Hi Fred, thanks again for the reply.

I have noticed how much of a difference lowering the tire pressure helps, and I am sticking to the slow approach now also. I am going to go out tonight hopefully for a little bit and get a little driving in on an undeveloped road and trails.

I will purchase the tow straps with the loops and not the hooks - they are the ones that I use on construction sites for hoisting so I am familiar with good straps.

Regarding the 35's: if I run my Unlimited with other TJ's having the same size tires and same lifts my breakover angle will be significantly less favorable due to the extended wheelbase. In order to be able to traverse the same terrain I need the additional height. I know that I am only gaining 1" on the differentials, but that's not my concern so much as breakover angle.

I plan on taking my Jeep all over New England and maybe more, not just in Mass. I might be assigned out in California in the near future for work which would be awesome!! Maybe not so great on the Jeep driving across country on 35's (if I have that done before I am dispatched).

Bumper: I want to get a new bumper to provide better protection to the front of my Jeep, which I assume is the reason most people install new bumpers. To be completely honest it is also for looks (mainly protection though)- I really like certain winch/bumper combos and I think that they make the Jeep look awesome! Functionality as we as personality!

I checked the archives for winches and found a few good threads on them, but also found something very interesting that I plan on using in the future: "buy the same parts as your buddies!" Not just because if someone else has it it must be good, but for the interchangeability. If we were to go out on the trail for a few days, with spare parts in case we break something, better off having the same parts if possible so it's more likely that someone will have the part needed. Maybe it sounds more useful than it actually will be but either way I feel like that's good advice.

So I was driving to work the other day and noticed parked one block away from our office a TJ Unlimited - same khaki color as mine, but this one had the hard top (matching khaki), chromed out tubular bumpers, winch, 31"s, and most importantly - RUBICON! It's basically the Jeep I was looking for for a month before settling on my TJ Unlimited. It isn't so much the chrome that I liked, but RUBICON w/ matching hard top!! The TJ Unlimited Rubicon's seem to be hard to find for sale - I guess that's a good sign for that model that people are holding on to them!