Lessons learned while modding (warning---long post)
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JK Enthusiast
Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 347
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From: Orlando, FL
Lessons learned while modding (warning---long post)
I learn a lot from this forum, so thought I would give back. Maybe this will help folks new to modding to understand some of the compromises that you must make when modding and the implications that arise with your decisions. I have owned 4 Jeeps in the past 7 years (2004 TJ Rubicon, 2007 Unlimited Sahara, 2010 Unlimited Rubicon, 2011 Unlimited Rubicon) and have modded all of them with the standard stuff (bumpers, lifts, rock rails, etc...) and have learned quite a few lessons along the way. I used products from a variety of vendors and took different strategies to my mods, sometimes focusing on protection and minimal lift, sometimes on getting maximum size tires. Here are the lessons I have learned (in no particular order).
Disclaimer: Thes observations are all personal impressions learned from experience. Take them with a grain of salt, your experiences may vary, yada, yada, yada...
1) The key to starting to plan your modding strategy is to decide how far you are willing to go from the start. This begins with your purchase of the Jeep. If you are very mechanically inclined (or are willing to pay a lot to an installer) and plan to have a radical rock monster, then start with a lowend Jeep like an 'X'. No sense paying extra for the Rubicon if you are going to replace the very parts that cost more in a Rubi. You also won't want the luxury interior if you are just going to tear it up with mud and water. If you are like me and don't want to worry about replacing axles, adding lockers, etc...go Rubicon. If you get an X or a Sahara and go big tires, you will always be worrying about the strength of that Dana 30 up front.
2) The most important mods will be armor. No matter how much you spend on other mods, if the Jeep isn't protected you will damage your expensive mods. This is true on the street as well as the trail. I was rear-ended 3 times in my Sahara, but because I had a stout aftermarket rear bumper the worst damage was a few scratches while the other cars suffered pretty severely. Rock rails also save your Jeep from the inevitable door dings as well as trees and rocks. Don't skimp on armor.
3) Body-mount vs. frame-mount rock rails. Having had both, I recommend frame mounted. Drilling holes in the sheet metal of the body will inevitably lead to rust in the body tub. I did spray the holes I drilled with primer and paint, but putting in the bolts will knock off some of that paint and rust will form. Also, you will get some corrosion between the body and the rock rail plates. I tried putting sealer along the edges of the rail plates to seal out moisture and dirt, pulling the rails off occasionally to clean between the two, or just leaving them alone. All cases resulted in some corrosion. The frame appears to be much more impervious to rust and I have not had problems with it on my frame-mounted rails. Also, if you have a family who will be riding in the Jeep, get a rail with steps built in. If it is just a tube rail and is wet or muddy, someone will slip on the rail using it as a step and bang their shin on the tube. Even if you put traction material on the tube. mud will cover it and become slippery. Personally, my favorite rail is the LoD for all of the reasons above.
4) Rear bumper considerations. Like everything else about mods, there are tradeoffs. Full width vs. shorty...full width gives more protection to the corners in case of impact, but adds weight and will require lift to bring the Jeep back level. Getting a bumper with a tire carrier will save your tailgate if you go larger than a 33 inch tire. Look closely at how high the spare sits on the swingarm. If it sits high, this will give you more clearance at the rear when tackling steep approaches, but will block your view out the rear window on the street. Bumpers with cutouts below the spare will lower the spare and give you better visibility out of the rear, but if you are an extreme rock crawler you will lose clearance. Since I live in Florida and very rarely tackle extreme rock crawling, I favor a lower spare mount. Rattles...I have had several rear bumpers by Smittybilt, Rockhard, and Expedition One. I have found that any tirecarrier with a swingarm and latch will rattle some at the latch. If rattle-free driving is important to you, go with a swingarm design that swings with the tailgate (such as the Expedition One, Aberle, or LoD 3rd gen), as there is no latch mechanism to rattle. My current favorite is the Expedition One. It is expensive, but you get what you pay for and it has the best of everything (in my opinion).
