I have what is essentially a bone stock '97 Jeep Cherokee. HPD30, 29 spline 8.25.

6 cylinder AX15 with 3.07 gears.

Now, I am finally nearing somewhat an end on my maintenance modifications (redoing the whole cooling system, clutch, master/slave, brakes, etc.) and am wondering what the next step I should take is? Most of this will be done in parts since I'm not growing my money on trees. Let's assume there is a 2 month gap between each step.

The way I was thinking was this:

-Regear to 4.10 and install detroit in back
-Lift 4.5" and add currie steering
-33" tires + wheels
-Trim to fit and maybe add some of those new tube fenders
-Armor
-Winch

Does this sound ok? I realize I left out things like a winch, bumpers, etc. but that's mainly because I know I don't really offroad hard enough to warrant a winch quite yet, so that will be last.

Thanks in advance.

 

Gears are definitely going to help, but you may want to consider frame stiffeners sooner rather than later. They do not necessarily cost that much, but if you cant/do not have access to/know a fried who has a welder, the labor can be.

 

Since there is going to be periods I would do a lift first, and ride it on those little tires. Then get new tires, followed by regearing. I don't think regearing for stock tires would be useful first.

 

I'd put the tires on before regearing to see if you want to even do it. 33x12.5s are not that bad with 3.07s.