Baystate Jeepers

Hello-I just joined. Getting back in the saddle as they say

I recently purchased a 2013 Wrangler for myself and boys (16 & 19 ) to escape the daily routines of life. They are both sports enthusiasts Hockey players to be precise! Playing hockey has taken the majority of our time over the years so we've collectively decided its time for some fun. I've shared my stories of growing up with a 73 Bronco Sport 302 6" lift 36" mudders and spending what seemed like endless time getting it stuck and pulling it out of the mud pits and swamps in our area. When looking back those were some of the best times. Kids today don't have those benefits mostly due to derilics like myself abusing those freedoms driving irresponsibly on both private and public lands and getting them shutdown...

I'm an A&P Trained and Certified mech and I was a 63Bravo Light wheeled vehicle mech while I was in the Army-late 80's. I do all my own work unless absolutely necessary to sub out. lack of proper diagnostics, etc

Our plan-
1st lift it 3"-Need some economical suggestions..?
2nd Widen the wheel base. 2" each side. Any thoughts on the lug spacers? or do I just go with deep dish style wheels?
3rd Added protection...front bumper w/ a warner winch and skid plates

I'm looking forward to meeting you all on the trails. I will try to make the march 19 meeting as well. Sincerely

Welcome, Jim.

Hope you can make it to the meeting to get to meet you. Be sure to check out our schedule of events. Our Jeep 101 may be a good refresher for you.

I'll be sure to do that. thank you

Welcome.

Why do you want to widen the stance? Not your typical mod.

Stability- I have a flush wheel to rubber profile so rather than invest in new wheels (plus I like the Wheels I have) adding the spacers is an economical solution. I'm curious if anyone has had an issue using the spacers-I've never used them

Welcome!
I'm lost in the spacers reason. Haha. Basically you don't want to get new wheels? What size is your rim right now?

I don't have a JK but I have a 4.5" rubicon express lift that has been great for the past 6/7 years. It even survived a crash and my jeep being totalled.

JKs are noticeably wider than the older Jeeps, and plenty stable out of the box. I've never felt the need to widen the stance for stability, and 2" on each side seems like a lot.
I bought new rims with more backspacing to gain clearance for wider tires, but not because I was concerned about stance width. That said, it's your Jeep, do what you want with it. I've never liked spacers just because the more pieces you add to the system, the more can go wrong with it. I've heard horror stories about spacers getting loose, so be sure to use Locktite if you use them. At the same time, at some point you may need to replace rotors, you don't want to have to get new spacers at the same time because the spacers are stuck to the rotors.

As long as you torque the nuts on the spacers to spec and use the correct loctite you should be OK. I did have a failure on a spacer but it was my fault for not using loctite...

I ran spacers for awhile after I put my lift on until I could decide on what wheels I wanted. Again, loctite and torque are key. I had Spidertrax 1.25" that I used blue loctite, torqued to 100 lbs, and checked every oil change. 2 things to do before install is to clean the rotors extremely well so they don't sieze to them and make sure your rotor retainer rings from the factory are all removed from the posts. You want a nice flat surface to mount to. I used them on my factory Altitude wheels without issue but I wouldn't wheel hard with them installed.

Before I forget - just sayin, don't really care one way or the other, if you're registered in MA, then wheel spacers are illegal. Yes, everybody runs them, but you should at least be aware.

It's MA General Law Chapter 90, Section 6.04: General Requirements:
"No motor vehicle shall be altered or modified in any way that may cause the vehicle body or chassis to come in contact with the roadway, expose the fuel tank to damage from collision, or cause the tires to come in contact with the body, chassis, or steering components under normal operation. The horizontal plane, front to rear, shall not differ more than 2 inches. ... The wheel track may be increased by the use of tires and rims for a maximum total increase of 4 inches beyond the original manufacturer's specification. The use of spacers to increase the wheel track is prohibited. Fractions shall be excluded in all measurements and final calculations."

Is ANYTHING legal in MA anymore? !