MY History with Jeeps. What's your first Jeep story?

[JonMN]

My JT "Sarge" is my first Jeep. I had been interested in Jeeps for a lot of years, but never ended up with one. Over the years we tended to have one "fun" car along with a truck and a practical car. Something that I could drive to work, but not very useful after that. Like an Audi tt--fun, AWD so winter friendly, but not useful for much more than transportation. Had a few various fun cars after that.

My latest fun car was sitting about too much. No winter driving, watch out for bumps, steep driveways, curbs . . . Used to have my wife get out to watch when parking at an angle. So even though I was retired we were only putting about 2000 miles on per year.

So, saw this one at a local dealer, and traded essentially even up. In the morning, our garage looked like this:

In the afternoon it looked like this:

The less practical side of me always wanted the 2 door Wrangler. It didn't help that our neighbor drove back and forth in his 2 door (he had 330,000 miles on it!) But when I saw and drove the JT I found for me about the perfect combination of fun, utility, and ruggedness. We live in the country, so I can carry things in the back that I would not want in the back of a SUV. Already have about 5 years worth of Vette mileage on my 2024.

Since this photo I have added a Sunrider for a bit of convertible feel, and invested in a nice sprayer setup to coat the bottom with Woolwax. Nerf bars and RokBlokz help control winter road spray. Diamondback SE for a cover. Fox ATS 2.0 steering stabilizer helped me adjust the steering feel to a little bit closer to what I was used to.

My wife and I are both really happy with the change. Enjoy driving the JT in all conditions. I am on my second windshield, however, but I hear that's a Jeep thing

PS: I read a lot of reviews comparing the Gladiator to the Ridgeline and Tacoma. The one I remember the most had 3 reviewers. They concluded that the Ridgeline was the one that most should buy, but the one the put smiles on their faces was the Gladiator.

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[KevinM60]

My 2023 Mojave is my first jeep I bought brand new in May ‘23.
I wanted a Jeep for years but when I got this one I had no clue of what it could do. The first week I had it I drove it to work to break it in and a week later we were camping in the high desert. Flying down the desert roads, sliding around turns and doing donuts was a blast. I added a 2” spacer lift and 35s to do a little better with the crawling and have been learning how to navigate different terrains without destroying it while also getting out and camping in places lots of people will never go.
Overall this is a great experience and I hope to get a lot of years and miles out of this rig.

 

[TopDuck]

Same! Great story sir! Jeepers gonna Jeep!

Awesome story! Played like a movie in my head.

 

[Stan H]

My first Jeep was a used 1995 Cherokee Sport (XJ). I got it on trade of a 1994 Chevy Silverado Extra cab 4x4, 5.0L, 5sp. Beautiful truck but, the PCM went bad around 38K miles and GM wouldn't do anything about it because it was 2K miles out of warranty.

Anyways, I really liked that XJ. Went through New England snow like the pavement was dry.

I got it in October of '96. Drove it all winter. Come the following April, it got hot out and I got in after work and was greeted by a horrible sour smell. Shampooed the heck out of the carpets, seats, sprayed the headliner with Lysol, the whole nine yards. Didn't help. I even removed the carpet in the cargo area and stripped out the padding and replaced with new padding. Doing that, I had to pull a rear panel off and that's when I saw what caused the issue. A pinch weld between the inner fender and the body wasn't done properly to the point I could see pavement through it, and the little space below was filled with gravel, sand, and whatnot from road treatment.

Well, I got it all cleaned up and the only way the sour smell went away was to blast the AC and drop the humidity inside then it didn't stink.

I took it to try and trade on another Jeep. Saw a '93 Grand Cherokee Laredo advertised at a very reasonable price so I went to check it out (took my girlfriend at the time with me, and she sat in the car with the AC on talking to her sister on her cell so it wouldn't stink). The sales man said it was extremely clean and show room ready and gave me a decent trade price. Well, I got REAL lucky...the GC he showed me had only 39K on it. Right after we signed the paperwork, he suddenly asked me if I had the Ad on me and I showed it to him. He went, "oops". Then said that the Ad was for an identical GC, same colors and everything that had 69K on it but, since we had already signed the papers, he had to give me the 39K one.

I stoopidly sold that one at 110K to buy a '96 RAM 4x4 Extra Cab 4x4 with the 5.2L in it. That truck was the worst vehicle I ever owned. Spent more time with the hood up than on the road and blew the trans out on a trip towing my boat.

After that, it was all Jeeps. See sig.

Rock on ○|||||||○

 

[WikingJon]

My first Story? 82nd ABN, '75-'79 (M151A-1); HQ-3...

 

[Jaxmax]

My first Jeep, was also the first civilian Jeep , 1946 CJ2A, Buick dauntless V-6 ,Warn add on overdrive, Advance Adaptors headers and motor mounts. Float Trac 11x15 tires it was awesome in woods and scary on the road! . Got it in 1976 , had it for eight years , brother bought it had it for about ten years , and our buddy Don bought it and has it still has it!

