Greetings from Orange County CA

[JohnZ]

Hi All!

I have been lurking the forums for awhile now trying to get as much information as I can about what I should be getting for my 2005 TJ.

I bought her new in 2006 when I had gotten out of bootcamp and was home for Christmas leave and have managed to keep her running through 4 deployments. I am now a working stiff and bought an electric car for my DD (Ford Focus... still MURICA) so now I feel comfortable trying to work on my own vehicle on the weekend without the pressure of having it be able to get me to work on Monday.

Hope to get into the Jeep community online and locally!

 

[RangerRick]

Welcome.
Thank you for your service to our country.
There are a number of us here in Slo-Cal. First you need to define what you want to do with your Jeep and how you plan to use it so you can formulate a plan on your build if that is what you want to do.

1. What trails or off-roading do you plan on
2. What size tires and lift for said wheeling.
3. Budget and stages of this build.
4. What amount of armor will you need.
5. What safety & recovery gear for your wheeling places & style.

Ask yourself where you will be wheeling and if you have a family, who in your family will be going with you. Are your expiditions going to be multi-day? Outback exploring overland style? Rock crawling? Camp out dry on the trail etc?

All this will help you decide where your budget should go.

Again, welcome!

RangerRick

 

[JohnZ]

Welcome.
Thank you for your service to our country.
There are a number of us here in Slo-Cal. First you need to define what you want to do with your Jeep and how you plan to use it so you can formulate a plan on your build if that is what you want to do.

1. What trails or off-roading do you plan on
2. What size tires and lift for said wheeling.
3. Budget and stages of this build.
4. What amount of armor will you need.
5. What safety & recovery gear for your wheeling places & style.

Ask yourself where you will be wheeling and if you have a family, who in your family will be going with you. Are your expiditions going to be multi-day? Outback exploring overland style? Rock crawling? Camp out dry on the trail etc?

All this will help you decide where your budget should go.

Again, welcome!

RangerRick

Thanks so much for the welcome! Yeah I was actually told that by my coworkers. I put up a pretty thorough write up of my thought process for my upcoming build, and if you could take a look at it I would be really appreciative! (Thread)

1. What trails or off-roading do you plan on
I honestly do not even know what is out there. I have looked on AllTrails and it seems like there is a lot around here. I honestly want to be able to go on the easier trips these guys go on, as an order of magnitude anyway. I have seen pictures of rock crawling, and personally, it seems like not my thing, however I am not going to discount it until I get at least some personal exposure to it.

2. What size tires and lift for said wheeling.
33". The stuff to accommodate 35" seems a bit too spicy for me right now lol

3. Budget and stages of this build.
I was trying to stay around $8k right now.

4. What amount of armor will you need.
Rock guards, but I think I am at the stage that I don't even know what I don't even know to be honest.

5. What safety & recovery gear for your wheeling places & style.
I have no idea what my style really will be overall, for now easy trails to learn the basics. I wanted to get a winch at the bare minimum.

 

[Chris]

Welcome to the forum! Post some photos of your TJ when you get a chance.

I'll check out your other thread and let you know my thoughts and opinions.

 

[UpperMI]

Welcome to the forum from NorCal. This is the best online jeep community. Tons of resources and very knowledgeable (and friendly) people. and thank you for your service.

 

[Rob5589]

Welcome to the forum and thank you for your service. So Cal has lots to offer in regards to wheelin. From mild forest roads to hard core like Johnson Valley. 8K is a nice budget and you should be able to do some nice upgrades. Start researching what kinds of trails you want to do and talk to folks from the OC club and see what they use. That way you can make informed decisions and do it once.

 

[RangerRick]

If you do buy the RE Superflex short arm kit, you're going to want to upgrade it to having all 8 adjustable arms. The ones in that kit your link goes to has fixed lowers, you want to substitute part number RE3780 adjustables for the lowers. The fixed lowers don't allow any tuning adjustment and you should consider working with the seller to upgrade all 8 to adjustable so you can fine tune your suspension system if necissary. I have basically the same kit in 4 1/2" with all 8 adjustables except my kit was augmented with a few extra parts to tailored for what I wanted. The springs are 4 1/2" up front, in the rear I'm running the Nth Degree spring relocation kit and their 4 1/2" progressive rate springs which are really 3" springs due to the upper spring bucket relocators. Makes the rear springs sit straight up and down over the axle, not curved due to the mounting scheme of the factory buckets or perches, (an advanced mod for the future you may not need on yours).

Also another bit of advice have them take the RE swaybar quick disconnects out of the kit and add in the Currie TJ front Anti-Rock sway bar kit instead. Much better way to go than the stock sway bar and adjustable to your suspensions fine tuning. No need to ditch the rear, use the RE extensions on the factory rear swaybar but definitely consider the Anti-Rock up front, you don't have to disconnect it when going wheeling so it saves time & keeps you from getting real dirty with greasy parts too.

I agree with others posting you'll want a regearing for 33's or 35's in the future for sure. Manual transmission TJ's on 33's should go 4.56 or 4.88 if you think down the road 35's are in the cards. If it's an automatic 42RLE, then 4.88's on 33's, cause the steep .69 O.D. gear in the transmission. if you go to 35's in the future, gear to 5.13's for sure if you don't want your Jeep hunting O.D. and downshifting all the time.

You may need replacement drive shafts with double cardan joints even possibly if you go with adjustable 8 arms but maybe not.

A tummy-tuck would be a future ground clearance mod you may like. There's a writeup page dedicated to getting rid of the "shovel" skid plate as it's affectionately referred to, your stock belly pan.

Lastly, armored Diff covers like the SOLID cast covers for cheap insurance on their website & consider the Currie CurrectLink heavy duty steering if your Jeep is going to see any real rocky trail time.

Most of all, have fun!

 

[JohnZ]

Wow! Thanks so much all! Yeah I read a bit about the tummy tuck and the diff covers. Still trying to figure out my long term plan after the initial install. Thanks for the input! This is such a cool community already!