[Jaxxa]

So, uh,
I kinda wanted to own a Jeep, but I accidentally typed "Juke" into Google instead
Just Kidding--
I got fed up shopping for Jeeps very quickly, they were expensive and you didn't get much more than an (admittedly) solid drivetrain and a piece of canvas to keep you dry.
The Juke had always caught my eye- a tall hatchback-crossover with exaggerated fender flares and some offroad rally styling cues... and then it all clicked together in my mind

I would have a Juke on one condition:

I would be solely responsible for turning a perfectly good Juke into something (it will probably not succeed at being) but has ALWAYS WANTED TO BE
(and because nobody seemed to be doing a build like this)
Except for those Russians from a couple weeks ago, that was pretty bada$$ (but doesn't count because it's a Juke shell on a 4x4 frame, just sayin')
But that was probably an indication that I should let people know that I'm working on this project pretty seriously, even though I'm broke and It's going to take forever.

So here's where I'm at, at this stage: about 1.5" lift, 245/65r17 - 29.5" tires - 2012 Juke SV AWD (of course), and honestly it's a pretty good setup it could stay this way... could*

View attachment 178819
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I call her "Mavw Mawv" because it looks like a complete mess when you write it in all caps MAVWMAWV
and yes, I am insane.

Also shout out to NISMO Offroad, he is the OG and forum LEGEND, and I don't want to steal his thunder - even though this build is gonna get real obnoxious, I am certainly not the first person to do an offroad Juke build.

 

[Macgyver]

Looks Great. Juke scales so well raised and lowered.

 

[turbo noob]

Look like so much fun just climbing over **** not giving a fuk about bottoming out lol

 

[Swiftab]

Very nice. Welcome

 

[Nismo Offroad]

Great start. Love those tires! Can’t wait to see further what you come up with.

Still wish I could go over 28” tires without cutting the bumpers! I drove over a fountain drink in the parking lot the other day thought I may clip the straw but didn’t.

Wish I could continue on with mine but gotta build new house first...

 

[steve500]

Love that you started a thread. Awesome looking juke. Glad to see I am not the only crazy one that wants to do this to my juke. I have been driving 4x4 vehicles since the beginning so, being in a "normal height" car is hard but I enjoy the extra few MPGs the juke gets over my current 4x4, my 07 offroad nissan xterra.

My advice is to not increase tire size too much, you're only going to continue to take away from the ability to put power to the ground and stress that transmission the larger those tires are- I don't believe it's going to be easy to regear the differentials in the juke, heh. Stick with a happy medium and throw some skid plates on that baby. https://www.tbwperformance.com/nissan-juke-aluminum-under-tray-skid-plate/

Maybe some custom off road lighting... sliders, snorkel :distrust:

 

[Jaxxa]

Hey everybody, early February update!

I've been living with these 29.5s since August, each tire is a whopping 11lbs over stock and I've put around 6000 miles on them so far. It didn't affect the drivablity of the car NEARLY as much as I had initially feared and I have to say I probably drive my car even harder now than when I first got it.
I still enter tight right hand turns at 30mph, and always get to the front of the line at a stop light just so I can launch past everyone about 0-50 and then ease back down to whatever the speed limit is, lmao.

After about a month of driving I tested the speedometer and the odometer and the car was reading everything accurately, this is without me doing anything to the ecu whatsoever, it had relearned everything completely on it's own. My Juke has the SV trim with the navigation so I assume it recalculated it via GPS signals, but after reading through the service manuals, I have no idea if that is actually a thing.

That being said, I think the car has also adjusted how the CVT responds as well. It's probably a little bit slower 0-10mph, but everything past that pretty much feels the same.
I've gone from about 19-21mpg to about 17-19mpg according to the display, but like I said, I drive it way harder than before overall.

The only drawback I can really say is that when it was stock, I had gotten it up to 110mph in the middle of nowhere before I decided that was as fast as I wanted to go...
I just got back from a highway drive where it was open for a bit, so I put it to the floor and it just about maxed out at 95mph
let's call it a "responsible mod" because for the most part the fastest anyone really needs to drive on the highway is like 80.

