Hey everyone, I bought my 2006 LJ around June of 2019 in Boise, ID.
That was when I got it home. It was a long 2 hours going 70+ on the interstate. I found out later that it didn't have either of it's sway bars attached. I've since reconnected the front with a quick disconnect and am still working on backing out a sheared off bolt to get the back on again. You'll also notice I had the spare tire off so that I could actually see something out the back.
The specs:
2006 Wrangler Unlimited
100,000 miles
42RLE Automatic Transmission
33" tires on 16" fake beadlocks
4" fab tech lift
1.75" transfer case drop
Limb Risers
Warn Bumpers Front and Rear
Angry Eyes
Blacked out lights
Bestop Trektop
Smittybilt Roll Cage
X20 Smittybilt Synthetic Winch
Light bar and pods
Rocklights, although I can't for the life of me find their switch
Rock Sliders
If it isn't apparent, I bought this from a family that got it for their teenager. I'm assuming the owner before him did most of the quality upgrades and the teenager put on the angry eyes and poorly fabbed limb risers. Needless to say it was a good starting place, but needed some work.
I used it a little bit last year, but with getting Married in August, a couple week long vacations, and a small transmission leak, it mostly stayed put. I think the transmission leak was caused by a scratch in the paint of the oil pan. I think the previous owner spray painted it black and got a scratch on the gasket seal. I replaced the pan and gasket (with one with a drain plug) and it hasn't lost a drop since. After that it was ready to roll. We were late in the season up here in Idaho, but we made it out to City of Rocks. Here was the trial run to the office, followed by the camping trip:
You might notice I had swapped out the old tires it came with for Milestar Patagonias. I love that they are cheap, and even though I hear they don't last all that long, I want to upgrade to 35s in the future. Easier to convince the wife if the "new" tires aren't new anymore. I took off the angry eyes too!
So, we entered winter, and the Jeep got to camp out in the garage. I have a 50 mile round trip commute, so luckily for my gas budget, the jeep is not my commuter. I swapped out all the fluids and got the front sway bar on. Worked on the inside and installed a double din stereo with rear camera (and functionality for front like a JL). I cut the tire carrier's top arm that put it on the high angle, and put it down closer to the stock location. The limb risers got removed finally. You can see one of them sagging in that last photo. They did scratch the hood a little, so they had to go. Most of this was just quality of life stuff.
Here is my fleet. It's actually leaving out my VW Jetta TDI which was parked at the office. I recently picked up the ranger and sold the green Nissan.
Now lets talk about the future. I've been running a major marketing campaign to get the wife on board with upgrades. The initial plan was gears and lockers. Once we have that, we can do most offroading without issue. Doing more research, I found out that the 42RLE is very gear hungry. It LOVES being up in the 5s at the axle, and with a game plan of 35s, it is recommended to go all the way to 5.38s. Well talking to my local jeep shop, he recommended I avoid even going to 4.88s with the Dana 30. I guess that ratio is where your pinion starts to only have one tooth in contact with the ring gear at a time. Sounds like a potentially expensive risk and I'm all about buy once cry once.
So, I then had to adjust my marketing campaign to find the value in doing a Dana 44 swap up front. It was surprisingly successful. The wife was on board in less than a day and I didn't even have to cry! Still being on a budget I didn't even try to convince her to go with the Dynatrac even though it is a great axle. We will be fine with a G2. So a month or so later when the budget approved I ordered my G2 Core44 with an E locker and 5.38s. Then coronavirus hit, but that only delayed the delivery a few weeks. I got the shop ordering parts for 5.38s and an E locker for the back as well.
While I was waiting for everything to come together the stimulus and tax refund checks came in. So I of course had the itch. What upgrades could I easily fold into the current marketing campaign? Well those crazy low gears in the axle will make the tires harder to stop. Lets get a big brake kit. And part of the campaign is that we don't have to upgrade anything on the jeep for a good while longer, so lets take care of that transfer case drop and put in an SYE. That will make a big impact of reducing big impacts going over rocks.
So, today was the day. I dropped my baby off at the shop to have the axle work done and the front axle put on. I'm going to let him decide if he wants to do the brakes or not and I'll put in the SYE kit myself when it's all finished up. Depending on how it drives after the SYE I might have to upgrade to adjustable control arms. I think my marketing campaign is wearing on her as much as the "Ford is built to lend a hand" one is wearing on me, so I'm hoping its smooth.
Long Term Plan (not necessarily in order):
35's (maybe 37s?)
everything listed in the "So you want to run 35s" that isn't already taken care of.
Rubicrawler
Tummy Tuck
Better lift, maybe long or "Mid" arms
More armor/swap existing for aluminum
One day I'm going to put an electric drive-train in this baby.
