The Benchmark Vehicles roof rack is installed and it's pretty great.
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Did you have Juniper Overland install the rack? They are doing several things for mine as well.
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The Benchmark Vehicles roof rack is installed and it's pretty great.
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They did, yeah. I didn't think I could get the thing up there solo. First time hiring them. No issues at all, they seem to know their businessDid you have Juniper Overland install the rack? They are doing several things for mine as well.
Check inside the cap. It is a NATO referenced item and it should be rubber lined that seals upon closure. That's how mine came and I have an earlier vehicle. My cap also has a silver anti seize paste, possibly from the dealer, but still super tight. I threw a little petroleum jelly on and snugged it up.NATO plug weatherproofing:
It's likely not as large a concern here in Colorado, but many forum members have had issues corrosion causing the NATO plug cap to be difficult to remove. Following some ideas/recommendations from a thread on the subject, I picked up a 2" rubber gasket from McMaster-Carr to at least deflect some water from the threads and applied silicon lubricant to the threads. Doesn't look like there is any sort of seal or gasket on the cap from factory, so I may add a thin gasket inside the cap later.
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Wow that under belly shot is not impressive looking at all. You’d have to hack something together to bolt on more stuff to fully protect the body. Why would they make this with such major deficienciesThe folks at Red Noland have been great to work with. They did some paint touch-up on 2 spots that were flawed on delivery and they centered up the steering wheel that was slightly off center. I'm quite satisfied with the steering now, no change needed.
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Abenteuer 4x4 Rock Sliders:
Installing the sliders was not quite as easy as I'd hoped. They posted a video showing how to do the installation. I installed the first slider according to their instructions and had a bit of a hard time. Some of the bolts are quite hard to access and it's hard to hold some of it all together with just two hands. I installed the second slider a bit differently -- I attached the mounts loosely to the slider rails before attaching the mounts to the frame and found it much easier. The only other deviations I made from their instructional video were to use a multi-tool to trim the plastic bits in the wheel wells, I used some anti-seize on the bolts, and I followed the lessons learned by @TheDocAUS and used 50mm bolts to ease installation of the front mount and added some square washers to the frame mount bolts. If you're going to install these, make sure you have a 17mm offset box wrench, ideally a ratcheting one. I did not and it made the job much more difficult. I'm very happy to have this install completed.
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One of my main concerns with these sliders before ordering was that the inner rocker is not overly protected. It's still a bit of a concern, but the rocker is above both the slider and the frame rail, so the only way it will be hit is if one tracks the tires over a particularly pointy rock that exceeds the break-over angle. It's very much a possibility, but also wouldn't be the end of the world. Looks like it would be pretty easy to bolt some steel over the thing using those holes all along it, but I likely won't bother.
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The step is narrow, but just wide enough.
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Probably because it isn't an issue. I spent the last 3 days bouncing off of them and sliding across them on rocky trails and nothing has touched the rockers. Not to say it isn't possible for a large pointy rock to get in there just right, but if hasn't happened yet I'm not going to worry about it.Wow that under belly shot is not impressive looking at all. You’d have to hack something together to bolt on more stuff to fully protect the body. Why would they make this with such major deficiencies