I'm gonna go ahead and put it out there-- the way the car has handled this so far has made me feel pretty confident in pushing it further.
I'm not going to stop until I get to my absolute end-goal which is fabricated front control arms, another inch of lift, full fiberglass overfenders
and I kid you not, I will fit 33x11.5s under the Juke

And you can all go ahead and doubt me if you want, but I've spent the past year measuring and doing the math, and it should only rub a little bit on the front subframe at about 90% lock.
Because of course they'll rub, it's 33s on a Juke, I may be crazy, but at least I'm honest about it.

 

[Macgyver]

It is a great mod for sure. Glad you are having fun with them and they work well.

On a side note. The tires are 3" larger on the diameter. 26.375" diam vs 29.5" diam. The Juke ECU does not learn tire size. My Taurus SHO. You can input the changes into the menu and the car will adapt.

The speed and mpg differences you see are from this tire change. Its about a 10% change. Right where your MPG is and your MPH are.

Its all good. Not complaining. Just clearing some things up so if anyone else wants to do this they know ahead of time what they will lose/gain.

https://www.wheel-size.com/calc/?wh...65-17X7ET45&fcl=50mm&wcl=30mm&scl=50mm&sr=0mm

 

[Jaxxa]

From the 215/55r17s it's a 12% difference
That should translate to 12% more distance traveled per tire rotation
If that's the case then my car should be traveling 12% faster than the speedometer, and the odometer should be 12% less than the actual miles I've traveled.
As far as I can tell this does not seem to be happening; I took a 1300 mile round trip to Charleston WV and when I got back the trip meter was just a little over 1300, without any sort of correction, it should have been about 1100.
I can also most definitely vouch for the speed, especially driving next to people on the highway, 70 is 70, faster traffic is about 80, and 80 definitely does not feel like 90

And I mostly drive on the highway at 80, so if I was actually doing 90 in a 65, I probably should have been arrested by now, lol.

But yeah I can understand that 12% really isn't that much, and I hear that most speed enforcement has to be lenient within 7-10% specifically because of differences in tire size and tire wear
My stock tires were so bald when I changed them, I measured them at 25.5" which is ridiculous

Maybe in about a year, year and a half or so, I'll be ready for the 33s and we can test it again

 

[Herman.TM]

From the 215/55r17s it's a 12% difference
That should translate to 12% more distance traveled per tire rotation
If that's the case then my car should be traveling 12% faster than the speedometer, and the odometer should be 12% less than the actual miles I've traveled.
As far as I can tell this does not seem to be happening; I took a 1300 mile round trip to Charleston WV and when I got back the trip meter was just a little over 1300, without any sort of correction, it should have been about 1100.
I can also most definitely vouch for the speed, especially driving next to people on the highway, 70 is 70, faster traffic is about 80, and 80 definitely does not feel like 90

And I mostly drive on the highway at 80, so if I was actually doing 90 in a 65, I probably should have been arrested by now, lol.

But yeah I can understand that 12% really isn't that much, and I hear that most speed enforcement has to be lenient within 7-10% specifically because of differences in tire size and tire wear
My stock tires were so bald when I changed them, I measured them at 25.5" which is ridiculous

Maybe in about a year, year and a half or so, I'll be ready for the 33s and we can test it again

Did you think about testing with a mobile navigation. This should be able to messure the speed an log the track..

Gesendet von meinem G8141 mit Tapatalk

 

[Macgyver]

You got me there. I was thinking the wrong way. MPG loss might be a result of driving style and rotational mass/diameter increase.

But with what you just stated. 12% of 60mph means you are doing 67mph. 1.12x60=67.2 The Juke dos not relearn tire diameters. Your true speed will be off. There is a big difference between a used/bald tire and tires that are 3" bigger in diameter.

Click on that link. Specs dont lie.

 

[Jaxxa]

Backstory:

Here's behind the scenes of what I've been working on over the last year+.

