LONG POST: My Work To Date and Future, Lets see your's

Hey Guys and Gals,

The aftermarket for the Patriot is only starting to take off and some people have done a lot of stuff to their little Riot while others are just starting to look at doing some modifications/add-on’s.

I started this thread to go over what I have done so far because I have had a few PM's and questions about the pictures I've posted of mine so far. Also, I want to see what other people have done, how much work it took and a ball park price for it so I can steal any good ideas out there .

To start off the first thing I did was buy Thule Crossbars (http://www.thuleracks.com/product.asp?dept_id=3&sku=45050) and put those on with a Sport Rack roof box. The box worked nicely for camping (can store almost all your gear in there, lay down the back seats and slide the front one's ahead and there is just enough room for a guy and a girl to sleep comfortably (slightly less comfortable when I shared it with my buddy on a snowboarding trip). I decided I wanted something I could leave up there so I picked up a Yakima Load Warrior basket (http://www.yakima.com/Product.aspx?id=67). I found mine used, it was about $250, they are normally ~$400 up here. It didn't take me long to want the look of it changed so I added the Load Warrior Extension (http://www.yakima.com/Product.aspx?id=70). I paid $200 for that. I also picked up the locks (http://www.yakima.com/Product.aspx?id=78), a shovel mount (http://www.yakima.com/Product.aspx?id=75), and the Yakima multi mount for paddles or an axe (http://www.yakima.com/Product.aspx?id=55).

I started looking at light’s for the basket and decided to go with the Mopar wiring kit and Hella lights that the dealerships sell for the baskets. Bought the wiring kit first and found out that you have to drill a hole in the roof, what a commitment on a ~3 week old vehicle. Ran all the wiring for it up to the point you have to drill the hole then decided to commit to it. The wiring runs from the battery and the drivers side head light through the drivers fender to where a bunch of wiring comes in just on the front side of the drivers side door. You have to pass it through the rubber boot so that a seal is maintained. The instructions show this as an easy step, what they don’t tell you is that the boot is zip tied on the back side and there is no way to get the wire through. I used an awl and punched a small hole in the rubber to pass it thru. The dash assembly gets pulled off and you use a template (supplied with the kit) to drill the hole for the switch. The wiring then runs up along the windshield pillar and along the side impact air bags to where you pass it through the roof through that dreaded hole (also marked using a supplied template). The install doesn’t take that long (spent about 1/3 of the time debating if I wanted to drill the hole or not). My light mounts are made from 3” x ¼” aluminum that I had laying around at work and are bolted on using some bent threaded rod. Forgot to take pics of the mounts before it got dark so here is what you get.




The harness comes with wiring for 4 lights, I am adding the other two as soon as I pay off these tires.

I had no tow points so I bought the drawtite (I think) trailer hitch and bolted that up to have somewhere to pull from if I got stuck when hunting. Word of advice on that thing is PULL OFF THE BUMPER. I installed it months ago and im just getting knuckles back now. You cant get a good grip on the nut, bolt or wrenchs up there and the bolts do not turn easily. Take the 15 minutes and pull your bumper off. You will save at least an hour in the long run.

I picked up a Thule snowboard rack off Ebay for about half the cost of a new one (http://www.thuleracks.com/product.asp?dept_id=9&sku=575) but ran into some space issues with the basket and my cross bars not being long enough to fit both. I used about 4 feet of 1” square tubing and fabbed the brackets you see below.




These are also bolted (two nuts and locktite so it doesn’t rattle loose and is hard to steal) on with bent threaded rod. They are solid as can be and I plan on using them to hold a bike rack or a kayak come summer. A word of advice if you build a similar design you really need to watch your height very closely, I drove into the West Edmonton Mall parkade and cleared the height restriction bar but the snowboard racks hit the concrete anyways and ripped off the roof (I fixed them using some small-ish machine screws).

That pretty much covers the top of my Patriot.

I installed the RR 2” lift a week and a half ago and it took about 4 hours (with a 45 minute dinner break). The install went smoothly with one or two exceptions. Tools required are: Bungee Cord, socket set (15mm, 18mm deep dish, 19mm), the same sizes for wrenches and a 21mm wrench, most important tool is a friend, makes life alot easier. A brass punch and a hammer are also required. The biggest thing that stands out in my memory is the rear upper control arm. My dad and I both pulled on a ½” breaker bar with a snipe for the longest time trying to break free the nut on the top side of the control arm. Turns out (yes, I am an idiot, but better to tell you all then you guys waste time doing the same thing) that the nut is welded, one hand on a wrench will break free the bolt side of it. The mounts for the new control arms were a little wider than the stock control arm so you have to widen the brackets with a few gentle taps of the hammer. Other than that an easy install.

I installed my tires (BFG A/T 225/75R16) the next day and they fit pretty well, just rub a bit when you crank it hard either way. They also only come in LT tires which ride a lot stiffer than the stock P-metric tires, but it just makes it feel more like a truck. Don’t let anyone charge you hourly to do your alignment, I had to call about 15 shops around Edmonton all of which were talking around $300 to do my wheel alignment. I ended up getting it done at City Spring on the southside for $85 (shameless plug if anyone is around Edmonton and getting it done, these guys did good work and were super helpful).

I’ve built a mount for tow points as I don’t have stock tow hooks. There is another post with it, but basically I bolted a 2” piece of ¼” wall square tubing to the bottom of the stock bumper and used ¼” or 3/8” x 1” flat bar bolted up through the frame the same way the stock tow hooks are. It mounts almost identical to the stock hooks and sticks out as seen here:





The piece bolted to the bumper has two more pieces of the same material coming out through the holes in the front of the bumper. I am still working on my shackles for this. I just picked up some 1 ½” Bar stock I need to drill a couple holes in and contour to fit the shackles I have. In the future is a bull bar im going to bend myself to mount into these two receivers on the front of her. This is going to get two 8” lights for a little more lighting yet. The bull bar might also get expanded to a tubular bumper that I can put on and take off.

Other stuff to come is a custom skid plate design. We use a ¼” thick plastic on our Quads and it works pretty good. I am worried more about the odd tree or branch and snow than rocks though so it might not work for others. I’m also going to wire up the trailer hitch and when I do that add a light on the back of the basket as a reverse light (maybe to mess with tailgaters too). The rear bumper is getting some changes too. I am putting grip tape on the whole thing so I can get up to basket safer. I am also building a spare tire bracket and Jerry-Can holder that mounts to the trailer hitch. This will swing out of the way so I can get into the tailgate. The interior looks like it should have 'OH $HIT' handles, does the trail rated version have them and does anyone know how to install them?

So as you can see I have a few ideas up my sleeve yet. Anyone have any more for me or any questions about what I have done so far?