Contributor III
Howdy y'all! My name is Ethan(member #17166), and I live in Texas about 40 miles East of Houston. I'm starting this thread to keep track of my 2 builds I have going. The first one is my daily driver. It's a 2018 Jeep JLU Sport with a soft top, crank up windows, and 6 speed manual. The only option on it is the Dana 44 rear with LSD. My plans for the build are to keep pretty light but still very capable. I've currently got 3/4 inch spacers on all 4 corners with slightly larger stock 265/70r17 Falken Wildpeak MT's. I've been really impressed with these tires so far. I put on a Rock Hard 4x4 winch mount with a Quadratec 10k winch with synthetic line. Haven't had to use yet. I've got the typical Hi-Lift on the hood, Rock Hard 4x4 front sway bar skid plate, Quadratec engine/transmission aluminum skid plate, Vector Off-road JLE dock, Rotopax mount, and a Flowmaster high tuck outlaw cat back exhaust(wife hates it
).
The second rig is my wife's daily driver that we just picked up on May 2nd. It's a 2019 4runner TRD Off-Road non KDSS. It has 21,000 miles and we got it for a few grand under KBB. It's completely stock but I've got a set of stock size(265/70r17) Falken Wildpeak AT's ordered and some Bilstein 5100's to level out the front. The wife's rig is gonna be built for family adventures while the Jeep will be set more for solo or 2 person adventures and more technical trails.
I've only gone on one trip with the Jeep so far. Back in February I loaded it up and drove to the Ouachita's in Arkansas and camped out for 3 nights solo. I managed to get in around 130 miles of dirt roads and pretty challenging trails for a mostly stock Jeep. Me and my dad will be making a trip on May 15-19 back to Arkansas to do some more exploring. After my solo trip I realized the Jeep really needs some lower gearing. It was struggling pretty good through the mountains and the gap between 3rd and 4th gear is pretty wide. I'm thinking 4.56's will be good and still be low enough for later when I move up to 285/70r17's. While I'm at it I'll put in an ARB rear air locker. I haven't decided on what route I'll take on the suspension yet.
For the 4runner I'm thinking I'll do a low profile bumper/winch mount, a good roof rack, rock sliders and some good under body protection. I'm open to any suggestions any one has for either one of the rigs.
The Jeep completely stock
The winch mount and winc installed
Some pics of my trip to the Ouachita's
).The second rig is my wife's daily driver that we just picked up on May 2nd. It's a 2019 4runner TRD Off-Road non KDSS. It has 21,000 miles and we got it for a few grand under KBB. It's completely stock but I've got a set of stock size(265/70r17) Falken Wildpeak AT's ordered and some Bilstein 5100's to level out the front. The wife's rig is gonna be built for family adventures while the Jeep will be set more for solo or 2 person adventures and more technical trails.
I've only gone on one trip with the Jeep so far. Back in February I loaded it up and drove to the Ouachita's in Arkansas and camped out for 3 nights solo. I managed to get in around 130 miles of dirt roads and pretty challenging trails for a mostly stock Jeep. Me and my dad will be making a trip on May 15-19 back to Arkansas to do some more exploring. After my solo trip I realized the Jeep really needs some lower gearing. It was struggling pretty good through the mountains and the gap between 3rd and 4th gear is pretty wide. I'm thinking 4.56's will be good and still be low enough for later when I move up to 285/70r17's. While I'm at it I'll put in an ARB rear air locker. I haven't decided on what route I'll take on the suspension yet.
For the 4runner I'm thinking I'll do a low profile bumper/winch mount, a good roof rack, rock sliders and some good under body protection. I'm open to any suggestions any one has for either one of the rigs.
The Jeep completely stock
The winch mount and winc installed
Some pics of my trip to the Ouachita's
