Looks great! All the possibilities... but one concern as Im not familiar with the yakima racks. How hard/ time consuming is it to take the rack off?

 

The control towers are designed to release very easily. Just unlock the tower and swing the cover down and you can just lift up the control tower off the base (called a landing pad). Very easy and quick. Doing it that way leaves the landing pad in place. Yakmina makes a snap on cover for the landing pad so it looks nice when you don't have the control towers attached. They have lots of different design landing pads depending on what you are attaching to (rain gutters, rails, factory roof racks, etc...). I used landing pad #6 because it is a permanent attachment (stronger) and works well for a custom install like this where there is no factory rain gutter or rail system or something to attach one of the other types of landing pads they sell.

Landing Pad #6's can also be completely removed so that when I remove the control towers I can also easily remove the landing pad too to leave nothing behind (except the two holes for each pad) so i can put my topper on. To do that, you just take off the control tower as i mentioned above, then 2 bolts for each landing pad. Pretty easy.

 

Easy enough. Looks a million times better than my spare chained to the bed!

 

I see you have the PA 3" BL. I have that kit in my garage. Getting ready to get that thing on. I had found the 1999 kit and just needed a different transmission bracket for my year. So I'm all ready to go.

My question to you is, did you follow the instructions such that they were good? Or did you encounter anything funky? If so, then any tips/tricks/etc. you'd remember to pass on?

If you have a thread about this already, then my bad and please spoon me to it.

Thanks

 

I actually paid to have the BL installed beause it had been sitting around in my garage for awhile, and I was getting ready to install my 35's. So I needed to get it on, but I was traveling for work, so I sent it in to a trusted 4x4 shop in town and let them do it for me while I was on the road. Just saved me a lot of time, so I was ok with paying the money (I also got a deal because I know the owners of the shop).

That said, the shop that did the work does BL's all the time on Jeeps and Yotas. They are a specialty off-road shop that builds custom Jeeps. They are also the inventors of a supercharger for Jeeps, and to install it on a factory Wrangler requires a body lift. So they do a lot of BL's just with their supercharger business. Point is, they have lots of experience doing body lifts. When it was done, it took them 8 hours, with 1 to 2 techs doing the work in a professional shop (tool, lifts, welder, etc...).
So I don't know what your expectations are, but I laugh when I read people (moslty people who don't actually have BL's themselves) saying that you can knock it out by yourself in your garage in 3-4 hours. Might be true, but i'd question how good of a job was done. I know mine was done by professionals, and I have never had any issues with it. Just thought I would throw that out there for you to consider as you plan your time/resources to do the install.

I know the fan shroud is time consiming, and they spent a long time trying to get the front bumper brackets to align the bumper correctly. It really takes at least 2 people to do the bumper with one underneath wrenching, and the other checking the alignment and holding in place. Watch the linkages for the transfer case, transmission, and steering shaft. On thing that I had to correct after I got it back was the main ground straps from the motor to the firewall. They where stretched to max, so keep an eye on those.
They tack welded the bed blocks to the bed, and I would recommend you do that too if you have the means (I know not everyon has a welder or knows how to weld).

That's about all the advise I can give on the BL.

 

Appreciate the advise. It makes perfect sense and I agree about the misnomer on time to do them. I do have a welder. I do have some people from my 4x4 club that will help me out on a work party to bang it out. Beers will come in handy. I helped work on a 1973 Bronco for 3 days to just do a 3" SL. It's still being worked on because the radius arm bushings are not settling causing a lean down on the driver side (pass side spring bowed forward ~6*). It's still being worked on...5th day. These things are never a knockout. The beer must mask all that truth.

The most interesting point you bring up are the ground straps. I don't recall seeing that mentioned in the instructions. Did you just remount them? What was the solution?

I'm hoping to get the fan shroud down good b/c I'll have done that 1x prior for plenum gasket replacement (oh joy). I don't think I could swing both mods the same time....

 

I just relocated the grounding wire so that they had more slack in them. It wasn't a big deal, but glad I caught it before I went wheeling or something that would have snapped one of them.

 

I wont lie Whiteknuckle, you want 2 to help you at minimum to get it done in one day. Both bumpers were a pain and dont forget about the tag lights and fog lights before you take the bolts out like we did.