And So it Begins...

Everyone knows that if you are going to use a Jeep for what it was meant to do you are going to need to spend money on it. I certainly knew this before I bought mine. So with this in mind it should not be too surprising that I have made my first purchases on the never ending road of Jeep upgrades.

Soon after I got my Jeep I started window shopping for all the cool stuff that is available. Wheels and tires are an obvious area where upgrades are common, and in my case, necessary. My Jeep came with 17" wheels but it only has street tires. I have already mentioned in a previous post I that I have already tested the limited of the stock tires. I have been doing a lot of thinking about the tire situation and I came up with three, mostly useless ideas. The only idea of the three that I liked turns out to be one I am pursuing.

My plan is to have two sets of wheels and tires - one (the stock set) for daily driving and highway use, and one set for off-road and Jeep adventures. From the moment I first saw them I wanted a set of AEV Pintler wheels. I think these are the best looking wheels out there and they seem to be popular with serious off-roaders. The price, over $200 each, meant I was very unlikely to go this route. In fact, I have already set my mind on another set of the stock wheels when I found a set of Pintlers on craig's list. These wheels have already seen some serious trail time and have a but of rock-rash but they seem to be functionally sound. At nearly half off the price of new it was a deal I could not pass up.

This one is almost perfect.

This one has a little rash around the edge but no dings or dents.

This one is in the worst shape with a large scrape.

More rash...

The last one is also in excellent shape.

In addition to the wheels I found a good deal on a set of Spidertrax 1.5" Spacers from a guy on the Arizona Virtual Jeep Club forum. These will come in handy after I install my planned lift. It is a must have when running the stock wheels and a lift. I am not sure if they will be needed when running the AEV wheels but I will try it out and see.

So with the first few hundred dollars in purchases behind me I feel ready for more. I think I will head over to Discount Tire sometime this week for a set of BF Goodrich Mud Terrain T/A KM2. Yeah, those'll do.