A self evaluation into jeeping

[Zandcwhite]

I have a life long Jeep addiction, fortunately so does the wife. We kept it much more budget friendly back in our 20’s and early 30’s. An xj on 31’s. Then a ZJ on 31’s. Bought a wagoneer, sprung over and put 37’s on it. Then came my 89 xj, ended up building custom suspension, junk yard hp44 front, D60 rear, 35x14.50 pitbulls and ran the rubicon for the first time. The wife loved the trail but hated riding shotgun. Her DD WJ ended up on tons, coilovers in the rear, 3 link front, 4 link rear. After years of wheeling, breaking, trail fixing, and far too much time invested we pulled out of the Jeep lifestyle all together. Did the more traditional vacations of Disneyland, Hawaii, etc and we both worked way too much (easy to turn down overtime or justify time off when you have to get the Jeep’s ready). Bought my rebel in 2017 and started wheeling forest roads, desert camping, etc again. We both realized how much we missed it. Didn’t want to get back into the build, break, fix, constant maintenance cycle so when she was due for a new car, we bought the 2019 JLUR loaded. Started running real trails again and camping in the stock Jeep. The boundary pusher in me started creeping back in, but stock, new, shiny, and hers kept me in check. Along comes COVID. Still took little forest trips, but basically no vacation from January until August. That’s when we decided it was time to finally head out to Moab. On when a quick spacer lift and 37’s and we were off for one of the best road trip and wheeling trips we’ve ever had. Fast forward 18 months and we are probably $3-4K in to additional mods But the Jeep has taken us to Moab twice, Telluride, tillamook, Big Bear, AZ, NV, and thousands of miles in between. Would we likely have another $100k in the bank if she had bought a civic? Of course, but it has been worth every penny. When we are old and gray, sitting on our rocking chairs, sharing adventure stories and instilling that sense of freedom and exploration in to our great grand children, I promise you the thought that we should have saved more and done less will be nowhere to be found.

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[Speed331]

There really are two ways to go at equipping out your Jeep. Neither one is wrong, but it is dependent on your planned use. Careful, focused upgrades, aimed at getting you far enough beyond your ambitions to wheel mostly worry free. Or all out, take on any obstacle.

I have to go with the focused approach for several reasons:
It's a daily driver and part time work truck that I spend 30 - 40 hours a week driving and as such must be livable on road.
I'm not looking to tackle 8+ or black dimond trails - but do want enough capability to comfortably roll places like Black Bear, Imogene etc.
Money.
So the plan has been pretty well defined:
2 door sport s with LSD
On board air
Quick disco's
Rock rails
Rubi take off suspension
Bumper/ winch and recovery gear
And 33's when I replace the stock all terrains.

That set up, for under $2000 (not counting tires) will take me anywhere I plan to wheel and still keep it a comfortable daily driver.

 

[entropy]

I can empathize with the all or nothing mentality and spending more $ and time than you thought on jeep mods. I had a legit case of the mod/wheeling bug for 2+ yrs with my jlu sport s heavily modded into a built Rubicon on 37s. The jeep was becoming part of my identity, annoying my wife and promoting materialism for our kids. It was also a headache taking it to dealer for warranty work.

I finally took a step back and concluded it was going to be a never ending $/time suck and sold it a year ago. It's been a good decision...The key is filling the jeep void with a less expensive hobby that's healthy. Best of luck with your jeep.

I am glad you found "peace" lol. I live in socal and use the jeep very often since I have very nice trails close to home. So for me, I definitely dont want to let the Jeep go. The dilemma for me is real, because there are some trails here that have pretty gnarly lines and a big build can really help with those. But is it worth it? I can still do the trails with a lesser build, more skill, easier lines. And being ok with winching every now and then.

 

[entropy]

hookers and blow might be cheaper hobby if you don't include the cost of a divorce and jacked up kids. Better buy another Jeep and save yourself.

You could always buy a horse if you want a real expensive hobby. A horse makes a Jeep look like a hobby for peasants.

Just buy a donkey and put horse takeoff parts on it. It might not be "the stallion" but itll do.

 

[guzie]

Sweet lOOking XR!! Green Machine

Thanks. Loving it myself.

 

[guzie]

The way I see it the money I spend on my Jeep is what I allocate for two different buckets:

1 - Transportation

2 - Entertainment

Someone can buy a Prius for transportation and spend many thousands/year on cruise ships, vacation air travel, golf club memberships, going to plays and concerts, whatever.

Me? I spend good money on my Jeep and I have entertainment together with transportation.

Same thing with my other vehicle - a sports car for fun, track days, and secondary transportation.

We are similar in my household. I have a new JL Rubicon XR for foul weather daily driving and trail driving fun and a 2018 Shelby GT-350 that is a great fair weather car and weekend track weapon.

 

[gato]

We are similar in my household. I have a new JL Rubicon XR for foul weather daily driving and trail driving fun and a 2018 Shelby GT-350 that is a great fair weather car and weekend track weapon.

Very nice.

Same here. I keep alternating between Stang, Vette and Camaro SS 1LE (current) for the track toy. On my second wrangler for trail toy and family fun transport.

 

[wibornz]

Very nice.

Same here. I keep alternating between Stang, Vette and Camaro SS 1LE (current) for the track toy. On my second wrangler for trail toy and family fun transport.

