For shock absorbers we opted for Rancho 9000 air adjustables. These allow you to change the firmness of ride from inside the cab on the move. This proved to be very useful whilst we were fine tuning.
Having raised the suspension 3" the next problem is the rear propshaft angle. It cannot run at such an extreme angle, the problem will manifest itself as a coarse vibration as you accelerate as well as potentially bending the rear output shaft during a hard landing on the suspension. There are two ways around this currently available: The first is to lower the transfer approx 1". This brings the propshaft back to a tolerable angle and will cure the vibration problem. The drawback is that you have lost an inch of ground clearance under the belly. This is the cheapest option and is available as part of the Teraflex package. The better option but also more costly is to fit a short shaft conversion to the transfer box and a cv jointed rear propshaft. This gives you a longer propshaft running at reduced angles that eliminates the vibrations without losing any ground clearance. We have tried both options, obviously the short shaft is the best but if you are having to watch the budget the spacer kit is adequate. To give sufficient clearance for the 33" tyres at full articulation we ended up giving the body a 1" lift.
The next area we addressed was self-recovery. We knew that this vehicle would be tested to the edge of the off-road envelope by the motoring press. (and probably beyond) This could often mean the vehicle being out unaccompanied and possibly driven by people who have absolutely no idea of how to drive off-road despite writing about it for a living. To this end the TJ was fitted with the mighty Warn 8274 winch at the front and a Warn M-8000 low profile winch at the rear.
At this point there were no winch bumpers available for the TJ, so we designed an ultra low profile, low overhang bumper for the front that gives the vehicle an extremely good approach angle, whilst allowing the fitment of a monster winch without the overhang problems, usually associated with fitting a winch this size. The bumper also has two recovery points recessed into it and a choice of recessed flashers or sidelights. For the rear we designed a bumper that houses the Warn low profile M-8000 winch. Again we designed it to have minimal overhang so the TJ wouldn't have problems dropping off steep descents or climbing back up them. The bumper also protects the corners of the body and lights and has two recessed towing points.
