Daktari
Active Member
- First Name
- Oliver
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2019
- Threads
- 3
- Messages
- 36
- Reaction score
- 31
- Location
- at the foot of Mount Diablo
- Vehicle(s)
- 2004 Toyota Tacoma TRD Off Road, Wrangler in the near future
- Thread starter
- #1
Hi everybody, I'm new here as a member, but have been lurking and reading for a long time, since just before the JL came out. I'll try to keep this somewhat short, not sure I'll succeed. I hope it's ok to put this here, mods feel free to move it to any other appropriate place, but please let me know so I can find it again 
I've loved "Jeeps" since I was a kid and watched the TV series Daktari (hence my screen name here) in Germany, where I'm from. That series is about an animal hospital and research center in Africa, but was filmed in an exotic animal park outside of LA. Based on I think a movie called Clarence the cross eyed lion, who was a major animal character (played by two lions, one of them you know from the MGM roaring lion logo/movie at the beginning of their movies back then. They mostly drove Landrovers I guess, but anything off road was a "Jeep" for us as kids in Germany. I wanted to be a vet because of that show, or a doctor. And drive a Jeep. (Daktari supposedly means Doctor in Swahili).
Fast forward a couple decades, I'm 53, have two kids, live in the Bay Area and my Jeep experience so far? Once I drove my friend's dad's Jeep in Germany for maybe 15 min, that was 30+ years ago, a Wrangler with huge (to me) tires and no roof. Bouncy. Fun!
Once I rode in the back of a 2 door Wrangler an other friend's family owned, they had hunting rights to some woods (very regulated in Germany) and we picked up a deer their hunter had shot. I rode in the tiny back seat with said dead deer on my lap and a bowl of it's intestines on the floor. Funny thing to me as a late teen.
My cars so far were a Renault 5, a Nissan hatchback (like a VW Golf, can't remember the model name), an 89 Nissan 240SX I bought used and for the last 16 years it's a Tacoma TRD Off Road 2WD. Didn't go for 4WD since it's also only for dirt/mud/snow and not pavement, and we don't encounter those conditions very often (or ever) here in the Bay Area. I did take it offroad here and there and was glad I had a locking rear diff at times, but nothing extreme.
Fast forward to today, we just returned from a week long vacation in Moab for the kid's spring break and we rented a Wrangler Sport for the entire week. And lucky me, we got a new JLU Sport with a 2 inch lift and larger tires, inflated to 32PSI with just about 750 miles on it. Punkin' Orange. Bestop sunrider roof on the hard top. Damn, I'm in love! Way zippier than my Tacoma, and not that I'd have done it, (cough) but sprints up to 80-MpH in no time, super responsive steering, no wobble, no dead zone, nothing, runs like on a track. And the car fits my 6'3'' frame like a glove, super comfortable for hours! We drove about 550 miles that week. And I could have gone twice as far. Plenty space for everyone plus luggage and cooler/jackets/camera bag/etc.
I live in the East Bay, outside of San Francisco, not really any off roading here, as I mentioned I took my Tacoma off road a couple times, that was up in the Tahoe and Bear Valley area, but nothing too extreme, once it got sketchy I turned around since it's only 2WD. Great car otherwise, in those 16 years I owned it (bought new) my repairs cost me less than $1000. And I do service stops once the mileage number on the sticker they put on my window gets just a bit uncomfortably far away from the real mileage my odometer reads (about 110.000 miles now). Was put together in the building Tesla now uses. And it gets washed when it rains...
So, here's what we did this last week in the bright orange (my favorite color as a kid) Wrangler:
Day 1: Gemini Bridges + side trail to stop for a hike ending up under the Gemini Bridges, then Shafer Trail back down to Moab.
Day 2: Arches National Park, a day spent on pavement and hiking
Day 3: Onion Creek and a bit further on the top, then back down and over to Fisher Towers for a hike, bizarre wonderful landscape!
Day 4: Chicken Corners all the way to the end, the last two turns were a bit heart rate increasing, Colorado River 450 ft down to the side, while "driving into the sky"
Day 5: Canyon Lands - Needles District out to the start of Elephant Hill trail, hiking from there, an other day on pavement and the Jeep did great!
