New Jeep owner. Driven some JKs before but never a TJ, and never owned a Jeep anything before. Got into the Jeep because I needed something auto my wife could learn to drive, needed something that could either haul or tow (camping, utility trailer, maybe a boat etc). Looked at 1/4 and 1/2 ton used trucks and almost vomited at prices in my area. Thought about what else is fun, auto could tow/haul/has a truck like bed and thought: What about a Jeep?
So after some reading (on this forum and others, articles etc) figured I better be looking for a 4.0, Sport/Rubicon/Sahara didn't really matter for my use. Figured out most Sport models have Dana 35 in the rear and 3.73 gearing. So off into FB market place I went.
2 years ago I found one that I thought was a competitive price for mileage (136,000 km/85,000 miles) wasn't too rusty for this area and clearly an owner in it's history really loved it and put some money into it. It has Skyjacker suspension (no idea what lift, but over stock height), 33" tires on some aftermarket steel wheel (seem to be of reasonable quality), Quadra Tec soft top, hard top, besttop rubber floor mats, smitty bilt rear bumper and possibly front? Not sure, but I don't think the front bumper is OEM. LED head lights, LED fog lights, aftermarket stereo: Kenwood head unit, clarion components through a 4 channel BOSS amp. Theres also brackets for doorless mirrors but no mirrors - I think I read somewhere folks use motorcycle mirrors sometimes? And hood louvers - which I think I read somewhere there was a period where overheating was an issue and this was the fix?
The only things I found that didn't work were the cabin fan only worked on low or high, the hard top struts were shot and the door straps were gone allowing them to 180. I also found a rusty hole in the bottom in front of the rear driver side wheel well. Some previous owner also put RBG lights in the interior. Those went right away. Instead it has orange and yellow stripes down the side now.
I spent a year going through it because just after I bought it, I also had to replace my furnace and AC in my house and the Jeep got deprioritized and unfunded. But with the extra time I had, I fixed an annoying electrical buzz in the stereo, a brutal noise in the cabin fan, replaced the cabin fan resistor, and spent a huge amount of time cleaning the frame interior, scaling it and spraying Eastwoods rust encapsulator inside. I also fixed the hole by cutting and bending a replacement piece of sheet metal, painting it with truck bed liner and used panel adhesive to "glue" it in place. Not ideal, but that's not what we're going for here.
Recently I took it offroad for the first time to a hunting camp and was absolutely impressed with it's offroad capabilities.
Drove it in snow for the first time and I was absolutely unimpressed how poor mud tires are in snow. But it sure was fun! No trac control and no abs + short wheel base makes for an exciting drive!
Plans for it are daily driving duty and trying to keep it in good shape/fix rust spots. Rust seems to be the big problem. And as some sharp eyed members will notice I have bumped into a starting problem. Sort of.
Limestone.
So after some reading (on this forum and others, articles etc) figured I better be looking for a 4.0, Sport/Rubicon/Sahara didn't really matter for my use. Figured out most Sport models have Dana 35 in the rear and 3.73 gearing. So off into FB market place I went.
2 years ago I found one that I thought was a competitive price for mileage (136,000 km/85,000 miles) wasn't too rusty for this area and clearly an owner in it's history really loved it and put some money into it. It has Skyjacker suspension (no idea what lift, but over stock height), 33" tires on some aftermarket steel wheel (seem to be of reasonable quality), Quadra Tec soft top, hard top, besttop rubber floor mats, smitty bilt rear bumper and possibly front? Not sure, but I don't think the front bumper is OEM. LED head lights, LED fog lights, aftermarket stereo: Kenwood head unit, clarion components through a 4 channel BOSS amp. Theres also brackets for doorless mirrors but no mirrors - I think I read somewhere folks use motorcycle mirrors sometimes? And hood louvers - which I think I read somewhere there was a period where overheating was an issue and this was the fix?
The only things I found that didn't work were the cabin fan only worked on low or high, the hard top struts were shot and the door straps were gone allowing them to 180. I also found a rusty hole in the bottom in front of the rear driver side wheel well. Some previous owner also put RBG lights in the interior. Those went right away. Instead it has orange and yellow stripes down the side now.
I spent a year going through it because just after I bought it, I also had to replace my furnace and AC in my house and the Jeep got deprioritized and unfunded. But with the extra time I had, I fixed an annoying electrical buzz in the stereo, a brutal noise in the cabin fan, replaced the cabin fan resistor, and spent a huge amount of time cleaning the frame interior, scaling it and spraying Eastwoods rust encapsulator inside. I also fixed the hole by cutting and bending a replacement piece of sheet metal, painting it with truck bed liner and used panel adhesive to "glue" it in place. Not ideal, but that's not what we're going for here.
Recently I took it offroad for the first time to a hunting camp and was absolutely impressed with it's offroad capabilities.
Drove it in snow for the first time and I was absolutely unimpressed how poor mud tires are in snow. But it sure was fun! No trac control and no abs + short wheel base makes for an exciting drive!
Plans for it are daily driving duty and trying to keep it in good shape/fix rust spots. Rust seems to be the big problem. And as some sharp eyed members will notice I have bumped into a starting problem. Sort of.
Limestone.
