So, after years of driving almost nothing but half ton trucks and a brief, but fun, stint with an Xterra, I am now almost two years into driving my 2014 JKU. It is the MOST fun vehicle I have ever owned. When we purchased it, I looked hard at Rubicons but other than the 4.10, there was nothing I wanted enough to justify the cost to my family. So, we ended up with a JKU Sport S package with the 3.73 LSD. The plan was to use it as my daily driver as well as a fun weekend exploring, camping and hunting rig. We planned to do forest roads and trails, but not serious rock crawling. The only "modification" I insisted on was new tires and within 1,000 miles it wore Cooper ST-Maxx all terrains. Still very happy with that choice. Picked up some Rubicon sliders from Craigslist for a hundred bucks and called it good.
Flash forward a bit, and we started to miss having a camper. I suggested we go back to a small pop up. However, our most recent camper was a 30' pulled by a 3/4 ton diesel, and my wife wasn't willing to go quite that far back in our camping comfort. We settled on the smallest current R-Pod I could find. It is a load for the JKU, but within specs. However, once the Jeep is loaded, it really drops the rear end even with an equalizer hitch. I quickly tired of having people flash their brights at me due to my cool attempts to signal passing planes while towing at night, and let my wife know we had to do something about the suspension. In an effort to keep expenses down and keep it as close to stock as possible, I explored many options. An exchange with the nice folks at Synergy had me then looking into OME and AEV. After much angst and research, I just had an AEV 2.5" Dual Sport suspension installed by Barney Brothers in Grand Junction. So long stock.
This was a very recent install so I haven't had a chance to wring it out off road. However, it is simply superb under load. I was not able to adjust my equalizer hitch low enough to work so ended up towing with just a regular hitch. No problem. The rear end barely twitched. While I am very weight conscious and try to keep the load as light as possible, I was impressed with how much better it handled said load. Highway manners improved as well. Body roll was almost eliminated.
So, I'm done. That's it. No more mods. It is perfect just the way it is. I don't NEED anything else. Well, the lights still suck. And now that it has the better suspension, it really needs a little more weight out front to balance things like say a more elk resistant bumper (my wife suggested a heavier woman in the front seat instead -- I declined.) Oh, I will probably go with 33" tires next time around instead of 32". That might mean the need for deeper gears than 3.73 for towing. Crap, I forgot that at times we will need to put gear on top. Have to check out roof racks. But other than THAT, I am done. I mean it. That's it.
Pre-lift and rock rails. Headed to the trail.
Flash forward a bit, and we started to miss having a camper. I suggested we go back to a small pop up. However, our most recent camper was a 30' pulled by a 3/4 ton diesel, and my wife wasn't willing to go quite that far back in our camping comfort. We settled on the smallest current R-Pod I could find. It is a load for the JKU, but within specs. However, once the Jeep is loaded, it really drops the rear end even with an equalizer hitch. I quickly tired of having people flash their brights at me due to my cool attempts to signal passing planes while towing at night, and let my wife know we had to do something about the suspension. In an effort to keep expenses down and keep it as close to stock as possible, I explored many options. An exchange with the nice folks at Synergy had me then looking into OME and AEV. After much angst and research, I just had an AEV 2.5" Dual Sport suspension installed by Barney Brothers in Grand Junction. So long stock.
This was a very recent install so I haven't had a chance to wring it out off road. However, it is simply superb under load. I was not able to adjust my equalizer hitch low enough to work so ended up towing with just a regular hitch. No problem. The rear end barely twitched. While I am very weight conscious and try to keep the load as light as possible, I was impressed with how much better it handled said load. Highway manners improved as well. Body roll was almost eliminated.
So, I'm done. That's it. No more mods. It is perfect just the way it is. I don't NEED anything else. Well, the lights still suck. And now that it has the better suspension, it really needs a little more weight out front to balance things like say a more elk resistant bumper (my wife suggested a heavier woman in the front seat instead -- I declined.) Oh, I will probably go with 33" tires next time around instead of 32". That might mean the need for deeper gears than 3.73 for towing. Crap, I forgot that at times we will need to put gear on top. Have to check out roof racks. But other than THAT, I am done. I mean it. That's it.
Pre-lift and rock rails. Headed to the trail.
The towing factor will keep me from anything larger than 33". Based on how it does now with our camper, a re-gear would be mandatory if I went with a bigger tire.
