New Jeeper here.

[NoBanStan]

After 14 years of driving the same old pickup, I finally upgraded to a 2015 Willy's Wheeler edition 2 door! Super stoked about it as you can imagine. I've wanted to wait until I got a few payments under my belt but now I'm starting to get some interest in joining a community and doing a little "light" offloading. I'm not looking to rock crawl or roll it trying to climb up some vertical cliff or anything, but I would like to join a community of like minded folks and maybe hit some trails, glean some knowledge and just generally get my feet wet.

 

I'm most definitely a novice and the vehicle is stock. I guess that's a slight misnomer since it's effectively a sport edition with Rubicon upgrades. But I don't have a lift kit and a winch or anything. Yet...

 

I can imagine there are more than a few of you who attend meetups etc. Any suggestions?

[RC3]

Careful tough. Last thing you want is to turn yourself into a mall crawler.  One of my old bosses has a lifted jeep and it has never seen a trail. He even uses tire shine on the tires. And with the new light bar fad, its only getting worse.

[NoBanStan]

Careful tough. Last thing you want is to turn yourself into a mall crawler.  One of my old bosses has a lifted jeep and it has never seen a trail. He even uses tire shine on the tires. And with the new light bar fad, its only getting worse.

 

Yeah I'm not doing that... I want to do some accessories for sure but I've already made up my mind that I'm not going to overdo it. Snorkels and what not. If it's functional and improves my experience, I will add it. 

[CommsNBombs]

Step 1. Replace engine with a diesel
Step 2. Kevlar tires
Step 3. ???
Step 4. Profit

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

[Obiwan]

Yeah I'm not doing that... I want to do some accessories for sure but I've already made up my mind that I'm not going to overdo it. Snorkels and what not. If it's functional and improves my experience, I will add it. 

 

Snorkels are overrated.

 

I agree with your approach, though. That's what I did when I got mine back in 2011. I added new front and read bumpers, a winch, side-armor/rocksliders, and an air-compressor. (I'm not counting a couple minor mods like CB and Ham radio, carpet removal, etc). I also added a small 1" spacer lift.

 

But I'm still on 32" tires. With that, I went everywhere the lifted rigs went. Okay, I'm probably a bit banged up underneath, and had to replace my oil pan once, but I was still able to hang with the taller rigs.

 

The thing is... it's HOW you wheel that matters, not how tall your lift is. If you learn how to pick your lines, you can wheel a lot of terrain you might have found impossible before. I mean, look at what some the old Landrovers traverse. It's important to hone your skills first, and I venture to say that an unlifted rig is better at learning off-road skills with than a souped-up crawler.

 

It's just like guns. You should be able to learn shooting skills such that you can pick up any gun and shoot it well. Not just your decked out race gun. It's all about learning the fundamentals well.

 

It costs you less and you still have tons of fun. Go add the accessories that are useful on the trail (recovery gear, etc), then go out and have some fun.

 

And if you really get into off-roading, you can still add a lift later, tailoring it to your needs.

 

Cheers,

Frank (former TNJeeps.com addict)

Edited January 6, 2016 by Obiwan

[NoBanStan]

Ok, I guess I should clarify. I'm looking less for "what parts do I buy?" and more for "anybody know of a good jeep group?"

 

Great suggestions though. :D

[glowdotGlock]

I'm part of a Jeep club based in Columbia called "Mule Town Jeepers". We have members from all over middle TN. We have members with stock rides all the way up to full blown crawlers. Look us up on Facebook. Congrats on the new ride. Welcome to the "club".

[peejman]

Have a look at this... http://www.overlandexpo.com/east   They've not got details up for the one this year, but I assume there will be one.  Lots of class and opportunity to learn how to go places without breaking stuff. 

[Obiwan]

Ok, I guess I should clarify. I'm looking less for "what parts do I buy?" and more for "anybody know of a good jeep group?"

 

Great suggestions though. :D

 

Oh, sorry. Since the demise of TNJeeps, there isn't a local group I can personally recommend. I did hear good things about the Mule Town Jeepers. There's also a group in Clarksville (forgot the name... Clarksville Crawlers maybe?) and one in Chattanooga (CORE - Chattanooga Off-Road Enthusiasts I think).

 

Heck, I should look around myself again since it's been too long since I'm been off-pavement...

[kcruisin]

Rock Sliders are the first part you should put on it.   Most require drilling holes in the floorboard and the tub, but they're priceless. 

If it came with a D-35 rear axle, replacing it should be your first up-grade. 

 

Don't put a heavy spare tire on your tail-gate, fit a tire carrier in the up-grades somewhere.

[Motasyco]

I'm going to wash my Jeep one of these years.

[Lumber_Jack]

You're welcome to come on rides with us, we don't discriminate...too much

[NoBanStan]

You're welcome to come on rides with us, we don't discriminate...too much

 

I can see it now.

 

One of these wheelers is not like the others.

[NoBanStan]

Have a look at this... http://www.overlandexpo.com/east   They've not got details up for the one this year, but I assume there will be one.  Lots of class and opportunity to learn how to go places without breaking stuff. 

