So apparently there's an unspoken rule here that posting about your Jeep on another random thread is frowned upon, and we'll say I was "encouraged" to start my own build thread. This beats posting any updates on my Jeep in some random spot, so here we are. I'll start out with where my Jeep came from, where it is now, and cover my future plans and maybe by the end of this whole deal we can learn something.
Where it started
I wanted a Jeep for my first vehicle in high school, but I didn't have enough budget for a TJ at the time (2012 or so, I'm a youngun). We found several YJ's that were affordable, but even at that age I knew I wanted a TJ for nothing more than round headlights because I thought YJ's were ugly. I'll leave that discussion for another day lol. I ended up getting a 1999 Silverado new body, I did all the typical high school kid rough country lifts, off brand tires, loud subs, ebay headlights, etc. I loved that truck but I tried taking it places a truck should not go, and as a result ended up bashing in the skid plates, knocking off the trailer light plug and all kinds of other stuff. Fast forward to college, I was looking for a good TJ I could afford on and off but I never could find one. I about bought a rebuilt title TJ but I'm glad I didn't, because right when I decided to call off the search we found the one. We took my dog to the vet one day and saw this Jeep sitting out front, I checked it out and it had pretty much everything I was looking for. This picture is how we found it the first time I saw it.
What ended up being my Jeep is a 2005 TJ, it has the 4.0 and the 6 speed manual transmission with a hard top. The only other thing I wish I had was the Dana 44, but more on that later. I gave the girl that had it $8000, and it crossed 110,000 miles on the drive home. I feel like I got a good deal on a good Jeep, I live in Arkansas so rust isn't an issue here and the girl that had it before me took great care of it. She was the second owner of the Jeep, and from what I can tell the first owner was a volunteer fire fighter. The Jeep originally came from Memphis according to the build sheet, so that's where I've come in the last 3 years.
Where I am now
Fast forward to today, I've done a lot of work to the Jeep. One of the first things I did was get rid of the horrendous gray fender flares and the tube bumper. I went with a China special bumper, but it'll work for now. I then put in a radio/speakers, rancho shocks, and I have both the factory hard top and a Bestop Trek Top. I replaced the rims with something I like better and put a new set of 31x10.5 KO2's on it. I've replaced various sensors and other issues I've come across, I upgraded the OPDA, and got it to where it was running well reliably. I was using it as a daily driver driving one hour one way to work every morning. I've since gotten a new daily, so it's time to start the build. I put ZJ steering in it, I picked up a used Warn X8000i that was rebuilt, and more recently I replaced the ball joints, put on a 1.25" Savvy body lift with the 1" MML, and I picked up a set of half doors to throw on it just yesterday. I'll throw in a picture or two of where it sits now minus the half doors and body lift.
As you can see I really enjoy trail riding the Jeep and taking it offroad when I can. That being said, I have noticed that I'm dragging my skids quite a bit where I wheel. My goal is a moderately built Jeep that can take on some fairly serious off-roading, I'm not looking for one tons and 40's for what I do. This is mainly for budget and practicality reasons. Two years ago I was all about going and LS swaping it with 37's and doing supporting mods for that, but I've realized those parts are expensive and I have no need for them. I want to take the Jeep out to places like Fins N Things in Utah, Black Bear Pass, etc as well as Hot Springs ORV which is an hour from my house. There are tons of trails in Arkansas and opportunities to explore, so I want that to be what's driving this build. This brings us to future plans.
