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

[Chocolate Thunder]

Yeah, not really concerned with whatever plastic you guys are arguing over regarding skids. I’ve got Artec aluminum, they’ve served me well and I’ll stick with them.

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[Zandcwhite]

LOL. You are correct that the only polymer you'll find on google that uses the ultra high molecular weight nomenclature commercially would be the polyethylene family of polymers.
You're incorrect that the only ultra high MW polymers are polyethylene.
Any thermoset by definition is ultra high MW.
Uncrosslinked butyl rubber is very high MW - I'd need to go find some GPC data at work to see if it is higher or lower than what folks use as the UHMWPE cutoff.

I'm a plastics engineer. I do this stuff for a living. And I routinely run into situations where people shorten acronyms - because it is easier. We are all a bit lazy.

I wrote the FAQ for the sci.polymers newsgroup - a couple of years before the WWW existed.
Here's the link for anyone who wants to read more.
SCI.POLYMERS FAQ (theotherpages.org)

My point was you're "correcting" someone for using common vernacular even within the plastic industry. Only a plastics engineer would care in the slightest if you drop the pe and just call it UHMW as the skid manufacturers and even the plastic retailers do.

 

[Fast-n-Furious]

Is long arm system/kit good for rock crawling? I’ve seen some people went with long arm kit and 4” lift to accommodate the challenging terrain. It also seems to improves the on-road driving.

 

[Zandcwhite]

Is long arm system/kit good for rock crawling? I’ve seen some people went with long arm kit and 4” lift to accommodate the challenging terrain. It also seems to improves the on-road driving.

A long arm kit will allow more travel with less axle front to back movement than any other suspension system/design. It will also help to limit rear steer when flexed out. Necessary for crawling? No. Great for those conditions? Absolutely.

 

[COJeeper]

The absolute BEST modification is obviously portals. I can't afford them though.

Lift and a regear all in one, plus you're lifting the axle so that's truly increasing your minimum ground clearance.
https://motorsports.74weld.com/jeepportal/

I'd never heard of these before a week ago, freaking cool!

 

[J0E]

The absolute BEST modification is obviously portals. I can't afford them though.

Lift and a regear all in one, plus you're lifting the axle so that's truly increasing your minimum ground clearance.
https://motorsports.74weld.com/jeepportal/

I'd never heard of these before a week ago, freaking cool!

Or DS Ultra 70 Portal Competition Axle JL
But nobody crawls with portals. I haven't seen any of the many next level buggies on portals. I really wanted to go with Portals but too many problems so I did the easy thing, DYNATRAC ELITE PROROCK 60/80 AXLE SET W/ RCV FRONT SHAFTS, 72.5IN WIDTH - ARB AIR LOCKER 5.38 and 43" Trep stickies.

 

[C.Sco]

The absolute BEST modification is obviously portals. I can't afford them though.

Lift and a regear all in one, plus you're lifting the axle so that's truly increasing your minimum ground clearance.
https://motorsports.74weld.com/jeepportal/

I'd never heard of these before a week ago, freaking cool!

My buddy told me to check those out when I got my JLUR. So I did, and immediately decided I HAVE TO HAVE THOSE!!! And then I saw the price. And decided I definitely don't have to have those.

 

[COJeeper]

My buddy told me to check those out when I got my JLUR. So I did, and immediately decided I HAVE TO HAVE THOSE!!! And then I saw the price. And decided I definitely don't have to have those.

Same! $25k is a bit much for me right now, that’s like 3 weeks of eggs and milk! We need to eat instead of buy Jeep parts!

 

[Ratbert]

The absolute BEST modification is obviously portals. I can't afford them though.

Lift and a regear all in one, plus you're lifting the axle so that's truly increasing your minimum ground clearance.
https://motorsports.74weld.com/jeepportal/

I'd never heard of these before a week ago, freaking cool!

@Zandcwhite gave a great breakdown of some of the downsides of portals.

 

[roaniecowpony]

Your vendor also left off the PE.
uhmw is a partial acronym. Doesn’t have any meaning without the polyethylene Lots of different types of polymers could be ultra high molecular weight.

it’s like going to the store and requesting a pound of spicy.

spicy what?
Chicken
Beef
Pork
Noodles
Meatballs?

You're being logical. Stop it. It gives us engineers a bad rep.

 

[roaniecowpony]

The absolute BEST modification is obviously portals. I can't afford them though.

Lift and a regear all in one, plus you're lifting the axle so that's truly increasing your minimum ground clearance.
https://motorsports.74weld.com/jeepportal/

I'd never heard of these before a week ago, freaking cool!

This type of offset drive system was used on the military Humvee and likely many other specialized vehicles. A version of offset hub drive was also used in old VW vans.

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