Who or what inspired you to build your first Jeep?

[ericfx1984]

Who or what inspired you to build your first Jeep?

for me it was a man called GO Jeep, and another man called MAD XJ... after reading their pages I was knew I wanted to build my Jeep

also I needed an excuse to get a decent welder...

what about you? Who or what did it for you?

[heap o' jeep]

Garden Spyder did it for me, took me wheeling for the first time and less than 2 weeks later I had my XJ sitting in my driveway. Helped me put on my first lift and various other things. You da man Curt! :)

[Guest]

wanted a 4wd suv. couldnt afford a ZR2 blazer(this was before i knew anything about offroading so yeahhh lol), def couldnt afford a wrangler, then found a ZJ limited i loved that was in my price range. then i saw lifted ones online and knew i had to lift mine and show my wrangler buddies that my jeep was just as good as theirs to get them to shut up haha

[Guest]

show my wrangler buddies that my jeep was just as good as theirs to get them to shut up haha

Haha! I'm with ya there Zach!

In regards to the original post... that is a good question! I don't remember what made me what to build up a Jeep.

[Guest]

I have only built one, well its about finished anyways.

I got tired of tearing up my daily driver. Prior to the purchase of my 1985 CJ7 I was weekend warrioring a 2004 Toyota Tacoma. It was a great truck, very capible for 32" tires, I ran several Black Diamond 5-7 rated trails with it in Colorado, South Dakota BUT when pushing the limits, I was bending leaf springs, axles, tearing up drive shafts in the rocks, tearing up the body. Sourcing parts on Saturday or Sunday night so that its ready to roll monday morning got old.

So I bought a Jeep. I enjoy it for what it is.

Wally

[Henry]

I have always liked off roading, ever since I can remember, but what sold me on Jeep's was going on a Jeep Club meet with my best friend Tommygun in his maroon TJ.

After seeing how much abuse and how capable Jeep's were in stock form or with a mild lift I was sold. I wanted something with 4 doors and a hard roof and that was really cheap/budget friendly so he suggested an XJ and ever since then I have owned half a dozen or so.

[Guest]

Garden Spyder did it for me, took me wheeling for the first time and less than 2 weeks later I had my XJ sitting in my driveway. Helped me put on my first lift and various other things. You da man Curt! :)

You're Welcome!!! I am glad to be a Good Influence!!

[Guest]

I was addicted to motorcycles at the time, and my classmate asked me to go to Randolph with him. I thought.. I am into adventures, lets see what this brings! (No Way I am giving up the motorcycle!) He had a full sized Bronco, he had the roof off, and we were going over things, that I had never thought a vehicle could go over, especially a nearly stock vehicle. Up till that point, two wheel drive was all I had experienced, mostly front wheel drive.
They asked me to go a few more times, and at that point, one of my buddy's brothers, had bought a stock YJ, and had been out several times in it.
shortly afterwards, I was in the market. For years I had heard that Jeeps were very capable off-road, so I set out to purchase a "Jeep" I didn't know what to purchase, I just knew I wanted a "Jeep".
I had a friend that was selling his Jeep, so I went to look at it, turns out it was an XJ. It wasn't what I thought of at that time, when I said I wanted a "Jeep", but..... it was 200.00 bucks, and it was rust free and in great shape, minus a previously overheated engine, which still ran great, and got 20 MPG.
Turns out it had an 8.25 Corp axle and 3.73 gears.
I started out slow, checking everything over real close before attempting them, and slowly building my confidence. I originally didn't know anything about Jeeps, and now I owned one, but not the one I thought I wanted, just the one I could afford, soon I found out, many, many people were looking for XJ's to offroad. "Maybe I bought the right one? how Lucky!!"
Well, time passed and a 3 1/2 inch lift was added. My wife says "It looks funny now." I told her the fix was some bigger tires, so she said.. "Go Get Some!!"
Soon A rear locker, then a new to me motor (yeah!! that's right, a blown, overheated motor lasted me 3000 more miles and ran like a top on 5 cylinders, except it started throwing oil out the exhaust and smoking). I had it for nearly 5 years and ran it just like that to Tuttle nearly every weekend, then Ks Rocks, and soon I had the confidence that it would go anywhere, so I took it to Superlift Offroad park and Colorado several times.
I was running 31's with stock gears, which got great gas mileage, but was a little powerless at times. After 5 years of hard play, it was starting to show some pretty good wear, and tear. I still like it, but my wife was embarrassed to ride in it, and wouldn't drive it if I needed her to.
She saw a tricked out Mall Krawler TJ down the street for sale, and told me I should go look at it. I explained that It was too pretty to offroad, it had low profile tires and fancy wheels, and fancy fender flares, etc.. etc... She thought it was "CUTE!!!" WHAT??!?!?!!! CUTE????
At that point, I had learned a bunch about offroading, and Jeeps, and knew I wanted a Rubicon, so I told her, that if I was going to give up my XJ, that she thought was junky it would have to be for a Rubicon.
She made it happen! She told me what budget I had to work with, and made all the other arrangements.. Except.. I had to sell the motorcycle : ( But I didn't ride it anymore since I was all about offroading)

