About 15months ago I purchased one of my long dreamed after vehicles, an XJ. From the moment me and my friends stole one of their girlfriends cherokee and took it mudding in high school, I knew I wanted one. This was solidified when I saw a 2 door yellow with a lift that same year. Fast forward 15 years and I finally purchased one, a beautiful 98 cherokee with only 107k on the odometer. I loved it and had a list 2 miles long of my wants, nay, make that NEEDS! for this majestic piece of beauty. Within 4 months of ownership I had a Rubicon Express Superride 3.5" lift on 31's and it was glorious. Then fast forward 1 year, 1 radiator, 2 power steering gears (replaced original with a bad rebuilt so had to do it a 2nd time), 1 powersteering pump, injectors, bushings, repairing wiring and more, I knew it had earned its name of heep (and it still needs the cracked manifold replaced, thats what vacation this week get to be spent on). I loved it because I could take it on our narrow local trails and not be worried about the pinstriping it would get on every trip. I have taken it on 3 trips that I would cringe to take a new vehicle. My available time and resources to take these trips just didn't exist as much as I thought. My closest friend recently sold his cherokee, greatly shrinking my wheeling buddies (by 100%). So I joined a local jeep club, well that counted for one of the 3 trips. Again, lack of immediate resources and time has shown me how much I will actually use this machine. Combine this vehicle with my custom turbo 1995 miata (now also sold) and you have a lot of weekends filled up with vehicle maintenance and repairs instead of out enjoying them.
I had wanted to do some longer distance overlanding and the comfort level of the cherokee just wasn't going to work for the wife and 2 year old. So I picked up a 2016 JKU. Hydro Blue Pearl, 3.73 gears, and a hard top.
For at least the first year, it will remain completely stock. Feb. 1 I start a 120mile round trip commute for about a year. After that i'm only planning on 33's. Mods will be slow since this new payment is doing bad things to the budget lol.
Major goal is a trip to Moab/White Rim Trail in the next 3-4 years.
tl;dr: Wanted XJ, got XJ, got tired of dealing with 20year old car. Got '16 JKU.|
Stock JKU
XJ
I had wanted to do some longer distance overlanding and the comfort level of the cherokee just wasn't going to work for the wife and 2 year old. So I picked up a 2016 JKU. Hydro Blue Pearl, 3.73 gears, and a hard top.
For at least the first year, it will remain completely stock. Feb. 1 I start a 120mile round trip commute for about a year. After that i'm only planning on 33's. Mods will be slow since this new payment is doing bad things to the budget lol.
Major goal is a trip to Moab/White Rim Trail in the next 3-4 years.
tl;dr: Wanted XJ, got XJ, got tired of dealing with 20year old car. Got '16 JKU.|
Stock JKU
XJ
