Wheeling dilemma

[Bart]

Okay, after hitting Judgement Day in Price yesterday, I have a dilemma confronting me. My rig did great but I hated body damage I got which was minimal and some good friends did a lot of work to keep it from being worse.

I love having a clean, street legal rig to run around town, drive a mile to work, and wheel with. It has A/C and cruise, but is capable of doing some tough trails. I love this rig. The problem is I love doing sic trails. Judgement Day was a total blast, but the exposure to lots of body damage is incredible, especially when there is mud on the trail.

I can only have one rig. What would you do?

 

[Herzog]

So I take it you found the trails OK?

I love doing the sic trails as well... I could never part with my buggy. But at the same time there may be more excitement in doing those types of trails with a street-able rig like yours, although you can find your limits fairly quick.

So, where are the photos?

 

[benjy]

I love being able to drive the jeep on the street. So much so, that when it is time to upgrade, I don't want to do it until I'm in a situation where I would be able to keep the jeep in its current condition.

Keep the LTJ!!!

 

[Paul R]

How about keep the jeep clean, and talk your son into banging up the runner a bit a toyota isn't cool with out a few dents...

 

[great scott]

I and I think many others struggle with balancing those very same issues. For me I am going with removable sheet metal. I know my Behemoth crawler is as ugly as they come but I hope to change that one day . As of now, I have built an ugly one piece front clip that comes off with 2 pins and one elect connection. All 4 doors come off with 2 pins each, or rather they will when I get around to finishing them. I have now started working on bumpers and rear tire covers that I can unbolt easily. Bottom line is inside of about 15min I can go from street legal to trugy. It dose take some planning but it's the best solution I have came up with.

 

[Cody]

I gave up on the 1 vehicle fits all solution to wheelin. the buggy is impractical for camping, driving around, and long distant expedition/exploring type wheeling while the full bodied rig is a liability on hard trails and ends up being a burdon on everyone I wheel with. I don't want to be the guy that needs tons of rocks stacked or 8 guys pulling on a strap all day just to get through. Thats not fun for me or anyone else for that matter.

so, I'm resolved to get to a 2 vehicle system. A DD/WW rig that I can take on moderate stuff that is also streetable and a buggy to thrash.

what will probably happen (cause you like to do hard stuff and the people you wheel with do too) is that you will keep doing difficult trails and keep attempting to keep things straight. Eventually the small dents will add up, or the big dents will start to happen and you'll be come desensitized towards it. Before you know it you'll have the LTJ turned more in favor of trail capability and less streetable/pretty.

 

[Greg]

I'm going to attempt balancing the best of both worlds... A hardcore, streetable TJ with 40's, minimal body, heater & A/C, etc. I'm planning on swapping the spools for ARBs next year, which will help with the street-ability part.

 

[Herzog]

I'm going to attempt balancing the best of both worlds... A hardcore, streetable TJ with 40's, minimal body, heater & A/C, etc. I'm planning on swapping the spools for ARBs next year, which will help with the street-ability part.

Yeah but you're cheating cause you live in Colorado. I bet I could license my buggy there if it had a windshield, lucky SOB.

 

[Greg]

Yeah but you're cheating cause you live in Colorado. I bet I could license my buggy there if it had a windshield, lucky SOB.

One more plus for living here! No emissions is another great one.

 

[Rot Box]

I agree with Cody.

I like my Toyota, and I like taking it on the hard trails, but it's too hard to do that and keep it legal, and safety inspections are becoming a joke

I can't afford a tow rig/trailer right now so I'm pretty much out of luck. I'm just going to stick to the scenic trails 4+ and lower for now, and hopefully someday I'll be able to go all out on a rock rig... or move to Wyoming

 

[Bart]

How about keep the jeep clean, and talk your son into banging up the runner a bit a toyota isn't cool with out a few dents...

Hahaha, yeah, that's not going to happen. He wants to clean up the body on that also. I don't think he would have had much fun yesterday.

I'm going to attempt balancing the best of both worlds... A hardcore, streetable TJ with 40's, minimal body, heater & A/C, etc. I'm planning on swapping the spools for ARBs next year, which will help with the street-ability part.

