I thoroughly enjoy my KK. It is a great, super-versatile Jeep, working well as a daily driver (where I have to wear slacks, dress shirt & tie), hauling kids, hauling cargo (e.g. tools, remodeling project stuff)
AND you can have a lot of fun with it off-road…
I’ve been contacting aftermarket companies since 2008 trying to drum up interesting in developing aftermarket products for the KK. I was hoping between enough KKs getting to market and things like our
KK poll would help quantify enough interest to get some aftermarket off-road products out for the KK. I’ve been very frustrated by the lack of off-road components available for our KKs and that what little is available, isn’t, in my opinion, very robust or well made.
I’d been holding out hope for a couple options for an off-road winch bumper, but once RL formally dropped, even though I have very little time available, I felt there was no other option than to design and have built what I wanted. Since I spent the first 13 years of my career engineering and building custom electro-mechanical systems for use by manufacturers, designing what I wanted wouldn't be a problem. These custom systems were used in production where ruggedness and reliability were crucial. Given my background, since I was going to design and have my own KK off-road parts fabricated, I decided instead of just paying to have one-off sets made just for me, to take it to the next level and design in, and spend the money, to make my off-road parts repeatable so, I could have them made in small batches (say 5-10) by local metal fabrication shops I used to work with which would allow me to provide us KK owners with some viable off-road aftermarket products.
Thus, I’ve been researching and evaluating design considerations since early 2010. Originally, I was just going to focus on a front winch bumper, but after the
LOST Moab GTG this past April, I knew I needed to also develop much heavier duty rock slider rails. Then, if I was improving the front and sides of my KK, I decided to also come up with a quickie heavy duty rear off-road bumper (especially since the tail of the KK hangs out so much further than most other off-road vehicles, including the KJ and all Wranglers).
I had hoped to have released some info before now, but I was dealing with slow progress from the prototype fabricator I was working with. He was a 1-man street rod fabrication shop. Long, painful story short, after 22 weeks and only getting around 3.5 weeks of work out of him, I recently had to let him go and repossess my KK. I’m now getting routine progress working with a multi-person street rod and car customization shop. Thus, I now feel comfortable sharing a little of what I’m developing. Also, I didn’t want everyone else to have to ride along on the proverbial emotional roller coaster with me while working through all the issues associated with development and waiting on someone else to work in fabrication time.
In this thread, I’m posting info on my Front Off-Road Winch Bumper, Off-Road (Basic) Rear Bumper and Heavy Duty Off-Road Rock Rail Sliders. Since I won’t know my costs per unit until I get quotes on building small batches and that won’t be done until I am done fine-tuning my prototypes, I can’t advise any sell prices yet. But, for those, like me, who have been craving being able to equip their KK with an off-road front winch bumper, heavy duty off-road rear bumper and/or heavy duty rock slider rails, then start saving your money. If the balance of my prototype fine-tuning goes decently, I would hope to have the first batches of bumpers and rock sliders out for quote in first quarter of 2011. Once I cut loose a metal fabricator on building them, then I’ll know my costs and can advise sell prices. With my approach, my company (that I’ve recently formed) won’t take your money or order unless we have the products in hand or nearing end of fabrication since we need to know our final costs to set the sell price of each unit from each production batch. One of my aunts and uncles, that already sell stuff on-line and ship nationwide, will be handling all of the order taking and processing.
Beware, my designs are NOT geared toward those that always want the least-expensive part possible. I've always believed that in most all instances you get what you pay for and believe in "voting with your dollars". I'm designing my KK off-road parts with the features I'd want to use on my vehicle - because I am!
Enjoy
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2009 KK Limited 4x4Jeep Green/partially dechromed/Sunroof/OEM Skids/
Gray Leather/uConnect GPS-Nav/DVD Head Rests/
MtnLuvr's Off-Road Front Winch Bumper, Heavy Duty Rock Sliders, Heavy Duty Off-Road Rear Bumper/JBA 4" AaS Lift w/UCAs/16x8's w/ 245/75R16 GY MT/Rs
Coming: