do use the same LED panels from other lights but cheaper, I wish someone would turn us onto them. Even buying them by the case, (large case which I believe is 144 pcs., they cost around 65 bucks per pair. When we first started using them, there was no one else making that LED panel with a back up light that worked more than just barely and certainly not as good as those. You can usually tell how much profit is in something by looking around and seeing how many times it has been knocked off by the cheap Chinese copy machine companies. See any copies out there? That's right, you don't because there's no money in it. The housings are about 40 each to machine, then get anodizing that doesn't fade or turn colors in the sun. (I've seen sets of lights that have been in the sun since the lights were first introduced and they are the same color now as they were when they were first put on. Find some black oxide stainless steel screws, a few good quality electrical connectors and it doesn't take long to get the price up there.

I wish I could find that same light for cheaper. I do a lot of builds where the owners want to keep the stock tail light housings and I need a good LED for them.
 
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Chris said:
I'm not unhappy at all. I accidentally typed "not too happy" instead of "not too shabby". Damn auto-correct!
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Just curious since the only aluminum you have there from Savvy are the tail light housings. The license mount relocation bracket is stainless steel.
 
mrblaine said:
Just curious since the only aluminum you have there from Savvy are the tail light housings. The license mount relocation bracket is stainless steel.
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Goes to show what I know. I thought it was aluminum!
 
Chris said:
It's got aftermarket lower control arms, but I have a brand new set of OE control arms that I'm going to put back on there with the OME lift. $205 for a set of brand new stock control arms wasn't that bad, and the stock arms are actually very capable.

FYI, incase you wan't a set of stock control arms for a great deal, here's where I got mine:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MPVWEBY/?tag=wranglerorg-20
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Well, those are Crown and not "stock" (OEM). I wanted Moog, but they seem to only have the RK quality in the lower control arm. I was hoping for American made at least. Mopar is VERY expensive for the control arms! I am probably going overboard on trying to get the best at an okay price. Part of me wants to just buy from Mopar. Just the arms are about $700!!!! Yes, that is at a discount! Moog is a very good brand, but their RK is a lower quality. I am not sure why they don't make the lowers in CK or K? I am not sure about slapping on Crown arms as they are not from the USA and I worry about quality.

Thanks for the reply. I will probably start a build thread at some point, but things are going VERY slow so far.
 
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