Day 6: Dinosaur tracks/bones at Copper Mill, then part of the 3D trail to Thrusher Tunnel, then up to the top of the mesa and down Long Canyon, and then we managed to squeeze in the southern part of Fins’ and Things before going back to Moab so the kids could select some souvenirs and we grabbed a last dinner. Rest of Fins and Things has to wait until I return in my own Wrangler, which then might or might not get some scratches on Hell's Revenge.
Damn, this car can go anywhere! The 3D trail and especially Fins and Things had parts that had that "oh boy, what now, but I see tire tracks and I'm here now" moments, things I never would have attempted, but the Wrangler Sport took them like a parking lot at the mall! I had to get out of the Jeep a couple of times to scout out where to go downhill on Fins and Things, and anywhere I took it, it went. I had a BLAST driving this machine! And it was "only" a base model Sport! I've watched hours of trail videos on youtube, which I found very helpful, but they don't come with the heart rate increase driving into the sky or right down into the ground does :-D
Anyway, this is getting way too long for an introduction. I know what I want for my next car, and it'll most likely be a Rubicon, since I plan to keep what ever I buy next for as long and longer than my Tacoma, but I want something where the roof comes off at least partially and potentially all the way, always wanted a convertible too and there's nothing else that offers all I want. And since I learned driving in Germany, I've done the 160+ MPH thing and it's really not that exciting with other cars at any other speed around. And you can't go that fast here anyway unless you go on a track. I'd rather go on a trail
I'm sure I'll have questions down the road, aside of "a Rubicon will be my next car" there's no set plan when that will happen, so I'll mostly stick around lurking and - most importantly - learning. There was a short nagging in the back of my head taking such a low mileage new JL into the wilderness with my kids (steering problems, engine problems, welding problems, etc etc) but I figured there'd be other people out there and the Jeep had a GPS tracker just in case (and probably to make sure we stay off a couple forbidden trails like Hell's Revenge etc) and I've never had this much fun in a vehicle, so I'm sold. I will have a machine that I can (and probably will) take on the Rubicon Trail in the not too distant future.
Thanks to all the fine people posting here, I rarely saw a thread going off to flame wars, I don't know if it's moderated or if everybody here is just (mostly) nice, but I like it here. Hope to eventually meet some of you on a trail somewhere, here in CA or back in Moab, already mapped out roads and time to get there, once I have my own Jeep to do so
Lots more to soak up and learn until then, I'll be here reading and doing so just about every day.
I've loved "Jeeps" since I was a kid and watched the TV series Daktari (hence my screen name here) in Germany, where I'm from. That series is about an animal hospital and research center in Africa, but was filmed in an exotic animal park outside of LA. Based on I think a movie called Clarence the cross eyed lion, who was a major animal character (played by two lions, one of them you know from the MGM roaring lion logo/movie at the beginning of their movies back then. They mostly drove Landrovers I guess, but anything off road was a "Jeep" for us as kids in Germany. I wanted to be a vet because of that show, or a doctor. And drive a Jeep. (Daktari supposedly means Doctor in Swahili).
Fast forward a couple decades, I'm 53, have two kids, live in the Bay Area and my Jeep experience so far? Once I drove my friend's dad's Jeep in Germany for maybe 15 min, that was 30+ years ago, a Wrangler with huge (to me) tires and no roof. Bouncy. Fun!
Once I rode in the back of a 2 door Wrangler an other friend's family owned, they had hunting rights to some woods (very regulated in Germany) and we picked up a deer their hunter had shot. I rode in the tiny back seat with said dead deer on my lap and a bowl of it's intestines on the floor. Funny thing to me as a late teen.
My cars so far were a Renault 5, a Nissan hatchback (like a VW Golf, can't remember the model name), an 89 Nissan 240SX I bought used and for the last 16 years it's a Tacoma TRD Off Road 2WD. Didn't go for 4WD since it's also only for dirt/mud/snow and not pavement, and we don't encounter those conditions very often (or ever) here in the Bay Area. I did take it offroad here and there and was glad I had a locking rear diff at times, but nothing extreme.
