Planning: Your wisdom needed

I recentley bought a 2000. I know the best thing to do is plan on what I intend to use it for and then build it for that. No sense in buying twice. So I will tell you what I would like to do and maybe you could give some advise.
1. Its not a dd. Maybe a little. Its 6 miles to work
2. I will be driving it 230 miles to northern Michigan during the summer.Cottage on a lake. Swim during the day/wheel at night. 6 to 10 trips a year.
3. Mich. wheeling in Kalkaska area is not very challenging.
4. I may go to the upper one or two times a summer.
5. THE main reason I bought this TOY is to drive it out west to wheel with my son. He lives in Applevalley Ca. (Myjeeprocks.com). I would like to do the rubicon. We are planning on meeting up in Co. next summer. Telico, Silverton?
6. He gos all over. Rub, Co., Dumont, Moab,Johnson valley, etc
7. I dont want rocks ripping down the sides or breaking the windows out. I would like to keep the body decent. Brush scratches etc are ok.
8. I guess it makes me cringe a little but I guess I could see myself cutting the fenders and whatever else is needed. I like Eric Zappe's setup.
9. One side of me says stay with about 3 inch lift, 31's,sye, bumpers, rock rails, etc. The other side of me says piss on it, GO BIG OR STAY HOME, 6.5 long arm (maybe BDS $2300.00 ouch) , 4.88, 35's, trim, cut,
10.I look at all the prices for bumpers etc and almost shit. About 20 years ago I was cutting old jeeps down the center (8 in narrower) so a guy could have a narrow vehicle to sweep snow off sidewalks. He ran a ramsey pto shaft drive to a sweepster broom. So I can fab the stuff myself. It would be good for me to get out the stick welder and torches again.
11. I do realize this project will cost from $2000 to $6000. Right now Im going over everything, looking for a junkyard hp 30, building tank skid.
Thanks for your help, Rick
The handle is needsrepair because anytime I buy something Im always looking for a project. My buddy said I should name my boat "cheap bastard"

1) Install some rock rails, the kind that stick out a few inches from the body, single best investment I ever made, and will make a huge difference on the amount of damage you take.
2) I'd go 4.5" or 5.5" LA and 33" or 35". I don't see a point to 6.5+ I have a 5.5" T&T LA lift on mine and could fit 35-36" easily. Trimming will be required however. Just remember the lower your center of gravity the less likely you are to roll.
3) Replace the rear axle with either a Dana 44 or Ford 8.8. Don't waist your time with a Dana 35.
4) gear it 4.88, with 33" tires the extra power is nice and with 35" it will put your RPM back to stock
5) If I was to do it again I would OX the front and Spool the rear, but if you want to drive it much on the road I would put a Detroit in the rear. Do this when you replace the rear axle/regear/locker to save money on the install.
6) Make yourself some new bumpers and put a winch on the front. Warn M8000 is a good winch that won’t break the bank.

That’s what I would do at least.

here's what i would do, depending on what rear axle your have.

1: get some rails, and skids
2: if u have an 8.25, just regear to 4.56 and get a HP 30 and go 4.56 and lock up the rear.
3: slap a LA 4.5 lift with some 33's and trimming.
4: new front bumper and M8000, i agree with FiFo!
5: CB radio and antenna

with 33's you can do plenty of trails, and at 4.5" you won't have to worry about your steering just yet. you can always upgrade to something beefier later. don't for a SYE.

needsrepair said:

9. One side of me says stay with about 3 inch lift, 31's,sye, bumpers, rock rails, etc. The other side of me says piss on it, GO BIG OR STAY HOME, 6.5 long arm (maybe BDS $2300.00 ouch) , 4.88, 35's, trim, cut,
10.I look at all the prices for bumpers etc and almost shit. About 20 years ago I was cutting old jeeps down the center (8 in narrower) so a guy could have a narrow vehicle to sweep snow off sidewalks. He ran a ramsey pto shaft drive to a sweepster broom. So I can fab the stuff myself. It would be good for me to get out the stick welder and torches again.
11. I do realize this project will cost from $2000 to $6000. Right now Im going over everything, looking for a junkyard hp 30, building tank skid.
Thanks for your help, Rick
The handle is needsrepair because anytime I buy something Im always looking for a project. My buddy said I should name my boat "cheap bastard"

Click to expand...

I can't comment on most of the trails out west, but i have been passenger on the rubicon and spectator at moab. you can do a pretty big chunk of moab with armor, 31's, and lockers. you can easily do rubicon the same way. from the pictures i have seen you aren't doing johnson valley with them. anything you would want to do in MI or the UP should be fine with this setup.

the prices on stuff can sometimes seem silly. fabbing it yourslf can help bring some sense to this. I can build a bumper myself cheaper than nate's can sell me one, but but not much cheaper and if i add my time the number's make perfect sense. you do have to look around. other things make sense to do yourself. E.G, I am removing the rockers on my 87 outright and replacing with 2x4x3/16 steel tube.

if you go the 31's route i reccommend this order.

recovery points
armor (rockrails, crossmember, skidplates, etc)
lockers (lunchbox to arb you decide)
lift
tires
231/300 combobox.

if you are thinking bigger tires
i would skip the lockers till after you break the stock axles and swap in some beefy ones. you may want to do the gearing with the axles.

I recommend the crawler box over regearing stock axles because i find my 4.0 aw4 very driveable and pleasant on the street with the stock 3.55 and 31 in kumho's. off road i do wish for lower gears. the crawler box would let me have the option of using low range in one or the other box pretty much all the time i am off road. and then have the option of really low range when i need it. I am doing it the hard/stupid way. if you consider it you should definitely look at the box4rocks kit. very reasonably priced compared to regearing axles you will will outgrow if you do decide to go to bigger tires, no matter where you go with size later you won't say to yourself " man i wish i didn't have low low range"

Build for ride quality. You say it isn't a DD but it would be cool to drive the Jeep out west as opposed to trailering.

For ride quality you have two choices: drop brackets or long arms. Either of these setups can be built to flex like mad. Keep the height low and re-radius the fenders and add bumpstops to get a ~33" tire in the opening. You should be able to do this with a 4.5 - 5.5" lift.

HTH