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

[Mud Pie]

When I was 16-17, me and my best friend were always looking for ways to have harmless fun. One of the things I liked to do with the ol' Willys M38A1 was put on the snorkel, the tail pipe extension and fill a spare innertube with air. Go to the beach. Put a cooler (with beer of course, ya hadda be cool) inside the inner tube, tie it off to the top bows or the Chicken Bar (do they still call that grab bar on the dash ?? I'm old, we called it that because if you grabbed onto it, you were "chicken"....), pull the Close Crankcase T-handle on the dash, put in 4 Low, then go in the water and drag the cooler behind us. The only thing above water was my head, my friends head, the exhaust stack, the snorkel, the top of the spare tire and steering wheel. You could go as deep as the snorkel and exhaust was tall. But you had to go REAL slow because the snorkel was supposed to be attached to the side of the windshield, of course mine was down. Pop that snorkel off, we are literally dead in the water.

We'd putt along, I had to go somewhat far out to where the water was deep enough to cover us. When we got to a bunch of lookie-loo's trying to figure out what they're seeing, my buddy would pull the cooler up and we'd pop a beer and toast them. No one back then was bat-crap crazy about minors having a beer, it wasn't that big a deal and we sure got a lot of shouts and whistles as we tugged by. I never came to a full stop out of fear of sinking in the sand. We did this maybe 3-4 times. Pull up onto the beach and a crap-ton of water poured out of that thing. Sometimes a wayward fish.

I grew up on the South Shore of Long Island. We did this in The Great South Bay. Yep, salt water. I was a stupid kid. After each "cruise", I'd take the Willys home and put the lawn sprinkler underneath and let it run for a couple hours, slowly dragging the hose from grill to pintle hook. I still had rust. I got tired of chasing the Red Menace with wire brushes and wire wheels attached to drills. Back when drill bodies were all metal and you had to wear gloves because that drill got HOT pretty quick.

It was fun, but I wanted to drive it for a while, not rust it out.

I'm still friends with my buddy to this day. And we still reminisce about those days, (side note- yesterday I told him about the Gladiator and he asked if it had a snorkel, that's what prompted this memory/story) even though they happened nearly 50 years ago. Quite a few times after we chat about our adventures and the laughter wanes, one of us will eventually say, "Howdehell are we still alive ?".

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[Stan H]

My first was an 06 LJ Rubicon around 2009. I looked at Jeeps for months prior to finding a used one a few hours away in Phoenix. It was on the trail, in the water, getting stuck in sand with paper plates in it. Loved that Jeep. It went to a better home when my family got bigger and I figured someone else could get it on the trail more regularly than I could.
Now I’m in a Gladiator Sport that’s fairly well built from a Honda dealer. Again I traveled about 3 hours up to LA to get it after looking for a few months and testing a few looking for the “right” one. I’m loving it and I’m keeping it. Come hell, high water, or a blown up 3.6 this is my Jeep.

That's what I have decided as well . By the time You pay for another one think of how many times the whole drivetrain could be replaced for same cost this is staying maybe Just be buried in it

 

[unsocbl]

I got out of the military in 2000...moved back home to Tennessee where I hadn't been for 10 years, got a new job and since I always wanted a Jeep, I bought my very first one! A 2000 TJ, 4.0 in burnt orange....
Now there's 2 sides to this story:
1. The next morning, picked up my little brother who I hadn't really seen since he was a 16 year old punk...he was then 26 with a wife and young child. We decided to go deer hunting (1 of the few things we did together that didn't end up in a fight). We drove to a friend's pasture and we decided to just sit in the Jeep with the top off and windshield down (typical redneck behavior) and it was one of the most wonderful times either of us ever had. Just reconnecting, enjoying each others company and spinning tales. When it got cold, we'd fire the Jeep up and let the heater blast us to warmth. We set there for over 7 hours, watched a hundred deer pass and didn't care at all.

2. The following week, I was sent to Atlanta to help with an issue at a data center. I hopped in the TJ reveling in the opportunity to get some real seat time. Going over Mont Eagle , the floods came...slightly too warm for snow. I already had a headache from the wind howling at interstate speeds so was happy to slow down and get some much needed relief. But then, rainwater started pouring in from the top AND bottom of the Jeep (apparently there were NO drain plugs in my brand new Wrangler). To make matters worse, the higher in elevation I went, the less the engine wanted to go. I snapped and pulled into a Chevrolet dealership at the next exit and traded it for a Camaro SS for the remainder of the trip

It would be 12 years later before I bought my next wrangler, a 2013 JKU Rubicon and the lovefest was reignited.

 

[Mud Pie]

I came across a pic of my Willys shortly after I got my Jr. license. This always happened whenever I stopped...the pile on...lol. I took the pic, so I'm not in it. The girl laying on the hood was my girlfriend Ruth (RIP, 2 years ago now). The others were her Mom and Dad, brothers and sisters and family friends. My best friend since I was 7 is the fat kid in front holding the volleyball. We are the same age, he's 17 in this pic. We look like little kids, much less licensed drivers !! Hard to believe we're both creeping on 65 years old !! When I bought my Gladiator and told him I named it Mud Pie II, He laughed and said, "Makes sense. Go get it dirty, it's too clean.".

Mike rode shotgun with me where ever I went. So much so that the small business owners in our little village would call us "Mutt and Jeff", "Cling and Clang" (gotta know H.R. Puff-n-Stuff for that one), "Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.". If I rode solo, I was always asked, "Where's Mike ?".

I've been carrying the Mud Pie moniker since 1975, first the Willys, then the CB craze (it was my handle, for those old enough to remember) then my online presence, which began, believe it or not, in the late 80's with dial-up and Bulletin Boards (called BB's back then)

The old saying does ring true...time flies.

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