Biggest Waste of Money?

[Love2Ride450]

Im going to go out on a limb and say roof racks and off road lights. Some may use a rack for gear but I tend to see most empty. Also just upgrading my headlights to H4's gave me more usable night driving light than a friend with 4 KC lights.

I have a homebuilt roof rack and 4 imitation kc's (pilot 6" off road light) My rack holds my spare, and so far nothing else. I can put tons of stuff up there if need be, but haven't yet. I also plan on sticking my Hi Lift up there once I build some mounts. I don't think it's a waste, except for the fuel mileage lost. I have the Autopal h4's with upgraded wiring harness, and once I flip the switch for the roof lights, I can't even tell my headlights are on. INSANE! Your friend's lights must be aimed wrong. Only bummer is I can't use the roof lights on the road. H4's do work nicely though.

 

[KarlVP]

Bushwacker. Fender. Flares.

 

[userbmx1315]

I have a homebuilt roof rack and 4 imitation kc's (pilot 6" off road light) My rack holds my spare, and so far nothing else. I can put tons of stuff up there if need be, but haven't yet. I also plan on sticking my Hi Lift up there once I build some mounts. I don't think it's a waste, except for the fuel mileage lost. I have the Autopal h4's with upgraded wiring harness, and once I flip the switch for the roof lights, I can't even tell my headlights are on. INSANE! Your friend's lights must be aimed wrong. Only bummer is I can't use the roof lights on the road. H4's do work nicely though.

i got a wilderness roof rack that is like 6ft long and mounts to the gutters, used to have a spare up there, but got way to lazy to pick up a 32" that weighs like 6000 pounds, (dramatization), but all it holds now is 4 lights, but i didnt buy it, i traded some parts for it, so i didnt loose much,

 

[Kittrell]

Nothing, I am the pinnacle of the XJ builder.............

 

[Love2Ride450]

i got a wilderness roof rack that is like 6ft long and mounts to the gutters, used to have a spare up there, but got way to lazy to pick up a 32" that weighs like 6000 pounds, (dramatization), but all it holds now is 4 lights, but i didnt buy it, i traded some parts for it, so i didnt loose much,

I have only needed to lift the spare up there once so far, hopefully I won't need to take it down for a while either. It's not so bad though, especially since the spare is mounted on an aluminum wheel.

 

[Ba-Riedo]

Bushwacker. Fender. Flares.

Wait, Karl you actually ran those? Sac up ate mine.

-Alex

 

[XJCHURCH]

cheapo carpet kit. If your gonna change your carpet spare no expense. I paid like 200bucks off the internet and it was just sloppy looking. don't know if the kit from quadratec is better or what?? :dunno:

 

[LostSoul]

lift kit with aal should have got springs ohh well moving on

 

[Blaine B.]

If you used add a leafs that shifted and destroyed your tires, you obviously didn't use any leaf clamps to hold the leafs in line and that is YOUR fault.

I got my used Bushwackers for free from a member on here. The only downside I see so far is that the self tappers don't really work well because the sheet metal is so thin. Many have stripped from tires rubbing.

But when I added washers and nuts to the backside that stopped happening.

 

[VegasAnthony]

roof rack

 

[Crewdude007]

My biggest (only?) waste was my very first upgrade: Skyjacker track bar. Stupid misalignin piece of crap. Ought to advertise it as "Bumpersteer in a Box."

Robert

x2 on the Sky-crapper trackbar. Had mine on for about a week before I swapped it out. Now my free 31s that I got from my next door neighbor...that's just a thing of beauty!:worship:

 

[C85D4x4]

Naxja membership.

:laugh2:

 

[killer98xjsport]

Tuff country sway bar disconnects. They suck, zerk fittings fell out of the ends. Should have got JKS disconnects.

 

[fubar XJ]

Not going crazy with mods as soon as I bought them.

It grew in steps which was a waste....

Agreed, building in stages is a waste when you know what you ultimately want. I made that mistake on my CJ, so for the XJ I just researched, saved, and bought all of the stuff I knew I'd want eventually for what I wanted to do with the rig. It's not the "ultimate badass XJ", but it's a nice combination of street-worthy yet capable and durable enough for some pretty good moderate/heavy wheeling.

Building in stages is almost always a waste, unless you can do it with components that you won't need to replace on the next stage.

 

[Ramsey]

Yeah but you can't really learn just stepping up to big dog status, got to take it in steps to learn what you are doing, unless its not your virgin build.

 

[fubar XJ]

Yeah but you can't really learn just stepping up to big dog status, got to take it in steps to learn what you are doing, unless its not your virgin build.

There's truth there, and I learned on my previous build. But ideally, you research and ask a lot of questions of others who have built up the same model of rig, wheel with them and watch how certain things work, and then make the best long-term choices you can. In my case, I already had a fun, capable wheeler in my CJ, but wanted something more comfortable and snow-friendly. I did the above, asking questions here and IRL to find out which products would perform the way I needed them to. It also helps that I had a large chunk of money to throw at it within a reasonably short time, as an all-inclusive build requires that.

Not quite a year later, I don't regret any of the products I bought or the mods I made. * knocks on wood *

 

[2xtreme]

I have have been through all of the normal steps along the way to where my rig is now and the ONLY thing that I would change or regret is not cutting out the rockers to do my Rock Rails. It would have been much better and easier to do (it just wasn't common back when I built my rock rails).

The biggest waist of money (10 or 12 bucks) was installing the lift blocks temporarily (lasted a 1/2 a trip).

Michael

 

[Destroyer]

Electronic exhaust cutout.:banghead:

 

[Matt S.]

I think the biggest waste of money I ever spent on a Jeep was taking the doors off.

Seriously.


I dont own heeps anymore though.

 

[FiFo]

polished 44, wish id saved for a 609... :anon:

I'll go the other axle.

XJ Dana 44, since I cut the brackets off anyways I should have just installed a narrowed Dana 60.

Along the same lines, the Detroit in the rear. Since I never drove it on the street much, and at this point it is a trailer queen, I should have just installed a spool.