Rock crawlers: what’s your most useful mods and why?

[Chocolate Thunder]

If you’ve modded your Jeep with getting over rocks as your goal, what specific mod or mods has turned out to have the most benefit for you? Why? What you’ve you bought or done that you might skip next time?

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[Rubi6mt]

Rattle can and touch up paint

after

 

[Some Random Guy]

Gas money and PTO for more experience.

Skip everything else that doesn’t get you on the trail more. Big tires requiring a body trim and fender swap have held me back during the wet season here in WA because I didn’t have the time or inclination to finish the work. My garage door broke so I could only work in my driveway (I’m a tenant right now).

It’s like track car people say. Best money spent is modifying the driver with lessons or experience.

 

[Chance_P]

Most useful, definitely my apex disconnects and tire valves. Also engine/transmission skid.

Biggest regret so far are my sliders. They are the body mounted Mopar sliders and they don't give me a lot of confidence. I find myself dancing around obstacles vs using my sliders.

 

[Ratbert]

Aluminum skids with UHMW. That gut-tightening grinding steel sound is gone. It's like a cutting board in how it slides over boulders.

 

[Beachcomber72]

If you’ve modded your Jeep with getting over rocks as your goal, what specific mod or mods has turned out to have the most benefit for you? Why? What you’ve you bought or done that you might skip next time?

Before going too in depth on what’s best or used or needed, learn your vehicle to it fullest. May sound silly but play around on some curbs and parking blocks at different heights and angles, practice going up them all at different angles and different approach methods. Leave the Jeep at home and take another vehicle to an off-road park and follow around some spotters and or trail guides. (That way you’re not tempted to possibly destroy yours before you set out before practicing/learning.)

Then when your fully ready to commit go and personally test yourself with what you already have.

I’ve always equated it to people like buying your first RV, sure you want to deck it out and load it up with stuff/goodies and such but after a few months on the road you realize your over packed carrying useless weight and 80% of the crud you crammed into the RV has never been touched. As mentioned by others Skids and touch up paint will be your two best starts. Lots of good ideas above from the others.

Heck even test yourself by practicing changing a tire while one wheel is up on an incline or parking block or hanging off of a structure, you might find that the first things you need are different/proper tools. Or the better learning/understanding of how to get your rig off of a bad angle/drop.

I hope I give a little more to add to your original question. If you want to hit the beach 30 minutes from you down in Galveston hit me up. We can set up a course or two to try some things out.

 

[dragoneggs]

My best ‘mod’ has been wheeling with others. Amazing what can be done with multiple heads.

My belly armor makes me feel less nervous on the rocks.

 

[Aonar]

I agree w/ the "practice & experience" listed by others.

I haven't built a crawler. Mine is a DD which crawls now and then. Mine is also a Diesel Rubi which came w/ skids. After work I will edit this w/ more info, pics & the "why's", BUT the short list is:
BETTER fuel filter skid
BETTER sliders
BETTER diff covers.
BETTER rear bumper

Until this afternoon...

 

[Jeepeto]

Tire deflation tools and a good compressor.

 

[Zandcwhite]

1. Skid plates! Unless you are one of those super meticulous, rock stacking, team of spotters type wheelers, there will be a rock you don't see, you'll miss a line, or a tire will slip off a rock at some point. Knowing for sure that you aren't caving in your oil pan or transmission will allow you to carry on confidently despite the rock scraping noises. We ran the entire Rubicon without getting out to spot once.
2. steering stabilizer relocation. That thing couldn't be in a worse place for rocks. You will crush it at some point.
3. Bigger tires. A bigger tire can crawl through bigger holes period. Where a 33" might get hung up between 2 rocks or in an undercut, a larger tires cam bridge the gap between those rocks or climb the face of the undercut.
4. Lift. Clearance is clearance, spots where a stock rig might get hung up on the skids or be fully high centered don't even touch on 3.5" of lift and 38's. Some trails wouldn't even be possible without winching at stock ground clearance. Some of the ledges on cliffhanger we were still dragging the belly even with all these mods. I don't see how those climbs would be possible in a stock JLU.

Experience is the most important thing in the rocks, but that's not a mod. An experienced driver in a stock Jeep absolutely will do better than a new driver in a rock buggy. Airing down probably makes more difference than bigger tires, but again I don't consider that a mod. Some will say a winch is number 1, and although we use ours multiple times a year, it's never in the rocks. Mud, snow, sand I'll drag the Jeep through if need be. In the rocks you'll usually just be hung up on something or have a tire wedged in a bad spot, ripping the Jeep through is just not the move in those situations. I'd rather break out the jack and roll a rock or 2 under the tire.
Now if you bought an XR, you will benefit from more uptravel AND more down travel greatly. I still did Armour 1st on our 2022, but lift and longer shocks went on in the 1st 1k miles too. We are still on the stock 35's, but I have no doubt with the clearance and skids we could tackle the Rubicon again. Maybe not as easy as on 38's, but she would get through without too much work. Yeats ago we took the wife's WJ through on 31's, that was way too much work.