Now she still won't drive the Rubicon, because it is on 36's and she doesn't like to crawl up into it, but that has it's bonuses too. LOL!!!

[Guest]

My passion for offroading began when i was still pretty young. We had 4wheelers and an old beat up 4x4 s10 that we had open access to all the time, the parents didnt care what we did to them......so me and my bro mudded the piss outa them. Well time went by, grew up a little, and my dad bought a xj for a hunting rig ( the love of jeeps began). I couldnt believe the offroad capabilities of that old xj and knew from then on i had to have a jeep. Well a little more time went by and i joined the army and had a few really good buddies that had lifted wranglers and we'd go mudding all the time so i decided i needed me a nice 4x4 to go with them but wanted something a little different than their wranglers. I ended up buying an 06 libby and putting a small lift on it and a nice front bumper. Wheeled the **** outa it with them and had a blast. Now i still have the libby but gave it to my fiance and have a basicly stock xj that im trying to build up slowly.........maybe some day in the near future i can make a build thread for yall

[kcmudbug]

Gonna dig this thread up from the archives!

My dad got me started on Jeeps. Actually I can't remember my parent's ever being without a jeep of some sort. As a small child I remember riding in Dad's CJs. He had a couple, but the one I remember the most was a light blue metallic color CJ7. He would take me with him from time to time and go wheeling. When I was 5 I remember him burying it deep enough that there was mud coming over the back of the tub into the jeep. After seeing it drug out of the hole, firing up and going on down the trail, I knew I wanted one! I've put about 250k miles on my TJ, and I think she's about ready to get rebuilt. I can't think of anything else I'd rather drive.

[spunebil]

Well I actually got into jeeps from that show "desert rats "
They were susposed to be in lybia ( or whatever) but it got me attention :)

[Jdlefebure]

My dad used to flip wranglers. and when I was 14 or 15 I would always be riding around in a wrangler and I figured a wrangler would make a cool one to have.
I'm now 18, got rid of the first wrangler about 6 months after I got it cause my dad didn't care for the steering on it (replaced pretty much every part there was to steer it) and I was "forced" to get rid of it and move on.

7 cars later, I now have another wrangler and have had it since last summer and won't be getting rid of it.. not even the steering :)

[spunebil]

My dad used to flip wranglers. and when I was 14 or 15 I would always be riding around in a wrangler and I figured a wrangler would make a cool one to have.
I'm now 18, got rid of the first wrangler about 6 months after I got it cause my dad didn't care for the steering on it (replaced pretty much every part there was to steer it) and I was "forced" to get rid of it and move on.

7 cars later, I now have another wrangler and have had it since last summer and won't be getting rid of it.. not even the steering :)

Why did he flip em?
Was he a stunt driver?
Or just texting?
:)

[Jdlefebure]

Why did he flip em?
Was he a stunt driver?
Or just texting?
:)

All of the above, and to make money i guess ;)

[rjh]

I started Geocaching on 7/7/07. In October of '07 I got our Trailblazer high centered on a gravel railroad access road out near Lawrence. A guy from the railroad drove by on the tracks, and offered to help me get it off the hill. In doing so, we bashed in the catalytic converter and racked up an $800 bill to get rid of the "rattle" my wife heard when she drove the car. She told me, "If you're going to keep going off road like that, get something that's capable of doing it without breaking, and stop using my truck" and left town to visit her Grandmother in Denver. So I bought a Jeep, called her up, and reminded her what she told me. :D

That was probably the first week in November of 07. There was a pop-up run here on the KCJC forum out to Tuttle Creek, so I tagged along. In the parking area, Coach Chuck, Jagular7, and ck_dunham showed me how to disconnect my sway bar, and advised me to air down to about 15# of pressure. They spotted me through (most of) the obstacles and I had a blast. It was more fun than Disneyworld, and I've never looked back.