Streetable with 40s is not possible in Utah. :-\ I would love to live in Grand Junction but that's not going to happen.

Cody may be onto something, even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while, but I can't do that now.

 

[Craig S]

Okay, after hitting Judgement Day in Price yesterday, I have a dilemma confronting me. My rig did great but I hated body damage I got which was minimal and some good friends did a lot of work to keep it from being worse.

I love having a clean, street legal rig to run around town, drive a mile to work, and wheel with. It has A/C and cruise, but is capable of doing some tough trails. I love this rig. The problem is I love doing sic trails. Judgement Day was a total blast, but the exposure to lots of body damage is incredible, especially when there is mud on the trail.

I can only have one rig. What would you do?

Bart,

I would drive the crap out of it and fix the damage when needed if I really wanted a street rig. I gave up on the street legal stuff for that very reason.

Craig

 

[Kiel]

I'm not sure who those people are that want to help keep your rig all shiny and dent free on hardcore trails? I know it would get real old real quick for me to be helping someone like that more then once, but maybe its just me. I vote for the 2 rig system also, or just stick to what your jeep is capable of without body damage.

 

[Kris K]

I wish I could go back and, keep my Samurai street legal instead of cutting it up. I say keep it street legal, run the trails that won't hurt the body and, have fun.

I'm trying to deside if I should try to sell or part out my Samurai and, get something that I can drive to work and, still take out and, run some 4is rated trails. I need to deside pretty soon.:-\

 

[I Lean]

I voted #2, shut up and wheel. I didn't intend on doing body damage to my Toyota, but I'm OK with it if/when it happens. Granted, I don't have the work in to the body that you do, but you built it to wheel--wheel it.

I also don't like being "that guy" who everyone else has to help through trails. I'm enough of a burden as-is with a weenie little rig on 35's, I don't need to compound it by trying too hard to avoid damage.

You could always get some corner guards to protect the entire side of the jeep, but that will add a bunchload of weight....

 

[jet_aj]

I like having my Yota street legal and being able to run some sweet trails also, I'm sure body damage is coming soon, but one solution you can look at is one I've seen done very nicely on Great Scotts dads jeep, Build a EXO-cage to help protect the sheet metal in the areas that would receive easy damage. His cage is painted the same color as the rest of the truck, works good and looks really cool. Its street legal but can prevent SOME damage. You get too serious and your getting damage no matter what, but its an idea...
I just stay off the trails I know I can't do without serious damage, until I can afford to build a buggy...

 

[themaniam1]

.......

I love having a clean, street legal rig to run around town, drive a mile to work, and wheel with. It has A/C and cruise, but is capable of doing some tough trails. I love this rig. The problem is I love doing sic trails. Judgement Day was a total blast, but the exposure to lots of body damage is incredible, especially when there is mud on the trail.

I can only have one rig. What would you do?

Here is my two cents, you mention you can only have one vehicle. If you can trailer a rig then build the buggie, if not then you are going to have use a street legal rig. Put a 6" long arm lift on it, selectable lockers (sounds like you do) rock sliders, flexable wheel flares, tough bumpers, 35's and removable mud flaps (keeps it passing inspections). And then have fun. The sliders will help with the side damage, wheel flares flex and can easily be replaced and just don't roll it That is the best you can do and keep your rig clean. This is what I have done. If you must do trails like Upper Helldorado then learn to do body repair and paint or know someone who does.

 

[Greg]

...Streetable with 40s is not possible in Utah. :-\ I would love to live in Grand Junction but that's not going to happen.

I understand, I'm kinda cheating.

 

[Herzog]

I have a hard time wheeling our '01 Cherokee knowing that I could just hop into my buggy if I wanted... That's why I'm keeping the cherokee as a family / expedition type rig.

I wouldn't know what to do if I were you coming from a very nice moon buggy to a custom stretched TJ. That'd be hard to do! Completely different wheeling style than what you were used to. Good luck on the decision Bart!

 

[Bart]

A few have mentioned exo cages but personally, I don't care for them. I did see this picture and think that a couple of well placed bars like these on the tub and some Poison Spyder front fenders would help a lot.