1. Tires
2. Front / rear tow hooks & skid plates
3. Lift kit

Do all of step two, then wheel it and see if you really need to go through the hassle, expense and potential issues of a lift.

 

Everyone's idea of off-road is different. You don't have low range so really steep stuff is going to roast the clutch, no way around that really. That also tends to limit tire size because the larger the tire, the worse your effective gear ratio is.

Skidplates, the factory ones are pretty much the only show in town but they're awesome so get all 3 if you can. They're all out of production of course, but if you look around you should be able to find some.

The FD-II rear control arms are boxed to prevent collapsing if you drag them on rocks, depending what kind of driving you're planning to do you could presumably get those (or if you do any welding I guess you could just box the ones you have)

I wouldn't screw around with any DIY recovery hooks, if they fail at the wrong time they could hurt someone. Kind of like airbags the best possible scenario is to never need them but when you do need them they better work. As far as I know the OE hooks are still available. They cost actual money, but less than an off road wrecker recovery the first time you use them.

For the rear recovery point, a tow hitch is a good option because you can also use it for a luggage rack or bike rack and it's a solid piece that attaches to the chassis at four points.

The suspension on these Jeeps really does not lend itself to lifting and a massive number of people who lift their Patriots wind up removing the lift or selling the Jeep because of the lift. But hey maybe you'll luck out or something.

These are great appliance cars with better-than-average-for-an-appliance-car off road capability but the more realistic you are with your expectations the more fun you'll have.

 

Thanks for the replies!

I think I might be underestimating my stock patriot a little, of course if you factor in looks it's a no-brainer to get a lift but for now maybe I'll refrain from doing that for the sake of those old, high-mileage parts. Might just have to find some skids from the junk yard if there's any FDII's out there (hard to find believe it or not!). For tow hooks I'll probably just follow this post (Front Tow Hook Install)

 

I've been running a set of 2" lift crd stu coils for years now without any issues and 225/65R17 tires. I put on the kyb gr-2 struts (I think they changed the model name now though) when I did the coils.

 

Have you had any different or special way to set your CV axles when you had the STU coils installed in order to avoid issues? I'm concerned about the axle angles.

 

Nope. Haven't had any issues at all with the axles. The rear camber is slightly off, but barely out of spec, like 0.1 degrees out, but the same on each side. They make a rear upper arm with camber adjustment but I haven't needed it and haven't noticed any extra tire wear.

 

There's probably two things worth considering here:

First is that lift coils, mounted on stock length struts do not change the factory range of motion only the ride height. Your axles still stay within the range they were engineered for. This is in contrast to spacer lifts which move the total range of motion by the distance that the spacer occupies.

Second is that Stu's coils are probably just stock coil springs from a Dodge Journey which have been painted silver 😁

 

I can attest the stus coils are not from a dodge journey. They are beefy and will give your spring compressor a work out.

 

For what it's worth, Journey springs (09-10 4cyl) are the same dimensions just larger wire diameter and about 30% more stiff than stock Patriot springs. That sounds pretty similar to what I've read about the Stu's.

	Stock Rear (2015 FD-I)	2010 Journey AWD Rear	Stock Front (2015 FD-I)	2010 Journey AWD Front
Coil Inside Diameter	3.36"	3.36" (v6) 3.34" (4cyl)	5.33"	5.33"
Free Height	14.76"	14.86" (v6) 14.01" (4cyl)	15.51"	not available
Wire Diameter	.480	.530	.610	.640
Rate (lb/in)	175	227	175	230 (v6) (data not found for 4cyl)

 

Well, when you see a Stu spring, you can tell right away that it's not a Journey spring. Here's a Stu spring vs. a Journey spring.

 

A comparison of rear coils:

Stock, regular STU's, STU's HD. The Journey coils are similar to a STU's HD, but there are differences.

 

Wheel spacers or wide offset wheels increase your scrub radius which makes the ride a little more "busy" and easier for road imperfections, wind, road crown and camber to influence the car. It's all a trade off

 

Like Sandstone, I think my patriot handles better with stus coils. I have no complaints on them.