Hey All!
I fianlly have saved up some play dough to sink into my 2005 liberty renegade and was looking for suggestions for best bang for the buck for toys for my jeep.

I do a TON of nature photography that takes me into some pretty nasty places, but I am not going to be doing any rock crawling or anything like that. I will be hauling gear into and out of some unimproved dirt roads, shallow, firm bottomed marshes and streams, thus far I have not run into any real ground clearance problems in my stomping grounds.

Thought about a brush gaurd for the front end for a 30 seconds, then decided I am MUCH better off with the front tow hooks in place, than I am with the crappy selection of brush gaurd there are for the liberty's.

Heres what I would appreciate any suggestions on:

1) roof mounted cargo basket ( a definate must, camera gear stays in the jeep, camping gear has to stay out to make room)

2) suggestions for a good cat back system, or at least a higher flow muffler to open it up a little more, but not sound like one of those tuner cars that sounds like a buzz saw.

3) High flow air intake system vs. stock (better air flow benefit outwieghing the better filtration of the stock system, as I drive a LOT of very dusty places)

4) rocker panel protection ( the stock "rock sliders" on the liberty renegade dont seem strong enough to step up to a little rougher places )

5) last but not least, wheels (tried searching the forum for this but came back with about 3000 results that are about other stuff but just mention wheels). I want to put some aftermarket steel wheels on my jeep to shave off some weight, and change up the looks of the jeep a little bit. I dont really want the crager soft 8's, and have been looking into black rock wheels series 950 lobo's 16x7's 5 on 4.5" with a 4" backspacing, anybody else running these or have any suggestions (the jeep is a weird dark green/teal color, black would look GRRRRREAT! instead of that medium grey the stock wheels are) I would also like to widen the foot print a little, I know a couple of inches wont help that much, the further I can spread it out when I go to the wetlands, the better I am.

Thanks Folks, and I promise I will get pics up of the jeep soon!

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05 Liberty Renegade
Rocky-Road Outfitter Heavy Duty Roof Rails/ custom Steel cross bars and clampsMopar Cargo Basket
K&N FIPK Air Intake
The real goodies are in the cargo area for Nature/Wildlife photography... she's a workin jeep

Lots of good roof rack out there, just do a search on what you are looking for. I ran a elcheapo for 2 or 3 years until I went forst class with one of Rock Lizards
Exhaust just get a good muffler and have it welded in, not gaining anything by going with a cat back as the piping is the same size. I'm running a Magnaflow now, nice sound with out the noise of a Flowmaster that you get at 65/70
Intake, best that I have found is the stock box, Amsoil filter and a 4 inch tube up to the grill area. Tried a lot of setups and this works the best
If Rock Lizard was still making them he had some of the best rock rails out there, not sure if Boulderbars.com still is making them or not. Haven't looked lately
Saving weight by going to steel wheels? HUH?

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MUDD'S MOTORSPORT'S We do IFS lift installs ,
03 OVERLAND EDITION /Kilby-Skidrow-Mopar-4XGuard skids/ 2.5 inch TOTAL CONTROL JBA coilovers -JBA Arms/MOABS-31 FALKEN WILDPEAK AT3W / 4.10's etc, 04 Kilimanjaro Edition loaded, plus 05 KJ limited

Wheels:
So do the stock ALY09056U35 wheels weigh less than 32.5 pounds a peice? Just curious, if so then I may just look at painting them a color that matches the renegade a little better and consider a set of spider track wheel spacers, that would be a hell of a lot cheaper!

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05 Liberty Renegade
Rocky-Road Outfitter Heavy Duty Roof Rails/ custom Steel cross bars and clampsMopar Cargo Basket
K&N FIPK Air Intake
The real goodies are in the cargo area for Nature/Wildlife photography... she's a workin jeep

1) view boilers racks down in the vendors section, excellent rack, and if you need custom options he'll work with you, also blackwidow and several other rack manu's still have racks for KJ's

2) flowmaster or magnaflow or any other top line 'free flow' work great as a clamp in or weld in
i run a super44 and love it, i don't notice the drone at highway speeds, you don't really hear it if you ride with the windows down or stereo on at a normal level but the drone is there, so take your pick with the Tommudd option

3) X2 on what tom said, keep the stock box and work up a cold air intake with dryer hose / LTT intake mod and a quality (non-oil) filter

4) if you're talking about stock mopar rock rails, you're pretty much right, added that they have a plastic cover that will get torn all to pieces over time on rock, the mopar steps, mount surprisingly strong, but unfortunately hang down about 6-7" or so, but made out of steel so you can always put plenty of rash on them in the process of getting "real rock rails"

Rusty's and boulder are still making rails, boulder attaches to the pinch (makes them much stronger) rusty's attach like stock mopar STEPS, which is strong, but nowhere near as strong as one using pinch attachments, however, the rusty's bars should be easily modifiable to attach to the pinch should you go that route

No idea if RL still has rails in stock, i was told several times that he was done with rails but it would be worth a double check

5) check the tire/wheel and fab section, there's a ton of stuff dealing with crag/blackrock as well as other rims that people have used / discussed as well as stripped down and repainted to their liking - fitment and rub issues will greatly depend on your lift and tire combo, but go ahead and pound the pinch and get that over with


Looks like you got a good list and game plan going!

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03 Renegade (Black)
177k miles 3.7L gas - 45RFE
Command Trac / 4.10s
Lift: ft. 790+ rr. JBA4+
The last of the TrailReady Front&Rear Bumpers and TR Rock Rails
Jarhead Offroad light covers
31x10.5R15 RedLetter Grabbers on Blackrock Dunes
L.O.S.T #KD098632