I may be on the hunt for a 18 or newer Camera ss convertible next year for a fun car/touring car. Just sold and gave away my other cars. So we just have the Jeep now.

 

[entropy]

If I were to do it all over again, I might still do the Mopar lift but refrain from going to 35s.

The Jeep was much happier on 33s (275/70R18): it drove and rode much better, and returned decent fuel economy. Around town the Jeep feels a bit lumbering on 35s, and the fuel economy is simply atrocious. I lowered the PSI down to 32, which has helped the ride a little, but the overall drive still feels ungainly.

Of course, the flip side is that on 35s the Jeep eats the trails like nothing.

I’ve been trying to downsize to 34s (285/75R17) for two months now, but the tires are still on backorder.

You're likely noticing a difference in ride quality because of shocks with the Mopar 2in lift. The shocks that go on the oem model are... well... not very good. I just installed Bilstein 2 inch lift shocks on my 2 door sport with rubicon suspension. The ride quality is night and day difference. Although to be fair my riding height was to0 high for the rubi shocks, which would make them ride like shit.

If you want to get your MPGs back and go back to 33s you can keep the mopar lift ride quality if you like it so much. It'd be an easy job. Keep the shocks, and replace the springs with rubicon springs then add spacers to accommodate the fox shocks so they ride at good enough height. The way to do this is to put the rubi springs, cycle suspension, measure eye-to-eye length to figure out how much spacer lift you'll need to make it ride decent. You can take a look at anndee's spreadsheet to give you an idea of what's acceptable with the mopar shocks.

As a guesstimate, I would say rubi springs + 1 inch spacers and your Jeep would drive like a dream with the fox shocks, longer LCAs, and 33inch tires. 34s might be perfect with this setup if you dont wanna go all the way down to 33s. Or you can get some real 33s, or 33.5 I think they are. You might be ok even without spacers, but i'd double check with anndee's spreadsheet because I don't know the specs of the mopar shocks off the top of my head, like, if you need too much bumpstop with these shocks then this might not work so well. The mopar lift on 33s looks horrendous and it is too much lift for the tires imo.

 

[aldo98229]

Yeah. I drove around on 33s for one week after I got the Mopar lift. The Jeep looked on stilts!

This is her on 35s:

Having said that, the smaller tires gave the Jeep a passing of that “old Dodge Power Wagon” look I find appealing.

That’s why I’m thinking going down to slightly narrower, smaller tires —285/75R17, or ~34x11– might be just perfect. And should bring me back to 17-18 MPG.

 

[Abramovich]

If I were to do it all over again, I might still do the Mopar lift but refrain from going to 35s.

The Jeep was much happier on 33s (275/70R18): it drove and rode much better, and returned decent fuel economy. Around town the Jeep feels a bit lumbering on 35s, and the fuel economy is simply atrocious. I lowered the PSI down to 32, which has helped the ride a little, but the overall drive still feels ungainly.

Of course, the flip side is that on 35s the Jeep eats the trails like nothing.

I’ve been trying to downsize to 34s (285/75R17) for two months now, but the tires are still on backorder.

I am planning on having 2 sets of wheels/tires. The 35s that come with the XR, and some takeoffs. I'll be using the upcoming JLU for road trips as well as offroading, and don't want to settle for either uses. So the take-offs for roadtrips, the 35s for trails.

 

[rallydefault]

Someone can buy a Prius for transportation and spend many thousands/year on cruise ships, vacation air travel, golf club memberships, going to plays and concerts, whatever.

Me? I spend good money on my Jeep and I have entertainment together with transportation.

I chuckled a little bit here. I know what you were going for, but dang, I'll take the Prius and all that stuff lol

 

[gato]

I chuckled a little bit here. I know what you were going for, but dang, I'll take the Prius and all that stuff lol

Nawh, you wouldn't, really!!! If you had to have only one vehicle, would you really accept a Prius life sentence?

 

[wibornz]

gato said:
Someone can buy a Prius for transportation and spend many thousands/year on cruise ships, vacation air travel, golf club memberships, going to plays and concerts, whatever.

Me? I spend good money on my Jeep and I have entertainment together with transportation.

I chuckled a little bit here. I know what you were going for, but dang, I'll take the Prius and all that stuff lol

I have done the vacations, cruises, air travel, plays (no golf membership) and while they are fun, they are not sitting on the top of a mountain drinking fresh brewed coffee fun to me. Plus every time I walked towards the Prius, my hand would go to my gun and I would contemplate suicide. Driving a Prius would kill me either fast by suicide or slowly knowing that I didn't live my life right and had to compromise and drive a Prius.


In case you do end up with a Prius, please visit the CDC web site below. There is help available. Link provide.

Facts About Suicide - CDC
https://www.cdc.gov › suicide › facts




Suicide is death caused by injuring oneself with the intent to die. A suicide attempt is when someone harms themselves with any intent to end their life, ...

 

[rallydefault]

@wibornz
Oooooooooook lol

I guess vehicles are a bit more important in your life than mine? I don't really care what gets me there, just the destination and who I'm with.

I do love my jeep, by the way. And I got it at an affordable price and have it paid off. But I try to buy my vehicles with an eye more towards money that can be put toward my family/house/friends rather than the vehicle itself. If the vehicle can be a part of that, which a jeep certainly can (but so can all in a way), then that's extra awesome.

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