New from AZ - 2006 Sport

DaveC

TJ Addict
Supporting Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2019
Messages
1,760
Location
Gilbert, Arizona
Greetings from sunny Arizona! Joined a couple of weeks ago to ask a few questions and figured I should make a proper intro. Let me start off by saying that this is an excellent forum and I appreciate all the knowledge available here, the way everyone conducts themselves and the way the forum is run. I all but boycott most forms of social media these days due to much of the uninformed and unfiltered dribble – not the case here and it’s refreshing.

I’ve always wanted a Jeep. In high school, when I was close to having enough money saved to buy my first car (which I intended to be a Jeep) my parents were ‘fun blockers’, informing me that as long as I was living under their roof, I was forbidden to buy or drive a Jeep. Talk about a major bummer! I wound up buying a 1978 2wd Datsun pickup that I really didn’t fit in and attempted to do my off-roading with it. Fast forward to 2017 and, with my hunting buddies all evolving from quads to side-by-sides or Jeeps and my quad sitting unused, I took the plunge and bought my 2006 Sport (4.0 I6, automatic) to replace the quad for getting me off the beaten path to hunt and do some mild to moderate wheeling.

I’m not overly mechanically inclined, so wanted something stock or close to it that I could be confident hadn’t been built wrong or abused and would be a good platform to add onto slowly over time. I’ve had plenty of trucks and SUV’s and used them all off-road and, while I don’t have any plans for rock-crawling, I’ve decided I want to build the Jeep 100% to my liking and needs. I wound up buying from a friend of a friend who was the original owner, used it as his weekend 'coffee and cruising around town mobile’, drove on a maintained fire road once and kept it garaged. Never modified, never abused, no rust and babied - score!

Except for the aftermarket wheels and stereo upgrade, it was completely bone stock when I bought it with 57k miles on it then (October of 2017) and now has 64k.

Only minor mods thus far:
  • 31 10.50 r15 ATs
  • 3” body lift to give the tires some room
  • New Rough Country shocks (wish I’d read the threads here about lift kits and shocks before the body bump and shocks - oh well for now…)
  • K&N cold air intake
  • New fender flares (compliments of my neighbor who owns 2 bonafied hard core crawlers and was embarrassed by my faded, blotchy flares) - a nice 'welcome' to the Jeep family!
  • KC Hilites H4 headlights
  • Bartact seat covers (based on reviews on this forum)
Future plans:
  • Warn or Smittybilt winch
  • External cargo rack; either overhead or spare tire carrier-mounted (for gear in general but more specifically to figure out a way to mount rifle and bow cases)
  • Suspension lift

Great forum and group of people. Looking forward to learning and hope to contribute along the way!

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Welcome to the forum, there's quite a number of Arizona folks on here as well.

That's a nice looking TJ, and your plans sound good. You guys are right in that perfect "no top" weather right about now in Arizona. I used to live in the East Valley for a number of years, so I remember!
 
Welcome to the forum, there's quite a number of Arizona folks on here as well.

That's a nice looking TJ, and your plans sound good. You guys are right in that perfect "no top" weather right about now in Arizona. I used to live in the East Valley for a number of years, so I remember!
Thanks! Jeep season no doubt!
 
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