Trading in my 2024 JL-R-X on an ordered 2025 Gladdy with the Max Tow Package for the wife. I can now go shopping for a TJ-R and go back to real Jeeping... HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY!
2024 JL-R-X > 2025 Gladdy and now A TJ-R
- Thread starter Old Jeepin Cowboy
- Start date
Glad you're going back to a TJ. I assume you have significant build plans? If so why do you care if it's a Rubi?
Because I made a mistake (as if I have done so many in life). I sold my 2003 Jeep Rubicon; it was the FIRST Jeep Rubicon delivered to the public. It was on the same truck with the Rubicon that went to the Jeep Traning facility in Dallas, and I lived in Dallas. I was consulting for Chrysler at the time and asked for a deal on the upcoming 2003 Jeeps... I had NO idea what the Rubicon was. Jeep called me and gave me the code, take it to any Jeep dealer and place your order. Ordering opened the next day at 10:30, I got to the dealer at 8:30 because I had a meeting at 10 with one of my clients.
We sit down at the computer and I was ordering a Jeep Sahara and wanted it in Red. NO CAN DO. OK fine then lets just order a Jeep in Red and I will give you in exchange everything that you need to take off to give me a Red Sahara.
As we go down thru the options, the sales guy looked at me and said What is a Rubicon? Dunno! Well, it has a 4-1 trans low gear, 4-1 transfer case and 4:10 axles... ORDER IT!!!!!
Now it's about 9 am or so, and I tell him to hit the send key. He said No, they won't take till 10:30...I am a software engineer, so hit the button, and let's see what it does. He does and processes it. So we sit there and shoot the breeze on this Rubicon thing. Suddenly, we get an Order Accepted! WOW, that was quick. A few min later, KI gets a VIN! I leave and go to my meeting.
2nd week in Aug, my Rubcion and the Training Rubicon showed up at the training facility on Belt Line Road in Dallas.
But wait, there is more...
My Dealer calls and says we found your Jeep, it been shipped to Mesquite Tx, we go get it tomorrow. The Hell you will I will stop by if paperwork and close the deal and go pick it up myself. OK!
I get to the Jeep dealer in Mesquite. The sales guy meets me, of course, and asks if he can help me. Sure, see that Red Jeep, that is mine, gonna pick it up. GREAT Mr Jones, how was your flight from Houston? Houston, I live in Dallas. Oh, your not Mr Jones, he is flying in to pick it up. Sorry I own here is the paperwork! Oops, you better talk to the GM.
GM says to me how about I give you what you paid for the Jeep and order you another one. Sorry, no way. OK, look, I got the Jeep sold. I don't care! I will give you $1000 over MSRP. Sorry, but ...this goes until he hits $10,000 over MSRP. No, sorry, I am a consultant, own my own company, and have been a Jeeping since the 60s. I want my Jeep NOW! GIVE ME THE KEYS! He says: Look, My brother is a Jeeper like you, and I have a cousin who works a Corp Jeep, and my brother in Houston wants the first Jeep Rubicon, and I worked a deal with my cousin to get it for him.
Sorry, hand me my keys and have a great day! I swear he tears coming out of his eyes...
I am not a car collector, I am a driver and sold it...
Am I bullshtting?
Later on, jeep called me and wanted to meet with me and discuss my impression and thoughts on the Rubicon. So I met them in Moab...Spent about 2 hours with them.
Here is the hood signed by Rubicon Engineering Team and some of the higher ups
Seems more sentimental than anything.
The reason I ask is because the Jeep sitting in my garage I tore it apart and sold every component that would have been different on a Rubicon. Fenders, axles, Tcase, hood etc. Maybe you're planning a more mild build, I don't know.
I’ve always wondered for the first Rubi landed- if that is not cool I don’t know what is.
Was it a manual or an automatic?
Keep us posted what you do.
Was it a manual or an automatic?
Keep us posted what you do.
Manual with every option... I sold the hardtop the week I got it. I knew I could make money on it, and I did. IIRC, I paid $23k for it. I built it looking for the X/Y paradigm. X being the Off-road from mild to extreme, the Y axis was the Daily driver in traffic OEM.
What I discovered was there was no trails that Jeep would do, criteria: No spotter, No winching, no strap. The metric was Pritchett Canyon Moab. Drive forward and back, same day by myself and Phoenix Friday 5 pm traffic in Aug (temps in Aug run into the teens easy. Traffic was stop and go, took me and hour to get home. NEVER overheated.
It was flawless, and I came to realize the TJ Rubicon is the ultimate Jeep.
At that time in my life I had just sold my company and ordered my 2003 Jeep. In fact I just done my last consulting gig for Chrysler-Jeep and I retired. Wife said what are you going to do? WHEEL! and I did until 2011.
I put almost 100k miles on that Jeep wheeling from Utah to Mexico, Cali to Texas. That Jeep never failed me. I went to Moab every few months, leading runs on the 7++ trails. Going to Death Valley I love it there! I wheeled all over the SW, often gone 2 weeks at a time.
Was it modified? Take it to the bank or rather take it OUT of the bank and I DID!
The only spare part I took was a couple of Spicer 1310 ujoints. In all those years and miles I only replaced 1 ujoint and the side of the highway on the way to Moab.