5) Front bumper - in my mind, this is not near as critical a choice as the rear bumper. If you rock crawl or will be tackling steep approaches, go shorty or midwidth. They leave the front tires exposed so they can grab onto the ledge. These bumpers also weigh less and won't sag your Jeep as much. If you are mainly concerned with protection, go full width, but look at how high the bumper ends sit. Higher bumper ends free more of the front tire for grabbing ledges and such. If you think there is any way you may want a winch, get a bumper with a between the rails winch mount. This lowers the winch and protects it. I was not sure if I would get a winch or not later, so I opted for a bumper that had a low winch mount to give me that option in the future. My latest choice...the RockHard full width winch bumper.
6) Lift - the most controversial of modding choices. I currently have the Teraflex puck leveling kit. I got this because I needed to get the clearance back that was lost from sagging due to the bumpers, but was not ready to commit the money to a "real" lift yet. I know that I will need a spring lift soon due to the weight of the other mods and my desire to go 35's. The leveling kit was a cheap stopgap. My advice on a lift.. go puck lift if you will not go bigger than 33's and do not plan on adding a lot of weight with bumpers and armor. If you have a lot of armor weight, you will need a spring lift as the stock springs will eventually sag. On spring lifts...for an Unlimited, 3.5" appears to be the dividing point between a simple or a complex lift. 3.5" or lower and you can keep stock driveshafts, control arms, etc...go higher than that and you are talking about a lot of money to modify other parts affected by the lift. Also, I am talking "Real" height increase, not the height given in the name of the lift. The amount a lift will raise your Jeep varies greatly from the advertised gain. Check the forum to see how much rise people are getting with the lifts and plan from there. If you drive primarily on the street and need a spring lift, do not skimp. Cheap lifts ride rough or reduce handling and the "feel" of how the Jeep drives is more important than you think. Day in and day out how it handles will color your whole attitude with how happy you are with your Jeep. Progressive coils and good shocks are worth the money. I plan on going with about 2.5 - 3 inches of "real lift", progressive coils, and decent shocks. Right now I am leaning towards the OME 2 inch lift. This lift gives you 3-3.5 inches of lift, has very good springs and shocks, and I have had very good experience with it in the past. If you lift more than 2 inches or so, get adjustable trackbars to recenter your axles. Lower than 2 inches, the axle shift is not significant enough to bother. More than 2 inches of lift, and you will need to lengthen your rear brake lines, either with new lines or a extended mount. I usually get the mount extenders..cheap and get the job done effectively. Because I have never lifted beyond 3 inches, I have never gotten adjustable control arms. At 3 inches, I have felt the steering become more flighty, but it is very livable and hasn't bothered me enough to spend the money to correct caster. I could talk a lot more about lifts because there are so many considerations, but I think I will stop here.
7) Diff covers...worth the money if you go offroad at all...rocks or forest. Your differentials hang lower than any other component on the Jeep and thus need protection the most. All aftermarket diff covers do the job...get one with the features and appearance you like. I went with Solids because of price.
8) Wheels...I won't discuss style or size as these are personal preference and are covered over and over on this forum. One aspect that is more important than people realize and is often overlooked is hub-centric vs. lug-centric wheels. Hub-centric means the center hole of the rim is sized exactly to fit flush on the axle hub and thus allow the hub to take a lot of the stress. Lug-centric wheels have a larger opening and don't fit flush, forcing the lugs to center the wheels and take all of the stress. You can buy center rings for lug-centric wheels that act as spacers between the hole and the hub and thus make a lug-centric wheel into a "sort-of" hub-centric. The stock wheels are hub-centric for safety. I know that AEV wheels are also hub-centric. Almost all others are lug-centric, as it is cheaper for wheel manufacturers to produce one wheel with holes large enough to fit the largest hub rather than a bunch of different wheels with different sized holes. If you purchase lug-centric wheels, I recommend you pick up a set of hub rings...they are cheap insurance. I have personally experienced a lug shear off on a lug-centric wheel before and it is not fun. I personally am sticking with the stock wheels...they will handle up to a 12.5 inch wide tire and as tall as you want, you just need wheel spacers to gain backspacing and prevent rubbing. A good quality Wheel spacer like Spidertrax is very safe as long as you use red loctite on the bolts and check the torque every tire rotation.
