In late September of 2012, shortly after a trip to southwestern Colorado where I rented a Wrangler, I
broke down and picked up a new 2012 Wrangler Sport S. It was a pretty base model with just the S
package and not much else. It's a perfect platform to build on and I didn't waste a dime on extra
options that I was going to change anyway. My plans for the Jeep was to build it up with some basic
modifications that will make it very trail capable while still being able to drive it daily. While my
long term plans will probably evolve over time, I really want to enjoy this Jeep. It's good right off
the showroom floor but it needs some work to live up to its full potential. The plans from the
beginning were a modest lift and 35" tires, along with several other mods to support off roading.
The first round of parts included the
Warn Rock Crawler Stubby Front Bumper that would accept the
Warn XD9000 winch that has been with
me for almost a decade now. A winch is pretty much standard equipment for a good trail Jeep and mine
was not going to be any different. And the bumper came with some solid mounts for shackles as well as
a bar that I could modify to hold a set of off road lights. In addition to the front bumper, I added
some Smittybilt SRC Rocker Guards to keep
from denting up my rocker panels too badly. They required a fair amount of massaging to install but
they were inexpensive so I don't mind so much if they get banged up. Early in the winter I picked out
some lights to go on the front bar. I went with the PIAA
530 Driving LED and
the 530 Fog LED lights.
They're compact round LED lights that fit well on the small bar on the winch bumper. I know the LED
light bars are popular these days but I'm a fan of the round lights on Jeeps. The Warn bumper does
not come with tabs for lights on the bar. I welded the tabs on myself so that I could mount the
lights the way I wanted.
My next upgrade had to wait until I could save up the money and do a whole bunch all in one shot. I
started with a
Rubicon Express 2.5" lift kit with monotube shocks along with
JKS Qucker Disconnects swaybar links. The lift was installed to accommodate the 315/70R17
Goodyear Wrangler Duratrac tires
on 17x9 Mickey Thompson
Classic III wheels. Of course, the factory installed 3.21 gears in my Jeep weren't even up to the
task of pushing my factory stock 255/75R17 tires down the road. Going to the 35" tires would have
killed the performance of my Jeep. So I did a a full upgrade of the
differentials with gears, lockers, and chrome molly shafts while I was in there.
Not one to leave well enough alone, I decided that I needed to upgrade the mediocre headlights to
match the extra lights I added. After doing some research, I decided to go with the
Truck-Lite 7" Round LED Headlamp. It's a simple bolt in conversion but it does require an adapter
for the plug, along with an anti-flicker harness. Apparently the newer Wranglers have a built in
system to help detect a burned out headlamp that pulses the electricity to the headlight. That's fine
for a standard incadescent bulb but it makes the LED lights flicker. So a harness with a few
capacitors wired in solves the problem. I also decided to go with LED fog lights to match the rest of
the lights on the Jeep. I picked up the PIAA
Driving
Light Kit made specifically for the Wrangler. It contains the same type of light I put on the
light bar but it also includes a bracket to mount it in place of the factory fog lights. It bolted
into the bracket in the bumper just fine. However, for what ever reason the kit ships with the
driving lights, rather than the flood lights you would expect in a fog light kit. But no matter, I
just so happened to have a set of the flood lights. And because the two sets of lights use the same
outer shell, they are trivial to interchange. So now I'm running 4 driving lights aimed in a spread
pattern and the flood lights, aimed properly, in the fog light location.
Once I had my larger tires, I knew I was going to have to do something about the spare carrier. I
have a full size spare and it has a tendency to bend the hinges in the door when it hangs on the
factory tire carrier. There are several options for fixing this shortcoming. I decided to go with a
Warn Elite
Series Rear Bumper. I added the optional tire carrier and Hi-Lift jack mount. The tire carrier
attaches to the bumper mount which is attached to the frame. This takes all of the weight off the
rear door and saves the door hinge. The tire carrier is attached to the door via a swivel mount that
swings out the tire when the door is opened and swings it back in when you close the door. And the
jack mount makes it easier to haul the cumbersome jack with me without having to find room inside of
the space challenged Jeep.
I decided that the factory stereo that came in my Jeep was horribly inadequate so I upgraded it. But I didn't take any pictures so I'll write that up later.
Naturally, driving a Jeep involves finding the limitations of the stock parts. One of those very
limited stock parts are the factory fender flares. They're flimsy plastic and they don't hold up to
anything. I knocked one loose on a wheeling trip. I was able to get it back in place but I didn't
want to keep having this problem. So it was time for an upgrade. I decided to go with Poison Spyder
Customs Front
Crusher Flare, and
Rear Crusher
Flare, both in standard width steel. They really open up space for bigger tires and they're
significantly stronger than the factory flares. The factory flares just attach to the flimsy sheet
metal. These flares come with a set of brackets that tie them to the inner body structure and really
strengthen them. They should hold up to the trees and rocks I'm sure to encounter off road. They
come unpainted so I had a local shop powder coat them, with an underlying zinc coating for rust
protection. They finish of the powder coat makes them almost look like plastic flares. The rear
flares were back ordered so they're not on yet but they did show up so they'll be installed soon.
The latest modification for the Jeep is a preventative meausure since I didn't wait for something to
get broken first, or so I thought. After a bunch of research I settled on a River Raider
Complete Skid Plate
System. As I started to install them I discovered that the factory crossmember had already taken
a small hit and it had a fairly significant dent in it. This made installing the engine and transfer
case skids slightly more challenging but I made it work. The plates are pretty heavy duty and
difficult to wrangle but using a floor jack and some patience, along with reading the instructions,
was all it took to make it work. Now that this skid plate system is in place, I feel more confident
about driving my Jeep over obstacles that may reach up and bite something important. Jeeps are tough
but I've seen a stray rock on a relatively mild obstacle take out a transfer case and leave a guy with
an inoperable vehicle. I don't want that to happen to me so I'll take a few dozen pounds of prevention.