New Jeep owner

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Kevin T.

New Member
Joined
Aug 9, 2026
Messages
14
Location
Buckeye, AZ
I just picked up a 2012 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon 4 door. I am new to jeeps but this thing has a lot of mods so I am not sure what is good or bad, it had rock siders and a ton of skid plates underneath it. Passenger side is almost completely covered, This plates have a decent amount of scratches so I know for sure it was used as intended lol. Anyhow as I said I am new to jeeps and am excited about learning new skills and finding trails to explore. I live in AZ so I think there are a few decent ones near me, hopefully some easier ones to learn on. Once the AZ sun stops trying to melt my skin off my bones I'll post some pictures and maybe some experts here can let me know if my current set up is good or not. Oh it only has 40k miles on it which was a big draw to it, hopefully it will be a good one. The color is Dozer, the previous owner took all the decals off so I had to look up the vin to make sure it was a Rubicon. Sorry I am talking a lot.
 
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Kevin T. said:
I just picked up a 2012 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon 4 door. I am new to jeeps but this thing has a lot of mods so I am not sure what is good or bad, it had rock siders and a ton of skid plates underneath it. Passenger side is almost completely covered, This plates have a decent amount of scratches so I know for sure it was used as intended lol. Anyhow as I said I am new to jeeps and am excited about learning new skills and finding trails to explore. I live in AZ so I think there are a few decent ones near me, hopefully some easier ones to learn on. Once the AZ sun stops trying to melt my skin off my bones I'll post some pictures and maybe some experts here can let me know if my current set up is good or not. Oh it only has 40k miles on it which was a big draw to it, hopefully it will be a good one. The color is Dozer, the previous owner took all the decals off so I had to look up the vin to make sure it was a Rubicon. Sorry I am talking a lot.
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Welcome!

I'm in NEPA now but spent 16 years in AZ and wheeled all over. There are lots of open trails in every direction. I would say find a few local groups on Facebook and you'll have plenty of opportunity to do some wheeling around to learn the trails.

A fun one that I always liked, and a good way to get out of the heat, is the Sunflower Mine Trail:

https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/arizona/sunflower-mine-4x4-trail

You can usually find a group or two going here each month on the local FB pages. There are some challenging areas but the scenery, especially on the climb out of the creek, is spectacular.
 
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pc1p said:
Welcome!

I'm in NEPA now but spent 16 years in AZ and wheeled all over. There are lots of open trails in every direction. I would say find a few local groups on Facebook and you'll have plenty of opportunity to do some wheeling around to learn the trails.

A fun one that I always liked, and a good way to get out of the heat, is the Sunflower Mine Trail:

https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/arizona/sunflower-mine-4x4-trail

You can usually find a group or two going here each month on the local FB pages. There are some challenging areas but the scenery, especially on the climb out of the creek, is spectacular.
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thank you so much for this, do you know if I need a permit or something like that to go off-roading in AZ ?
 
I've been out of AZ for over 5 years now, so some of this may have changed.

There are trails, in particular those that are part of the State Trust Land (STL), that require a permit. Years ago, that permit was free. Now, I think they have done some improvements to the trailheads and there's a small fee. I believe you should till be able to get all the permits you need from recreation.gov.

The main trails that I remember that needed some sort of permit were Bulldog Canyon (Mesa/AJ), Rolls & Butcher Jones (near Saguaro Lake), Box Canyon and Martinez Canyon (Florence). You should create an AllTrails account (link in previous post), which will let you see what trails are in the area. They usually do a good job of explaining what trails require permits.

Contrary to what some suggest - Jeeps/4x4's do not need a AZ Game and Fish OHV tag.
 
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So I did my 1st adventure, I took Robbins Butte Trail, pretty easy one as its just a dirt road, I did however somehow manage to smash both corners of the rear bumper in, I didn't feel the jeep hit anything so I was a bit surprised to see that and feel kind of dumb for it. Perhaps I went too fast or something. The bumper is just the stock plastic one so maybe I can find a replacement cheep, or I now have an excuse to upgrade, but before I do that I need to figure out where I went wrong so I don't ruin a new bumper. Maybe the jeep already having skid plates made me a bit over confident even though I know I lack skills yet.
 
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I didn't back into anything, I did go through a small wash but it didn't seem very steep. I also went through a big puddle so maybe there was something under the water. I never felt like I hit anything, no banging sound or anything.

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I see scratches on the corners of each side so I must have hit the corners on the ground somehow. I didn't turn going through the small wash and it wasn't that steep. Maybe I tossed rocks into the corners by driving the dirt road too fast ?
 
Oh I did run over a downed branch from a palo verde tree. Maybe that is what did that, though I would think that would have hit the middle of the jeeps underbody where all the skid plates are. Well I do plan on using it for off road so maybe the damage is not so bad ?
 
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I believe that's the "TNT" logo from some years ago... There is the T on the left, and the T on the right, then the lower-case "n" kinda sits in the middle. They made nice stuff but are no longer making Jeep/off-road parts as far as I know.
 
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pc1p said:
I believe that's the "TNT" logo from some years ago... There is the T on the left, and the T on the right, then the lower-case "n" kinda sits in the middle. They made nice stuff but are no longer making Jeep/off-road parts as far as I know.
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Thank you so much for all replies, I feel like I will learn a lot from you and I appreciate it very much.
 
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