Hey all
In Provo here.
Just a few comments on what I have seen yall talking about, if you do not mind...
As for the Jeep wave. Don't bother if you are not in a lifted jeep. The guys who are lifted will not look at you to even see if you are waving. To them you look like any other grocery getting soccer mom (sorry but it is true). I only ever wave to modded rigs, and only when I am in my heavily modded rig.
Second ARB Bull bar! YIKES! STAY AWAY! That thing is nuts. WAY heavy, and not any point. Get yourself a small winch bumper. If you get the ARB you will pay twice what you should for a normal off road bumper, and it will take an inch out of your front end lift because it is SUPER heavy. Just get yourself a Warn, or look alike bumper with D-ring points. It will serve you much better than an ARB unless you are planning on hitting some Kangaroos at 50mph any time soon.
Please do not remove your sway bar unless you are in a CJ/YJ The sway bar is critical for driving on the roads. I have seen SOOO many jeeps flipped over in innocent places like the Smiths or Wal-mart parking lot because they had no sway bar on them. If you want to get Disco's then I say go for it, but at least have it connected anytime you are off the trails.
As for the person looking to figure out what to buy first... You need shocks with that 3.5" lift, so, that should be the obvious first thing you get with that lift, do them at the same time. Your stock shocks will have to compress the lift just to get them on there at their longest point, ergo it will cause serious damage and hazardous driving if you do not replace them before you drive with the 3.5" lift. (most stock shocks do not allow for more than 5 inches of travel. That means 2.5 down, and 2.5 up, so you are looking to go a full inch higher than your shocks can handle.)
Sorry, hope you do not mind my opinions, and I hope they are not too forceful.
Love going out of Cascade Springs. Run up the Alpine loop and down into the springs. From there if you go due south you get a nice road, very steep, but a stocker can do it, though it is a shock to go on, and you end up in Provo Canyon, very cool road. OR if you go Due North you can get back into the North Fork of AF Canyon, and there are a ton of off shoots up there. The road to AF canyon you can do in a car (fairly bumpy) but most any jeep should be able to stock run the off shoot trails that I have seen up there.
My recommendations for anyone looking to lift and not sure what you get... If you have a coil sprung jeep go down to Teraflex in SLC and pick up a 2"bb for $145.00 and you will be amazed what a difference that makes. Then if you want to get more serous get a 1" body lift, and a 1" Motor Mount Lift (about $100 each if you shop around) with that on there you can put a Belly up skid on your rig and it is like having a six inch lift with that combo, and keeps your COG nice and low.
Anyhow, nice to meet you all
Brian