As I spend time on the internet and on the trails, I see a lot of people wondering where to start with their new Jeep and how to get into the sport of offroading.

I was lucky enough to be given some good advice from the start and even luckier that I followed it. The sad thing is that a lot of the advice I see given is poor, at best. Yet these noobs, not knowing any better, follow it thinking it is the best course of action.

So, what I hope this will do is give a little good advice and be helpfull to anyone new to the sport and Jeeps.


You're going to hate this, but I don't think you should lift it.

Mod the driver before you mod the Jeep.

Seeing built Jeeps on the trails gives the impression that throwing a ton of money into your rig is the only way to get on the trails. Then seeing your Jeep next to one that has had a ton of parts thrown onto it gives you the feeling that what you're driving is inadequate. I can assure you that this is not the case.

There is no reason to feel that you must lift your Jeep before you can get it out on the trails. In fact, this is about the worst thing you can do.

I hate seeing people immediately recommend lifts and lockers to someone new to the sport. What they need is experience and the skills that are learned with it. A skilled driver in an underbuilt Jeep will outperform an unskilled one, no matter what they are driving, any day of the week. IMO, you should only mod the Jeep when you are able to outdrive the capabilities of your vehicle.



There is a level of skill required to run the trails. I can not count the number of times that I have been on a ride with a well built Jeep who's driver has no skill. The Jeep itself is able to make it over some of the easier obstacles due only to the funds that have been put into it and not in any way because of the driver. The problem comes when that are able to make it through the easy stuff and begin to get into serious trouble as the trail gets harder. Being built gives them a confidence level they do not deserve and serves only to get them into trouble. Without getting into the details, I can recall a ride where the driver of a beautifuly built Rubicon was put into a situation where he could have easily died because of the difficulty of the trail, yet it was simple enough that myself and one other driver were able to easily conquer it unlifted. Understand that I am not trying to claim that we had some seriously awesome skills to be able to make it, but instead am saying that the Rubi's drivers lack of skill was what held him up.



The main point is that it is best to hit the trails in close to stock Jeep first.


Snag a set of used tires for cheap and don't even think about lifts or gears yet. I would suggest a set of 31x10.5 tires for a TJ (not sure what size would be appropriate for other models). Depending on what you're willing to put up with and/or pay for, I'd think either a set of milder MT's or an agressive AT.

That will greatly increase the offroad ability of the Jeep, although you would still be lacking skid plates (they are so mandatory they should come from the factory with them). With a little skill, you can run harder trails than most normal people would ever want to. The lower center of gravity can also be a plus on off camber stuff.

This will also keep most of the streetability of the Jeep. If you're using it as a DD, you start messing up the streetability of it the more you modify it. 31's will keep you with the use of most if not all of your gears in your tranny. Plus, it should still be pretty comfortable to drive.

As for the look, it will be a lot more agressive looking. Oh sure, it won't have the same appeal as a comp cut, flat fender on 37's, but it looks pretty good. When you start adding functional stuff like rocker protection and bumpers, it just adds to the look.

Plus, it will give you a chance to learn your Jeep before you get bigger. Trust me when I tell you that most of what you can do offroad is 99% driver and 1% Jeep. It will also lead you on a more logical build up based on noticing what you have trouble with and not based on what someone else on the internet says you need. It will also allow you to focus your money on things that we all learned later were more important than a lift (skid plates, Tuffy stuff, recovery gear, etc.).


With a small Jeep, you are forced to actually drive through the trails and conquer an obstacle as opposed to just haveing the clearance to avoid it. You'll need to learn to find traction as opposed to a set of lockers finding it for you. Most importantly, you will have to learn to pick a line through the obstacle which is a skill that will follow you no matter how built your Jeep is, or how tough the trails are.


The best part about being stock height is that it is a win-win situation offroad. Picture an example where you are running offroad with bigger Jeeps and you get to an obstacle. If you both get stuck, then the obstacle was hard and it's nobody's fault. If you both make it, then it's no biggie. Now if they make it and you get stuck, it's no fault on you because you have a stock Jeep and weren't supposed to make it (notice how it's the Jeep's fault and not yours). But, if you make it and they don't while you're in a stocker then that just makes you king of the trail and entitles you to rights to rag on them hard for the rest of the trip. That's just the best setup for some around the campfire shit talking that you can use for a long time to come.



So, when you finally get out on the trail for your first time there are several things you can do to give you an advantage.



The first would be to air down your tires. I understand the apprehension that some people have since their Jeeps are already sitting so low to the ground that they don't want to add any squat to the tires making it sit lower. However, the added benefits of airing down far outweigh the disadvantages and if you stick to a reasonable pressure (15-20psi) the loss of ground clearance is mimal at most. With a tire aired down, the contact patch grows allowing more tire to contact the ground giving you more traction. The softer tire also allows it to form around a rock, or whatever, and give you better grip to it. What might be the most important, especially to those of you running GSA's, is that the softer tire is much, much more resistant to punctures than one that is hard to the touch.

For those of you in TJ's, I also suggest disconnecting your front swaybar. With the swaybar disconnected, you will get more articulation, or movement, from the axle. This will allow you to better keep a tire planted to the ground. Obviously, a tire not touching the ground does nothing to give you any traction. Furthermore, if you are running without lockers, picking up that tire will cause all power to go to it, because it has less resistance than the one on the ground, making the other tire on that axle worthless.

One of the things that I see often, even from experienced Jeepers, is the fear of 4LO. I'm not sure what the apprehension is all about, but I can tell you that I see smoking clutches and the lack of control from more people that I would think, because people try to run in 4HI. Personally, I stick my Jeep into 4LO as soon as I come out of the staging area at the parks. If I need more speed out of my Jeep, I am not scared to upshift. The low gearing will allow you to keep off the brakes and have you at a crawl in an instant.



Keep running the trails and see how you do. Then, and only then, can you understand what is working for you and what is not. Don't be afraid to challenge yourself and your Jeep.


Pay attention to what is easy for you and what is hard so you can see what your problem areas are. Also watch the others in your group to see how their rigs do in comparison to yours for some of the solutions. What you want to do is get specific about the issues you have and be specific about the solutions.


Also, what many fail to realize is that the necessities are different from person to person and Jeep to Jeep. All this is based on driving style, trail time vs. street time, type of trails that you run, groups you run with, etc. The only way to properly build a Jeep is to wheel it enough that you can decide for yourself what is needed.



I know it's a hard thing to accept and you're not liking what I have to say. I mean, we all understand the dreams of getting a Jeep and making it the biggest on the block. But if you ask most of the people that have been doing this for a while, they would all agree with me. It's not one of those things that makes a ton of sense now, but more something that you'll look back on a couple of years down the road, when your Jeep is built correct and exactly to your liking, and think I was right.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at mail@davenjeip.net