New 2015 JKU Rubicon looking for advice

Ordered the new Rubicon on the 2nd of October and we will take delivery when we get back from Japan on December 18th. We are looking for advice on lifts, bumpers and tires. We live in Texas but would like to do some traveling and sight seeing eventually. The wife said not much rock crawling but good trails that have some obstacles would be ok. We had a 2011 JKU with an AEV 4.5" lift with 37" tires and plan to stick with the same size tires. We have a lot of mud and not much else around our house so the AEV lift worked great.

My question is should we stick with AEV or is there something better out there with the future plans of traveling to Colorado/Montana/Utah? I have never owned a long arm kit and it makes me nervous removing mounts and welding on a brand new Jeep, but if you guys say thats the way to go then I will do that. I would like to do it right the first time and not spend money over and over again. We have been looking at the Rock Krawler 5.5", Metal Cloak 3.5" and the AEV 4.5".

On the bumpers we are looking at the ACE Pro rear with tire carrier and 6" led lights. The front bumper we are looking for a stubby that has the factory fog light holes or a replacement fog light setup. We like the looks of the ACE Pro Series front bumper with 20 LED light bar, Hanson stubby, Expedition One Core series stubby or Poison Spyder stubby bumper.

The tires we are looking at are the Nitto Trail Grappler MT's or the Toyo Open Country MT's.

Feel free to tell me where we are going wrong.

Thanks,

Brent and Leslie

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As Panda said, welcome to WOL! I would suggest that you look as some lower lifts as all of the pnes you mentioned are pretty tall and raise your COG significantly. Check out olram30s build thread for his dozer. His rig is sitting on 3in of lift with 37s and cut stock fenders. Not to mention Moby is on 40s with 3.5in of lift.

As for the bumpers. Personally Im a fan of cutting/removing before buying. Remove the rear bumper and put on some evo D rings and youve got a functional rear. Then just cut the front bumper to a stubby. Hope this helps.

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I would definitely take a look at how much gear/weight you and your wife plan to travel with.

My wife and I just took a trip this summer through Utah, Idaho and Montana. Let me know if you have any specific questions.

I am no expert like some of the guys here on jeeps, but I try to keep as low of a center of gravity that allows me to run the tire size I want as possible.
37" put a lot more strain on axles and diffs and have heard the basic rule of thumb is if you're planning on doing anything hard it is best to upgrade axles and diff if running 37s.
I like AEV because 99% of my driving is roads, while I wish it was the other way around, it is not. I can't have a jeep solely for play, it must be a daily driver too. AEV will allow you to flex plenty and drives well on pavement, but for pure offroad it is not the best from what I hear. It's not going to hold me back from the things like to wheel.

For my 2015 I just ordered im running the AEV 3.5" RS and 35" tires. Later when important upgrades like winch, etc are done i will look at doing D60s etc to run 37" and I can also upgrade the 3.5 to a 4.5 fairly easily if I need to.

Typically driving ability will hold you back more than the lift you run.

Bumpers, I'm a huge fan of the quality and style of Shrockworks. They are well designed and fit excellent, only negative is they can take a LONG time to get your bumpers or sliders. I ordered my jeep 2weeks ago and that monday i ordered my rear bumper and sliders from Shrockworks. I except to see them in February. Sliders they are quicker on because they are simple, the rear bumper has a lot to it so it takes a stupid amount of time to get. If your patient I would recommend checking out Shrockworks. They will do custom stuff for you too if you want.

My idea is to pick your tire size and then choose the lift based around that. One if the best things you can do is run flat fenders. Either trimmed factory or fancy bought ones. That's your choice and another thread. But flat fenders really open up the wheel wells.
Now that you have your tire size picked out, the factory Rubicon uses around a 32" tire, let's say you want to run a 37" tire, that's 5" taller. Divide that in half and that should be your lift height you need. The reason you divide is the room needed from the hub up. Maybe round up a ½" if needed. That should put the space from the tire to the fender the same as factory. That's how I decided on 3"lift with 37"tires.
Rather than spending 250 bucks on a adjustable track bar, I chose a drag link flip kit, that put my steering back to factory specs. You have to run a minimum of 3" bump stop so the dl doesn't hit the frame. But with 37" tires and trimmed fenders that's about right. How people run less than that is beyond me. That's a lot of trimming. Here is full stuff, can't get any closer than that.
The rear I put 2.5 inch bump stops and it worked good. Coils didn't go solid, had to trim some metal
I went with bilstein shocks I got last black Friday. 20% off. If I had to buy new ones, if go with Rancho 9000 adjustable. You can dial in how firm or soft you prefer.
All 8 control arms aren't needed on a 4 door, just front lowers to adjust your caster, I'd recommend evo or Currie. Johnny joints on both ends. The evo you can adjust on the vehicle. That's a plus.
Better factor in a front drive shaft for the front. And move your evap skid over if using the factory rear shaft. Boot tore first time out.
I put extended brackets for the rear brakes, and loosened up my fronts. Plenty of slack up front in new jeeps. Extended the diff breather hoses.
That's about all I can think of. Makes a great daily driver and so far great off road. Haven't had a chance to go on any tougher trails than what's outside of my town. But great on and off road. No complaints. My jeep is pretty heavy and she floats like a Cadillac on road imo
Edit, also need a rear track bar bracket, a good one, not some cheap one. And I bought evo 13" rear sway bar links and moved my old rear ones up front.
I pieced mine together, but if I had to buy a kit, the evo enforcer 3" would have been my choice. Has everything I'm looking for in a great, solid lift. You can upgrade to coil overs also later down the road

Olram30, are you running the Nitto Trail Grapplers and if so how do you like them? Those tires look huge!!!

The only reason I wanted to go with the 4.5" is the mud around the house. I like the ride of the AEV lift we had on our 2011, but haven't looked at any of the other brands like the EVO or Currie. I did worry about how the AEV lift would do if we did take it up north with the rocks and all.

Thanks for all of the replies!!

FOSTER said:

Olram30, are you running the Nitto Trail Grapplers and if so how do you like them? Those tires look huge!!!

The only reason I wanted to go with the 4.5" is the mud around the house. I like the ride of the AEV lift we had on our 2011, but haven't looked at any of the other brands like the EVO or Currie. I did worry about how the AEV lift would do if we did take it up north with the rocks and all.

Thanks for all of the replies!!

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Yeah, 37" nitto trail grapplers. Ordered from discount tire. Free shipping and they used to have a forum discount. But you have to call. I like the d load range on them. I had toyo open country m/t on my first jeep and had no complaints.
You may want to consider hydro steering assist also.

35" tires aren't a bad option either.