This post is getting pretty long so I think I will stop here. I hope this helps less-experienced Jeepers identify some of the considerations to keep in mind when modding. If I had to give only one piece of advice it would be "Plan Ahead". Spend time thinking of not only the mod you are considering, but also any future mods you think you may want. There is nothing worse than having to throw away a mod and replace it when it doesn't work with another mod you are planning.
Disclaimer: Thes observations are all personal impressions learned from experience. Take them with a grain of salt, your experiences may vary, yada, yada, yada...
1) The key to starting to plan your modding strategy is to decide how far you are willing to go from the start. This begins with your purchase of the Jeep. If you are very mechanically inclined (or are willing to pay a lot to an installer) and plan to have a radical rock monster, then start with a lowend Jeep like an 'X'. No sense paying extra for the Rubicon if you are going to replace the very parts that cost more in a Rubi. You also won't want the luxury interior if you are just going to tear it up with mud and water. If you are like me and don't want to worry about replacing axles, adding lockers, etc...go Rubicon. If you get an X or a Sahara and go big tires, you will always be worrying about the strength of that Dana 30 up front.
2) The most important mods will be armor. No matter how much you spend on other mods, if the Jeep isn't protected you will damage your expensive mods. This is true on the street as well as the trail. I was rear-ended 3 times in my Sahara, but because I had a stout aftermarket rear bumper the worst damage was a few scratches while the other cars suffered pretty severely. Rock rails also save your Jeep from the inevitable door dings as well as trees and rocks. Don't skimp on armor.
3) Body-mount vs. frame-mount rock rails. Having had both, I recommend frame mounted. Drilling holes in the sheet metal of the body will inevitably lead to rust in the body tub. I did spray the holes I drilled with primer and paint, but putting in the bolts will knock off some of that paint and rust will form. Also, you will get some corrosion between the body and the rock rail plates. I tried putting sealer along the edges of the rail plates to seal out moisture and dirt, pulling the rails off occasionally to clean between the two, or just leaving them alone. All cases resulted in some corrosion. The frame appears to be much more impervious to rust and I have not had problems with it on my frame-mounted rails. Also, if you have a family who will be riding in the Jeep, get a rail with steps built in. If it is just a tube rail and is wet or muddy, someone will slip on the rail using it as a step and bang their shin on the tube. Even if you put traction material on the tube. mud will cover it and become slippery. Personally, my favorite rail is the LoD for all of the reasons above.
4) Rear bumper considerations. Like everything else about mods, there are tradeoffs. Full width vs. shorty...full width gives more protection to the corners in case of impact, but adds weight and will require lift to bring the Jeep back level. Getting a bumper with a tire carrier will save your tailgate if you go larger than a 33 inch tire. Look closely at how high the spare sits on the swingarm. If it sits high, this will give you more clearance at the rear when tackling steep approaches, but will block your view out the rear window on the street. Bumpers with cutouts below the spare will lower the spare and give you better visibility out of the rear, but if you are an extreme rock crawler you will lose clearance. Since I live in Florida and very rarely tackle extreme rock crawling, I favor a lower spare mount. Rattles...I have had several rear bumpers by Smittybilt, Rockhard, and Expedition One. I have found that any tirecarrier with a swingarm and latch will rattle some at the latch. If rattle-free driving is important to you, go with a swingarm design that swings with the tailgate (such as the Expedition One, Aberle, or LoD 3rd gen), as there is no latch mechanism to rattle. My current favorite is the Expedition One. It is expensive, but you get what you pay for and it has the best of everything (in my opinion).
5) Front bumper - in my mind, this is not near as critical a choice as the rear bumper. If you rock crawl or will be tackling steep approaches, go shorty or midwidth. They leave the front tires exposed so they can grab onto the ledge. These bumpers also weigh less and won't sag your Jeep as much. If you are mainly concerned with protection, go full width, but look at how high the bumper ends sit. Higher bumper ends free more of the front tire for grabbing ledges and such. If you think there is any way you may want a winch, get a bumper with a between the rails winch mount. This lowers the winch and protects it. I was not sure if I would get a winch or not later, so I opted for a bumper that had a low winch mount to give me that option in the future. My latest choice...the RockHard full width winch bumper.
