Self-Inflicted Damage?

[Deleted User 38384]

Here in New England, it is very difficult to go off road without damaging something. With our tight, rocky trails, you are always going to get body scratches, wheel gouges, skid plate scrapes. It's just the way it is. So, all my damage is self-inflicted.

Connecticut!?!?

You should move to Texas! It's way better down here. Short of the fact all my family is up in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine, life's better in Texas. I haven't had to shovel snow in 12 years! Or rake leaves for that matter!

I used to live in Hartford myself.

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[J.Ferreira]

I was recently lamenting my first repair on my 2022 JLU Sahara (new driver in household, new right fender), and I started thinking about the Jeep owners who actually take their Jeeps off road (there have to be some who still do this, right?). I have to assume that this results in some self-inflicted damage, but is that correct? How often do the off-road crowd damage their own rides just having fun?

Some Moab carnage for your viewing pleasure.
I can't imagine not taking Azure offroad.
I didn't buy a Jeep for it's stellar gas mileage on my 75 mile round trip daily commute.

My bumpers are also scraped up, I have a handful of pinstripes from some tree branches that got a little too friendly.
But no real body damage as of yet. I do try to choose my lines pretty carefully so as not too bang up the body.

 

[J.Ferreira]

Connecticut!?!?

You should move to Texas! It's way better down here. Short of the fact all my family is up in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine, life's better in Texas. I haven't had to shovel snow in 12 years! Or rake leaves for that matter!

I used to live in Hartford myself.

I can't wait to move further south.
Lived in New England (MA) for far too long. Colorado is much nicer weather year round than any part of the year in MA.
But I am slowly and surely working my way south to a land of no snow and low humidity. AZ is a high contender!

 

[NPC 20883467]

Heads up to you lurkers out there... If after reading these accounts you still buy a used Jeep, you deserve whatever misfortune comes your way.

 

[Will]

Best thing a new Jeep owner can do:

The day it leaves the dealer lot take it into the woods and run the whole side against a tree. Yes, that will suck and you will be mad at yourself for a day or two. But the next few years you won’t worry at all about scratching it. Go out and do what it’s made to do! It’s way more fun than malls and ducks?

 

[ObiMatt87]

Yep, had desert pinstriping during a group trip to Big Bend, but fortunately most of it buffed out well, except for some on my rear fender flares. First year I had my Jeep I caught the front right bumper and fender flare on the edge of the garage opening, creating a "replace front bumper and right fender flare" situation where I had to then order a set of fender flares, then have them painted to match. That was a costly little mistake... I have caught several things underneath on rocks, and dropped it hard on my rock rails, but all has survived well. Generally, a banging machine that can really do amazing things straight out of the factory!

 

[GearWhore]

I was recently lamenting my first repair on my 2022 JLU Sahara (new driver in household, new right fender)

Just think about how fortunate you are to have an easily replaceable fender with a new driver!

I tore off my first fender a few years ago on the big off-camber boulder near the start of Kane Creek. Put the rear passenger door into the rock as well, but it was pretty minor damage considering what it could've been.

 

[AVGeek99]

Anyone with a round muffler needs to have their "Rock Crawling" card taken away!

They start out round???

 

[AVGeek99]

On my JK Sahara I rolled backwards off a large rock and landed on it pretty hard on the rocker panel and no rock rails. It pushed the rocker panel up under the rear passenger door right at the body panel seam. That required a trip to the body shop.

On my JL the skids have earned their keep, probably go with belly skids in another year. Some rock scrapes on wheels. My tailpipe opening has not been round since my first trip to Moab. Some scrapes on the bottom side of my bumpers, easy to smooth out with some sandpaper and touch up with some rustoleum. I went with Rock Hard Aluminum bumpers so I didn't have to worry about them getting destroyed by MN salty winters. No body damage to speak of.

My one big self inflicted fiasco was having too much fun in mud. Resulted in a new clutch, but gave me an excuse to upgrade the faulty factory clutch and flywheel with the CFII. Still would have preferred to avoid that one.

 

[Opus]

In the upper mid-west there's not too much around to cause damage aside from the occasional branch scrape. When we took our roadtrip southwest this past summer, I didn't managed to scrape on a drop-off on the back road into Arches. The Jeep itself would have handled it just fine... it was my dumb ass who completely forgot to remove the hitch extender I put on it. ?‍

 

[Ratbert]

Best thing a new Jeep owner can do:

The day it leaves the dealer lot take it into the woods and run the whole side against a tree. Yes, that will suck and you will be mad at yourself for a day or two. But the next few years you won’t worry at all about scratching it. Go out and do what it’s made to do! It’s way more fun than malls and ducks?

I did that the first week after flying to Michigan to pick it up. The only difference is that I wasn't mad. All intentional to get that part out of my system.

After decades of owning pristine sports cars it's so freeing to have something that I'm not worried about getting damaged. Life is good.

 

[emilboya]

Rolled mine at a off-road park. What's the point in getting a Jeep if you're not going to use it for what it's meant for? Plenty of better SUV's for daily driving.

And you still had the dealer plates on it??? it was new new lol

 

[emilboya]

Mall crawlers (Me) reading this thread lol

 

[KCSgtMaj]

Rolled mine at a off-road park. What's the point in getting a Jeep if you're not going to use it for what it's meant for? Plenty of better SUV's for daily driving.

That was rolled?

 

[jac04]

Some Moab carnage for your viewing pleasure.
...

If you hit that exhaust loop hard enough it is going to ruin your day ...

Put a skid on that thing and bonus points for tying it back into your engine/trans skid, like so:
(Note: Picture is on my JK, but it is the same general arrangement. I added the parts outlined in orange. It has held up very well.)

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