Stock Off Roading JLUS

[Mwags]

I just ordered some too

I'm ordering some..

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[xtopherm]

Hello, everyone!

My JLUS is my second Wrangler, upgraded in the spring from a 2016 Sport 2-Door Freedom Edition. Never did any off-roading, other than a dirt road here or there. No mud, no rocks.

Spent a week up in northern Maine last week and took her out on logging roads and gravel/dirt/rocky trails. Nothing major.....no rock climbing or anything. I haven't upgraded anything, except I added mud flaps because of the pebbles that were being flung back at the body from the AT tires. Had fun driving through some muddy puddles and getting dirty, exploring some amazing views and getting "lost". It was a blast.

Then I came home to clean it. MUD everywhere. Lots of nooks and crannies for it to get trapped in. Need to wash it again in a day or two, could not get it all out. Noticed some damage to my wheels, a couple of good-sized nicks (probably from rocks) that will most likely rust and look like shit before too long. Also found a pretty nice gouge on the underside of the front bumper (don't recall hitting anything or hearing that happen, and by the looks of it, it seems like I should've heard it). Well, damn.

Sorry to take so long to get to my actual question, but how do you all deal with this type of stuff? How do you clean yours? (inside and out) Do I just have to decide if I want my Jeep to look perfect or have fun in it? Is it wrong to want both? Lol....but seriously.

Luckily, scratches don't show on Hella Yella, and the soft-top side windows are replaceable when they get so scratched that they are unusable. So I just wheel the h*ll out of mine and figure it will have plenty of character and patina when it is ten years old. That's what it is for. I bought it to drive it and have fun with it and that's exactly what I do. As for washing, when I come home covered in mud, I hit it with the pressure washer (being careful not to damage paint or drive water where it doesn't belong) and also pressure wash the under carriage as well, and then wash it by hand, being careful to use a HUGE bucket of detergent water and rise my washing mitt very frequently to avoid scratches from mud left over from the pressure wash. Entire process takes about 30 mins unless things got completely out of hand or I was wheeling with the doors off. For me, that's good enough. It's a jeep. When it has scars, dents, scratches and little patches of primer 10-15 years from now, I will probably love it all the more for the great memories.

 

[rickyrobert]

Honestly, I just take mine to get detailed every 6 months. Same style wheeling as you do, and they get it like new. In between details I just do basic washes interior and exterior.

 

[jeepdabest]

I can relate. I have had mine just over 3 weeks. Around where I live, finding a grassy field to drive in is about as close as you can get to off roading. Looking at joining a Jeep club and getting some action. It's difficult to do both... keep it clean and looking new vs finding some hills, mud, rocks and trails and having a great time. With these vehicles costing in the $40-60K range, those first scratches and dings are hard to deal with.

ALWAYS go off roading in your friend's Jeep!

 

[Doug Huse]

Something to ponder. When you’re driving down the street, nobody can see the pin stripes or the dings in the wheels. And for sure, nobody is wondering what the underneath looks like.

 

[aldo98229]

My JKUR Recon drove like a freaking tractor; the fit-and-finish was such crap, that a ding, a dent and a good scratch helped to hide Soviet levels of assembly quality.

By contrast, my JL is so refined, the fit-and-finish so nice, and the damn thing so expensive, and that I don’t want to get it all bashed up.

Jeep’s idea of “fit-and-finish” on my $52,000 JKUR Recon

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