Which way do I go?

[JMT]

Ha ha I’m so confused.

I thought that was a GPW/MB that he took care of? Did he buy that, Or is he still looking for a TJ?

Feel free to laugh at me, it’s been a long week. Lol.

I’m mistaken. Apparently not. But apparently museums can and do sell artifacts.

 

[JMT]

Museums deaccession objects fairly often when the mission of the organization changes, financial goals or simple space restraints. Deaccessioning can take a few forms like donating, selling or even disposing. There is supposed to be a documented process of ethics and reasons behind the effort and method.

I remember you used to work with artifacts. Hoping you might chime in.

 

[Apparition]

I’m mistaken. Apparently not. But apparently museums can and do sell artifacts.

 

[jjvw]

I’m mistaken. Apparently not. But apparently museums can and do sell artifacts.

Almost every small local town history museum has a storage shelf of donated old typewriters that they can't do anything with because the don't tell any unique story about the town history or have any documented association with the town. People just think they are old, cool looking, and belong in a museum. So they donate them thinking they are being helpful. The museum often accepts another typewriter to add to the pile out of politeness.

These small museums often lack funding and staffing to manage their collections, so the old typewriter clutter accumulates because it is cheaper to keep it than to deaccession the extra stuff.

 

[NashvilleTJ]

For your stated needs, my advice would be to look for an unmodified Rubicon, either a TJ or a TJU - depending on how you value the extra space with the grandkids - and leave it stock.

Going this route will cost more initially, but will get you a capable, reliable, and safe rig. Getting into a rig which requires extensive modifications to get what you want will cost quite a bit more.

But if you do go the modified route, then Tonz and Fodeez…



Welcome to the forum. Which ever way you go, please stick around.

 

[jjvw]

I remember you used to work with artifacts. Hoping you might chime in.

I have spent a lot of time in museum storage rooms. And the annual conferences I attended often had volunteer days where we would help organize collections that had gotten out of control. Something that is very easy to have happen. I learned a lot about glass Christmas trees ornaments as I spent a day sorting and cataloguing mixed up boxes by decade going back to the 1880s.

 

[mrblaine]

Not condescending at all Hanna. Great information and food for thought.

Since my grandkids are involved, I would have the protection even on a mild trail, but great information. My driving style on trails will be something between those two videos. I’m not what I was when young, but I learned to drive in Germany and am an aggressive, some would even say belligerent, driver. I raced motocross and cross country in my younger years and did some drag racing sports car racing. I expect the vehicle to get a little beat up.

I would be driving like the second video if I had the equipment for it, but my style will be somewhere between the two.

Thanks again for taking the time to thoughtfully respond.

It sounds like you're smart enough to figure out that there is no such thing as a solid roll cage unless you have to climb in through a window. As such, be aware that you are only going to be able to build a not quite so solid partial cage that may not do what you expect it to.

 

[MBDIAGMAN]

That’s a great looking Jeep Pig! Are those 35’s?

 

[MBDIAGMAN]

Thanks a bunch for the roll cage information Blaine!

 

[RHanna]

A stock tj will perform better than most would expect. Add lockers front and rear and it’s shocking. After that it’s all about ground clearance. You can build a solid jeep on 33s for not a lot of money. 35s will perform better and the cost isn’t crazy but once you get to 37 and over that’s when the serious money starts. If you want to do it right.

A lot of people on here will advise for stock jeep because so many will slap a cheap crap lift just to gain clearance and you are stuck fixing their problems.

 

[AdventurePig]

That’s a great looking Jeep Pig! Are those 35’s?

Thank you, yessir.

Milestar Patagonia’s in the first pic and Cooper Discoverer AT3 XLT’s in the second.Both in 315-75R16 sizes.

We’re on about 5.5”-6” of lift.

 

[MBDIAGMAN]

Ha ha I’m so confused.

I thought that was a GPW/MB that he took care of? Did he buy that, Or is he still looking for a TJ?

