JK-Forum member’s Jeep JKU build is covered and filled with plenty of useful mods for off-roading, tailgating, and avoiding hotels.
It’s hard to find two modified Jeep Wranglers that are the same. In fact, it’s pretty much impossible. Each owner has different needs, desires, and budgetary restrictions. However, the ideas behind different builds are often similar.
Forum member yuke175 started with as blank a slate as he could for the extensive build he had in mind. He purchased an Anvil 2015 JKU Sport with a manual gearbox and steel wheels. His ultimate goals? To make his Jeep do things that many of you have wanted your rigs to do: go over rocks and other natural obstacles more easily, light up trails better, travel further, and hold more stuff.
Judging by the thread covering his build, it certainly looks as if yuke175 accomplished his goals. His JKU has three-inch front springs, four-inch rear springs, and bead-lock wheels wrapped in a handsome set of Toyo Open Country R/T tires for conquering trails. Skid plates and rock sliders protect yuke175‘s Jeep from Mother Nature. It even has a snorkel to help him go from one trail, across deep water, and to another. If yuke175 needs more grip, he can air down (then air back up) using his onboard compressor. A rear-mounted auxiliary gas canister extends driving/wheeling range.
yuke175 knows adventures don’t end when the sun goes down, so he installed enough lighting to illuminate a stadium and a roof rack…with a tent on top. There’s a fridge/freezer in the back for food and snacks, and even a fold-out table and cutting board in the swing gate. Those are especially great mods because yuke175 often has his lady and/or his pooch Jake with him. So are the covers yuke175 slipped over his seats. He said, “The dog hair wipes right off, and the water resistant nature of them is very helpful in a Jeep.”
Those aren’t the only things on your project that are helpful, yuke175. You’ve transformed your Jeep into a rock-crawling home away from home. We can’t wait to see how you upgrade it even more in the future.
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Derek Shiekhi's father raised him on cars. As a boy, Derek accompanied his dad as he bought classics such as post-WWII GM trucks and early Ford Mustang convertibles.
After loving cars for years and getting a bachelor's degree in Business Management, Derek decided to get an associate degree in journalism. His networking put him in contact with the editor of the Austin-American Statesman newspaper, who hired him to write freelance about automotive culture and events in Austin, Texas in 2013. One particular story led to him getting a certificate for learning the foundations of road racing.
While watching TV with his parents one fateful evening, he saw a commercial that changed his life. In it, Jeep touted the Wrangler as the Texas Auto Writers Association's "SUV of Texas." Derek knew he had to join the organization if he was going to advance as an automotive writer. He joined the Texas Auto Writers Association (TAWA) in 2014 and was fortunate to meet several nice people who connected him to the representatives of several automakers and the people who could give him access to press vehicles (the first one he ever got the keys to was a Lexus LX 570). He's now a regular at TAWA's two main events: the Texas Auto Roundup in the spring and the Texas Truck Rodeo in the fall.
Over the past several years, Derek has learned how to drive off-road in various four-wheel-drive SUVs (he even camped out for two nights in a Land Rover), and driven around various tracks in hot hatches, muscle cars, and exotics. Several of his pieces, including his article about the 2015 Ford F-150 being crowned TAWA's 2014 "Truck of Texas" and his review of the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider, have won awards in TAWA's annual Excellence in Craft Competition. Last year, his JK Forum profile of Wagonmaster, a business that restores Jeep Wagoneers, won prizes in TAWA’s signature writing contest and its pickup- and SUV-focused Texas Truck Invitational.
