Arizona Rock Crawling Daily Driver

Has anyone found windshield frame armor that they like? If not, what are your complaints about UCF and genright?

I've been in the market for awhile. I don't like the look of the weld in the UCF aluminum. I'm also skeptical of the strength of 1/8". I'm also not convinced they fit up hard against the A-Pillar. The GR look and sound like they fit great, but they are spendy compared to the UCF. I'd go GR.
 
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I hear you. My wife says scars are sexy. But I when I came back from. Parker this year she was like WTF
And I’m like battle wounds. They tell a story.

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I installed the UCF windshield frame guards. While they did the job, the fit was a little on the sloppy side. They can be worked, which made them acceptable for saving the windshield frame.

Has anyone found windshield frame armor that they like? If not, what are your complaints about UCF and genright?


I have a set of the UCF windshield armor brackets in Aluminum and the fit on my pair was pretty bad. The bolt holes didn't even align in the mounts with my windshield hinges. I've thought a few times on getting some LED light bar brackets and cutting the tab off. If I just knew of a set that fit good.
 
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I have a set of the UCF windshield armor brackets in Aluminum and the fit on my pair was pretty bad. The bolt holes didn't even align in the mounts with my windshield hinges. I've thought a few times on getting some LED light bar brackets and cutting the tab off. If I just knew of a set that fit good.

I’ll go genright if I get that armor. Thanks for the input!
 
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I’ve mentioned this before that something I am working on is my momentum skill with bumping up stuff. Unfortunately didn’t get as much video as I would have liked wheeling the other day. There was a really big climb we didn’t get that took a fair bit of juice to get up and felt SO GOOD to make. My dad did get a video of bumping up a smaller ledge though.


I tried crawling it 2 times but my control arms were pushing into the wall and getting hung up. The protocol from there is to back up, put the front tires on the edge of the ledge, and then pretend like you are accelerating normally off of a stop sign. It really doesn’t take very much throttle, but it does take a consistent amount of throttle all the way through. Blaine gave me the stop sign cue and I think about it every time I bump stuff. From there, the arms slide up like butter. The biggest mistake I see is folks hammering the throttle hard at the get go and then letting off as soon as the rear hits the ledge.

Something I’ve noticed is that with my new rear end suspension work, it is SO MUCH easier and calmer to momentum through stuff. In the past, when the rear tires would hit the wall it felt jolting and out of control. With the tuned shocks and midarm, it feels extremely cushy and smooth when the rear tires hit the wall. Instead of the chassis feeling like it gets pushed backwards and rebounding off the wall, it feels like the momentum of the chassis stays going forwards and the suspension soaks the wall right up. It is very nice to feel confident in my rig.
 
Don't throw the old one way, it just needs a new knob. I wish you would fix those too short wheel studs. They offend me greatly.

Saved it. I’ll see if I can look up and find a knob.

I’ll see if my machinist friend can set me up for some thread in studs. The ET lug nuts were an easy fix but I also hate them.
 
I think that’s exactly it. I’m never trying to abuse the Jeep but I am not afraid to use it and allow wear and tear for what it is intended for, and that is rock crawling. I love the Jeep even with the blemishes, probably because I love its function more than the way it looks. That’s probably why I care about being a perfectionist for things like making my 3 link bracket, but don’t care about a ding on the body. Function is sexy.

I am like you on this; however, just don't get to the point where you are not "trying" to protect the jeep. I always say that after the first scratch wheeling gets much easier, but just be aware and don't let it get out of hand. I have found myself saying I don't care about the body, I am going to make it. When I should have been saying is there a better way to make it without damaging the body. Either way, I am going to get to the top.

Life long issue with me, my Dad told me the Old Bull/Young Bull story on many occasions when I was young but I still tend to rush into things without fully considering the consequences. I have had fun, but it is a real bitch to get my soft top and doors on with bent body panels.
 
I am like you on this; however, just don't get to the point where you are not "trying" to protect the jeep. I always say that after the first scratch wheeling gets much easier, but just be aware and don't let it get out of hand. I have found myself saying I don't care about the body, I am going to make it. When I should have been saying is there a better way to make it without damaging the body. Either way, I am going to get to the top.

Life long issue with me, my Dad told me the Old Bull/Young Bull story on many occasions when I was young but I still tend to rush into things without fully considering the consequences. I have had fun, but it is a real bitch to get my soft top and doors on with bent body panels.

Absolutely. Still always try to get by as gracefully as possible. Luckily I started adding armor before I had any hits to the body. Having the no flare fenders and corners and flak armor and sliders and all that before any hits to the body have really saved me a lot of headache. The tub is still nice and straight and the armor typically just leaves scratched which is nice. I’ve only gotten one dent through the corner armor.

This last trip was the first windshield frame damage I’ve gotten and managed to get both sides! One side was a climb up against a wall on the driver side and I underestimated how leany it would get at the top. Barely bumped it and backed up and repositioned and slid by by a hair. The other side was a a stupid tree branch lol. This trail gets very little use so the exit was completely overgrown. Unfortunately gave my hood its fair share of new pinstripes too. But that’s wheelin.
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I’ve mentioned this before that something I am working on is my momentum skill with bumping up stuff.

The protocol from there is to back up, put the front tires on the edge of the ledge, and then pretend like you are accelerating normally off of a stop sign. It really doesn’t take very much throttle, but it does take a consistent amount of throttle all the way through. Blaine gave me the stop sign cue and I think about it every time I bump stuff. From there, the arms slide up like butter. The biggest mistake I see is folks hammering the throttle hard at the get go and then letting off as soon as the rear hits the ledge.

This is something I have been trying to practice too. The stop sign approach seems like a good idea.

I tend to pull up to an obstacle then bounce backwards a few times while trying to get set. It can be annoying and certainly tosses all my shit around in the back
 
Absolutely. Still always try to get by as gracefully as possible. Luckily I started adding armor before I had any hits to the body. Having the no flare fenders and corners and flak armor and sliders and all that before any hits to the body have really saved me a lot of headache. The tub is still nice and straight and the armor typically just leaves scratched which is nice. I’ve only gotten one dent through the corner armor.

This last trip was the first windshield frame damage I’ve gotten and managed to get both sides! One side was a climb up against a wall on the driver side and I underestimated how leany it would get at the top. Barely bumped it and backed up and repositioned and slid by by a hair. The other side was a a stupid tree branch lol. This trail gets very little use so the exit was completely overgrown. Unfortunately gave my hood its fair share of new pinstripes too. But that’s wheelin.
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I tend to run with a lot of Toyota guys, there’s a group of college guys in my area that enjoy wheeling, before the run they were very clear tgg he at it was a tighter run a d pin striping is very likely. Most of us made it out with very few scratches but one guy came back and like both sides were fully covered with pinstripes.
 
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Wait until we get you on some trails up north. The Alders and Devils Club can be brutal.

We have mesquite in a lot of places. I was backing down a small hill to hook up a strap to the guy behind me. A thumb diameter mesquite branch slid in between the mirror and door and snapped the mirror right off the base.
 
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