AggieOE
Trying to escape the city
Thanks! She's always wanted a jeep, so I hope she takes that into consideration when it's time for me to pay the piper haha
So it turns out the Jeep as purchased is a little less than legal in this corner of the near-dystopia known as Australia.
Rules brought in a couple of years ago in this state at least mean that the biggest rubber we can chuck on the vehicle will be 33s. So we replaced the 35 inch Maxxis Razors MTs with a set of 33 inch Kumho ATs. This served to reduce the ride height somewhat. The bigegst lift legally available is 2 inch, so the vehicle is going in for new shocks and springs to take the lift down to a more reasonable 2 inches.
We had one bloke tell us that the Warn winch protruded so it was illegal, but it doesn't protrude past the edge of the front bumper so we'll ignore that warning. He also said the 9 inch Stedi LED driving lights protrude and are illegal, and he's probably right about that, so we'll replace them with a nice and compact LED light bar which won't block as much airflow to the grille and radiator as the Stedi lights.
No one has mentioned it as yet, but the chopped exhaust can't be legal, so next week I'll take it into an exhaust shop and see if they can't replicate a factory exhaust.
Now we're looking at ways to improve fuel economy. The swapping of the tyres increased fuel efficiency a little bit, and the next thing we'll try is to take the roof rack off unless we're going to use it. That'll remove about 40-50kg. The rear bumper's swing-away wheel carrier is pretty hefty even without a spare wheel on it so I might see if I can remove the carrier for daily use and find a factory rear door mount for the spare and a license plate bracket too.
So far, my Mrs loves the Jeep. The only bummer so far has been repeated attempts to pair her phone with the radio. Haven't had any luck as yet because it's like the in-car microphone isn't working for the voice commands. We tried connecting an external mic to the Aux jack, but that didn't work either. At the moment she's stuck using an auxiliary cable for music etc.
Congratulations!
Looks similar to mine. I too have an ARB bumper but with an 8000lb WARN winch, HELLA lights, and am running AEV's 2.5" lift with 285/75/17s.
Its a good combination.
Also, I STILL have a full-sized car seat, facing rear, behind my seat for our 3-year old. However, I'll be finally turning it this next week.