Essential add ons for your Jeep

So your the proud owner of a Jeep, you take it to your local Jeep Club and BANG, it hits you like the misses did when she found out how much you just spent on a toy, that's going to involve you spending all your spare time in the garage, staying away at off-road weekends, getting all your best clothes covered in mud and spending the pension on accessories and fuel. Your Jeep is just a baby. You park it far from the other members vehicles, try and sneak into the club without being noticed your aim has just become to turn that stock Jeep into the monster vehicles you see outside. Those big brother rather established mud climbers that stand there dwarfing you and your Jeep.

There are a lot of helpful sites out there. Not to mention the UK importers that will help you make the right decisions for accessories on your Jeep. Here is just an Idea of what add ons and work you might be looking at to complete your goal, that arse kicking off-roader..

OK So you want to go large on the tires, you'll probably have to change your wheels. Then there is the body lift to get the tire under the wings. If your going to do some off roading then you'll need a lift kit otherwise your new tires will probably remove the wings for you on the first bump. Now you have your lift kit, tires and body lift fitted you drive round the block and notice that your petrol tank is empty, it will not have been when you left ! to get around this problem you need to change the gear ratios and if you don't want to be nicked for driving around with tires sticking out wider than the arches - yep your going to have to replace the arches for new wider ones - still want the bigger look ?? one thing to consider while your having your axels rebuilt you may as well have your lockers fitted at the same time Mechanical or Air lockers your choice and don't forget that speedo recalibration.

Wider  Wheels ( Steel or Alloy )  x 5
Larger Off Road Tires fitted & Balanced
1" Body Lift 
Suspension  Lift Kit.
6" Arch Extensions 
Speedo Calibration, Gear Ratios Changed, ARB Air Lockers - Fitted

OK your Jeep is starting to look a large and intimidating, Now to get around the power loss there are a few little tweaks that can bee added that should give you the performance on road that you had at the start of the upgrades.

Platinum Spark Plugs x 6
Dual -mag Plug Wire Set 
A Ripping Stainless Steel Performance Exhaust system and free flow cat
K&N Air Filter
Optima HD Battery
Bonnet Hood Scoop to increase air flow around the engine bay
Aluminum Radiator - better cooling, a little more horse power

Now do you really want to let all the weight of the spare wheel sit on the boot, just imaging some heavy off roading it's not going to be long before the rear door twists. A swing away tire carrier is designed tuff and sturdy and will not only carry your tire safely but a few other essential items, but they can only be fitted to certain rear bumpers.

tomken swing away carrier
tomken rear bumper
hi-lift jack, you may have to change a tire after all...

We all know that the front girlie bumpers look naff, you want a man sized bumper on there, you want something with meat on it that will smash rocks, lamp posts, anyone cutting you up out of the way and just leave you the job of wiping the dust away. While your thinking about changing the front bumper you may as well add the side bars to protect the side of your Jeep from rocks etc and lets face it no Jeep is complete without a winch so lets add a winch protector to the front bumper and what's a upper bumper for if not to have somewhere to stick your spot lights - now were looking mean.

Front Bumper
Front Upper Bumper / Winch Protector
Nerf Side Bars ( Without Step )
Spot Lights, not chosen yet
Winch + Roller + Wire 
Front Winch Plate
Recovery Kit, Straps & Cables 

So now lets us talk about protection and security. Everyone should have the state of art alarm system, with satellite tracker and pager system 15 immobilisers and a stinger ( US toy like the phaser gun single women carry but strapped to your steering wheel and shocks would be thieves, hey you check it out. http://www.savannajones.com/autotaser.htm ). For UK insurance companies you now need a thatcham approved alarm which comes with a certificate it's worth the hassle as you save about 10% on you premium. TOAD are a company setup that only build thatcham approved systems.  A few other items that can help are a trunk box/ shelf, full locking center consoles and a replacement secure glove box - yea I'm taking things a little too far for most- or am I ? I  live in London now after Birmingham and Liverpool it's the  scariest place to park a convertible. As far as off road Protection goes stop your petrol tank getting punctured, sort out the underneath with a Tank Guard, skid plate oh and a few diff guards won't go a miss.

Secure Trunk
Petrol Tank Guard
Diff Guard
Skid Plate
Secure Center Console
Secure Glove Box

Now to the Pose factor, those little bits that don't really do much but turn the eye of most on lookers while riding around town with your tunes pumping, the roof down wearing your new shades. If your lucky enough to have a mate with a jeep save on expensive mobile phone calls while out touring by getting a CB, Seriously £200 will set you up with a Power Mike ( the Cobra 75 ) K40 Arial ( Base Loaded ) and Whip ( the Arial Shop ). Apart from pretending to be part of the smoking and the bandit cast clicking the mike and shouting 'roger, roger rubber duck ' etc  a CB just might save your life while out on the trail believe it or not there are some remote locations where even a Mobile Phone won't work... To complete the pose look try a few of the items listed below.

Bonnet Bug Deflector 
Number Plate Bracket re-locator
Half Metal Doors
Upper Sliding Glass Door
Soft top
CBN Radio - Multi band 4 Watt Output Power Mike

So how did I come up with this list of parts, well that's easy, I just took a look at my invoices for all those little essentials that I have added. You may be surprised to find that this little lot can be sources for well under £10,000 and that's where  it stops if you can fit the components yourself otherwise your talking about a lot of labour charges on top for engineers / mechanics.

I hope I have given you some insight and ideas of the basic cost and parts needed  for serious off roading, but the one thing to remember is why your doing it in the first place it's fun, getting out going where not many other people can follow and enjoying life outside office hours, and the best thing is your jeep is like a house, you don't have to decorate all the rooms the day you move in, just move in, get the feel of the place start making those little changes live with it then make another change.