The future
Some of you may be wondering why I threw on the body lift, it's part of a long term plan I have. I'm going to do a lift that Irun, Chris and some others have come up with, and throw in a few tweaks of my own along the way. The plan right now is to build a very capable rig built right for the 31's I have on the Jeep. I'm planning on about 2" of lift on top of the body lift, this will be accomplished by the end of summer. Here's a spreadsheet of all the parts going into it for any of those interested.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19CHy7XubIIvfewrRl2yDgwPF_hYWcNtnCUZmIpqptig/edit?usp=sharing
As you can see this lift is fairly budget minded, but is easily upgraded to run 33's which is the long term goal. I plan to complete this lift soon as I said, and after that I've got a variety of mods to complete with some specific goals in mind. I'm not wanting to run a huge lift, so my goal is to get as much clearance as I can with very little lift. This is where the body lift comes in because I'm planning to do a tummy tuck on the Jeep. I'm planning on the Savvy skid kit as some here have recommended, this is a (fairly) easy way to get some extra clearance. I'm planning on a raised gas tank skid, I've stuck with Savvy this far so I'll probably run theirs. I want to replace the Chinesium bumper up front with a JCR mid width bumper, and I'll get rid of the cheap lights in favor of some Baja Designs Squadrons. I haven't decided on a rear bumper, but I'm leaning towards a poison spyder bumper or the UCF aluminum/steel bumper. I'd like to get some sliders to protect the tub, and I'll probably have some mini skids welded onto the axle. With me being on 31's or 33's, it'll probably need to be armored well for soe of the trails I want to do. Lockers are definitely in the plans for the future, which means that Dana 35 is going to have to be upgraded. As it is now I'm planning on a super 35 kit with an eaton e-locker, and an eaton up front. That being said I have a friend with a built/locked Ford 8.8 with 4.10's that he might be willing to sell, so that's in the back of my mind also. I've got various projects to finish up in the next few weeks; I'm going to fix the burping fuel issue common on these 05+ TJ's, I've got to figure out what to do for a shift boot since the factory one won't allow it to shift into the bottom gears with the body lift/MML. The tummy tuck would fix this but I'm wanting to get the suspension set up first. Any advice for that one is welcome because I still haven't found a solution for that problem.
That's a pretty good summary of where I am on my Jeep, any advice that anybody has about this is welcome and I'm not going to complain if some others want to throw in anything about their Jeep experience either. The Jeep community has been great to me this far and I look forward to being involved in it in the future. I will update this as the build progresses, and hopefully a few years from now I can look back and see how far I've come with my Jeep. I'll say this now: I will never be without a Jeep, and someday my kids will have Jeeps as well. I've already talked my dad into getting a TJ, hes's looking now. I've got a cousin with a few CJ's and I've made several friends that have Jeeps. All that is my long way of saying that me and Jeeps will always be a thing.
Where it started
I wanted a Jeep for my first vehicle in high school, but I didn't have enough budget for a TJ at the time (2012 or so, I'm a youngun). We found several YJ's that were affordable, but even at that age I knew I wanted a TJ for nothing more than round headlights because I thought YJ's were ugly. I'll leave that discussion for another day lol. I ended up getting a 1999 Silverado new body, I did all the typical high school kid rough country lifts, off brand tires, loud subs, ebay headlights, etc. I loved that truck but I tried taking it places a truck should not go, and as a result ended up bashing in the skid plates, knocking off the trailer light plug and all kinds of other stuff. Fast forward to college, I was looking for a good TJ I could afford on and off but I never could find one. I about bought a rebuilt title TJ but I'm glad I didn't, because right when I decided to call off the search we found the one. We took my dog to the vet one day and saw this Jeep sitting out front, I checked it out and it had pretty much everything I was looking for. This picture is how we found it the first time I saw it.
What ended up being my Jeep is a 2005 TJ, it has the 4.0 and the 6 speed manual transmission with a hard top. The only other thing I wish I had was the Dana 44, but more on that later. I gave the girl that had it $8000, and it crossed 110,000 miles on the drive home. I feel like I got a good deal on a good Jeep, I live in Arkansas so rust isn't an issue here and the girl that had it before me took great care of it. She was the second owner of the Jeep, and from what I can tell the first owner was a volunteer fire fighter. The Jeep originally came from Memphis according to the build sheet, so that's where I've come in the last 3 years.
