New to Jeep Skool - looking for feed back

[Dlatham13]

Last Saturday my three year old boy and I hit the trails at Jeep Skool for the first time. We are hooked. I realize the my 09' JK may need some modifications to make off-road driving potentially less damaging and more enjoyable. This JK is my only vehicle so I am looking for modifications that won't restrict daily driving use, but will allow for more aggressive, but not necessarily extreme, off road driving. I would appreciate anybody's opinion on the following:
1) skid plates for the muffler, oil pan, steering box, front end - vehicle came equipped with fuel tank and transfer case skid plate shields
2) rocker guards, rock sliders or side steps - I heard from some Skoolers that they have been hung up in places because of rocker guards and that side steps can get pretty beat up
3)tubular bumpers for front or rear and grill guards
4) grill inserts
5) body lift kits/suspension systems
6)tires and wheels - came equipped with 17"x7.5" wheels and 255/75R17 Goodyear Wrangler tires
7) axle ratio - came with 3.21
8) differential types

[badsparky]

Welcome to JeepSkool - I'm glad you and your boy had a great time out here.

Calm down there killer - Put the credit cards away. Do your research before you run out and start buying everything in the catalog. Check out what others are running and make informed decisions. You will develop better off road skills driving a stock vehicle for a while. You will be amazed at what you can do stock. You may also decide to buy a beater 4x4 to beat up instead of your daily driver. This could be more cost effective and it will eliminate the worry of beating up a $20,000+ vehicle. You can build a very capable old Jeep for a few thousand bucks.

The first items I would focus on are recovery related. Do you have all the hooks, d-rings, straps you need? Should you pick up a winch (and bumper)?

Second items would be skid plates and rock rails - cover up your vitals.

Then finally look into some tires and a lift and altering gear ratios.

Leave the grill inserts in the catalog. They won't help your rig go any better off road.

[86ford]

Welcome!

I vote for buying a beater 4wd. The group I run with has a few of them. The Ranger only has about 1300 dollars total investment but 80-100 hrs of our time working on it.

86

[RoboJr]

Recovery items first. It won't matter what else you have on your Jeep if you can't get out of a mud hole. (and they ALL get stuck eventually).

Welcome aboard. Glad you had fun with us. Will we see you next month?

[JFolkLFD10946]

I have the exact same jeep you do and here is what I have done and I did perfectly fine on Sunday.

Cold air intake, Exhaust, KC Lights, Teraflex Leveling Kit, Skyjacker Shocks and Steering Stabilizer, Steering Stabilizer Relocation Bracket, Front Tow Hooks, Rear Tow Hook, Rugged Ridge Front Skid Plates, and some 33" Buckshot Mudders.

Soon to come: Aussie Front Locker for the Dana 30 and some Homemade Rock Sliders Designed after the Shockwork Rails.

Let me know if you have any questions or if you want to hook up in April for a little JK Ride.

[The Mud Princess]

I certainly agree about driving stock , it Greatly improves your skills.

[ToledoDan]

Robo Jr., BadSparky and JFolkLFD10946 nailed it on the head.

I think we would all agree recovery gear first, because no matter how big you grow this jeep sooner or later you will need it. Everything else afterwards can be added as budget allows. Don't worry too much about the winch unless you can afford it. If you ever get stuck at JS, people will come racing to the rescue just for the oppurtunity to have bragging rights that they used their winch today to get somebody unstuck. And not always will it be your winch that gets you unstuck anyways.

viewtopic.php?p=75991#p75991

BTW, if you like the grill inserts, get them. It is stuff like this that makes your jeep unique.

Keep your end goal in mind as you build this rig. It will save you from buying things twice.

[H0USE34]

I certainly agree about driving stock , it Greatly improves your skills.

x2 on this. I drove my Liberty around for months stock. The only thing I added was tow hooks. Than I went to tires I knew would fit without lift but would look good with the lift. Next thing I added was the lift. I would say wheeling my rig stock first really helped me know its limitations and what I needed to add to get it to where I wanted it. The Libby is a DD too. I heavily recomend skid plates too. I don't have them and have dodged a few bullets. Before next month I am hoping to have some. Rock Rails are another good addition. Yes you can get hung up on them from time to time but its better to have them and be hung up than not have them and sustain damage to your rocker panel.(I learned that the hard way)

[ToledoDan]

second the driving stock. before I got my rubicon, I had a Nissan Torrano II (european make) when I lived in Portugal. I drove around with just a limited slip rear, open front, 30" tires with the torsion bars torqued a bit and a come-a-long in case I got stuck. the fun factor was the same as the rubicon because it was all about challenging what me and the vehicle was capable of. Of course I could not do what I can with the rubicon, but it was a lot of fun challenging the limits of this machine. To be honest when I got the rubicon, my first time out, I was hitting the same type of stuff I would have with the Torrano and thought to myself, this is not really all that fun, becasue it was not even a challenge. then I learned what this thing was capable of doing and it was fun again.

and yes, get the rock sliders, espeacially with the 4dr. i have the 2dr unlimited so mine is a little longer on the wheelbase and they have proved useful. just look at the bottom of mine. figure this is probably the most likely thing to get damaged (outside of magnetic trees) and you will either need to pay your insurance deductable to get them fixed and then be convinced you need rock sliders and buy them, or just buy them and forget the deductable.

[RossVeez]

do you already have the OEM front tow hook? if not I'll sell you mine off my '07 my lease is up and I'm taking all my stuff off of it.

I also have black grill insterts, windshield mounts for fog lights and daystyar upper and lower dash pannels and some other stuff I'm pulling off, um, factory rock sliders for the 2dr, stock plastic bumper cover(the one pictured) with the sides cut off so its nice and short

[BillaksBlazer]

veezy those are the warn rock sliders that you have.

[DocRick]

Welcome aboard.

Doc Rick

[Dlatham13]

Thanks for all the input. My Jeep came equipped with two tow hooks in the front and one tow hook in the rear, and I purchased tow ropes. It seems the next step is to protect the underside and rocker panels with skid plates and rock rails. That sounds inexpensive relative to the cost of body work or replacing an oil pan. Much appreciation to all and look forward to seeing you in April.

[jstreets]

I'm look for help first off i drive a1996 tacoma i just bought 31 12.50 15 thornbirds ,3inch lift,and latre plan to put bidy lift on i have the strap and hooks from my other trucks but what i cant find is if you go wheeling every week end i heard it was once a month i am lookin for 2 used 33 12.50 15 thornbirds if any body has some but i do need 6 lug rims dont care what shape and lookin for mis parts that wpuld work on it

[RoboJr]

I'm look for help first off i drive a1996 tacoma i just bought 31 12.50 15 thornbirds ,3inch lift,and latre plan to put bidy lift on i have the strap and hooks from my other trucks but what i cant find is if you go wheeling every week end i heard it was once a month i am lookin for 2 used 33 12.50 15 thornbirds if any body has some but i do need 6 lug rims dont care what shape and lookin for mis parts that wpuld work on it

We meet once a month. First weekend of the month. You can check the Southington Hunt Club calendar at the bottem of the page.

PS. No offense meant from me, but your post is really hard to read. It took me 3 times to figure it out. Punctuation & capitalization go a long way in being understood. Thanks.