Elitist Jeep Owners and Builds - you do you and I do me.

[entropy]

With interests rates as high as now dont buy a car unless you have to. If you do. Pay cash.

When interests drops. Get a cheap loan and invest the cash.

paying cash or financing WHEN you have the cash available are both fine. With financing + investing almost always being the best choice. You are not getting into debt.

Buying a car you don't have the cash for, you are throwing money away and getting into debt.

If you can pay the loan over 3~5 years or whatever you get. Then you can save that money instead and buy what you want later and invest the cash. Or at least take a small loan. With this inflation though saving could cost you more than loan interest rates lol, so save it into an investment such as an ETF that tracks the S&P500.

At the end of the day it is your choice though and if you really want that Jeep and don't mind getting into debt and throwing a couple thousand on interest. If that's worth to you, then do it. YOLO.

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[Punkn89]

This thread is all over the place now . Some of y’all need this.

 

[21JLURDG]

I don't mind sharing my engineering tricks: Yes its a 3 lift, but there are 5 other lifts and they are what made the difference and allow me to drive where others struggle... Long arm sounds good, but the long arms get in the way of getting over obstacles.

Take Away: Not how high you lift it, but how you lift it high.

This just scratches the surface of the things I engineered on that Jeep.
Often some guy would sign up for one of my runs to Moab and he shows with a BASE Jeep...I tell him, you get behind me and follow my tracks I will get you to the end of the trail.

I like your Jeep and hopefully your easing going persona on the trail is the same as you present here. But I have two observations that seemed to have been left out of the discussion.

First, there are different ways to modify a 4WD vehicle and get various forms of performance. Some better at some things and some better at others. The first question when modifying the vehicle is "how will it be used?" A vehicle designed as a daily driver and occasionally driving forest roads calls for something vastly different than the willingness to conquer the largest rocks. There are compromises in between, especially in the pocketbook. In my case, I had a TJ with coilovers, long-arms, high-pinion axles, and modified fenders. It was incredible in large boulder trails and the long-arms never caused problems because of the short-wheelbase, it could traverse long desert trails at high speed, but waterfalls and off-cambers spots were hazardous. It was a compromise that I will not do again but worked great at the time.

Second, I truly believe a lot of your success is due to your skill as a driver. You might be a little modest giving so much credit to your vehicle, but I've had experience with the likes of you. A friend of your generation led me through my first Hammer trail, and his comment was very close to what you tell the new guys at Moab. This was one of the original creators of the Hammer trails, and him and his buddies did it with surplus WWII Jeeps and small tires. What he could do with a JKU and simple 4" lift & 37s was incredible. I've also been on trails with the Pellegrino family & Jason Bunch, and they can go places in stock a TJ/YJ that less skilled drivers with JKs on 40s can't make.

 

[zouch]

some people clearly care too much about what other people think.

 

[KenPewPew]

My 392 literally says Southern Mall Crawler on it. My 15yr olds Rubicon will prob never be off roaded by her (except beach trips.) Once she adds her 3 inch lift, she wont be sad she cant go 90mph, bc like @Wbino - she looks good in it. We paid cash for our pavement princesses, maybe wasted money to a small few, but atleast we dont waste it on interest payments. So no worries... us with jeeps, just to look cool, make us VERY HAPPY ... no need for anyone to feel sad for us, and its def not sad for anyone to spend money on something to make it look however they want.
Jeeps are cool as heck. Even ones with angry grilles... kinda.

Love love love love what you said.

With interests rates as high as now dont buy a car unless you have to. If you do. Pay cash.

When interests drops. Get a cheap loan and invest the cash.

paying cash or financing WHEN you have the cash available are both fine. With financing + investing almost always being the best choice. You are not getting into debt.

Buying a car you don't have the cash for, you are throwing money away and getting into debt.

If you can pay the loan over 3~5 years or whatever you get. Then you can save that money instead and buy what you want later and invest the cash. Or at least take a small loan. With this inflation though saving could cost you more than loan interest rates lol, so save it into an investment such as an ETF that tracks the S&P500.

At the end of the day it is your choice though and if you really want that Jeep and don't mind getting into debt and throwing a couple thousand on interest. If that's worth to you, then do it. YOLO.

Very well said!

 

[wibornz]

What did they do to your doors?

