Love the 1.03 on my car full poly bushings front and rear, Rancho 5000 shocks on all four corners, Factory std front bar have dropped it an inch and have fitted smaller bump stops and handles very well. Will be updating steering box to 16.1 soon.
I'm not insulted. It's just pretty obvious you have no clue what you're talking about. California has 386,604 lane miles of road. If you think they're all the same you're delusional. The fact that you think California doesn't have rural, "snow country" roads tells me you don't know anything about it at all.
Run whatever you like on your summer weekend car that never sees bad weather and only hits the road 5 months out of the year. I'd happily put my Duster against any of your public roads in Pleasant Mount, Pennsylvania. I promise it's already been on worse and held up just fine. I wouldn't change my 1.12's for anything smaller, and it's not because I drive roads that are smooth as glass. And my 18's and 275/35/18's do just fine too.
Goat path? Yeah I've done that. I usually drive this one a few times a month. 5 miles of this round trip every time. Year round. And I'm sure you can imagine that the paved roads leading to this aren't great either. View attachment 1715088614View attachment 1715088615