neohic

Well... that didn't take too long at all! Got an email from the owner this morning saying that the truck did great:

Figured I'd better put a pin in this thread and finish the story on this truck... A couple years ago the truck was up for a sale a bunch of times on ebay. Didn't sell... didn't sell... then the then seller (Robert Hoemke) got tired of trying to sell it and planned on keeping it, getting it running, and racing it in vintage SCCA events. That didn't work out. He sat on it for a while when Bobby Archer took interest in it. There was another deal on the side involving another vehicle that Bobby decided to take the truck as partial trade. His plans were much the same as Robert's. That didn't work out. Again, the truck sat for a while in Bobby's shop (way in the back, so I heard) and he eventually lost interest in it. Had some great conversations with Bobby over this truck! Had a chance to buy it a few times too but the problem was he put together this huge lot with the truck that included fire suits and memorabilia and other period Jeep Motorsports stuff that the price just kept going up and up. Fast forward to this last May when the truck was sold again and was shipped out east. Mark German is now the new caretaker of the truck. Mark who? Mark was the president of Rugged Liner during the Jeep SCCA days and is still the current owner of the company. Apparently he's got a small display area in the Rugged Liner building that houses a few other original SCCA trucks. His plans are to restore it to how it would've been in 1987 and leave it to rest with its other SCCA rivals. Will it ever come up for sale again? I doubt it. It's in a private collection now much like the truck in the 1989 #33 Chrysler Archives, the 1989 #32 that was in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (where ever those vehicles disappeared to), and the 1988 #33 truck in CT. There were eight trucks built by the Archers from 1987-1989. These are the only four left. As for this one, I've been chasing it around for years now... and I think I'm done with it now.

Yup... towards the end of last week the current owner/seller invited me over there to see it go around the track and film everything. Looking forward to more pictures.

Thoroughly enjoyed. :thumbsup:

If I were in the situation of needing to have a separate amber signal light, I think I'd change out the reverse bulb with an amber bulb and rewire as necessary leaving a stock appearance. Then I'd add a stand alone reverse light under the bumper.

Any pictures of the interior?

Bump? :wavey:

http://mankato.craigslist.org/cto/4582428951.html Diesel Jeep - $2700 (New Ulm) 1986 Amer. Cherokeepaint color : brown title status : clean 1986 American Diesel (yep Diesel) Jeep Cherokee, four door, automatic 4x4. Has new tires. Great hunting rig. gets 32 MPG. This is what it has; 1985 Mercedes Benz. 300 SD Turbo diesel engine. Trans and transfer case is 1988 S-10-V6. P/S pump 1995 ford probe. P/S Gear 1978 F150 2wd. Alt stock jeep 1986 2.8 V6. Motor mounts 85 dodge D150 318 V8. Winter heat plug in. Runs great. Out west body and frame, very little rust. Has around 30,000 miles since conversion. I have another hunting rig now, so this one just sits. Make a great snow plow, hunting rig or winter commuter. Has AC, but not installed at this time. $2700.00 Not a bad price with everything already done. I think Austin should buy it. :D

They pop up now and then around MN, but you have to wait for the good ones. I would assume you know Duane just north of you in Princeton?... lots of good parts up his way. There's Austin (xjrev10) that's way north too. I know he sports IRO parts left and right on his rigs... the ones he can manage to keep for more than a few months anyhow. Are you on MN-Jeep?

I KNOW THAT TRUCK!!!... and welcome! Nice to see another MN member. There's a few of us scattered around the state. That truck of yours was offered to me a couple times along with finding it again and again for sale. Glad you found your way here! Neat that you work at IRO too. There's a few members around here that know your products very well. :cheers:

Yelling in topic titles! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HhXVBn48Mw

Meh... I really wouldn't worry about it with such a light trailer. Wouldn't hurt anything being there either if you have a brake controller in the tow vehicle. :dunno:

Welcome! Tough looking little truck you've got there! Make sure you start a build thread in the "Your Project MJs" section too for everyone to easily find. :thumbsup:

You could pull off your fenders and give yourself all sorts of room to work with too.

From another thread, but still true... Good, quality products. Thermal Arc and Tweco do an awesome job of giving Miller and Lincoln a run for their money.

I like the look on the smart phone's face. Smart phone be like, "Ah, damn... he's so cool and I'm not..."

