MY new 2 door Rubicon should be here in about 10 days, I am looking to put about 20% down and will probably have another 1k left for mods if I want. I will be keeping the JK fairly stock throughout its life meaning I do not want anything too extreme. It will be my daily driver for now as well.

Overall goal is:
Small short arm lift
5 Wheels and tires(would like 35's and method race wheels)
Front and rear bumper with high lift jack and winch

First thousand could go to:
LoD Front stubby with Recon 10.5 and synthetic line or
Wheels and tires(33 with stock height, selling stock wheels/tires to supplement costs) or
Short Arm Lift(currently looking at 3 inch from Full Traction)

Comments or suggestions are welcome. What to do first? I am leaning towards front bumper and winch.

 

Tires are expensive so I would not buy new tires until I had a lift on and go sraight for 35s. That way I would only have to buy tires once not twice.

 

Definitely agree with the above. You may want to look into and see if you need to replace the front drive shaft when going with a 3" lift, and either some exhaust spacers or the y pipe. Dependent on what your going to do a winch would be a good place to start IMO.

 

being that you have a rubicon with tow points front and rear and rocker guards, the bare minimum that i require if you were to join us on a trail run, i peronally would actually recommend that you do get new wheels and tires and if at all possible, a budget boost to help give you a bit more clearance.

 

So the stock tires and wheels are a little hazardous on trail runs? Is that because of the width? Stock bumper with no winch is fine for trail runs? I am assuming it helps to run with those who would have the winch.
With the budget boost, I only want to buy a lift once. Purchasing a 300 bb then a 800 lift later seems like a waste of 300. How much better is the 2.5 to 3 inch lift over the bb?

I was thinking of selling the stock wheels/tires(trying to get 1200/1000 for them) then buy 17/8.5 and 33 trying to get everything for around 1800. Run this for 40k/50k miles and then upgrade to 35 when I need new tires and can purchase the lift as well.

 

Knowing that I want to only do the lift once I was looking at the FT 3 inch basic with the srs front control arms for geometry corrections.

http://www.full-traction.com/detail....TID=399&NOTES=
http://www.full-traction.com/detail....TID=507&NOTES=

However the 2 dr 3 inch srs may be a better value.

http://www.full-traction.com/detail....TID=492&NOTES=

I dont think I should lift it before I have the wheels and tires though.

 

Personally I would save up and do wheels, tires, and a lift at the same time

 

Maybe I missed it but where are you located? Makes a difference in the build if you are in Florida vs lets say Utah.

 

I'd say tires and/or lift. I'm new with a Jeep and had big plans for lift kits, bumpers, winches, ect....... From my following on the forums it appears that the guys will help you winch out if needed and they won't leave anyone behind. So the more ground clearance you can get the less likely to need to be winched out/off of something. I'm going to make some runs with the JK Forum crew and see what I need to upgrade as I wheel my Jeep and figure out what type of Jeeper I am

 

I am in Nor Cal wine country area and no I am not going on the Rubicon(at least not right away. This is my daily driver and want it to always remain respectable on road as opposed to an all out crawler. I plan to do trails for fun on the weekends but nothing hard core. Bumpers and winch I mainly want for the "look of a Jeep". And those objects together on a stock rubicon will not look out of place. Where as a lift on a stock Rubicon without big tires would. Maybe I should save up and get all three together in three to four years when my stock tires are gone?

Eventually I would like it to look something like this:

Without the Bumpers