Wife's XJ

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Let me start this out by stating this is a story on how we got to her current XJ. She's had several the last few years...

 

After my wife went wheeling with me a few times I started to hear "I think I want a Jeep". She enjoys riding shotgun but I knew deep down she wanted her own Jeep to wheel.

 

It started with a '90 XJ. Lifted 4" with a set of 31's on American Racing Gamblers. It was from Cali and not a spec of rust on it. Ran awsome, rode awsome and was the perfect Jeep for her to drive in the winter and wheel all summer.

 

 

She loved this Jeep. Drove it all the time and loved wheeling it with me. Unfortunately she met some black ice and a telephone pole won the battle.

 

 

So we cut our losses, parted a lot of the Jeep out and sold the running "chassis" to a buddy who's made a buggy out of it. She she still lives...

 

 

About a month without a Jeep I heard "I miss my XJ, I wish I had another one". So the hunt started again...

 

We found a '96 XJ country that was mint. Leather interior, stock, grandma driven, and cheap.

 

 

Plans were to put the lift and tires off of her gray XJ onto the new XJ. We bought it being told that it had a bad radiator and knowing the issues with the plastic endcaps I thought it was an easy fix. Of course the guy didn't have the rad. in it so I was unable to start it etc. Bought a new CSF rad, fired it up and we had a gush of coolant coming out the side of the block. It was coming out by the water pump and for all I knew it was a bad waterpump. I unfortunately was working 70+ hours a week at the time and didn't really have the time or place to work on it. So we decided to part with this XJ and sold it to a local guy who had it running in a few weeks.

 

So she was pritty discouraged by now and thought she wasn't going to get another XJ. We had looked a few but nothing fit the requirements we were wanting, and if they did they were out of our pre-set price range.

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I wasn't going to give up to have my wife back in another Jeep. I had posted on a few forums that I was looking for a mid '90s XJ that was basically stock or very lightly modded. I think a good 6 months passed by and we hadn't found one that we liked yet. In the meantime we were dumping money into my XJ instead and just enjoying that. We had a GLXJ member offer us a good price for the lift off the gray XJ so we sold that and figured we'd eventually find something we liked.

 

A local club member decided that he wanted to part with his XJ as he was really wanting a Wrangler. I talked a few times to him about his cherry '93 XJ and he always wanted a lot for it. Several months went by and he never sold it. Well he found a Wrangler that he "had to have" and I guess bought it without selling his XJ. So I get a message from him saying, "you still interested in my XJ, I need to sell it fast as I just bought a Wrangler". GREAT! I've got him where I want him now. He told me a price, I offered him $1000 less than what he wanted and a week later I now owned a cherry white '93 XJ.

 

So I go home one day after work and tell the wife I bought her another XJ and that I needed her last weeks paycheck to pay for it. :brows: She wasn't happy but quickly got over it. So we went and picked it up and she was happy.

 

Of course it can't stay stock. :roll: We've done quite a bit to it in the last year.

 

Here it is with a Rubicon Express 3.5" superflex lift with my old 31" BFG MT's on Eagle Alloys.

 

 

Look Ma! it's twins! Sitting next to my XJ on 35's.

 

 

She's wheeled it a few times and it did very well with the setup we were running. Nothing like having your wife show up some guys on the rocks. :D

 

Here are few wheeling pics with the 31's. We also added a new front bumper and a few other misc. suspension things. Also added a CB for the trails and put in a quality sound system.

 

 

 

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I had a good offer on my 31" BFG MT's, so we sold them to a fellow GLXJ member.

 

So we ran the old Gamblers again. Well Chico wanted those so we sold them to him. This left us with a set of 31" AT's on factory rims. I painted the rims black and they severed their purpose well.

 

 

We got married Dec. 15th and what would ya know.. the middle of a blizzard. We had planned on taking the BMW but with 24" of snow that wasn't going to happen. My XJ was torn apart and she wasn't excited about crawling up into my XJ in her wedding dress.

 

So here are a few pics of the XJ showing it's stuff at our wedding. Not sure how they thought we were going to drive off "plugged in".

