Five Easy Mods to Start Your Build off on a Tight Budget: Part 2

Building your dream Jeep takes time and money. In this article, Jarrett from CRAWL TV discusses how to manage both effectively in order to get you going in the right direction.

Our fourth installation was another quick, easy fix for something we realized on day one of wheeling… Our differential covers were taking A LOT of abuse. Swapping out a diff cover can be done almost anywhere; it can even be done at an offroad park before you take it out wheeling again if you run out of time.

We had planned to add these covers and some new gear oil at home, but life happens sometimes and there was no time to spare before we were out on the rocks again, so we packed up our tools and decided to just swap the covers the next morning at the park. It was a quick and easy job with only one minor issue, but we resolved that as soon as we got home and it didn’t ruin our weekend, luckily. Here’s the video:

Lastly, we HAD to do something about that plastic front bumper. After two wheeling trips, it had some ugly battle scars already, and was blocking our approach angle for our front tires and limiting what we could do off-road. Our quick-fix was a set of VDP stubby bumper ends that we ordered off of Amazon. With these, we were able to lop off the ends of the bumper where it was damaged, but still retain a clean overall look of the Jeep. This was about a 20 minute job that made a big difference for us. Here’s the video:

There you have it, folks! These five mods took us from the factory limitations to wheeling moderate to hard trails, and all combined, were less than $2,000.

In this article, we covered two of my three rules of Jeeping:

Take it out and it’ll tell you what you need most

and

Do as much as you possibly can yourself

When you’ve reached this point, start doing your research here on REVKIT, talk with people who’ve already gone through the process of finding what their favorite parts are, and wait for deals on the exact products you just absolutely must have. Then, save up for them and purchase them, even if it means not wheeling for months or cancelling that big trip you and your buddies are planning.

Building a Jeep isn’t a race, so there’s absolutely no need to rack up your credit cards and go wild trying to keep up with the Jones’. That said, my advice is to never go half way and settle for less than what you want. Your Jeep may come together slowly and it may even look funny for a while, but when you get that final piece, you’ll have exactly what you want.

And that’s my third motto of Jeeping,

Buy Once, Cry once.

-Jarrett Crawford, CRAWL TV