Feel free to laugh at me, it’s been a long week. Lol.

It may very well be the GPW/MB that you spoke of. I don’t know those early ones very well. When I was in the Army, ’68 to ‘71, we had M151’s only where I was, but I saw older Jeeps that were called M38’s as I recall.

I loved the M151. I had a weekly dispatch on one for a while and it was pretty much my personal transportation for actual Army business. I drove it off-road over the berms that contained our missile launching area when there was no one around that cared. The M151 was wonderful.

 

[MBDIAGMAN]

A stock tj will perform better than most would expect. Add lockers front and rear and it’s shocking. After that it’s all about ground clearance. You can build a solid jeep on 33s for not a lot of money. 35s will perform better and the cost isn’t crazy but once you get to 37 and over that’s when the serious money starts. If you want to do it right.

A lot of people on here will advise for stock jeep because so many will slap a cheap crap lift just to gain clearance and you are stuck fixing their problems.

What lift kit did you use Hanna?

 

[OldBuzzard]

What lift kit did you use Hanna?

Real men don't use lift "kits". They piece together all of the components from various vendors.

You can see most of what he used by clicking his View Profile button. Although I don't see tires or springs or lift height in there.

 

[RHanna]

What lift kit did you use Hanna?

The springs were purchased by the prior owner but I’m guessing the kit was rubicon express because that’s what the control arms were. I swapped the control arms to rockjock aluminum double adjustable.

The top tier (from my research on here)
Rockjock
Savvy
Core4x4
Metal cloak.
And of course with anything there’s a lot of debate about which ones are the best. The first 3 with Johnny joints.

 

[MBDIAGMAN]

For your stated needs, my advice would be to look for an unmodified Rubicon, either a TJ or a TJU - depending on how you value the extra space with the grandkids - and leave it stock.

Going this route will cost more initially, but will get you a capable, reliable, and safe rig. Getting into a rig which requires extensive modifications to get what you want will cost quite a bit more.

But if you do go the modified route, then Tonz and Fodeez…



Welcome to the forum. Which ever way you go, please stick around.

Thanks for the kind words Nashville.

How much tire can you get under a factory Rubicon? How hard are they to find? It will probably be pretty hard for me because I will be limited to a two door and a manual transmission.

 

[jjvw]

Thanks for the kind words Nashville.

How much tire can you get under a factory Rubicon? How hard are they to find? It will probably be pretty hard for me because I will be limited to a two door and a manual transmission.

Jeep put 31s on the Rubicon. And that was a hair too large despite the 1/4" front bump stop they welded to the lower spring seat.

 

[Cooper Smith]

I didn’t know the best place for this thread, so I made my best shot at it. Feel free to move it if there’s a better or more appropriate place.

I have done what I would call practical four wheeling all of my adult life. When I say practical, I mean four wheeling for the purpose of ranching, hunting, disaster relief, off-road vehicle driving in the army and the like. When I was young I did motorcycle trail riding and racing. I am at a point now where I want to do some trail riding and climbing for the pure meanness of it. A couple of my granddaughters are pushing me too, which is a big motivator.

When I started researching all this, I thought I wanted a CJ7, but it is now appearing that the coil spring TJ can be had for about the same money and give me a more up to date and capable off-roader. Now I’m at the crossroads of whether to buy or build. It appears that I can get a medium to high mileage, cared for TJ for something like $10K. It appears that if I did that, the mods, in general terms, would be:

o Solid roll cage
o. Racing seats and serious multipoint harnesses
o. Tire/wheel set of some size
o. Lift and suspension upgrade of some size.
o. Winch

For the moment , let’s throw out the subject of which way would be less expensive unless you think one course or the other will be significantly less expensive. Another consideration is my age. I am 76 and as of now in excellent health and physical condition for my age, but who knows when the inevitable time will come that changes it, so I would hate to tie up a significant amount of time doing a build while the grandkids stay home playing video games. On top of that, I have no trouble staying busy. I have two airplanes that I keep airworthy and try to fly as much as possible and spend time at the warbird museum volunteering for various duties.