That was when I got it home. It was a long 2 hours going 70+ on the interstate. I found out later that it didn't have either of it's sway bars attached. I've since reconnected the front with a quick disconnect and am still working on backing out a sheared off bolt to get the back on again. You'll also notice I had the spare tire off so that I could actually see something out the back.
The specs:
2006 Wrangler Unlimited
100,000 miles
42RLE Automatic Transmission
33" tires on 16" fake beadlocks
4" fab tech lift
1.75" transfer case drop
Limb Risers
Warn Bumpers Front and Rear
Angry Eyes
Blacked out lights
Bestop Trektop
Smittybilt Roll Cage
X20 Smittybilt Synthetic Winch
Light bar and pods
Rocklights, although I can't for the life of me find their switch
Rock Sliders
If it isn't apparent, I bought this from a family that got it for their teenager. I'm assuming the owner before him did most of the quality upgrades and the teenager put on the angry eyes and poorly fabbed limb risers. Needless to say it was a good starting place, but needed some work.
I used it a little bit last year, but with getting Married in August, a couple week long vacations, and a small transmission leak, it mostly stayed put. I think the transmission leak was caused by a scratch in the paint of the oil pan. I think the previous owner spray painted it black and got a scratch on the gasket seal. I replaced the pan and gasket (with one with a drain plug) and it hasn't lost a drop since. After that it was ready to roll. We were late in the season up here in Idaho, but we made it out to City of Rocks. Here was the trial run to the office, followed by the camping trip:
You might notice I had swapped out the old tires it came with for Milestar Patagonias. I love that they are cheap, and even though I hear they don't last all that long, I want to upgrade to 35s in the future. Easier to convince the wife if the "new" tires aren't new anymore. I took off the angry eyes too!
So, we entered winter, and the Jeep got to camp out in the garage. I have a 50 mile round trip commute, so luckily for my gas budget, the jeep is not my commuter. I swapped out all the fluids and got the front sway bar on. Worked on the inside and installed a double din stereo with rear camera (and functionality for front like a JL). I cut the tire carrier's top arm that put it on the high angle, and put it down closer to the stock location. The limb risers got removed finally. You can see one of them sagging in that last photo. They did scratch the hood a little, so they had to go. Most of this was just quality of life stuff.
Here is my fleet. It's actually leaving out my VW Jetta TDI which was parked at the office. I recently picked up the ranger and sold the green Nissan.
Now lets talk about the future. I've been running a major marketing campaign to get the wife on board with upgrades. The initial plan was gears and lockers. Once we have that, we can do most offroading without issue. Doing more research, I found out that the 42RLE is very gear hungry. It LOVES being up in the 5s at the axle, and with a game plan of 35s, it is recommended to go all the way to 5.38s. Well talking to my local jeep shop, he recommended I avoid even going to 4.88s with the Dana 30. I guess that ratio is where your pinion starts to only have one tooth in contact with the ring gear at a time. Sounds like a potentially expensive risk and I'm all about buy once cry once.
So, I then had to adjust my marketing campaign to find the value in doing a Dana 44 swap up front. It was surprisingly successful. The wife was on board in less than a day and I didn't even have to cry! Still being on a budget I didn't even try to convince her to go with the Dynatrac even though it is a great axle. We will be fine with a G2. So a month or so later when the budget approved I ordered my G2 Core44 with an E locker and 5.38s. Then coronavirus hit, but that only delayed the delivery a few weeks. I got the shop ordering parts for 5.38s and an E locker for the back as well.
While I was waiting for everything to come together the stimulus and tax refund checks came in. So I of course had the itch. What upgrades could I easily fold into the current marketing campaign? Well those crazy low gears in the axle will make the tires harder to stop. Lets get a big brake kit. And part of the campaign is that we don't have to upgrade anything on the jeep for a good while longer, so lets take care of that transfer case drop and put in an SYE. That will make a big impact of reducing big impacts going over rocks.
So, today was the day. I dropped my baby off at the shop to have the axle work done and the front axle put on. I'm going to let him decide if he wants to do the brakes or not and I'll put in the SYE kit myself when it's all finished up. Depending on how it drives after the SYE I might have to upgrade to adjustable control arms. I think my marketing campaign is wearing on her as much as the "Ford is built to lend a hand" one is wearing on me, so I'm hoping its smooth.
Long Term Plan (not necessarily in order):
35's (maybe 37s?)
everything listed in the "So you want to run 35s" that isn't already taken care of.
Rubicrawler
Tummy Tuck
Better lift, maybe long or "Mid" arms
More armor/swap existing for aluminum
One day I'm going to put an electric drive-train in this baby.