 

[Sandman 4x4]

Rampart range is still there and unpaved.

Yea my wife and I have gone back a couple times. But not going back again due to the closure of many great trails and adventure sites, especially a place called Deckers I believe, where an awesome river runs through and we used to jump off the rocks into a place called The Shute. Now there’s a fence and signage all over. We used to keep a keg in the river cold enough to keep it cool and U.S. blue for tubing down for miles. Then climb back up on the road, rolling our tubes and getting picked up by every truck that went by!

 

[Sandman 4x4]

My first Story? 82nd ABN, '75-'79 (M151A-1); HQ-3...

Ben there done that as a Company Commanders Driver in Combat Engineer Unit.

 

[NC_Overland]

Yea my wife and I have gone back a couple times. But not going back again due to the closure of many great trails and adventure sites, especially a place called Deckers I believe, where an awesome river runs through and we used to jump off the rocks into a place called The Shute. Now there’s a fence and signage all over. We used to keep a keg in the river cold enough to keep it cool and U.S. blue for tubing down for miles. Then climb back up on the road, rolling our tubes and getting picked up by every truck that went by!

That sucks! I haven’t been there in 10 yrs, but there wasn’t much closed then. The Waldo Canyon fire probably affected a lot of that. I lived there when that happened. It was wild. We were a few blocks away from getting evacuated.

 

[NotSo Bright White]

As an over optimistic 15 year old, I was certain I was going to play in the NFL. I was always a Dick Butkus fan but in 1979, a linebacker for Ohio State became the number one pick in the NFL. It has only happened a few times in history that a linebacker is drafted first. So I had a new idol and had to have a CJ-5 Renegade like he had in the picture in Sports Illustrated.

I had a few jobs and always saved my money. So I bought my first Jeep before I even had a license. I wish I could find a picture of that Jeep. But I did find a picture of the Sports Illustrated article.

Since then I have had a CJ-8 Scrambler and a LJ Rubicon. When they introduced the JTRD, I had to have it. But then everyone said the Mojave was better! So I bought one of those too!

And no, I didn’t make it to the NFL. Although I was an all league linebacker in high school, there wasn’t a huge need for one that was only 5’9”. But the backup plan was to become a fireman and that worked out well!

 

[WikingJon]

As an over optimistic 15 year old, I was certain I was going to play in the NFL. I was always a Dick Butkus fan but in 1979, a linebacker for Ohio State became the number one pick in the NFL. It has only happened a few times in history that a linebacker is drafted first. So I had a new idol and had to have a CJ-5 Renegade like he had in the picture in Sports Illustrated.

I had a few jobs and always saved my money. So I bought my first Jeep before I even had a license. I wish I could find a picture of that Jeep. But I did find a picture of the Sports Illustrated article.

Since then I have had a CJ-8 Scrambler and a LJ Rubicon. When they introduced the JTRD, I had to have it. But then everyone said the Mojave was better! So I bought one of those too!

And no, I didn’t make it to the NFL. Although I was an all league linebacker in high school, there wasn’t a huge need for one that was only 5’9”. But the backup plan was to become a fireman and that worked out well!

Butkus was a certified BAMF!

 

[Stan H]

My first Story? 82nd ABN, '75-'79 (M151A-1); HQ-3...

And C-rations with a P-38

 

[NotSo Bright White]

Butkus was a certified BAMF!

No truer words have ever been spoken! I wore number 51 for 8 years in his honor. My first license plate was
51’S CJ5

 

[WikingJon]

No truer words have ever been spoken! I wore number 51 for 8 years in his honor. My first license plate was
51’S CJ5

Wore "70" for Sam Huff...(you'll have to Google him) Both were cut from similar cloth. Watched an old-school NFL documentary "The Violent World of Sam Huff" in 7th grade; quickly became my idol.

 

[NC_Overland]

As an over optimistic 15 year old, I was certain I was going to play in the NFL. I was always a Dick Butkus fan but in 1979, a linebacker for Ohio State became the number one pick in the NFL. It has only happened a few times in history that a linebacker is drafted first. So I had a new idol and had to have a CJ-5 Renegade like he had in the picture in Sports Illustrated.

I had a few jobs and always saved my money. So I bought my first Jeep before I even had a license. I wish I could find a picture of that Jeep. But I did find a picture of the Sports Illustrated article.

Since then I have had a CJ-8 Scrambler and a LJ Rubicon. When they introduced the JTRD, I had to have it. But then everyone said the Mojave was better! So I bought one of those too!

And no, I didn’t make it to the NFL. Although I was an all league linebacker in high school, there wasn’t a huge need for one that was only 5’9”. But the backup plan was to become a fireman and that worked out well!

Great story. CJ-8s are awesome.

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