I would appreciate comments, opinions, advice and just generally keeping me betweeen the curbs.


I have come across a TJ for sale that I have seen pictures and talked to the car lot owner. It is a FIVE OWNER vehicle(red flag number one) it has what appears to be a pretty significant lift, racing seats with serious harnesses, an inline six and manual( (I insist on a manual trans BTW). I think the car lot has ended up stuck with it and I can probably get it dirt cheap. He said that he had someone come to buy it and when they drove it, they had a terrible wobble. It sounds like the track bar is the problem which I think would be a relatively easy fix. He said that everything works. It is located over two hours away and I haven’t decided whether to go check it further. It doesn’t look super presentable, but something like this will end up like a race car, looking bad quickly. I haven’t decided whether or not to spend a day going to see it. I welcome suggestions about this. I realize how bad it could be, but who knows? It might have lots of good components.

On the other approach there are several well cared for, virgin TJ ‘s around to build one from that are in the $10K to $13K price range.

Thanks for any comments even if nothing more than “go back to your rocking chair old man and leave us alone.”

Who knows this might turn into an adventure thread or a build thread. It could go anywhere.

A five owner TJ with death wobble and likely a hacked up lift isn't worth it. I was the 11th owner of mine. 10 other people decided they didn't care about it anymore across a 20 year period to put that into perspective. That didn't go well for me. Lesson learned.

Don't knock high mileage vehicles down. You have to be more vigilant when looking at them, but the vehicle I've gotten the most compliments on is my 1993 truck that has 227,000 miles on it and is on the original everything from the factory. You can't tell its a quarter million mile vehicle while driving it. People hate high mileage, and yes high mileage unmaintained vehicles are at the end of their lifespan, but a vehicle that simply has high miles despite being well maintained (and actually fixing things when they start to go bad) isn't a bad gig either. These vehicles are usually marked down a bit too, and if you know what you're looking for, they're definitely worth a shot. There are several TJ's running around near me that are close to or at 300,000 miles. Food for thought.

 

[NashvilleTJ]

Thanks for the kind words Nashville.

How much tire can you get under a factory Rubicon? How hard are they to find? It will probably be pretty hard for me because I will be limited to a two door and a manual transmission.

All TJ's are 2-door. And yes, looking for a Rubi with a stick would be more challenging.

But if you can find one, you are ahead of the game. There are 3 differences between a TJ and a TJR:

1) Dana 44's front and rear - compared to a dana 30 up from and either a 44 or a 35 in the rear. LJ's (TJU's) all had 44's in the rear.
2) 4:1 transfer case - compared to a 2.72:1 transfer case.
3) Air lockers front and rear.

Number 3 is the game changer. A locked TJ with greatly outperform a standard TJ or LJ. If you pick up a standard TJ, locking the front and rear will be the best bang for the buck - even compared to adding larger tires. A locked stock TJ will generally outperform a non-locked TJ on any size tire.

Also, if you pick up a TJ with a 35 rear, you will want to upgrade the rear before locking it, or it will not survive any serious wheeling. Either upgrading to a 44, or doing a super 35. Both of which will cost money, and when combined with the cost of the lockers decreases the cost difference between the Rubi and non-Rubi.

 

[MBDIAGMAN]

For your stated needs, my advice would be to look for an unmodified Rubicon, either a TJ or a TJU - depending on how you value the extra space with the grandkids - and leave it stock.

Going this route will cost more initially, but will get you a capable, reliable, and safe rig. Getting into a rig which requires extensive modifications to get what you want will cost quite a bit more.

But if you do go the modified route, then Tonz and Fodeez…



Welcome to the forum. Which ever way you go, please stick around.

Your post got me looking for a Rubicon. Surprisingly I found three manual transmission two doors for reasonable money relatively nearby. The only thing is, they were all JK’s not TJ’s. I don’t yet know how I should process that.