gasiorv
I'm a new world samurai, and a redneck nonetheless
Supporting Member
Ride of the Month Winner
Another item is that I hate the way my jeep currently looks from the side, the rear axle needs to be pushed back to just to make it look better with the 38" tires and the fenders being cut. But like I said, I have not come to accept that sacrifice yet. Not sure if/when I will actually.
I think what gets lost in a lot of the discussions is how each person uses their jeep. For instance, shocks are important and I will not argue with that fact, they are really important if you plan on driving high (or higher) speed through desert, forest service road, through whoops, or even on the road. I would love to live somewhere where I would have to drive high speed through desert to get to kick ass rock trails on a normal basis, I watch videos of rigs going through whoops and then rock crawling some bad ass trail with traction and I drool with envy. But the fact is, I don't. I am wheeling off-road parks in the east 90% of the time and trailering to the park and basically going slow in rock gardens all the time. There is wet clay between every rock and traction is minimal, the chance of damaging said shocks becomes much higher as you slide off a rock or a rock rolls up, so is it worth spending $400 per shock when a $150 shock will do? Remember there is also replacement cost when damaged, I damaged and had to replace two shocks this year so to me, no. To me having proper coil springs, bump stops, and sway bars in place is more important. If I have those in place and working together to handle my low speed body roll and lean while climbing through rocks, then I am good. Then if I damage a shock and I need to be able to pull it and keep wheeling it is no issue. Having shitty shocks sucks the 10% of the time that I need to go fast but it is not worth the money for the 10%. It also sucks after riding in Jeff's LJ and feeling how the jeep should feel, it is eye opening experience. So having said all that just to say, I like my current break over angle, it works for the wheeling that I do but I understand that the shorter wheelbase is also hurting me. So my decision will be made based on how I use my rig and not what is accepted as the "required" wheel base for a certain tire size or how it looks, it is all about the trade off for me. If I lived somewhere where steep waterfalls was the norm, I would have probably already stretched it because the break over angle is still critical so you can make the transition from steep to flat, but the wheel base would be more important to make the climbs.
Also, having said all that. I understand that this forum is a "TJ" forum geared around the TJ platform and maintaining that platform. This is not a "wheeling" forum. I don't really fit that mold where I am trying to maintain the TJ platform but I do have a TJ and there is so much good information here when it comes to the TJ that also applies to wheeling. So in my opinion it is silly to not pay attention to what is being said and/or suggested, you just have to realize that everyone is saying what they are saying from their perspective, and you are reading it from your own perspective. Ask question if your perspective does not understand but ensure you evaluate each response knowing that the perspectives may be different.
Sorry Trevor, didn't mean to turn your build thread into my philosophical platform, but by time I realized how much I typed I was too far in to delete. Back to you normally scheduled BMW discussion