 

Site isn't loading for me. Could be our IDS blocking it though. Will check it when I'm off corporate.

[tennesseetiger]

I give it a year before this rig is a crawler  :rofl:

[NoBanStan]

I give it a year before this rig is a crawler  :rofl:

 

maybe like this dude https://i.imgur.com/jTriOwS.gifv

[Lumber_Jack]

maybe like this dude https://i.imgur.com/jTriOwS.gifv

Yeah that....don't do that

[peejman]

maybe like this dude https://i.imgur.com/jTriOwS.gifv

That's awesome. I need to talk a guy at work into doing that.

[RC3]

What you need to do next once the off road mentality wears off is get a miata, and drop a V8 in it. Thats my goal right now. Just cant decided on a chevy or ford engine. At this rate, my bel air will never see the road again. But a friend of mine has the 4 door wrangler and he kept it at stock height, but everything else is custom. He uses the winch around his farm and even installed canoe carriers on it, hes always canoeing   And his light bars are more for visibility and to warn other people if he is helping someone out. White and yellow gives a pretty clear signal.

[TGO David]

Oh, sorry. Since the demise of TNJeeps, there isn't a local group I can personally recommend. I did hear good things about the Mule Town Jeepers. There's also a group in Clarksville (forgot the name... Clarksville Crawlers maybe?) and one in Chattanooga (CORE - Chattanooga Off-Road Enthusiasts I think).

 

Heck, I should look around myself again since it's been too long since I'm been off-pavement...

 

There's also Topless in Tennessee based out of Dickson that seems to be doing things right.  I'll add them to the Mule Town Jeepers that Glowdot recommended earlier.

 

The group that torpedoed Tennessee Jeeps is Jeeps and Wrenches.  I'm sure it has grown beyond the core group that started it now and some of their members are fine folks, but that core group was some of the nastiest, most spiteful, back-stabbing bunch of people I have ever had the displeasure of meeting.  They ruined my enjoyment of the "sport" are one of the reasons why I no longer have  Jeep of any kind.  I sank a lot of time and money into the local Jeep community and for a while there we were doing some really big, well organized things, and then that group got greedy, selfish and ruined the whole thing.

 

There's a few of their founding members that I'd seriously punch in the face if I saw again anytime soon because I firmly believe that people shouldn't be afforded free-range to be nasty and hateful the way they were.

[TGO David]

You're welcome to come on rides with us, we don't discriminate...too much

 

 

Man!  We barely had an FJ/LC group in the area when I had mine a few years ago.  That's nice!!!

[NoBanStan]

There's also Topless in Tennessee based out of Dickson that seems to be doing things right.  I'll add them to the Mule Town Jeepers that Glowdot recommended earlier.

 

The group that torpedoed Tennessee Jeeps is Jeeps and Wrenches.  I'm sure it has grown beyond the core group that started it now and some of their members are fine folks, but that core group was some of the nastiest, most spiteful, back-stabbing bunch of people I have ever had the displeasure of meeting.  They ruined my enjoyment of the "sport" are one of the reasons why I no longer have  Jeep of any kind.  I sank a lot of time and money into the local Jeep community and for a while there we were doing some really big, well organized things, and then that group got greedy, selfish and ruined the whole thing.

 

There's a few of their founding members that I'd seriously punch in the face if I saw again anytime soon because I firmly believe that people shouldn't be afforded free-range to be nasty and hateful the way they were.

 

I looked at the Tennessee jeeps site on occasion and still see a guy around Nashville with the logo on his windshield. So after I got mine, my first trip online was to the site and it was gone! 

 

So you got rid of your jeep over that? If so, that's shame.

 

I just want to put tires in dirt and have some laughs... certainly not down with the people drama.

Edited January 10, 2016 by NoBanStan

[DaveTN]

The group that torpedoed Tennessee Jeeps is Jeeps and Wrenches.  I'm sure it has grown beyond the core group that started it now and some of their members are fine folks, but that core group was some of the nastiest, most spiteful, back-stabbing bunch of people I have ever had the displeasure of meeting.  They ruined my enjoyment of the "sport" are one of the reasons why I no longer have  Jeep of any kind.  I sank a lot of time and money into the local Jeep community and for a while there we were doing some really big, well organized things, and then that group got greedy, selfish and ruined the whole thing.
 
There's a few of their founding members that I'd seriously punch in the face if I saw again anytime soon because I firmly believe that people shouldn't be afforded free-range to be nasty and hateful the way they were.

There are a bunch of nosey people on TGO (Myself included). I just looked at their site and it has 14 “guests” in the last 28 minutes.

[GKar]

If you venture into the hill country, check out Tri-Cities Jeep Club.  Pic from last year's gathering at Windrock.

 

Edited January 10, 2016 by GKar

[Lumber_Jack]

Man! We barely had an FJ/LC group in the area when I had mine a few years ago. That's nice!!!

Facebook is a great group recruiting tool. We're called Cumberland Cruisers. I'm an admin in the group so if you see any FJs out, send me our way.