Get yourself a 3500# axle that has a 62" hub face... yes, yes, I know that the factory track width is 58.5", but so many people run spacers to put the wheels out further to fill the wheel well anyhow. If you plan on ordering it, see if you can get it with 2.5" spring seats that are 42.5" on center. Otherwise, you can build one from bare components. :thumbsup:

Seems as though friendly road trips are going around lately. Just did one myself (post #109). . :MJ 1: .

Ever get the Mazda running on diesel?

Did you make sure you had the gear housing in the same orientation as it came out? They have little notches to get it "timed" right.

:drool: Very nice, sir!

Nice to see it back where it belongs! :thumbsup:

More pictures just because a Comanche with a 'Nest is just cool...

I'm going to refer back to the very first post of this thread for a minute... We've all been there, right? Silly little things that you find out about the vehicle on its first ride home. You get the thing home and fix all those things that you didn't notice on the test drive and then you just enjoy your new pride and joy for a while until you really take it back out on a big road trip. Sometimes all you find yourself doing is just tooling around town... sure you could probably drive it across the country and not have any issues at all. That doesn't mean you're not going to worry and stress over something. This was where I was at. The difference between most vehicles that someone might go through and fix those little squeaks and small issues and this truck is that just going through and trying to fix some squeaks is a bit of an understatement for what all has happened over this thread. Never has this truck really, really been out on the road since its been in its current form. All I've ever really done is drive the 8 miles into work and drive home. It gets driven around the yard moving branches and yard waste. Sometimes it even goes a little off the beaten path over to the local landfill. Never have I ever thought that I would be taking it on a 322 mile road trip. What I can report from the last couple days is that not only the purchase of another truck is bliss, but same goes when you take that same vehicle and jump head first into a pool of unknown. What happens if something goes wrong? What if I'm stuck on the side of the road? Am I making the right choice in taking this truck on such a long journey? You know what?... screw it! You can only go over everything so many times before you jump in, hit the key, and just go. Things are bound to happen that you don't expect. That's where that feeling of bliss happens that you just need to sit back and enjoy the ride. This is the part that I'd say most start thinking to themselves, "Yeah?... that's a great story but where's the pictures?". We're getting there, so just bear with me. This is actually the part where I would start thinking, "Cool!... but what's the backbone of the story? Why just jump in the truck and go 300+ miles? Surely there has to be a reason!". There is a reason... and it's a good one. Sometimes we go somewhere to see something new. Sometimes we go somewhere because there's that carrot dangling that you just have to have. Sometimes we go to help out a friend. For me, this road trip was a mixture of the three. I went from one side of MN to the other. Never been to my destination before but on the other hand there really wasn't all that much to make me want to go back. The carrot at the end of the trail was there, but honestly I'm not sure what I'd do with another one. This trip was mostly about the meat and potatoes of Comanche Club. I like to think that there's too many of us to count that would be willing to make such a drive for another member not because we necessarily want to, but because they would really appreciate it if you did and because they've wanted it for a while now. What this road trip turned into for me was quality time re-getting to know a somewhat recently acquired friend of a truck. The near romantic thought of just jumping in your truck and riding off into the sunset was really the last thing I had in my head... but it slowly turned into just that. No more than 20 miles from home and I was already dreading if the slight wobble that would come and go would get any worse. Nowhere near death wobble, but when it was there it was there. Stack on the fact that the speedometer would sometimes do whatever it wanted was another fun experience. Not a huge deal... just keep up with traffic. It was almost laughable by the time we got back home. "Oh! Look at that! The needle is having another aneurysm!" Just about the same time that the truck started showing the wiggles was about the time that the radio completely cut out. Sure it'd turn on, but none of the buttons would do anything nor was there any sound. Granted, the wife came with so that just added to the experience. I'm sure she was thinking that it was just going to be a nap in the truck ruined by a bumpy ride only to end at just another Jeep thing that had nothing to do with her. What this road trip turned into was a real joy for both of us. Sure, we could've dwelled on the fact that the speedometer was less that desirable, or that the radio was out, let's not forget about that wobble that was sometimes there and sometimes wasn't, only to stop and see little oily spots on the tailgate because both the rear pinion seal and the front output seal on the transfer case were leaking... kinda bad, and the windows were down the entire time because of the near blast furnace coming from the footwells. None of that really mattered by the time we got on the last leg of our trip. What I gained most from the this was a trust in my truck that I absolutely can't say that I had before we left. While I can't say that I was the first to say it, this road trip was a WilderQuest.