6) Lift - the most controversial of modding choices. I currently have the Teraflex puck leveling kit. I got this because I needed to get the clearance back that was lost from sagging due to the bumpers, but was not ready to commit the money to a "real" lift yet. I know that I will need a spring lift soon due to the weight of the other mods and my desire to go 35's. The leveling kit was a cheap stopgap. My advice on a lift.. go puck lift if you will not go bigger than 33's and do not plan on adding a lot of weight with bumpers and armor. If you have a lot of armor weight, you will need a spring lift as the stock springs will eventually sag. On spring lifts...for an Unlimited, 3.5" appears to be the dividing point between a simple or a complex lift. 3.5" or lower and you can keep stock driveshafts, control arms, etc...go higher than that and you are talking about a lot of money to modify other parts affected by the lift. Also, I am talking "Real" height increase, not the height given in the name of the lift. The amount a lift will raise your Jeep varies greatly from the advertised gain. Check the forum to see how much rise people are getting with the lifts and plan from there. If you drive primarily on the street and need a spring lift, do not skimp. Cheap lifts ride rough or reduce handling and the "feel" of how the Jeep drives is more important than you think. Day in and day out how it handles will color your whole attitude with how happy you are with your Jeep. Progressive coils and good shocks are worth the money. I plan on going with about 2.5 - 3 inches of "real lift", progressive coils, and decent shocks. Right now I am leaning towards the OME 2 inch lift. This lift gives you 3-3.5 inches of lift, has very good springs and shocks, and I have had very good experience with it in the past. If you lift more than 2 inches or so, get adjustable trackbars to recenter your axles. Lower than 2 inches, the axle shift is not significant enough to bother. More than 2 inches of lift, and you will need to lengthen your rear brake lines, either with new lines or a extended mount. I usually get the mount extenders..cheap and get the job done effectively. Because I have never lifted beyond 3 inches, I have never gotten adjustable control arms. At 3 inches, I have felt the steering become more flighty, but it is very livable and hasn't bothered me enough to spend the money to correct caster. I could talk a lot more about lifts because there are so many considerations, but I think I will stop here.
7) Diff covers...worth the money if you go offroad at all...rocks or forest. Your differentials hang lower than any other component on the Jeep and thus need protection the most. All aftermarket diff covers do the job...get one with the features and appearance you like. I went with Solids because of price.
8) Wheels...I won't discuss style or size as these are personal preference and are covered over and over on this forum. One aspect that is more important than people realize and is often overlooked is hub-centric vs. lug-centric wheels. Hub-centric means the center hole of the rim is sized exactly to fit flush on the axle hub and thus allow the hub to take a lot of the stress. Lug-centric wheels have a larger opening and don't fit flush, forcing the lugs to center the wheels and take all of the stress. You can buy center rings for lug-centric wheels that act as spacers between the hole and the hub and thus make a lug-centric wheel into a "sort-of" hub-centric. The stock wheels are hub-centric for safety. I know that AEV wheels are also hub-centric. Almost all others are lug-centric, as it is cheaper for wheel manufacturers to produce one wheel with holes large enough to fit the largest hub rather than a bunch of different wheels with different sized holes. If you purchase lug-centric wheels, I recommend you pick up a set of hub rings...they are cheap insurance. I have personally experienced a lug shear off on a lug-centric wheel before and it is not fun. I personally am sticking with the stock wheels...they will handle up to a 12.5 inch wide tire and as tall as you want, you just need wheel spacers to gain backspacing and prevent rubbing. A good quality Wheel spacer like Spidertrax is very safe as long as you use red loctite on the bolts and check the torque every tire rotation.
This post is getting pretty long so I think I will stop here. I hope this helps less-experienced Jeepers identify some of the considerations to keep in mind when modding. If I had to give only one piece of advice it would be "Plan Ahead". Spend time thinking of not only the mod you are considering, but also any future mods you think you may want. There is nothing worse than having to throw away a mod and replace it when it doesn't work with another mod you are planning.
Good post
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JK Newbie
Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 22
Likes: 0
From: Dallas, Tx
Lots of great information, especially since I'm new.
Do you have any recommendation on order to purchase mods? From what I've read, it looks like body armor is a first, but after that it's kind of a crap shoot.
Do you have any recommendation on order to purchase mods? From what I've read, it looks like body armor is a first, but after that it's kind of a crap shoot.
