Project XK: The Big Build-up

Our annual trip pilgrimage out West this summer not only gave us the occasion to visit many friends and family and to see many beautiful sights, but it also afforded us a chance to make a number of modifications to our Jeep Commander.

First, as a follow-up to my previous post on Project XK, I have to give an enthusiastic thumbs-up to the GoGroove Flex Pod.  It did a great job of incorporating the iPhone into a great multimedia system as we meandered across the country. Kudos, too, to the Video Entertainment System (VES) in the vehicle.  I confess that a good quarter of the Hobbit’s time in the car was spent watching his new favorite DVD: a Smithsonian show about bugs in and around the house.

At any rate, we got to Colorado in one piece, and a number of things were waiting for us there. It was a busy few weeks as a result, but the results were well worth the time, as we’ll see after the break.

Let’s start off with a reminder of where we started, though, when we sold this Jeep:

in order to buy this one:

As I described this new Commander in an earlier post, it came stock as an

Inferno Red 2006 Jeep Commander, Limited edition, with a lot of quite pleasant extras: 5.7L Hemi engine, off-road skids, class-IV towing capability, GPS navigation, DVD for the long hauls, luxury conveniences, and a saddle-brown leather interior that I happen to like (some members of my family are admittedly not quite as keen on it). Oh, and Quadra-drive II, which is the creme-de-la-creme in newfangled automated four-wheel-drive systems.

That was then.  This is now:

No, I didn’t repaint it.  That’s an artifact of the shadows. What I did do in these past weeks is add a few modifications, including

• 4″ lift-kit from BDS-Suspensions, which gave space for
• B.F. Goodrich A/T tires, size 285, which required
• 1.25″ wheel-spacers in order to prevent rubbing and maintain stability while keeping the stock wheels;
• AVS in-channel Ventvisors;
• Aries Tail-light Guards;
• T-Max Portable Air Compressor (housed under the hood with the Hemi);
• 4xGuard SideGuard;
• 4xGuard FrontGuard (prototype);
• 4xGuard Matrix.

As I said above, I’m very pleased with the results, and in the coming weeks I’ll likely go through these items one-by-one to talk about installation and other matters that might be of interest to folks.