Starter Trail gear

Well for the past two days i have been looking on the forum to see if i can fine any post that give a good list of starting gear, so far no luck. I am not planing on doing anything crazy but i dont want to be the one who does something stupid and break something and watch others have fun. my budget is small about 500 dollars to start. i have a 3"x30' recovery strap up to 35,000 pounds already. tires on the H3 are falken wild peak A/Ts 32's and locker in the rear. i want to save up for a winch so i can winch out rather than put stress on two trucks! thoughts would be much appreciated!

OH and i have safety gear!

Undercarriage protection (UCP) And rock sliders are top items.

IMO, the first must-do mods if you plan to do any wheeling are to protect the underside of your rig:

1) a set of under carriage protection for the tranny and transfer case.

2) A set of Hunner skids for the rear leaf spring perches and shock mounts.

3) rocker panel protection/sliders.

I'd start there and thereafter, put together a recovery gear bag. The winch can wait until after you've done what you can to protect the underbelly of your rig to help guard against expensive drivetrain or body damage.

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There is a thread or two on here on this topic but no time to look this AM. Good start so far. Recovery strap, 2clevis, cb radio, hi- lift jack, spare tie rod, half shaft, tools, etc in addition to the UCP and rocker panel protection.

Don't worry about the small budget. For most of us, the truck is a continuing work in progress. I'll also support the UCP as a first mod as you'll be protecting important essentials. If you don't have an air compressor to air up tires that's a good tool to invest in, especially as they are only $50 or so for a basic one. I would also make sure you have the tools and spares for the easier and more common trail repairs: half-shaft and tie rods. Neither happens too often, but they are easy to fix on the trail. You'll need a 36mm socket for the hub, 27mm (I think) open wrench for the tie rods. You'll need a basic set of tools for the other stuff that can come up.

When I lived in Utah I brought a Pack-Jeep with me; this consisted on my best friend/next door neighbor "McGyver" and his trusty bright green Jeep with damn near every doo-dad nick-knack you could think of packed securely in to get you out of almost every situation including helicopter extraction. He actually won "best equipped vehicle" at one of the truck shows he entered.

In all seriousness, going wheeling with another vehicle or a group is THE single most smartest thing you will ever do. Usually this will net not only your trail gear, but an additional vehicle and gear as well. Given this, as Biggie said, the winch can wait until you get your truck equipped. Having your strap is a good start, as every time I've ever been wheeling I've been strapped out when stuck. I only needed winched once when I broke my tie-rod on the side of a mountain and had very little steering control.

A good hand tool kit is a must as well; I've got a versatile mechanics 170 piece Crescent set with pliers, sockets/ratchets, allen wrenches and screwdrivers that can handle most fixes (not big stuff like hubs) and comes in a fold flat case for easy storage. Doing this avoids needing to take your tools out when you're not wheeling and helps keep the tools on hand at all times.
Depending how much wheeling you're going to do and how remote your locations are, you'll also want food stuffs like MRE's, water and other things like spare blankets (can be used for crawling under the rig for fixes and checking parts as well) and flares. Since LED lighting is coming on so strong, having a good LED flashlight on hand is a must, and if you want to go a step further, get an LED light that can clamp onto your rig's battery terminals. Going the LED route will prevent killing your batteries for a long time.
Good luck and have fun with your search for trail gear---we've got survivalists on the forum that will encourage you to buy hoards of guns and ammo and all kinds of cool zombie killing knives, but for now we'll just get you started!