Someone keyed the front and rear passenger doors. And they are fixing some rust spots under the corrosion warranty.

 

[Dyolfknip74]

Someone keyed the front and rear passenger doors. And they are fixing some rust spots under the corrosion warranty.

Sigh. Dicks.

 

[Old Jeeper]

I like your Jeep and hopefully your easing going persona on the trail is the same as you present here. But I have two observations that seemed to have been left out of the discussion.

First, there are different ways to modify a 4WD vehicle and get various forms of performance. Some better at some things and some better at others. The first question when modifying the vehicle is "how will it be used?" A vehicle designed as a daily driver and occasionally driving forest roads calls for something vastly different than the willingness to conquer the largest rocks. There are compromises in between, especially in the pocketbook. In my case, I had a TJ with coilovers, long-arms, high-pinion axles, and modified fenders. It was incredible in large boulder trails and the long-arms never caused problems because of the short-wheelbase, it could traverse long desert trails at high speed, but waterfalls and off-cambers spots were hazardous. It was a compromise that I will not do again but worked great at the time.

Second, I truly believe a lot of your success is due to your skill as a driver. You might be a little modest giving so much credit to your vehicle, but I've had experience with the likes of you. A friend of your generation led me through my first Hammer trail, and his comment was very close to what you tell the new guys at Moab. This was one of the original creators of the Hammer trails, and him and his buddies did it with surplus WWII Jeeps and small tires. What he could do with a JKU and simple 4" lift & 37s was incredible. I've also been on trails with the Pellegrino family & Jason Bunch, and they can go places in stock a TJ/YJ that less skilled drivers with JKs on 40s can't make.

Interesting observations...

Here is how my Tj came about. Aug, 2002 Ft Worth, Tx: Was having a conversation with a friend who owned an offroad shop, one of the best in the US, and a few others wheelers. I just took delivery of my Rubicon. Of course, the talk was what are you going to do with your Rubicon. I said: Somewhere between a daily driver and an extreme off-roader. Then one of the guys said, that is an interesting question. Looks at me and says you are the Engineer, where does the X Y axis cross.

I thought for a moment and said you know I just sold my company, retired and that is what I am going to do. But in order to answer the question we need a metric. Then one of the guys said, we have one! Moab, the 10-rated trails. You drive there, do all the trails and drive back, NO Breakage, no trial undone.

Conclusion: I found in 8 years of wheeling across the SW US and Mexico there were no trails I could not accomplish. I drove everywhere, putting 88,xxx miles on my RUbicon, and never failed, except once, my NEW Optima battery shorted out internally on a scenic trail in Moab. It was our last day, last trail near the end almost at the trailhead. One of the guys had a spare battery on his truck and her went and got it and drove back to Texas with it. I never bought an Optima battery again, turns out Optimas were junk.

Off Road for the win

Now is it a daily driver?

I was contacted by a major off road outfit and they wanted me to Test a new Warn Winch. It was called the powerplant. It was a winch and an air compressor in one. The test was due to the physical size of the winch would it cause overheating in a Jeep and I lived where they test stuff like that. So they sent me on and I installed and YES its was BIG and TALL, almost covered up the front of my Jeep. My testing metric was Friday beginning at 4:30 PM, leaving from the heart of downtown Phoenix and driving home to Scottsdale. I repeated this 3 times in Aug. Street temps were approaching 137 F, and stop-and-go traffic. What should have taken about 30 min max to home was now 1 ½ hours. I ran the AC the entire time and it was ice cold, no matter how long I sat without moving the temp gage never moved above its normal. In addition, my Rubicon had a Supercharger sitting atop the engine and it generates a LOT of heat.

I still have that Warn PowerPlant. Been on 3 Jeeps, 5 F 350/450 trucks and on my F 450 King Ranch now.

That said I did some might say I had a cheat. I had a Heavy Duty Jeep Wrangler OEM Fan, 7 blades vs the stock 5 blades. I don't think I cheated and IIRC the fan was $36 bucks at your local Jeep house.

Daily Driver for the win!

Take away: Rubicon is the most competent off road production vehicle made in its OEM form. Remember I am a ROCK crawler, not a mud man, nor a sandblaster. Its also unfazed in sitting in traffic at 137 F in downtown Phoenix.

