Whaler27
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Alex
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2020
- Threads
- 48
- Messages
- 1,903
- Reaction score
- 3,758
- Location
- Oregon
- Vehicle(s)
- 2019 JL, 2016 Jeep Grand Cherokee Altitude Ecodiesel, 2005 Mustang GT, 2018 Ford Raptor, 2018 BMW R1200GSA, 2020 Honda Monkeybikes (2), 1972 Honda CT-70, 1980 Honda CT-70,
- Occupation
- Saving the world :-)
- Thread starter
- #1
When I bought my first new Jeep 43 1/2 years ago people bought Jeeps for their intended purposes. Any vehicle-prestige went to the guys who had hot rods or foreign cars. Jeeps were not ”fashionable” at all. I don’t remember there being any fancy things you could do to Jeeps either. You could rig them to dig a trench or run farm implements by PTO, but lifts, trick suspension parts, and fancy stereos were not a Jeep “thing”. I worked my first Jeep CJ and played with it. With plenty of youth and beer on board I did all kinds of stupid stuff to break it, get it stuck, or get friends bounced out of it, but I never modified it beyond replacing the tires and top, and installing a CB radio. My CJ didn’t even have a good spot to mount an 8-track or cassette player and speakers, so I didn’t try. (I attached a shot of my 4th CJ from 1983 below... complete with silly big glasses, now back in style, crappy budget-brand beer, and goofy friends sporting the post-military I’m-not-cutting-my-hair! hairstyles. .)
But Jeeps have changed a lot over the last five decades and so have I. I’ve grown to really enjoy the build process. With hundreds of options the possibilities seem endless. New parts also give me an excuse to go drink coffee in my shop, listen to my old-man music, and bang my knuckles on my favorite new project. I love that time. Unfortunately, after owning my current JL for about 18 months, my to-do list has gotten pretty short. That’s good news for my bank account and my wife, but this morning I realized it’s sad news for me. Today I realized that over the last 18 months I’ve spent much more time researching, learning, and building my Jeep than actually driving it. (It’s not my daily driver, so It’s only got about 5,000 miles on it.)
Now I have a Jeep that’s much nicer and more capable than any of my prior CJ/TJ/JKs, but the likelihood is I will challenge it much less than I challenged the others. I’ve grown less interested in finding its limits or mine. At 30, and even 40, I would dare myself to take on challenges I was uncertain about, or even frightened by, particularly if we were out in the sticks and drinking. But I’ve changed over the last twenty years. I just want to go where I want to go to see sights, visit ghost towns, or find a new place to fish or hunt. I have zero interest in rock-crawling, muddling, or getting my Jeep airborne. It appears that I’m on my way to what some here would call a “poser” or a “mall-crawler”, because this Jeep doesn’t have a single dent anywhere on its belly. It’s 18 months old and It’s still straight as an arrow on every panel. That’s a first for me and I think I like it! Today, poser or not, I’m tolerant of all the different ways people enjoy their Jeeps, and that includes all the city folks who install those fugly, gigantic rims and never even put their Jeep into 4-wheel drive. I don’t get that at all, but power to em!
But Jeeps have changed a lot over the last five decades and so have I. I’ve grown to really enjoy the build process. With hundreds of options the possibilities seem endless. New parts also give me an excuse to go drink coffee in my shop, listen to my old-man music, and bang my knuckles on my favorite new project. I love that time. Unfortunately, after owning my current JL for about 18 months, my to-do list has gotten pretty short. That’s good news for my bank account and my wife, but this morning I realized it’s sad news for me. Today I realized that over the last 18 months I’ve spent much more time researching, learning, and building my Jeep than actually driving it. (It’s not my daily driver, so It’s only got about 5,000 miles on it.)
Now I have a Jeep that’s much nicer and more capable than any of my prior CJ/TJ/JKs, but the likelihood is I will challenge it much less than I challenged the others. I’ve grown less interested in finding its limits or mine. At 30, and even 40, I would dare myself to take on challenges I was uncertain about, or even frightened by, particularly if we were out in the sticks and drinking. But I’ve changed over the last twenty years. I just want to go where I want to go to see sights, visit ghost towns, or find a new place to fish or hunt. I have zero interest in rock-crawling, muddling, or getting my Jeep airborne. It appears that I’m on my way to what some here would call a “poser” or a “mall-crawler”, because this Jeep doesn’t have a single dent anywhere on its belly. It’s 18 months old and It’s still straight as an arrow on every panel. That’s a first for me and I think I like it! Today, poser or not, I’m tolerant of all the different ways people enjoy their Jeeps, and that includes all the city folks who install those fugly, gigantic rims and never even put their Jeep into 4-wheel drive. I don’t get that at all, but power to em!
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