I have been trying to decide on whether to go with a snorkel or not, and as much of my driving is in some desert conditions, with a lot of dust, as well as some small stream crossings, thought this might be what i need. Question. What is the best all around snorkel to purchase, and do they all require hood cutting unless you buy another hood made for the snorkel in question? Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

 

A snorkel is perfect for the conditions you described. Snorkels are great for dirt road driving and of course water crossings. To my knowledge all the snorkels available for the jk require cutting your hood or replacing with an aftermarket hood that has the cutout already. I want one as well but my eyes are bigger than my wallet

 

I know the feeling. The snorkel kit is within reach, but when I have to consider a new hood, and then having it painted, things begin to go South.

 

You don't need a new hood. Arb makes one that goes through your quarter panel. Called the arb safari snorkel.
There's also the more expensive, and uglier in my opinion, option of river raider. Runs through the front quarter panel as well.
Then there's volant hood leech. That cuts the top of the hood instead of the side.
Rugged ridge is coming out with one that comes out of the cowl at the base if the windshield. That's the one I want, and hope it comes out soon.
Then aev is another one that you cut the hood on too.

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There are other options that cut into the fender instead like the River Raider and the ARB Safari Snorkel. RuggedRidge is working on a snorkel design that requires no cutting of the hood.

 

I decided on the AEV Snorkel because of the design and the fact that I would rather cut the stock hood than the JK body at anytime. My guess is that the AEV Snorkel breaths better than the other ones. Not sure if this is true or not. Anyways, I saved a lot of money by using my stock hood rather than buying the AEV hood. The AEV hood requires painting along with the cost of the hood is expensive. Oh! by the way the AEV Snorkel will work with stock fenders as well as Bushwacker Flat Fenders without any modification and even with the Gobi Rack system.

 

Wild Boar has one that comes out at the base of the windshield as was mentioned above. The downfall, IMO, is that it is fiberglass. But it's all about options and what you like

 

Just installed my AEV and couldn't be happier
Got it off craigslist for $100 brand new with both filters!

Also i've never used a dremel or done sheetmetal before. But once you gain the courage to cut your hood its pretty simple, just nerveracking is all.
Just make sure you paint the cut areas after so they dont rust. i used Rustoleum Bare metal primer and Rustoleum Black Rust preventive spray paint

 

I also chose the AEV kit. Trimming the hood is relatively easy, or at least less threatening than the top of the hood or quarter panels. The kit comes with a really good template & directions. The trim kit provided also gives you some tolerance to screw up a cut. I had never used a cut-off wheel before I installed it. If you're really nervous about cutting metal trace the template onto the scrap and hack away until you're comfortable doing it on the hood. The snorkel tube itself is made out of one piece heavy duty plastic mounted onto three points using stock hardware (2 bolts in under the hood and 1 on the windshield). If you ever snagged it on something off-road it would be extremely hard to damage the Jeep, or the snorkel. The pre-filter bowl does an amazing job of grabbing dust and particulate in desert conditions.

 

I also went with the AEV, for a different reason. It ports out the side, which saves a lot of valuable engine bay space. (And the Volant is butt ugly, IMHO). A lot of the others route through the bay (ex. River Raider), and would have made my dual battery system impossible. Ditto if you're thinking of a turbo or supercharger, ....