As early as December 2015, I downloaded a free model of the Juke just to try and prototype some ideas; I knew I wanted to bring out the offroad look I could see in the Juke, so I modeled some meaty tires, fender flares, classic Juke-R spoiler (which I keep going back and forth on whether or not I like it) I come to find out later that the fenders among other things are so far off, it's incredible I worked on it for so long, but I developed a look I was happy with on a platform that I was not yet sure would work...

I tried to do as much research as possible, finding only a handful of other offroad builds, but it was difficult to find very specific references for the stock suspension, clearances of fenders, and what is behind all of that plastic and sheet metal if I do decide I need to cut something.

After about a year and a half of that, I was running out of resources. There was no way I could continue the project without first hand experience of a Nissan Juke, and I had to ask myself the question "do I believe enough in this project to invest real time and money into it?"
So, I went out mid-August of 2017 and purchased the first car I ever owned - completely based on the fantasy that I would one day make this a respectable off road vehicle - a 2012 Nissan Juke SV AWD
For good or for worse.
Not exactly the cleanest example, but if I'm going to hack it to bits, it probably sounds about right.

I invested fairly early on in a high quality 3D model of the gen1 Juke, which was about $60, but has been totally worth it as far as visualization

The model is not a perfect 1:1, but many of the proportions are very close. For the important sections I still depended heavily on manual measurements off the vehicle, and for a few things I even scanned via photogrammetry, which I still tend not to trust, but makes for a good reference.

Fast forward, and funny story, I decided that 1.25" spacers would work best to sit flush with the arches... realized later I actually bought 35mm spacers "with 1.25 studs" but it worked out fine
I had modeled everything out: 17x7 ET+47, 35mm spacers, inner front fenders, strut placement, etc...
I was so worried about rubbing, that I thought for a while the biggest tire I was going to be able to fit was a Cooper 235/60 AT
But when I factored out the pinch welds (which was a big 'IF') and accounted for the space outside of the liners, it was borderline inconclusive whether a 245/65 would fit
I was browsing Discount Tire one day and I was checking out on the 245/65 Nittos to see how much the shipping would be...
It turns out they never give you a shipping page-- it just puts in the order to the store, they get shipped there and then you pay for them at the store.

So I kinda bought the tires on complete accident as well, and then I also had only a week to make sure the front end was ready for them before I had to go and get them installed.
I'm glad it happened like that, though, because it had been an entire year and I had only gotten as far as the spacers and the lift kit

I cut the liners, bent the pinch welds back (Hastily) cut slivers off the plastic over-fenders
--And then they went on, it rubbed pretty good reversing out of the shop, but I drove all the way home and it barely rubbed. Over the next week or so I was able to mount the liners and finish up the pinch weld to where it never rubbed again.

Not only was it shocking to me that it was possible, it meant that my CAD solution had created a real-world result.
And that means that I have the power to push the envelope to see what's possible, without having to rely on real world brute force and trial & error.

I never realized how much I curse until I have to show these videos to actual people. It's all lighthearted with me though, and it's all to convey my genuine amazement over my accomplishment.

 

[Nismo Offroad]

Great job Nice work! Yea it takes a lot of math and measuring to fit big tires. Guess you can’t stay that size and go out anymore or get mud flaps without cutting the body that is...

Mud flaps pretty much did me in for rubbing but I’m not going to loose those, and it’s only on slow hard turns.

 

[Jaxxa]

Yeah I tried to get some mudflaps on when I went to Virginia, but I couldn't do anything on the front. I actually managed to get the rear OEM molded ones to fit back on, but they look pretty pathetic, because the tire sticks out 2 inches past it now, haha

 

[Jaxxa]

Mac was right

I got a GPS speedometer app and got a chance where I could hold 60mph for a couple minutes and it read 67 steadily
The trip meter read 6.2 miles and the app said I had gone 7.0 (12% off)

The Juke had lulled me into a false sense of security with it ease to drive and I had believed it based entirely on poorly estimated self-derived information

I should have figured my baseline was off, because it's Florida. EVERYBODY in the state does about 10 over (and extra mileage on my Virginia trip could have been a fluke.)

