In praise of basically stock TJ's

Hell, I would venture and say skid plates should go on before a lift.
If you are going to address the TJ “shovel,” skid plate, shouldn't one go ahead and do a belly up skid? This allows more ground clearance. In theory, making the Jeep more capable
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But you need a 1-1.25 inch body lift. Which then makes room for bigger tires.
Around and around we go.
 
I like that there are so many different types of Jeeps. There is a Jeep for every Jeeper from mild to wild. They can be stock or modified for mud, dunes, rocks, overland, plowing fields, tow vehicle for multi blown hemi pulling tractor, tours at Jurrasic Park, recovering Toyotas...and even mall crawling. And then there is this guy.

 
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Back when I bought my first TJ, a brand new ‘00 Sport with a Dana 44 rear, I did a budget boost spring spacer and ran 32x11.50’s on stock 8” wheels. A few other friends did basically the same thing and we wheeled the hell out of them. Did about 90% of the trails that the much bigger Jeeps were doing at the time.
My most recent Jeep is an 06 TJ Unlimited Rubicon that I picked up last year and immediately installed an OME lift and ran 33x10.50 BFG KO2’s and wheeled it like that for a while. Last week a set of 35’s went under it simply due to the fact most of my wheeling buddies are running 35” or larger tires. While I was doing ok with the 33’s and I enjoyed the fact I had to up my driving skills to keep up I found I was really pushing the Jeep harder than I wanted to so I finally stepped up a bit in tire size.

Funny though, just yesterday an old wheeling buddy and I were talking about how we missed the simple days of running 32” tires on basically stock jeeps.
 
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My jeep is stock-ish. Going from stock to 31's, to 32's, and now 33's, my best wheeling times were on 31's.
 
31s and love it

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if you will print a copy of that post and bring it to the Jeep invasion this weekend I will sign off on that change. 😁
 
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I definitely agree that the stock TJ is more capable than most people give it credit for and that adding mods often isn't a straight upgrade until you add the mods needed for those mods to be better.

An example of this was from a trail around here that I started going on with TJ when it was still pretty much stock (tires were maybe an inch above stock, but that was about it). The trails weren't particularly difficult, but they were narrow and had some hills that were tight for the breakover angle. The first time I went through there, I had almost no issue, but since I wasn't with a Jeep group, I stayed away from most mud as I didn't have much of anything for recovery.

Because of this, I decided to get a winch and also went for some new bumpers with a spot for a winch that I chose half because they were cheap and half because I just liked the look of them.

The next time I went to those same trails, I really put my skid plate to use as the added weight reduced my breakover angle.

So, I've since increased my tire size and plan to get a 2 inch lift when my budget is a bit more fluid and that may lead to a few other changes just to get that all adjusted better (such as a SYE).

Stock Jeeps are fine if that’s what you want, modified too if that’s what you want. If I could only have a stock TJ on stock tires I’d pass, probably would've bought an old Mustang convertible or something to play around with on nice days. The way I see it when the tires start growing it begins looking like a TJ should but I don’t ask anyone else to adopt that view – your TJ your choice.

I agree with @Greenmachine, it really is a piece of art & that’s where any owner’s vision can dictate an awful lot of its direction & to many people that trumps performance

Definitely agree with this. People can do whatever they want to their Jeeps and that's totally their right, but I still might laugh to myself when they go the route of adding angry grills and such.
 
Hahahahahahaha!!
I'll try and make it down there. I really want to go, but I don't know 100% if I will be able to make it or not.
Awesome , if you come Saturday , I know your beard will get there later Friday!

I'll be in the white TJ Rubicon with smiley faces all over the front..5 kc lites.

I plan to come unless it's raining cats and dogs.
 
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Not pointing fingers but these type threads always amuse me to no end. You sorta wind up with a perspective of who knows what or acts like they know and then you find out that their idea of a well built rig is a budget boost and 31's. Endlessly fascinating.
 
If you are going to address the TJ “shovel,” skid plate, shouldn't one go ahead and do a belly up skid? This allows more ground clearance. In theory, making the Jeep more capable
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
But you need a 1-1.25 inch body lift. Which then makes room for bigger tires.
Around and around we go.

I was thinking along the lines of protecting the undercarriage. Since I am at stock height, i always worry about whats exposed underneath.
 
If I were to do it over again, I would go stock height. I bought my TJ with a 5.5" lift on it and knew I didn't want that, so I went with 2.5" OME lift and 33's. It rides great and pretty good handling for a TJ, but it it a bit high for others to get into with ease. No problem for me since I am 6'2", but a pain in a way. My TJ gets groceries with the top down. lol
 
Not pointing fingers but these type threads always amuse me to no end. You sorta wind up with a perspective of who knows what or acts like they know and then you find out that their idea of a well built rig is a budget boost and 31's. Endlessly fascinating.

And for a lot of people that is much more than they need. There's a local Jeep club around here that doesn't really do anything but drive around on flat forest service roads. Many of them don't want to "abuse" their Jeeps. I bought mine to take me places others don't/ won't/ can't go and on 33" tires it does a pretty good job of that. There are some trails that require more than I have currently that I'd like to tackle someday though.

I've learned enough over the few years that I've owned mine to know that to get the Jeep to where I really want it to be is going to take more money than I have available so I'm just going to have to pick away at it. (End goal would be 35" tires, TT, longer shocks, etc.) The toughest part is getting the pieces in the right order in an effort to not dig any deeper holes.
 
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If I were to do it over again, I would go stock height. I bought my TJ with a 5.5" lift on it and knew I didn't want that, so I went with 2.5" OME lift and 33's. It rides great and pretty good handling for a TJ, but it it a bit high for others to get into with ease. No problem for me since I am 6'2", but a pain in a way. My TJ gets groceries with the top down. lol

I'm kind of in the same boat with the 265/75/16's. I'm 6'3" so I don't have too much of a problem getting in and out, but for my wife it's like climbing a mountain. Lol
Going down a little bit to the 31x10.50's would make getting in and out a bit easier. I broke my back in 05 and had major surgery making my legs not work 100% on some days.
 
And for a lot of people that is much more than they need. There's a local Jeep club around here that doesn't really do anything but drive around on flat forest service roads. Many of them don't want to "abuse" their Jeeps. I bought mine to take me places others don't/ won't/ can't go and on 33" tires it does a pretty good job of that. There are some trails that require more than I have currently that I'd like to tackle someday though.

I've learned enough over the few years that I've owned mine to know that to get the Jeep to where I really want it to be is going to take more money than I have available so I'm just going to have to pick away at it. (End goal would be 35" tires, TT, longer shocks, etc.) The toughest part is getting the pieces in the right order in an effort to not dig any deeper holes.
Do not misinterpret my comments as anything other than what it says. I fully believe that everyone should have their rig or rigs however they want them and I do not care one iota how they express themselves in that manner. I think no more or less of you if you have a rig on 40's or stock 28's.
 
It's easy to get caught up in the build cycle, especially when it seems that everyone is doing it. Sometimes I think that if we put the time and effort into learning how to really wheel our kinda stock rigs, we'd be money ahead. Note that I'm not talking about places like Johnson Valley or the local off road park. Just general "I want to go there" wheeling.

This sums up where I am in my "build" process. Don't have the spare $$$ to really do anything, so I'm looking for groups where I can learn how to properly use what I have before I decide where I need to upgrade what I have.
 
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