2020 Defender Max Lonestar

[pmbaseball24]

Hope everyone had a good Christmas! Here is where my machine currently sits with a list of mods as well as some mods to come in the future. If anyone has any questions, I’m happy to answer.

List of current mods:

14” System 3 SB-3 5+2 true beadlock wheels

30” CST Apache tires

S3 motorosports HD springs 

Seizmik front poly windshield 

Corbin custom works street legal kit with license plate light and horn kit

Can-Am sport fender flares 

1” rear wheel spacers 

Can-Am front roof liner. Wet Sounds MC-2 headunit. Wet sounds Recon 6.5” speakers.

Can-Am rear view mirror 

Black oak LED pod lights on front bumper

NOCO charger in dash wired direct to battery

Front and rear dome lights

Mud busters rear wheel well liners

Volt meter installed in dash (realized later that this info is an option on the factory dash display. Oh well.

Replaced all factory fluids with Royal Purple. (I’m a little OCD with this stuff)

”Custom” car seat in the rear for the little guy. Just kidding on the custom part. 

List of future mods: 

RotopaX 4 gallon gas can custom mounted in bed

Can-am factory door kit

 

[pmbaseball24]

1/4/20 update:

Added the 4 gallon rotopax mounted direct to the rear portion of the bed. Pretty straight forward install. Everything lined up perfect for drilling the holes straight through the bed without hitting any of the extra plastic molded on the outside of the bed.

Added the low beam auxito led headlights. high beams are on the way and will be installed in a few days. A couple things I came across with this install... first of all, they are designed with no fans, but have a large heat sink on the back. Fired them up last night and they are super bright but they get hot!!! Measured a temp of 175 degrees on the heat sink with my IR gun. Is this normal? I don’t know.
The directions for install call for a specific orientation of the led chip to be in once installed. When you install them in our headlight assemblies, they don’t line up properly. To fix this, I had to remove the tiny Phillips head set screw on the plastic mounting piece and pry it loose. It’s just held in with a little super glue it looks like. I dry fitted them into our headlights and got the orientation correct (aluminum housing faces north to south, LED chips face outward East to west) marked them, a little JB weld overnight and we are good as new. No use for the set screw after this process is done because you have lost the hole. Overall, very happy with the brightness of these versus stock. I just hope the heat doesn’t become an issue.

Also added some prototype puck style spacers that S3 powersports sent me. Big shout out to those guys. Daniel has been super helpful. I installed the spring kit from S3 a few weeks back. After settling the new suspension, the rear actually measured about 3/4” lower than the front. I had the spring adjustments turned all the way “up” in the rear and all the way “down” in the front. 3/4” was as close as I could get it. I wasn’t after lift with this spring kit, more looking to improve ride quality and get rid of body roll.  I definitely wanted the rear higher than the front when unloaded to account for cargo load weighing the rear down a bit on a consistent basis. 
I reached out to those guys and sent them some pictures and measurements of what was going on. Pucks showed up and they fit in perfect once I got the springs compressed. Reinstalled the shocks, adjusted the spring retainer up to the third notch this time, settled the suspension and now the rear is sitting 1/4” higher than the front. Very happy with this outcome and a huge shoutout to those guys.

 

[supersix]

Wow, what an incredible build!  How smooth are those tires on the street compared to the stock tires?  

 

[pmbaseball24]

I’m really impressed with them both on and off road. On road, huge difference and very smooth with much less noise. Off-road, pick your line and these things dig right in. I’m running 13 psi on all 4.

 

[pmbaseball24]

Build update:

Replaced the brake pads with Race Driven pads. Amazing difference. Brakes are silent, the way you would figure they should be from the factory. Brooke over at race driven was great to deal with. She explained the factory pads do not have much (if any?) brass content. The add this In their pad formula and it makes a huge difference. Took it for a spin and they seem to perform the same as the factory pads as far as stopping power. Great product for sure!

Also finished the high beam Auxito led headlight project. 

Added the rear KC backup lights and factory backup switch in the dash. Great idea started by Stapleton! 

