What do you do with your CJ?

[jdcaples]

DeLorme?

Sounds like a great trip to me!

"Reliable" on the road is more important to me than crawling through the wilderness... not that those two are mutually exclusive, but towing my CJ somewhere just isn't me.

-Jon

 

[Hedgehog]

I disagree Hedge. I believe it is very interesting to hear from others about what they use their CJs for. I'm a month late on finding this post but have greatly enjoyed reading it.

I'm not at all sure what you and I are in disagreement about. The thread was intended to show the variety of uses we put or design or modify our CJ's for. The only thing I'm sorry for is the poorly worded title of the thread (I'm the OP). It's too much like the, "What did you do with your Jeep today" thread title, too confusing.

I like ALL the modifications listed here. I wrote what I did about Wooly's modification,

First because It is a well written post, but in the wrong thread due to the overly similar title.

Second because most everybody either on the road, or in the mud or climbing rocks could use a stronger skid plate.

Your post is a great example. How are you planning on modifying your CJ to best work on the ground in PA? For instance you and I agree on tire size. Mine are 31x10.5x15's. Good, strong, slightly over sized and easy to find. Also not so big I become overly confident and get myself into deep trouble.

 

[Hedgehog]

jd - I'm not a towing type of guy either. Getting there is part of the trip for my. I also don't care for the idea of being tied down to returning to the last place I parked my tow vehicle. Then there's the thought of modifying my CJ to the point where it's useless for anything other than off road travel. Here's a big fat but, but that is me and my circumstances. Again what this thread is all about, I don't want to judge others where all around use of your CJ is not practical. For instances a Louisiana mud crawler or a swamp buggy in Florida. Without going all the way with those rigs you would be wasting your time.

 

[CJAKE7]

Ok, so you want breakdown of what I modify and what I don't for the situations I will find myself in with my jeep. How much time do you have?? I will try to summarize.

Engine - replace carter carb with weber, remove the pulse air system and the tangled mess of vacuum lines that went with both of those in order to squeeze the best power out of the AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l I can(I also like the cleaned up look of the engine compartment but that does not have much to do with how I use the CJ).

Axels - Soon after I got it I installed one piece axels. After that the wrestling match in my head began for probably over a year on what to do here. I purchased it with 33s on. I was never happy with the high gearing because of the tires. I was stuck on regearing for quite a while. Lockers were out because of the length of time it was taking me to save for regearing, even that was not sitting right with me. About three months ago I had a light bulb moment and thought I could spend half the money of regearing and just get smaller/new tires. I chose the new BFG A/T KO2s. One of the best decisions I ever made.

Bigger is definitely not better. For my use(no hardcore mud bogging or rock crawling) I think my set up is perfect. I guess I value the potential in a fairly stock CJ. I have to be more "in tune" with what it can and cannot handle. Big super modified jeeps sell magazines and that seems to be everyone's goal. It doesn't have to be my goal. I guess it really boils down to being self aware and realizing who you are as an individual CJ owner and what the goal is for you. Not everyone else's ideas.

 

[SlowPocono]

... I want to start at the Delaware River and cross the state of PA to the Ohio line using as little pavement as possible. I may wear out the DeLorme and Google Earth in the process.

DeLorme?

Sounds like a great trip to me! ...

Sounds great to me too!

I want to see a map of the route you decide on.

The DeLorme that I have is an older version of this one.

Amazon.com: Pennsylvania Atlas and Gazetteer (9780899332802): DeLorme: Books

 

[Hedgehog]

CJake7 - Thank you for that, we are very much in agreement. If I had to rely on a mechanic to do the regearing I did it never would have been done. As it was it was expensive, for me that is, even then the work ended up being less than half the cost of having a professional do it.

It wasn't mentioned, but I agree with SlowPocono Your trip idea sounds like great fun and adventure,

Oh yeah - Any and all stories and observations are good here.

 

[CJAKE7]

I've never been to AZ but I have been to regions of this country where there are more dirt roads than paved so my planned excursion may not be a big deal to many who read this. It is quite different in the Mid-Atlantic region. It is a challenge to find one dirt road. Chances are that if you do find one there will be posted signs peppered at the entrance of it. So just another tidbit of info that makes me and the way I use my jeep different from many. The majority of my challenge is finding places to use my jeep the way I want to.

 

[Hedgehog]

Back east is certainly a different animal from what we have here in the west with our vast public lands. I remember growing up in the Adirondacks with every square inch of property owned by someone. If you were lucky and grew up with folks knowing your family hunting access was possible, snowmobiling access was possible, off road more than likely "NO!" That is unless you were getting wood or something similar. Even then, a relatively stock Jeep had a better chance of gaining access than one with big mud slinging tires. I've got to admit that where I grew up almost nobody had modified vehicles. About the biggest modifications were snow plow rigs. For the longest time I didn't know that you could get a 4wd rig without a plow rig setup on the front. When I first learned that you didn't need a plow rig to get a 4wd truck I asked, "Why have 4wd if you don't plow snow?" Ahhh a mere child about to join in a cruel world. Notice that nobody here mentions having a snow plow.