Here's my pic for the day. Kids are still out of school (due to teacher strike) so my oldest two (son and daughter) and I went wheeling North of the house.

It's amazing the night and day difference getting more articulation made for this thing. Even with open diffs in both ends, this little jeep just goes over anything in it's path.

Yep... Just pick a good line through stuff and they will go anywhere you need them to, everything else you can drive around. I am amazed with how many don't understand the concept of driving around stuff... Lol

It's amazing the dumb things people do. I came across this picture on the net (when I was researching control arm drop brackets) of a guy's xj hung up on a rock that could have been easily avoided, and it's been my reminder of "don't be dumb when wheeling" ever since.

shhhiiiiiitttttt that cad might have saved him from a major rocker dent haha

I'm not a rock crawler, I'm a rock go arounder. LOL.

Same here. My #1 priority is always being able to get home at the end of the day.

Me too, especially since my Jeep gets me to work every day. But even if I had two Jeeps I would still baby both. I like exploring off-road areas but several decades of doing so has taught me that 99% of the time I don't need to rock crawl to get there. I'm certainly not afraid of challenging terrain, been there done that a thousand times. But I don't need to rock crawl to prove I'm not a mall crawler. LOL. Not even sure if I won the lottery that I would build a rock crawling rig. It just seems like slow, tedious driving with little change in scenery. I would rather be able to cover 100+ miles in a day and see lots of scenery.

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https://www.overlandexpo.com/west/

No truer words could be shared. When you are out 30-40 miles taking chances is just not wise at all, it could be the end of you.

rock crawling can be quite fun. It takes a differrent skill then other forms of offroading imo. Its not my cup of tea, but when ive been with the hardcore guys on crawling trips its always a blast.

but i agree, with crawling youbcould be out all day with minimum stops and have traveled less then 10 miles. I went to moab a few years ago with the hardcore guys and we did all the tough trails. The scenery is beautiful but you cant admire for too long or your rolling over lol...i liked the more moderate trails there as well when i did them on my most recent trip.

Request for guidance:

Now I'm trying to decide what to do with diffs. Currently my XJ has open diffs in both end and I find that (with the new articulation) in 4WD it goes everywhere I want to go (with ease). BUT, I'd like to be able to both a) have some extra security and b) not have to use 4WD so often.

I'm going to be picking up a dana 44 this summer and am planning to get a full (not lunchbox) locker in the rear. Because I'm going to step up to 4.10s (go on across the gear break in case I ever want 4.56), I'll need to buy a new carrier for the for the front as well. Do I just use another open in the front, or would a LSD be better? My thought being a (less aggressive) LSD would free wheel on the street/2WD, but somewhat limit slipping in 4WD. A selectable diff would be fantastic, but I can't justify the cost.

Thoughts?

You'd likely be happy with a limited slip in the rear and the volvo limited slip in the front.

You think a rear LSD would be better than a locker in my application? I'll have to look up the volvo front LSD.