I'm not new to jeeps I'm new to JKs.

So before I joined the military I sold my TJ. I had it for a few years and had a good time with it. I lived in Ohio at the time and all we did was see how many mud holes it could go through before it died. Only died when I put it under water. She still drove me home that night though so I can't talk bad about her.

Anyway, now I am in Arizona and I bought a JK. Bone stock JK. Now keep in mind that I am just a little Airman First Class with a few bills to pay. However that will not stop me from buying things for my jeep.

So the reason im here is to ask for help with the things I will need. Lift and tires. Lights and wheels. The stuff I need. I definitely know I'm going to start with lift and tires but it's mostly trails and climbing over rocks so I don't know what tires would be best for things like that. I don't really want bigger than a 3 inch lift and 33s unless you can convince me otherwise for reasons I don't know.

Keep in mind I'm in no way shape or form trying to make my jeep into rock crawling beast. I daily it so it can't be insane. Any information will be extremely helpful and I look forward to asking a Million questions.

Thank you in advance.

 

Lift and tires are a good choice. I run a 2.5" lift with 35s and is my DD. When all is said and done, there are many good tires to choose from. I really liked Cooper STTs in a 33 myself. Always hard to go wrong with BFG KM2s, as well, as they look tough and perform well off-road. Toyo tires are tougher than all hell but will cost you.

By the way....Welcome to the site.

 

What are you looking at for a lift

 

Well I had a pro comp lift on my TJ. However on my JK I want to get into it a little bit more so I was looking at a Rubicon express lift. It's a short arm kit but I read that you can change parts out on it easier than anything else. I plan on doing most of the work myself so I figured that a 3 - 3.5 inch lift would be good. Another question I have with that though would be do I have to do anything with my steering column and or T case if I lift it 3 inches. I know in my TJ when I had the lift put on by a local off road shop they had to mess with my T case. So that kind of worries me because I don't know that i could do that part on my own. Everything else I'm confident that I can get done. Any suggestions would be appreciated along with some sort of concrete info on what to look for. Thanks again.

 

Do you have pictures of it with the lift and tires as a reference?

 

No problem...here you go:

 

OK...ok...maybe that was not the best. So here is one you can use:

 

So being in Arizona it's a lot of crawling not so much mud holes. That being said a 2.5 inch lift wouldn't be to crazy but I feel like 35s limit the travel I'll have. And what do you think would be the best tires to run on it for crawling? Any suggestions? I need to look into the ones that was posted above too but any others would also help.

 

I don't mud much either. Its rocks and dirt in the summer and snow and more snow in the winter here. As for 35s limiting your flex...not if you choose the correct lift package IMHO. But 33s may do all you need.

As for tires: I run a tire I did not even mention above. These (in the photo) are Treadwright Guard Dogs. They are a remanufactured (retread) tire that I like a lot. They are damn loud on the pavement but they work well when I am playing in the snow. When I cut two of them recently, I did not need to sell my son to get new ones because they are cheap compared to most 35s. (though I have since regretted not selling my son when I had the chance.) For DDs you may want a little less aggressive tire. Think "AT" models. The more you off-road then more toward MTs. Check out the Procomps, Goodyear, BFG and Coopers. You can look them all up on a number of sites.

Some ideas: http://www.quadratec.com/categories...m:4255&f[4]=sm_field_brand:taxonomy_term:5450

 

I would suggest not to get the km2s if you are in az. They chunk pretty hard on our sharp rocks.

 

How do you like those Nitto Trail Grapplers you run?

 

On a JK or JKU a 3 inch lift is pretty easy. Over that size simply requires a few more things be done. In either case, you may wish to consider a "high steer kit" which simply puts your steering geometry back to more factory angles. (May not be needed at 3" and below, however, I put one on my 2.5".) Going 3.5 or above can require either some modification to the exhaust (there is a spacer kit to accomplish this) or changing the front drive shaft. The exhaust kit is cheaper and is easy to do. No messing with the t-case will be required for what you are talking about doing.

Good luck with the project. Thanks for your service!! Good luck!

 

They have only been on 3 runs so far but no chunk and when you air down the 8 ply sidewall is nice.

Anything over 3.5 you will need high steer kit, new front drive shaft, recommended rear driveshaft and possibly the exhaust spacer but the spacer is like $15.