So what to do..

I didn't realize it would accept the emoji I put.

 

I want some ideas just to get the ball rolling. Any must haves, things to look out for and the like.

 

Hard no.

 

Is that the one from top gear?

 

The factory tires on a off-road are decent but the KO2s that I replace them with are much more durable in my opinion.

 

Leave the damn thing stock except for tires. Drive it and you will know what you need.

 

No 6 inch lift and chrome rims right off the lot?

 

Just go drive your truck. A lot of the cool trucks you see here on the forum, all the cool lifts, armor, big tires, lights. You don't need that stuff. You really don't. Drive your truck and go adventure. If you have a favorite trail that's a little bit too tough, upgrade from there based on what's holding you back. If you wanna spend $20k building a badass overland rig, I'm certainly not gonna stop you, but don't build the badass overland rig unless you're gonna go badass overlanding. Unfortunately for most of us, we don't get to spend near enough time out adventuring as we'd like to.
If you desperately want to spend some money, get a set of really good rock rails.

Otherwise, just go drive your truck.

Edit: Tires. Get rid of the stock tires. I've been happy with the wrangler duratracs I've had on my last two tacos, but almost anything over the stock tires is an upgrade

 

New guys don't know that successful off roaders rely on 90% driver, 10% vehicle. Good drivers can take crap 2wd cars and go places that the $90K Jeeps can't go.
I am convinced that most of the advice people want on this forum is for the "look" and not the actual capability. The truck, stock, will do amazing things. The question is, how big are your balls?

 

I hear ya on that. Having had several very well built jeep crawlers in the past, I'm now at the point where my balls are small enough to tell me not to break shit just for the sake of trying to climb out of that rock crevice higher than your roof with your wheels canted all the way to the left... Run the fun trails, don't break your rig, and enjoy the ride is where I'm at now. Plenty of fun stuff to do and see outside of rock canyons

 

Exactly.

 

Haha alright. My second idea then would be trick out your truck best you can and take your little minion/s on awesome adventures!

 

Thats a solid plan.

 

Since it's an off-road build, I would highly recommend that one of your first purchased be rock sliders. They will protect your rocker panels and the bottom of your doors from rock and other trail damage. And depending on how far the sliders protrude from you truck, some can also protect against door dings in parking lots. It's much nicer to have someone's door strike your slider instead of the side of your truck.

 

I also recommended rock rails as a first mod, and I have a funny story to share about this from yearsss ago.

I was just out of high school, driving my pride and joy, a beat to shit two door '95 XJ on 33s. 5 speed, 4.10 gears, dual lockers, armored all up. Bought it built for $4500 bucks while I was selling pizzas.
So I'm in my first year of college, poor as shit down at the local walmart buying ramen and toilet paper because I was young and dumb and dumped all my money into my jeep.

I'm sitting in the parking lot after shopping listening to a cd, and hear a cronch off my passenger side. I step out and there's a lady who has just crumpled her door against my rock rails. Like, folded her door so it wouldn't close, that's how hard she decided to wham it against the side of my jeep. I'm looking at it with this sort of befuddled expresion and saying I'm sorry.

So anyways she starts yelling at me. "You've got illegal modifications. If there wasn't metal on the side of you car my door would be fine. blah blah blah" She says she's gonna call the cops. I say Ok. Cop shows up, and we give him the story. She's insisting in the background that I call my insurance company to make them pay for the damage to her car.

Cop looks at her, and very politely says, "Lady, you're an idiot, this gentleman has done nothing wrong. I suggest you leave and contact your insurance."

Cop and I bullshitted for a bit and then I got back in and kept listening to my music.

Good times being poor with a beater rig.

Here's the beautiful POS. Front bumper was off since I was having a winch bumper fabbed

 

Off road build can mean anything need to more specific. What are u going to use the truck for . Rock crawling. Over landing . Light trails ... lots of options for builds .i see so many people waste money on mods that they don’t use or need .

 

Yep. Toybota.