 

 

Guess I can't leave out a pic of my beautiful wife and 6yr old daughter.

 

 

She really wanted a roof rack, so for Christmas I ordered her a Surco roof rack from Motion Offroad.

 

The 31's we were running were on stock rims and I wasn't crazy about how it felt while driving it. It felt very "tipsy" even on the road and the overall track was way to narrow. She had been driving it daily back and forth to work (about 150 miles round trip) and I wasn't comfortable with the current setup.

 

She really wanted a set of 33" Maxxis Bighorns as I run them in the 35" flavor on my XJ and we love them. So for her birthday I ordered up a set of 33x12.5x15 Maxxis Bighorns and a set of Black Crager Soft 8'as from Motion Offroad.

 

 

 

And here is an installed pic. Who says you can't fit 33's with 3.5" lift with no trimming?

 

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We were going to attend the GLXJ winterfest. I REALLY wanted to take my MJ but they were calling for bad weather that weekend and I didn't feel comfortable towing if the roads were going to be bad. So I ended up taking the wife's XJ. She didn't attend as she's preggy now and we thought it wasn't the best idea for her to be wheeling.

 

So knows how I wheel, so I had strict guidelines to follow if I was going to be wheeling her rig. Well what can I say, 5 mins into the day I break threw some ice, burry her rig, and everyone takes a million pics and video so they can get me in trouble. Great friends I have. :cheers:

 

Here's the pic that got me "busted".

 

 

It was the first time out with the 33's and I was very happy with the way it performed. I had bump stopped and trimmed a little in the front and we had no rubbing issues at all.

 

After spending several days detailing her Jeep since I got it kinda dirty it was back in her hands and back to daily driver duties.

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Our son was born April 27th and his first ride was in a Jeep, and in "mommy's" Jeep. Just wait till he's old enough to brag at school that his mom drives a sweet Jeep. :D

 

Pic on the way home in Mom's Jeep.

 

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Several new items added to make it more "road friendly".

 

We added a Qickor front swaybar from Motion. AWESOME results!

 

 

Also added a set of Autopal front headlights from Motion. AWESOME results!

 

 

We also added a set of Old Man Emu front socks (no pics sorry.)

 

It's very nice to drive on the street now with the low COG and large tires. The swaybar works wonders as well.

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And how she sits today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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My wife had been asking for some sort of GPS for quite awhile now for her XJ. I have it in my XJ and she's always wanting me to take it out and put it in her's (can't cause it's hard wired and perminatly mounted).

 

We had looked into new GPS units that we could swap between vehicles, but for what we wanted we were looking at $500+. So we had held off as it wasn't an immediate need (though she tried to convince me it was).

 

I have a good friend, and fellow Jeeper who's a State Trooper and one day I rode with him in his squad car and he was running Microsoft Streets and Trips on his laptop. I had seen this program before but never had the opportunity to play with it. After about 10 mins I was hooked and decided that this was what we were going to do.

 

Retail is $99 on it with the GPS receiver (not badly priced if you ask me). We went with Streets and Trips 2008. Everyone I read online said it only works with Vista, but I checked the box prior at a store and it says it'll work with XP on the box. We got it installed and it's working fine with XP Service Pack 2.

 

We than decided that sitting the laptop on our lap just wasn't going to cut it. So I looked into several options for a laptop mount. I saw anything for the $20 cheapo on eBay to the high dollar units at $1000+. Spent a day doing a lot of research and finally found one I liked that was very reasonably priced.

 

So we got everything layed out. Mount unassembled, streets and trips software, GPS receiver, power inverter, and of course the laptop.

 

 

Next step was to assemble the new laptop mount. It went very easy for the most part and I was surprised at how stout the unit was for what I payed for it. Looked like it was going to suit our needs just fine.

 

 

Next was installing it. I spent a lot of time holding it up with the laptop on it and adjusting it to make sure we got a prime location so that we could easily adjust it for different situations. I didn't want to hinder leg room for the passenger, I also wanted to make sure it could be moved so that it sat over the passengers legs if they wanted to use it. And also wanted to make sure it could be easily placed for the driver to use it but not hinder the line of sight and also not hit the gear selector. After messing with it for awhile I found a good location for it.