 

[tshaw2009]

Like others have said, there is no replacement for experience. The best piece of advice ever given to me in the off-road scene by an admin of my group I wheel with was, "Wheel it and find out what you need." I can almost guarantee you that your Jeep, Tacoma, 4Runner, Bronco, etc. is more capable than you are. A stock Jeep JL can do the Rubicon. Gracefully? No, but it can do it taking a couple bypasses and most people will do that anyways in a few places with built rigs. With that being said, most people will be able to tackle almost anything they are comfortable with in their Jeep with disconnects and skid plates in a few important places. Most people will find that they really don't need 3"+ of lift and 37s unless they want that look and if looks is mostly what you're after, don't spend $2k+ on a suspension lift that doesn't even come with shocks at that price point. Experience first learning the limits if your Jeep in stock form, then armor, and finally lifts and tires in that order.

 

[3TV]

Over several Jeeps, for me it has been:
1 Ground clearance. That means taller suspension and larger tires. More articulation is better than less, so pay attention when choosing suspension.
2 Armor, meaning skid plates, bumpers, and rock sliders.
3 Tire deflators and an air compressor.
4 Winch.

 

[Rubi6mt]

1. Skid plates! Unless you are one of those super meticulous, rock stacking, team of spotters type wheelers, there will be a rock you don't see, you'll miss a line, or a tire will slip off a rock at some point. Knowing for sure that you aren't caving in your oil pan or transmission will allow you to carry on confidently despite the rock scraping noises. We ran the entire Rubicon without getting out to spot once.
2. steering stabilizer relocation. That thing couldn't be in a worse place for rocks. You will crush it at some point.
3. Bigger tires. A bigger tire can crawl through bigger holes period. Where a 33" might get hung up between 2 rocks or in an undercut, a larger tires cam bridge the gap between those rocks or climb the face of the undercut.
4. Lift. Clearance is clearance, spots where a stock rig might get hung up on the skids or be fully high centered don't even touch on 3.5" of lift and 38's. Some trails wouldn't even be possible without winching at stock ground clearance. Some of the ledges on cliffhanger we were still dragging the belly even with all these mods. I don't see how those climbs would be possible in a stock JLU.

Experience is the most important thing in the rocks, but that's not a mod. An experienced driver in a stock Jeep absolutely will do better than a new driver in a rock buggy. Airing down probably makes more difference than bigger tires, but again I don't consider that a mod. Some will say a winch is number 1, and although we use ours multiple times a year, it's never in the rocks. Mud, snow, sand I'll drag the Jeep through if need be. In the rocks you'll usually just be hung up on something or have a tire wedged in a bad spot, ripping the Jeep through is just not the move in those situations. I'd rather break out the jack and roll a rock or 2 under the tire.
Now if you bought an XR, you will benefit from more uptravel AND more down travel greatly. I still did Armour 1st on our 2022, but lift and longer shocks went on in the 1st 1k miles too. We are still on the stock 35's, but I have no doubt with the clearance and skids we could tackle the Rubicon again. Maybe not as easy as on 38's, but she would get through without too much work. Yeats ago we took the wife's WJ through on 31's, that was way too much work.

100% agree with this. While I'm not a total novice, I'm certainly not experienced. One of the guys in my group is "experienced" and amazing what he can do with his TJ vs my JL on 37s.

That steering stabalizer placement sucks...here's mine dented, scraped and rattle canned to prevent rust

When I was turtled on my recent outing, I was glad for the iron diff covers when I slipped off and grinded on the front housing

 

[kah.mun.rah]

This is where I hit the most on the rocks:

So I would have to say these:

 

[Mocopo]

Front locker. My JLUR-XR came with one obviously, but my JK was a Sport S, so only rear LSD. Once I added the front locker, a whole new world opened up. I was actually rock crawling, picking fun lines. I was no longer limited to whatever line the open diffs could handle. I went from the guy who could keep up on the trails, to the guy who was willing to try fun crazy stuff the rest of the group wouldn't. When I upgraded to the JLU, it was never a question... I'm getting a Rubicon for those lockers, if nothing else. Luckily it has plenty of other awesome features too lol

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