Originally Posted by Charles7903

I am new to the forum and used to have a tacoma with 14" of lift, King Coilovers, in the front, Alcan springs in the rear, 4.88 gears, and 42" TSLs. About 5 years ago I sold it to help get through graduate school.

Now that my wife and I have great jobs and disposable income, I am looking to get back into offroading. Since we want to have kids in 2 - 3 years, we want to go with a used 4-Door JK. I want to do most things right the first time so we have set aside some $ and are going to be saving up for the next 13 months to fund the following Stage I setup.

Also, I welded some in engineering school, but would not trust my own welds. Please take this into consideration with you give suggestions or answers to some of my questions below. I want to try and keep as much of this bolt-on as possible. Thanks for your help.

Stage I:
- 2007 - 2009 Used Automatic JK Rubicon Unlimited (in white or silver)

- 6" Full Traction Long Arm Kit (my research shows this kit to be comparable with TeraFlex, but doesn't require welding) (Since I will be doing coilovers, can I buy this kit without Coils to save some $?)

- ORE Evo Front Coilovers with 14" King Coilovers (unless everyone thinks 12" would be better? Would want to get the bolt-on option. Can take it to be welded for further strength after install if necessary.)

- ORE Evo Lever Rear Coilover Setup with standard King Coilovers

- EVO Air Bump (I read about procomp and others, but thought it might be best to go with EVO from the start? Does this require welding and has ORE figured out a way to make this work with the front coilovers? Do I need this for the rear too?)

- ORO Dual Rate Swaybar Disconnects with Air Valve (I like the on and off road settings. Do I need one of these for the rear too? Can I hook this into a 2.5 gal air compressor that will be plugged into a Warn PowerPlant?)

- Front and Rear JE Reel 1350 Driveshafts (the installation guide didn't look too bad...)

- 5.13 Gears (installed at 4WPW since I don't know how to setup gears)

- Rancho Cat-Back Exhaust (required to relocate exhaust because of EVO Lever. Read that essentially no system gives any significant hp gain, so I figured I'd go with the cheapest option. Also looked at MBRP, but $100 more...)

- Five 37 x 12.50 R-17 BFG MT T/A KM2 Tires

- Five 17 x 9.5" Allied Monster RT Beadlock Wheels (Should I get 4" or 4.5" of backspacing?)

- LOD Signature Series Shorty Front winch bumer with winch guard and skid plate (XRC looks good and is cheap, but won't fit a Warn PowerPlant and I'm not sure I trust the Smittybilt XRC10HD winch / air combo that isn't available yet...I assue the Shorty is better than Mid Width for rock crawling?)

- Warn PowerPlant 9,500 lb Winch with Air Compressor, 2.5gal Warn Air Tank, Warn Air Tank Plumbing Kit (I read that if you want to be able to run air tools, you need the 2.5gal tank. Can you also hook the ORO Dual Rate Swaybar Air Lever to this?) (Smittybilt XRC10HD is cheap and includes the 2.5gal air tank, but from my research, I don't think it is available yet and I hate to buy something that hasn't been reviewed in-depth)

- LOD Signature Series Rear Bumper with Tire Carrier (XRC looks good and is cheap, but doesn't have rear lights which I like for reversing).

- LOD Door Frame Mounted Unlimited Rock Sliders

- ORE Front Steel Plate Fenders with Flares (will be painted to match)

- ORE Rear Steel Plate Fenders with Flares (will be painted to match) (I assume these will require new rear tail lights? Can you relocate your back-up light wiring from the factory lights to lights in the rear LOD bumper?)

- Body Armor Front and Rear Tube Doors

- Hella 500 Fog Light Kit for front bumper

- Hella 500 Driver Light Kit with Rugged Ridge JK Windshield Mounting Brackets

- Smittybilt Neoprene Seat Covers

Stage II will include ProRock Dana 60s with ARB lockers front and rear and likely 40" Iroks. Will wait until we break the Rubicon D44s to go to this setup.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Answers to any of my questions above?

Thanks for all your help. This forum has been a great source of research for our plans.

Originally Posted by spinlock

14" as in 1 foot plus 2 inches of lift???? I hope you learned in graduate engineering school what this does to your CG and RC.

Given your list of mods, it sounds like you have done your homework and set aside some of that disposable income.