RJV
Member
I couldn't find any good threads on this earlier, but I thought this might be helpful for those with basically stock JLs to see how the stock armor performs. I think it's easy to think to go on anything more than a dirt road you need a full belly pan setup, especially to someone new to wheeling, but I think the stock armor works fine. I know Eddie did a video on this a while back on Jet when it was stock and it was super helpful in knowing what I needed before wheeling the JL! The only aftermarket armor I have is rough country diff skids (I know a lot of their stuff is crap but the diff skids seem okay to me. I like the rancho ones too).
Went to Tennessee for Memorial Day weekend and found time to run 22 at Windrock park. It's a solid blue (moderate) trail with some black sections. My JLU Sahara is basically stock other than the OEM steel bumper with a winch, 33s, rubicon sway bar disco, and the diff skids.
Up front, the metal skid plate took a small hit, probably from this obstacle:
Moving back, the front diff took quite a few good hits. I feel like the diff cover would've had issues and I could've hit the drain plug - I'd definitely protect the diff right away.
Looks like I also touched the passenger front LCA mounts a bit, but that happens when putting your tires on the bigger rocks! Still not bad damage at all.
Moving rearward, the oil pan and tranny pan didn't take any hits (yes, repainting the oil pan is on my to do list!) The exhaust pipe took a small hit, but not a big deal. This is probably the next area I'd consider a skid plate for, but the factory ones have worked better than expected and I've been to Moab, badlands in Indiana and Windrock and haven't hit the tranny pan or oil pan yet. The skids have a few marks on them.
Next up, the t case skid and the gas tank skid take the brunt of the beating on a stock height JLU. They both got scraped up bad from some hard hits, but aren't dented noticeably. The resonator has a light scrape.
Went to Tennessee for Memorial Day weekend and found time to run 22 at Windrock park. It's a solid blue (moderate) trail with some black sections. My JLU Sahara is basically stock other than the OEM steel bumper with a winch, 33s, rubicon sway bar disco, and the diff skids.
Up front, the metal skid plate took a small hit, probably from this obstacle:
Moving back, the front diff took quite a few good hits. I feel like the diff cover would've had issues and I could've hit the drain plug - I'd definitely protect the diff right away.
Looks like I also touched the passenger front LCA mounts a bit, but that happens when putting your tires on the bigger rocks! Still not bad damage at all.
Moving rearward, the oil pan and tranny pan didn't take any hits (yes, repainting the oil pan is on my to do list!) The exhaust pipe took a small hit, but not a big deal. This is probably the next area I'd consider a skid plate for, but the factory ones have worked better than expected and I've been to Moab, badlands in Indiana and Windrock and haven't hit the tranny pan or oil pan yet. The skids have a few marks on them.
Next up, the t case skid and the gas tank skid take the brunt of the beating on a stock height JLU. They both got scraped up bad from some hard hits, but aren't dented noticeably. The resonator has a light scrape.
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