Thoroughly disgusted in myself now, because I tend to watch the road more than my speedometer (the way it ought to be) but when I do look down I'm usually about 10 over by my speedo
That means in some cases I'm very blatantly driving 15-20mph over the speed limit CONSTANTLY; and the worst part is I'm doing it so complacently that it feels normal.
10 over is fine by me, but now I feel like a full blown criminal, so I'll have to come to terms with that. :nevreness:
It's seriously a miracle I still have a license.

So that 95 pull I did the other day? probably safe to say that was about 110.
The reason why that fact is so bizarre to me is that the last time I did 110 it was scary as hell and I thought I was going to fly off the road and my engine was going to explode...
With the increased height, increased sidewall and increased scrub radius, it somehow managed to handle better than stock?

I'm sure a lot of you have your Jukes built for REAL performance who have actual experience on how to make a Juke handle better than stock, so in all honesty mine's probably not THAT much better than stock, but I am staggeringly impressed with how the Juke is operating on this setup.

 

[Macgyver]

As long as you know what speed you are going now. Its all good.

Heavier unsprung weight at each corner of the Juke prolly made her seem more planted at speed as well as the larger rolling diameter keeping you in a straight line. These two things might have offset the amount of air getting under and potentially making the Juke feel more unstable.

She works. Looks good and you have set the bar for others to follow.

 

[Jaxxa]

Walked outside the other day and decided that I'm disappointed.

My tires are just too dang small, and it doesn't even look lifted! I guess 1.5" of lift and going up 3" on tires kind of visually cancels itself out. Even more aggressive tires are in the works, along with some pretty aggressive ideas to maximize the lift, which I ended up emailing Matt over at Fast Religion for some guidance-- but those ideas are taking too long, and I want results! So against any sort of better judgement, I've dropped just short of a grand on a full BC Coilover system. Considering I was very close to spending $500+ on Fox Reservoir shocks just for the rear (and just for bragging rights) the coilovers are probably the smart move, especially following the precedent set by Nismo Offroad and the custom spring rate setup on his BC's.

Most people start off with the small mods, like a pulley or a CVT cooler would have probably been a good idea a while ago...

but, priorities, man.


In other news, I finally fixed my stock shocks not being long enough to cope with the lift. I ended up buying some 2" shock extenders off the shelf and tapping them out to 3/8 20 thread so that they would screw on to the stem. Actually I should say I bought two sets and tapped them out, because I accidentally tightened one of them too much and sheared one of them (baffling, because it couldn't have been more than like 20ft/lb with a socket) Which is really why I was so eager to find a custom application shock upgrade because I don't have very much faith in those extensions after that.
The shock extensions were at the recommendation of Nismo Offroad, again. He said he had some problems with extending the shocks that came with the BC kit, I wonder probably because the dampening adjustment is at the top of the stem? I will probably have to explore a different solution to extend them, or just make due with the modified stock shocks for a while.

 

[Nismo Offroad]

So which version/style did you go with? I extended mine from the bottom but I think you are talking about yours at the top of the shocks?

 

[Jaxxa]

Haha yes, they are the screw on top style ones, what a hassle those were! I saw a bunch of different types of "shock extensions" but most of the time they were all unclear as to the application, bolt size, mounting size etc. I never came across that one, but I also never thought to search "eyelet to eyelet". (I probably should have followed up on that PM I sent, lmao)
I see this one on summit racing, now. $60 sounds like a lot, considering the screw on ones were only about $10, but if I've got this right, the shocks from BC have the comp/damp adjustment at the top of the stem and sits inside the vehicle? The eyelet one is probably the only one that would work with them.

Did you have to put washers in to mount them properly? Looks like there's about 1.75" between the tabs on the Juke, and most shocks only need 1.25"

 

[Nismo Offroad]

Yes the stem is where you adjust dampening. So this is where I mentioned I altered or modified mine to install. Did you ever try contacting Keoke about his shock extenders? Maybe he had more luck and got the correct ones. I paid less for mine maybe half that but again not exact fit!