The only reason for the winch was I needed to do some construction for my house and it was handy to have around. Was mounted to my broken jeep so said what the hell and switched it over to the rubicon. Might come in handy if I get stuck or need to get something unstuck
Winches are often used more frequently to help get others out of predicaments than yourself, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. Just watch the duty cycle.
Now all the talk on the shovel.....I noticed with the lift I am supposed to lower it a bit with spacers. This seems counter intuitive for ground clearance? I do like the spacer route due to rust prevention....but what are folks thoughts?
Not sure who's lift you are looking at that includes lowering spacers for the cross member, but that is a sign to stay away from it. T-case spacers are to help reduce rear drive shaft angle. Your LJ already has a longer rear drive shaft than a TJ, and since it is a Rubicon, already has the slip yoke eliminated from the t-case, so does not need a lowered t-case. The purpose of a lift is to increase ground clearance. Spacing the t-case down is counter productive. A tummy tuck RAISES the t-case to increase ground clearance and presents a smooth surface to slide over obstacles that you may encounter. There is a pretty well proven formula to this process, which if followed works quite well. If not followed, well, better just leave it stock.
Tires; price wise how do they compare to the stock tires. I'm due for a replacement. Problem is the PO never used the spare and I would like to bring it into rotation so may have to stick with stock for the time being.
Lots of variability on price, but a slightly larger tire of the same manufacturer and model will be slightly more expensive. However, I found that the slightly larger tire from another manufacturer was LESS expensive than the original Goodyear MTRs, which are not a particularly good tire in my experience. I would also caution you to reconsider putting the now 7+ year old spare tire into full time service. Even if you stay with the same size, those old style MTRs are no longer available. Replace it with a new tire, and sell the single MTR on craigslist.