OK, so more Cherokee stuff...I did a thing last week. I had been looking at vehicles for a few months now and really wanted to buy something for my son to drive and get familiar w/ as his daily driver, possibly take a test in it...but mostly be ready to pull the trigger if the right vehicle presented itself rather than waiting until he gets his license and then needing one.
I looked at Subaru, Toyota, Honda and lots of Jeeps...you name it, all sorts of vehicles, wanted to get a feel for what was out there and what the value was for them all. Only stipulation was it had to have 4WD or AWD...holy balls are prices all over the place and miles are insanely high these days!!
I'm talking 20+ year old Tacomas for $10k w/ 200k+ on them, all the others the same...ugh! Well, my nostalgia got the best of me, and after test driving all the above mentioned and then some, looking at Grand Cherokees, a ton of rusty clapped out XJs, even considered flying out to CO to buy something and drive it home...I finally found a unicorn!!!
Newest addition to the fleet - 1999 Jeep Cherokee Sport
121k
3" lift w/ 31s
SUPER CLEAN!!! Runs great, drives better than I remember mine ever driving!
It has had some rocker work done w/ some repaint but the underbody is absolutely rust free, just some old dried dirt is all that shows.
I'm really thinking about having it cleaned and an undercoat applied...a good black covering to keep the salt at bay!!! The winch on front is on a custom made bracket - guy took a Drawtite front hitch setup and made the plates and brush guard himself, actually done very well...but anyone that knows XJs knows they need to be reinforced.....I think I'd trust it w/ a straight pull, but not an angle...either way, he used the hitch to move boats around a shop and I'm going to remove it, install a factory, or decent aftermarket bumper to avoid the added weight....he doesn't need a damn winch to tempt him into getting stuck and ffffuking it up
Only other plans are to install some lower WJ control arms on it to keep the tires from rubbing on full turn (thanks for that tip, Sam - will be doing the same to my daughter's). Also, needs a clockspring...no worries there.