Fast forward to today, we just returned from a week long vacation in Moab for the kid's spring break and we rented a Wrangler Sport for the entire week. And lucky me, we got a new JLU Sport with a 2 inch lift and larger tires, inflated to 32PSI with just about 750 miles on it. Punkin' Orange. Bestop sunrider roof on the hard top. Damn, I'm in love! Way zippier than my Tacoma, and not that I'd have done it, (cough) but sprints up to 80-MpH in no time, super responsive steering, no wobble, no dead zone, nothing, runs like on a track. And the car fits my 6'3'' frame like a glove, super comfortable for hours! We drove about 550 miles that week. And I could have gone twice as far. Plenty space for everyone plus luggage and cooler/jackets/camera bag/etc.
I live in the East Bay, outside of San Francisco, not really any off roading here, as I mentioned I took my Tacoma off road a couple times, that was up in the Tahoe and Bear Valley area, but nothing too extreme, once it got sketchy I turned around since it's only 2WD. Great car otherwise, in those 16 years I owned it (bought new) my repairs cost me less than $1000. And I do service stops once the mileage number on the sticker they put on my window gets just a bit uncomfortably far away from the real mileage my odometer reads (about 110.000 miles now). Was put together in the building Tesla now uses. And it gets washed when it rains...
So, here's what we did this last week in the bright orange (my favorite color as a kid) Wrangler:
Day 1: Gemini Bridges + side trail to stop for a hike ending up under the Gemini Bridges, then Shafer Trail back down to Moab.
Day 2: Arches National Park, a day spent on pavement and hiking
Day 3: Onion Creek and a bit further on the top, then back down and over to Fisher Towers for a hike, bizarre wonderful landscape!
Day 4: Chicken Corners all the way to the end, the last two turns were a bit heart rate increasing, Colorado River 450 ft down to the side, while "driving into the sky"
Day 5: Canyon Lands - Needles District out to the start of Elephant Hill trail, hiking from there, an other day on pavement and the Jeep did great!
Day 6: Dinosaur tracks/bones at Copper Mill, then part of the 3D trail to Thrusher Tunnel, then up to the top of the mesa and down Long Canyon, and then we managed to squeeze in the southern part of Fins’ and Things before going back to Moab so the kids could select some souvenirs and we grabbed a last dinner. Rest of Fins and Things has to wait until I return in my own Wrangler, which then might or might not get some scratches on Hell's Revenge.
Damn, this car can go anywhere! The 3D trail and especially Fins and Things had parts that had that "oh boy, what now, but I see tire tracks and I'm here now" moments, things I never would have attempted, but the Wrangler Sport took them like a parking lot at the mall! I had to get out of the Jeep a couple of times to scout out where to go downhill on Fins and Things, and anywhere I took it, it went. I had a BLAST driving this machine! And it was "only" a base model Sport! I've watched hours of trail videos on youtube, which I found very helpful, but they don't come with the heart rate increase driving into the sky or right down into the ground does :-D
Anyway, this is getting way too long for an introduction. I know what I want for my next car, and it'll most likely be a Rubicon, since I plan to keep what ever I buy next for as long and longer than my Tacoma, but I want something where the roof comes off at least partially and potentially all the way, always wanted a convertible too and there's nothing else that offers all I want. And since I learned driving in Germany, I've done the 160+ MPH thing and it's really not that exciting with other cars at any other speed around. And you can't go that fast here anyway unless you go on a track. I'd rather go on a trail
I'm sure I'll have questions down the road, aside of "a Rubicon will be my next car" there's no set plan when that will happen, so I'll mostly stick around lurking and - most importantly - learning. There was a short nagging in the back of my head taking such a low mileage new JL into the wilderness with my kids (steering problems, engine problems, welding problems, etc etc) but I figured there'd be other people out there and the Jeep had a GPS tracker just in case (and probably to make sure we stay off a couple forbidden trails like Hell's Revenge etc) and I've never had this much fun in a vehicle, so I'm sold. I will have a machine that I can (and probably will) take on the Rubicon Trail in the not too distant future.
Thanks to all the fine people posting here, I rarely saw a thread going off to flame wars, I don't know if it's moderated or if everybody here is just (mostly) nice, but I like it here. Hope to eventually meet some of you on a trail somewhere, here in CA or back in Moab, already mapped out roads and time to get there, once I have my own Jeep to do so
Lots more to soak up and learn until then, I'll be here reading and doing so just about every day.
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