Installed a wireless remote kit for the winch. Works great! Re-spooling the winch is now a 1 man job!

While I was changing the brakes I also decided to remove the front sway bar to get a little more articulation from the front end. The new springs from S3 are more firm so I didn’t imagine I would notice a huge difference in body roll/ cornering from just removing the front. Took it for a ride after removal and it was barely noticeable. Off-road, it seemed to smooth out on rough terrain. Took it a step further and removed the rear sway bar. We use our defender very light and really never hit any high speeds or high speed corners. It is more noticeable with the rear removed, but I am going to leave it this way and see how it performs when we go riding tomorrow. 

 

[JDK]

Looking good. I really like those factory look switches. I added a front light bar and the switch that came with the wiring harnessis a little different than the stock ones. I will be SWITCHING it out for sure, ha!

Now I have to upgrade the stock bulbs to get the same color. You don’t realize how yellow the factory lights are until you put a 5k led light in between the headlights. 

I’ll be interested to see how you like the no sway bar long term. I’m not afraid to open mine up on the good roads, and the body roll without the sway bar would scare me I think. I wonder if anyone makes sway bar-quick disconnects like on jeeps? Best of both worlds then. That might be a million dollar idea, I call dibs!

 

[pmbaseball24]

Thanks JDK. I got all the switches from a guy on eBay. His name on there is nelson6184. He sells all the matching switches with the correct color backlight.

Went for another ride today and I have to say I’m happy with the new ride and handling. The only reason I even entertained removing the bars was because I have the stiff springs. The increase in suspension articulation in rough terrain is much improved which makes the ride significantly better. I can tell there is a little more body roll on flat roads but it doesn’t seem to be much different from stock.  As these springs get broken in, I’ll keep you posted. If the handling deteriorates, the back one will go back on. I think the front one has found itself a permanent home on my garage shelf.

 

[Dragoon]

Looking badass man! 

 

[pmbaseball24]

Thanks Dragoon!

 

[Nekelneh]

How do you like the sport fender flares? Would you rather have gone w the bigger ones?

 

[pmbaseball24]

Very happy with them! We don’t get into much heavy mud/ snow riding out here in the desert, so these suit my needs perfectly. I’m very happy with the look of them too.

 

[Mark in Colorado]

Ok - that monster is just way too clean..!  

 

[pmbaseball24]

 she isn’t so clean any more. It was fun while it lasted though!

 

[Phillip]

Nice build!  How well does the sport flares work?  I need to add some to mine.  The full flares prob do better but look gaudy.  What's your thoughts on the sports you have?  Thanks

 

[pmbaseball24]

Already posed about this on a different thread. Wanted to update my build with a before and after picture. New steering wheel from assault industries.

Two small side noteS, this wheel is about an inch smaller in diameter than the stock wheel. Not a bad thing if you ask me. 

The “standoff” of the new wheel plus hub adapter is almost identical to the “all in one” factory steering wheel/hub adapter. I wasn’t sure how this was going to work out because the factory wheel is recessed a few inches back to where the splines are. New adapter + new wheel is almost the same. I don’t know if they are designed to finish at the same dimension as factory wheels or if I just got lucky. Either way, just wanted to point this out if anyone is wondering!
 

Wireless Ram charger up next! 

 

[pmbaseball24]

Ram Wireless charger added.

 

[MasterOfDisaster]

Really like your shifter gate. Is that custom?

 

[TMiller9280]

@pmbaseball24 - new to the forum as we are planning to order our Lone Star this Spring. Your setup is probably one of the best I've seen! Quick question on the tires, did the 30x10x14's clear without any rubbing or issues? Thanks for the help!

 

[pmbaseball24]

@pmbaseball24 - new to the forum as we are planning to order our Lone Star this Spring. Your setup is probably one of the best I've seen! Quick question on the tires, did the 30x10x14's clear without any rubbing or issues? Thanks for the help!

Thank you! Been a while since I have been on here. Yes, the tires clear with no rubbing at all.  Let me know if you have any other questions!