? Does the 2023 and its older brothers have the same prowess?? Dunno, I don't need to check that box again, maybe some will retire and chase the rock trails as I did for 8 years. It was one of the greatest times in my life. I did do a lo of trails by myiself mostly because not a lot of folks could go a week or 2 at a time like I did.

TODAY: Well I just took delivery of Rubicon 6, what will I do with it? Prob NOT much. The Rubicon will do the Rubicon trail in OEM form. That box is checked so I need to give it some thought. I doubt here in FL that its a rock crawler paradise and I don't mud and sand (other than some beach driving)


Pics below are of my Rubicon and the Warn PowerPlant, easy to see there was concern over the heating issues. In my report to the dealer and Warn the take away was nothing to worry about, overheating not an issue. What I should have said was: 'was nothing to worry about, overheating not an issue" but perception is reality and to see it mounted on a Jeep TJ the first thought Ohhh not gonna buy that it overheats my Jeep. Warn did not nor the big dealer tell folks, tested and will overheat your Jeep in in Phoenix in the summer time... The result was it did sell well in the Jeep community because of perception. In fact I don't think I have ever seen a Jeep with one mounted except my Jeep and I always gets asked, does it cause overheating?

The second pic is my Supercharger it does put some heat but the Rubicon can deal with it.

 

[Jjirish]

Someone keyed the front and rear passenger doors. And they are fixing some rust spots under the corrosion warranty.

Ahhhh the rust spots. The rubi has those now, bottom of the doors. Found em when she removed the "veep" wrap. Thank goodness I can just drop off the doors for painting and daughter gets to cruise with the tube doors. Still wish I could've gotten her the half doors. I love those things! They scream jeep to me!

 

[TimmH]

No maaaaaan!!! Angry grill thingy is a thing of its own. I mean there are different builds and configurations for myriad Jeep owners - but when you put on angry grill, boy (or gurls), you are asking to be thwacked and made fun of.

Same for ugly Jeeps. Taste is subjective. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder I am sure. But when I see some fugly Jeeps I could not but laugh. Yes I admit I can be a horrible person.

(source - random images from google using the term "ugly Jeeps")

I've seen Jeeps like these and the owner approached me as I was getting out of mine and we chatted, I had to problem telling them their choices "were not in my taste, but that they had created something unique in style and that's cool."

I've only ever had one take that as a negative and went off on my "plain" Jeep. I Write those type off as insecure.

 

[Jjirish]

No maaaaaan!!! Angry grill thingy is a thing of its own.


Oh @KenPewPew .....

my life=

(((( eye rolling and slightly gagging as my daughter tells me she wants to add lil baby slim fenders bc they will look better with her angry grill... ))))
BUT THEN SHE SAID "Mom, you should give me your 392, I can put my ANGRY GRILL on it and stuff.... bc i need the horsepower".

H - E - DOUBLE FRICKIN HOCKEY STICKS to the NO WAY AS LONG AS THE SUN STILL SHINES.
No angry grill on a 392.
She found my hard limit.
If it wasn't for her love of horsepower, I would be searching for her hospital band to verify I took home the right kid.

 

[yokramer]

I haven't decided what, if anything, I'll put there on the hood side. If I do, I'm leaning towards "Renegade" in the JL Rubicon font. But I'm liking it naked right now. I do have a brand new set of the factory "Rubicon" decals from the dealership body shop manager that he gave me when they fixed the corrosion on the hood in case I ever decide to sell it and "need to help the resale" .

Cause you know the electric locker switch wouldnt make it obvious lol

 

[Traveller128]

I haven't decided what, if anything, I'll put there on the hood side. If I do, I'm leaning towards "Renegade" in the JL Rubicon font. But I'm liking it naked right now. I do have a brand new set of the factory "Rubicon" decals from the dealership body shop manager that he gave me when they fixed the corrosion on the hood in case I ever decide to sell it and "need to help the resale" .

Like this. Retro!

 

[aldo98229]

Ugh, when I hear “Renegade” I get visions of a Fiat with a Jeep grille...

 

[LOBBS]

Ugh, when I hear “Renegade” I get visions of a Fiat with a Jeep grille...

That is exactly what has held me back. Jeep ruined the "Renegade" name with that.

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