MODS:
Full set of Dynatrac ProRock 60s, High Pinion, 40 spline axles, ARBs, high steer kit.
Walker Evans Beadlocks all the way around
GY MTR & then the BFG MM2 far superior to the MTRs.
Installed a Terraflex suspension front to rear and junked it about 6 mo later. Found out real fast that suspension kits are a compromise at best. Engineer your own kit out of the best components.
I used a lot of parts from various manufacturers. Use the best do not compromise and you won't break.
Then I spent 2 weeks working with one of the top Jeep builders in the US and WOW did I learn a LOT and what I learned was SUSPENSION!
That folks is the secret of those who can crawl to the top of the rocks and those who cannot and struggle to make it. I constantly heard, 'Wow, you make it look easy, you just drive up to the top, how do you do it'? Oh I just let the air out of the ires way down down low.
'You never break, how come?' I use rubber parts. No, just lucky,
Suspension is the name of the game. You can throw all the bolt-on stuff all day, but until you know and understand suspension, you flop around with the rest of them.
TJ, LAST of the REAL JEEPS!
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Stuff those springs full of tennis balls!
LOL for sure...there is a reason for it but until you know, you don't...its been around for a LONG time.
Already on it. I'm selling my old timey Currie stuff.
You putting prorock 60’s on the new one?
What size tires did you run before?
What size for the new one?
When’s the last time you did Pritchett?
Dunno for sure what I am going to do with it other than its my LAST Jeep for sure...only been Jeeping since the early 60s.
I had 4:88s on my 23 JLR and my 24 JLR-X and love them so prob somewhere, I am going to swap some axles. Dynatrac was bought out not sure who is king of the hill in axles. I was featured in the Dynatrack catalog and I owned a shop and was a dealer for them. I knew Jim well.
I ran 37 BFG KM2s after a set of GY MTRs, KMs far superior to the MTRs on Walker Evans Beadlocks.
Size tires for the new one if I stay with 4:10s = 35s, 4:88s 37s
I sold my company in 2001 and told my wife, and I was going wheeling, and I did for the next almost ten years. Then it was time to go home, sold my home In Scottsdale AZ where I moved to from Dallas to be centrally located Utah - Mexico and Cali - Texas. Sold my 3 Jeeps, 2 Rubicons and a 55 Willy with a 350/350 HP V8 and as set fo 5:36 gears.
The last time for Pritchett Canyon was around 2010/11, that was my last trail ride. I was burnt out by then. My wife retired, so I decided to spend some time with her. I wheeled constantly, often gone for 2-3 weeks at a time. Over that time, my Jeep racked up almost 100k miles and NEVER broke, and the only spare part I carried was a 1310 spicer ujoint (at the rear and front pinion). I used Tom Woods DS F/R, and both were OEM length. If you want your drivetrain to last, then engineer it to be a straight line.
I just bought (close on 19 Nov) a ranch in Texas, this is the last stop on my tour, I will be 80 soon so where do I go from here???
Naw, they make good stuff, but if it breaks they do not back it at all, ask me how I know and yes I still recommend them.
Ok. I won't be using tennis balls. I never understood why anyone would stuff those inside coil springs.
Curious to hear how you think it’s changed over the years. It’s changed a lot over the few years I’ve been running it. It’s my favorite trail in Moab.
OK I will tell you why:
Goes back to my early racing days. I was NHRA Class C sports and I was racing my 64 Corvette. If you have never dragged raced then you would not have know.
Coming off the line at somewhere between 6500 - 7000 rpm the front of my Corvette would see daylight under the front tires and then the springs rebound hard, dropping your front end. So we stuffed tennis balls in them to SLOW down the slam because that slowed you down when the front end compresses the spring. You also lose some traction at your rear tires when that front slams down.
NOW YOU KNOW!
Being a rock crawler I did same. I ran the 7++ trails and you get the same effect when you come off a shear rock and the spring begins the rebound fast. It slows the reaction...
Sounds like a problem better addressed with shocks and actual jounces. Fortunately I know a few things about suspension.
Do understand that I am baiting you to keep defending silly things with long explanations.
It was also my fav trail it's a very technical. trail. When I led runs at Moab it the last trail of the week. Most of the guys that signed have never run P Canyon at all in fact, most were scared of it. That is why I left it for last day there. You need to pick the right lines. When you signed up for runs they were all 7++ trails.
Often I would go to Moab by myself and would run P Canyon forwards and backward in the same day. I could not do that when I had a group. My rules were I was the only spotter and the only guy with a winch. WHY? I have seen a lot of spotters get some folks in REAL trouble. This is because they cannot identify the line, lots of jeep rollovers come from spotters. I know how to spot the line, you don't just drive up to a spot and try to get over hoping Billy Bob can spot your over and he does not even own a Jeep!
Winching: I have seen some get killed, leg cut off just below the knee, hands and fingers mangled!
So I used this for teaching points! Where did I learn? The Army. I was out there and I always had a Jeep and there no marked trails, you got to learn how to read the terrain...been Jeeping for as long as I have had a drivers license and I have jeeped all over the world.
I LOVE P Canyon, lots of fun do it alone and never pull a strap, winch line and spot yourself...