Where I am now
Fast forward to today, I've done a lot of work to the Jeep. One of the first things I did was get rid of the horrendous gray fender flares and the tube bumper. I went with a China special bumper, but it'll work for now. I then put in a radio/speakers, rancho shocks, and I have both the factory hard top and a Bestop Trek Top. I replaced the rims with something I like better and put a new set of 31x10.5 KO2's on it. I've replaced various sensors and other issues I've come across, I upgraded the OPDA, and got it to where it was running well reliably. I was using it as a daily driver driving one hour one way to work every morning. I've since gotten a new daily, so it's time to start the build. I put ZJ steering in it, I picked up a used Warn X8000i that was rebuilt, and more recently I replaced the ball joints, put on a 1.25" Savvy body lift with the 1" MML, and I picked up a set of half doors to throw on it just yesterday. I'll throw in a picture or two of where it sits now minus the half doors and body lift.
As you can see I really enjoy trail riding the Jeep and taking it offroad when I can. That being said, I have noticed that I'm dragging my skids quite a bit where I wheel. My goal is a moderately built Jeep that can take on some fairly serious off-roading, I'm not looking for one tons and 40's for what I do. This is mainly for budget and practicality reasons. Two years ago I was all about going and LS swaping it with 37's and doing supporting mods for that, but I've realized those parts are expensive and I have no need for them. I want to take the Jeep out to places like Fins N Things in Utah, Black Bear Pass, etc as well as Hot Springs ORV which is an hour from my house. There are tons of trails in Arkansas and opportunities to explore, so I want that to be what's driving this build. This brings us to future plans.
The future
Some of you may be wondering why I threw on the body lift, it's part of a long term plan I have. I'm going to do a lift that Irun, Chris and some others have come up with, and throw in a few tweaks of my own along the way. The plan right now is to build a very capable rig built right for the 31's I have on the Jeep. I'm planning on about 2" of lift on top of the body lift, this will be accomplished by the end of summer. Here's a spreadsheet of all the parts going into it for any of those interested.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19CHy7XubIIvfewrRl2yDgwPF_hYWcNtnCUZmIpqptig/edit?usp=sharing
As you can see this lift is fairly budget minded, but is easily upgraded to run 33's which is the long term goal. I plan to complete this lift soon as I said, and after that I've got a variety of mods to complete with some specific goals in mind. I'm not wanting to run a huge lift, so my goal is to get as much clearance as I can with very little lift. This is where the body lift comes in because I'm planning to do a tummy tuck on the Jeep. I'm planning on the Savvy skid kit as some here have recommended, this is a (fairly) easy way to get some extra clearance. I'm planning on a raised gas tank skid, I've stuck with Savvy this far so I'll probably run theirs. I want to replace the Chinesium bumper up front with a JCR mid width bumper, and I'll get rid of the cheap lights in favor of some Baja Designs Squadrons. I haven't decided on a rear bumper, but I'm leaning towards a poison spyder bumper or the UCF aluminum/steel bumper. I'd like to get some sliders to protect the tub, and I'll probably have some mini skids welded onto the axle. With me being on 31's or 33's, it'll probably need to be armored well for soe of the trails I want to do. Lockers are definitely in the plans for the future, which means that Dana 35 is going to have to be upgraded. As it is now I'm planning on a super 35 kit with an eaton e-locker, and an eaton up front. That being said I have a friend with a built/locked Ford 8.8 with 4.10's that he might be willing to sell, so that's in the back of my mind also. I've got various projects to finish up in the next few weeks; I'm going to fix the burping fuel issue common on these 05+ TJ's, I've got to figure out what to do for a shift boot since the factory one won't allow it to shift into the bottom gears with the body lift/MML. The tummy tuck would fix this but I'm wanting to get the suspension set up first. Any advice for that one is welcome because I still haven't found a solution for that problem.
That's a pretty good summary of where I am on my Jeep, any advice that anybody has about this is welcome and I'm not going to complain if some others want to throw in anything about their Jeep experience either. The Jeep community has been great to me this far and I look forward to being involved in it in the future. I will update this as the build progresses, and hopefully a few years from now I can look back and see how far I've come with my Jeep. I'll say this now: I will never be without a Jeep, and someday my kids will have Jeeps as well. I've already talked my dad into getting a TJ, hes's looking now. I've got a cousin with a few CJ's and I've made several friends that have Jeeps. All that is my long way of saying that me and Jeeps will always be a thing.
