wife wants a Jeep

[PaleBlue90]

take a look at the LJ's the 4.0s are dead solid motors. the things to stay away from are the D35 rear and the ax-15 trannys. other wise id buy a heep but i got my truggy so im perfectly fine. my dad has a 02 tj and his has very few mods. rocker armor,rear bumper,winch,31's,procomp shocks, hellas, and a front arb that we have yet to use. stock tjs can go just about anywere. if you can really afford it go for a new 4dr JK Rubi or a LJ Rubi.

 

[LittleHorse]

Yeah the LJ is mainly what we'll be looking at. We make trips to southwest Colorado about 1-2 times a year and this will be the vehicle we'd take - so we'll need the extra room behind the backseat. The extra 2" of back seat leg room won't be taken for granted either.

I don't have much interest in the 4 doors, or the 3.7L V6 in the JK models. Gotta have the 4.0.


Our F-150 must have heard us talking about replacing it with a Jeep. It decided to disconnect the ignition switch from the lock cylinder and now I've got the column apart to find the little steel pin that holds the two halves of the actuator rod together.

 

[LittleHorse]

A couple steps closer - got the F-150 put back together and sold tonight. Got an '05 LJ with 53k miles and a manual trans I'm looking at pretty seriously. It's a ways away so I'm having the guy send me some good pics so I know what I'm getting before I invest in a plane ticket.

Seems like LJ's are even more overpriced around here than the standard TJ's, and quite a bit harder to find, especially with a manual trans. I'm willing to travel a bit for a good deal on a good car.

 

[PaleBlue90]

A couple steps closer - got the F-150 put back together and sold tonight. Got an '05 LJ with 53k miles and a manual trans I'm looking at pretty seriously. It's a ways away so I'm having the guy send me some good pics so I know what I'm getting before I invest in a plane ticket.

Seems like LJ's are even more overpriced around here than the standard TJ's, and quite a bit harder to find, especially with a manual trans. I'm willing to travel a bit for a good deal on a good car.

make shure it has the dd44 rear end. the d35 sucks, ive seen them being broke on 30's.....

 

[LittleHorse]

make shure it has the dd44 rear end. the d35 sucks, ive seen them being broke on 30's.....

It makes it easy - all LJ's (the TJ "Unlimited", 10" longer wheelbase) have the D44 according to what I've read on Jeep forums. We'll appreciate the extra leg and cargo room. It also has a 3500lb towing capacity compared to the 2000lb capacity of the standard length TJ.

At any rate, I've asked him to send me pictures of the undercarriage from the front and behind so I can make sure (and look for signs of damage/abuse).

Been looking at lift kits, I'm having to relearn what lift goes with what tire size since it's sooo drastically different than an RBV.

 

[LittleHorse]

sweet, pics look good. It's farther away (750 miles) than I usually travel to pick up a car but I'm gonna be within 60 miles of it the weekend of the 25th so I think I might cancel my flight home and drive the Jeep back. Would be a good way to get familiar with it and I could use the 13 hours of solitude.

 

[darkspork]

My wife used to want a Jeep. The local Toyota dealership is also a Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep dealership. When we took her Toyota to the local dealership to get a block heater installed she saw a Jeep in the service department and told the owner how much she liked their Jeep. The Jeep owner responded "If you get one, you'll be spending a lot more time here." She stopped talking about Jeeps .

 

[LittleHorse]

guessing it was one of the many Chrysler vehicles with Jeep grills and badges on them? (Commander, Grand Cherokee, Liberty). Wranglers aren't known for being particularly unreliable. Hell, most of their major components are sourced from the same manufacturers that supply most major car companies (Dana, Aisin, etc).



The deal is done...going early on the 25th, picking it up, meeting back up with my coworkers for the business trip and driving it home on the 27th.

 

[pillen140]

my girlfriend that lives with me just bought a '03 tj.... i love my ranger, and would rather have a ranger, but it is fun to drive. plenty of power, fun off road. and with the top down its really fun! its super easy to work on too. i changed the oil on it a couple weeks ago, and it was so much easier than on my ranger 3.0! it is super short, and lacking of room, but since we dont have kids, when you fold the back seat, there is plenty of room for what ever we need. and aftermarket is insane! the only thing that seem untrust worthy is the d35 rear, and the auto tranny . but its the newer 4speed, but still scares me. its very fun though, and she loves it.

 

[Jason]

The Grand Cherokee and liberty aren't unreliable either. Those newer cross-platform things are nightmares though.

 

[Pt_Ranger_V8]

Why not buy a 2wd model of w/e she likes, then build it right?

 

[LittleHorse]

Why not buy a 2wd model of w/e she likes, then build it right?

too late, but like most women she likes riding tall like an SUV, I'm tired of owning two gas guzzlers, and we want at least 1 4x4. So she'll be DD'ing a Jeep about 5,000 miles a year, and I'll be getting some sort of car, maybe a late 90's Mustang GT, to pile miles on and use a little less fuel.

As much as I like driving an RBV, I'm not going to miss TTB front suspension. Not one bit.

 

[LittleHorse]

Here's a pic:

initial mod plans are for a 3" lift and 33x12.5" Goodyear Wrangler Duratracs on 15x8 Soft 8's. Eventually a rear bumper with a swing-out tire carrier so I can carry a full size spare.

And a hard top.

 

[pillen140]

nice, needs 35s and a lift kit now. i bet that extra 10" comes in handy when you need it.

 

[gcfishguy]

Not to start a war on the durability of the D35, but it all depends on the person behind the wheel.

In a full year of wheeling my TJ with my local jeep club (this would be each and every sunday, and normal runs of 10-15 jeeps and 6-7 big runs each year with 60-80 jeeps)

Only one D35 failure, a twisted off axle, and that was a ZJ with a rear locker, back end in a washout, nose pointing at the sky, and all the weight on the left rear wheel. He didn't want a strap, and beat on it until something broke.

The weak point is the axle shafts, they'll twist off at the splines. Thing is, they usually twist off while pointing skyward, and spinning the back end. If it starts hopping and all the weight is on the rear, something's going to give.

Yes, there's a whole site dedicated to D35 failures, but I'd say just about all of them failed due to plain old abuse.


And I hope you're not planning on using the TJ to save gas... stock, you'll get 20 on a real good day.