Oops.... North Carolina. Have truck and trailer will travel (under 3000 miles one way). No, that's not a typo.

I recognize I need an expert, and that's who I'm asking for. I've got one lead of a fellow in New Mexico, trying to get some details from him.

 

Well, that is pretty much driving across the continental US. Plan a trip and just go visit TheDirtman in Reno.

 

First, thanks to Dirtman, and all the great info in this thread. Also, kudos to whoever made it a sticky. I have the great advantage of age and experience when it comes to modifying my first ever, and new to me wrangler. 2017 stock JKU sport. The good, it has the 3.73 axles. The bad, a very limited budget. I'm in Connecticut, so no public off roading anywhere in the state. There are clubs to get on private land. This will be a daily driver, so I'll live on 285/70-17 once the 255/75's are done. The only lift I need will be to get back what a winch bumper and armor weight takes up, plus maybe 2". Definitely coils, as spacers won't keep the weight off the bump stops. I see trimming or flat fenders, and maybe a bit longer shocks in the future. I'll build for the possibility of 35's if i take it that far. Though there aren't offroad trails, my town does have hundreds of miles of dirt roads, and many have no winter maintenance. I live for snowstorms. Eventually I'll take a trip back out west. I fondly remember living in Idaho as a kid, and you could drive for days up in the hills and mountains if you wanted. Anyways, I'm sure I'll be back here when I actually start collecting parts.
2nd edit. Yes, I'm reading through this thread again. For any interested, my first mod on this was a winch bumper, included fogs and 20' LED bar, and an Xbull 13.5k synthetic rope winch. Soft shackles, 20 ft 7/8" kinetic rope, 30' strap, tree saver, synthetic rope (ring style) snatch blocks. Not sure of the order, but next is rock rails, oil/trans skid ( those lines look exposed) and a rear Eaton truetrac. The last might be first to go on. When I move to 285's I'll get wheels and do fenders. From my experience with my stock, open diff 98 ZJ, I should be able to keep up to most on any terrain around here. I don't do mud holes.

 

Solid read! Now my curiosity is would a higher lift be needed for a 4 door over a 2 door due to wheel base length. On my 2 door I HAD a 2.5” spacer lift till it crumbled due to old age. My friend has a 4 door with a 3.5” lift and mine was able to keep up with his with no issue. However he scraped where I didn’t due to have a smaller wheelbase.

 

You know I never thought of it that way. I also wheel with a buddy in a 4 door (mine is 2 door) and, like yours, he just drags the belly over a little more stuff than me.

I think, like anything crawling, is that this isn't really a generalization (equating 2 door vs 4 door performance based on lift/wheelbase) that can be made. As usual it boils down to what you want from your vehicle. A higher lift on a 4 door might get the breakover angle closer to that of a 2 door, but at what cost? The longer wheelbase on the 4 door is often an advantage, and cranking up the height to improve one aspect of performance will likely detract from another. Depending on your terrain, the lower COG might well be worth dragging skids more often. Heck I only ever lifted mine to accommodate larger tires. So to return to your question, 'what's needed' really has to be evaluated according to what you're trying to achieve with the particular vehicle. If your goal is to match the 2 door breakover angle on a 4 door, crank that puppy up!

 

See that’s the thing. In my 2 door I can get away with a 2.5”. Keep my low center of gravity and keep up without scraping the belly. I put a 3.5” I’ll be unstoppable. lol. Right now since I had 2.5” spacers in mine that just poof exploded sitting still im conflicted to go back to a 2.5” lift this time properly with springs or go just an inch bigger and just dominate the competition

 

Well, I got a bit carried away, and still have to install my flat fenders, inner fenders and sliders, but I'm very happy with how things are working. I have a winch bumper, 13,500 lb synthetic winch, 2.5" Metalcloak lift, which gave me about 2.75" of lift. The reason I decided on Metalcloak is because, unlike all the other kits I looked at, this one ADDED about 3" of travel ( 11.5" shock travel). The kit called for the exhaust spacers so that the front driveshaft didn't interfere under full droop. I ended up putting in an Adam's driveshaft because I really needed the extra space. Rear droop is insane. I put in Truetracs front and rear, 17" Rocktrix wheels and MT 35 x 12.5" Baja Boss tires. I've had it offroad a couple times and I'm loving the Truetracs. I took it over some descent size rocks on a climb and a bit of left foot on the brake kept tires from spinning, even with a tire in the air.