 

Installed it by simply drilling 4 holes in the transmission "hump" and putting in 4 bolts with fender washers and lock nuts on the back side. It's very sturdy.

 

A few installed pics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overall we're very happy with the setup and have less than $300 in it total (not including the laptop of course). I'd highly recomend all the products we used and it's a cheap alternative to the high dollar GPS units if you already own a laptop.

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I've had my Motion Offroad C02 Tank for well over a year and absolutely love it. I however got tired of trying to figure out a way to mount it in the wife's XJ. So I broke down and ordered a tank mount.

 

Here is the setup I'm running;

 

Motion Offroad C02 Tank w/ Regulator - http://motionoffroad.com/catalog/index. ... ducts_id=3

 

Motion Offroad C02 Tank Boot - http://motionoffroad.com/catalog/index. ... ucts_id=37

 

Motion Offroad C02 Bracket - http://motionoffroad.com/catalog/index. ... cts_id=463

 

 

We don't run the spare tire inside anymore (won't' fit) so that space is kinda useless. I opted to mount the bracket in basically the same spot that the tire used to mount in.

 

I had to cut the little tab off that the tire hook than goes threw. Just did it with my Dremel and had it done in about 2 mins. I than mocked up the bracket with the tank mounted to make sure I could easily get the tank in/out. Marked the plastic, drilled the holes, and than removed the plastic from the side and drilled holes in the mounting attachment already there. Went to the hardware store and got some bolts and put it all back together.

 

Here is a photo of the tank mount mounted in the wife's XJ.

 

 

 

Overall very happy with the way it turned out. Also happy with the quality of both the tank and the bracket. The tank fits in the bracket very nicely and does not move around.

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We took her XJ to the GreatLakesXJ.com Summer Fest this year. It did great as expected and the Maxxis Bighorn's dominated. I'm really happy with the way that the suspension is working with her current setup and the 33's.

 

Some wheeling pics for your viewing enjoyment.

 

 

 

 

 

[possum]

What kind of steering setup are you running on your wife's rig? I like the way it looks - very sturdy.

[MiNi Beast]

What kind of steering setup are you running on your wife's rig? I like the way it looks - very sturdy.

 

Looks like the ZJ v8 setup on there or just a fat boys tie rod on there.

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What kind of steering setup are you running on your wife's rig? I like the way it looks - very sturdy.

It's the RE Chromoly Tie Rod kit.

 

It'll actually be for sale shortly; as we've got a cross-over steering kit on order from Motion for her rig.

[Shane]

Those are nice XJ's. Have you had any trouble with those hoodlouvers? I have a set for my MJ and was wondering.

[possum]

I was looking at where the tracbar mounts actually. I like the looks of that bracket. Let me know when and if you sell that steering. I wouldn't mind buying that from you. :cheers:

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I was looking at where the tracbar mounts actually. I like the looks of that bracket. Let me know when and if you sell that steering. I wouldn't mind buying that from you. :cheers:

Oh; didn't know the trackbar was considered part of the steering. ;)

 

As for the trackbar setup we're running;

 

Rubicon Express HD Trackbar & Bracket

 

Rubicon Express Trackbar Brace

 

 

As for what will be for sale; it will be the tie-rod only. I sent you a PM in regards to it.

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Couldn't pass up on the deal of the Edelbrock Xtream Travel shocks. So I guess the OME's are coming off...

 

 

 

Her XJ is in need of front brakes BAD. So figured we might as well upgrade while we're at it.

 

 

Now if I can just find time to install the new parts. :fool:

[WahooSteeler]

selling the OMEs?

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selling the OMEs?

Not at this time. We've got enough Jeeps around here I'll find something to put them on.

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Powerstop Rotors and Pads are installed. I also rotated the tires and cleaned the rusty center caps; they look like new now.

 

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Found some time today to install the rear shocks. I had to get creative with the mounting of the resivours. Ended up making a truss that went off the gas tank mount to mount them up and out of the way. Now I also have a place to mount some rock lights for night crawling down the road at somepoint.

 

Not the best pics, but at least shows what I did.