In 2006 I was very fortunate to be invited to go on Peterson’s 4 Wheel & Off road Magazine’s Ultimate Adventure. For those of you not familiar with Ultimate Adventure (UA), it’s a weeklong trip, done every summer in various parts of the US and Canada. It’s generally around 1500 miles long and requires you to drive (NO trailers) your trail vehicle all week, with all your camping gear, alternating days from off road trail driving one day to driving to the next camp and trail location the next day. It’s a long trip but definitely worth it if you ever get the chance to go.
At the point that I was invited I had nothing that was worthy of the week long 1500 mile trip. All I had was a competition rock crawling buggy and there was no way that a single seat rock crawler was going to be able to make that journey. So I set out looking for a Jeep that I could build in a relatively short amount of time as I only had about 8 weeks. I wanted a specific Jeep TJ Wrangler, I knew exactly what I wanted now it was just a matter of finding it! I wanted a 1997-2002 Wrangler, Automatic without OD (The Chrysler 999 is the only good transmission Chrysler ever made IMO) it also had to be a soft top with half doors. I was so sure that I could find what I was looking for, that even before I found a Jeep, I had a Tuff Country Long Arm lift kit, STaK 3 speed monster box transfer case, Dynatrac Pro Rock D60 axles housings Loaded with Superior axles and Superior 4.88 ring and pinion gears with Detroit lockers, Poison Spyder body armor and Kilby Enterprises skid plates all on their way to me before I ever found a Jeep to build! Luckily I found a pristine 1999 TJ that fit all my criteria 100%.
This is what I came home with. If only they could stay this nice!
Within two weeks I had it torn down!
We got it done just in time to leave for UA! The first time I drove it after it was done was to a trail just outside Boise ID. it worked PERFECTLY!
Here it sits after finishing it very first trail.
We even spent a day at St Anthony's sand dunes! That day would turn out bad for me..... Turns out you shouldn't jump a TJ over 40 feet! It smashed the front axle into the oil pan smashing the pan into the crank shaft....
Here is Clifton Slay making fun of my oil pan carnage!
Finishing the week at UA we hit a HUGE mud hole! I HATE MUD!! my poor Jeep has never been the same! It had 4" of mud inside!
It been a good Jeep over the past three and a half years, I've been to the Hammers, Moab, Pismo Beach and many others with more to come. I have some plans to make some changes soon so keep checking back to see it's coming new look.
Mac |
