METALCLOAK VIDEO: MetalCloak's Rigs & Wrenches EP.2 – Tara McGovern | Moab, UT
In this episode of MetalCloak's Rigs & Wrenches, we meet Tara McGovern, a dedicated Jeep enthusiast and marketing professional who shares her journey of rebuilding and refreshing her 2017 Jeep JK Wrangler. After pushing her previous setup to over 100,000 miles and enduring multiple axle failures, Tara decided to strip her Jeep down to the frame and tub, rewiring and upgrading every component for enhanced performance and reliability. Key upgrades include swapping to Dana 60 axles front and rear, installing MetalCloak’s Game-Changer Suspension System, and tuning the RockSport Black Adjustable Shocks with custom coil adjustments to handle heavy loads and towing. Tara also discusses her choice to avoid a long-arm suspension setup, emphasizing the importance of tailoring the build to personal use and real-world performance. From winter highway drives at high speeds to off-road challenges like King of the Hammers, Tara’s Jeep now offers a smooth, stable ride that reignited her passion for driving. Follow Tara’s journey on Instagram @roveandreverie to see this rig in action on the trails.
Complete Transcript with Time Stamps:
[00:13] Mike here in Moab, Utah. I've got Tara McGovern here with her beautiful and freshly built JK. Right? Mhmm. Rebuilt again.
[00:21] Where are you from, and what do you do? I live in Denver, and then my other home is Washington State. It's actually really, you know, PNW is really home. And what I do is right now, I'm head of US marketing for Frontrunner Dometic. And prior to that, and still currently own a marketing agency in Jeep specific things. So it's all Jeep life. Nice, Jeep life is is awesome.
[00:43] So the reason why we're interviewing Tara is, we recently helped her out with a build on this JK. It was kind of a refresh, right? I mean, you've had it for how long? It was a, I've had it since it had eleven thousand miles on it, and it has been rebuilt three times. I made those stock axles work until they were dead three times over, and then decided to take it down to the tub and the frame and everything. I did the wiring, everything. Every little thing on it, it's kind of a new vehicle. So it was one of those where, I called Scott and said I just wanna love driving my Jeep again.
[01:17] Yeah, I remember that. So we helped her out. Let's do a little walk around, tell me about what's going on. Alright. So what's going on? It started with obviously, the biggest change was the axles with the UD 60's front and rear. Just kind of trying to, my past issues were always blowing up the 44's, because I do a lot of heavy towing and heavy wheeling and they were not surviving. So started with the UD 60's.
[01:43] Obviously, we've got the MetalCloak RockSport Shocks, which are my favorite thing and still make me giggle driving down road sometimes because they're that good. It's like, you expect things to go swirly and they don't, and I love it. And of course, did the Game-Changer kit on it as well. One of the few things we did different, obviously, because I am loaded so heavy in the back and tow a lot is there is an extra inch on the coil in the back just like you guys do for your Rocklander Kit for the JL. Did the same thing on this one, which kind of keeps it all dialed in perfectly for everything. Yeah it helps take out on that extra four hundred pounds if you're overlanding. Perfectly it's leveled out once, yeah once that one's in there.
[02:17] Same thing up front. I kept it simple. I did not long arm it like the entire internet tells you to do, because the argument I have and the whole internet will argue is that you actually don't need the long arm all of the time, most of the time, and that I wheel all the same things that all the guys with the long arms do. So it's more of like application, what you're using it for, and what's important to you. So I kept it without doing the adjustments for the long arm.
[02:42] What did you notice, about the ride quality on the MetalCloak stuff after you put it on? So its first run, the day after it was done being built, was to Hammers and back from Denver. Oh, nice. Which is, in the winter, not an easy drive. It is snow, ice, high speed, and I remember I probably shouldn't admit to it. It's not, I don't know what state I was in, but I hit about ninety five, and I could let go of the steering wheel and it just A. it tracked, but every bump I hit it just kinda floated over. And I remember calling Scott and I was like, kind of giggling. I'm like this is amazing, because I was so used to, you know, clapped out. You know?
[03:14] And we saw some we saw some footage of you kinda bombing through the desert too. Yep, so I had somebody track me at Hammers with it because I was playing with obviously, the shock settings and seeing, you know, and it's hard from inside to tell what it looks like, how it's moving. So I'm like, just track me rolling down. Since I hit about forty five miles an hour through that little whoop suction coming out of Hammers just to see what it would do, if it would hold steady.
[03:34] We had a, because I manage a lot of the social media and I had a guy, a customer of ours. He's like, I want my Jeep to do that in the future. So, and that was the messages I got. And it's like, from the inside, it's hard to feel it, see it. And when I saw that, that's the messages I got from people. That was an extra six hundred pounds loaded into the back of the vehicle, and it was moving like that. Obviously, the shocks were highest setting and they were, as Ozzy said, doing work.
[03:58] But yeah, the stability difference in it is wild. Awesome. Yeah, I've had a few different things on there. Obviously, put a hundred thousand miles on what was on there, so I can't complain too much, but a world of difference. It looks great. I like the wrap too. I mean, everything kinda tied in together. Yep.
[04:14] It looks great, but it also works better than it's ever worked before. And that was the goal of, I was tired of the frustrations of something not always working, something not quite being right. So it's like, I just wanna be excited about driving my Jeep again.
[05:58] We appreciate you coming out today and showing us the rig, flexing it out. You're probably still, it's fresh so you still got a little kinks you're working out. We're down to the last few things. But yeah, overall I'm happy. Awesome. It's, she's doing a good job. I have no complaints.
[06:14] And, your Instagram handle's up there, right? Yeah, it's on the back. It's @roveandreverie. Rove and reverie. We'll get a little shot of that. Yeah. Kept it on the back top. Yeah, it looks great. Put the wrap on there and then. What year is this? Seventeen. Last of the JKs. Yeah.
[06:35] So make sure you give her a follow and hopefully, you see this rig out on the trail. Not broken. Not broken down. We we never want that. I mean it is a Jeep thing, right? But if it's not, if it's not getting used then why own it, right? That's the point. So, okay cool. Thanks for coming in. Thanks. Alright, good to see you.
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