The Jeep is gone

She sold today (8/19/2008) but to a good home. A chapter on my life has come to a temporary close. Someday I’ll get another but for now it’s just not in the cards. Next time will be different. I’ll start with a tow rig first and then get an older model that I can hack up and not worry about it being my daily driver and just tow it to the trail-head.

I’m going to leave the rest of the original page intact just a trigger for my own memory. Later, as the feel of the Jeep begins to fade, I can look back here and live it all over again. Thanks to everybody that showed interest. Not bad, only took 2 weeks to find a buyer…

If you’re looking to get into a car that you can drive to work on Monday and drive where billy-goats fear to tread on the weekend, then this is the car for you. You will simply NOT find a better deal than this anywhere.

Oh, by the way…every photo you see here are actual action photos of the Jeep for sale, not stock photos. These are all pictures and videos of me driving

New to the Jeep Life? Read On

Already get the Jeep Thing? Skip this section if you’d like and get right to the specs of this rock crawling beast found below.

Do you enjoy the outdoors? Do you love the feel of the wind in your hair? Do you enjoy the freedom of being able to go anywhere and do anything? Then you need to get yourself into a Jeep! The Jeep is a lifestyle, not a car.

About the car:

Make: Jeep
Model: Wrangler
Trim: X
Year: 2003

Transmission: 5-Speed Manual w/ Selectable 2-wheel, 4-wheel high and 4-wheel low transfer case (no need to get out of the car to switch into 4 wheel drive)
Color: Patriot Blue exterior, grayish-tan interior, Black custom 3-in-1 soft top system with soft upper doors.

The 2003 Wrangler, also known as the “TJ”, finds its roots as far back as 1941. Originally developed and manufactured by Willys for the US Army in Word War II…this modern-day descendant of the original go-anywhere, do-anything vehicle is more than a truck…it becomes part of your personality. The original Jeeps were simple vehicles with simple designs and simple parts. This modern version of the Jeep maintains the same philosophy and the distinctive Jeep look, but the similarities end there.

The 2003 Jeep Wrangler X sports Chrysler’s “Quadra-Coil” suspension system. That’s a fancy way of saying that you’ve got coil springs at all four wheels. Unlike most pickup trucks and the earlier Jeeps that have leaf springs. This gives the TJ a smoother on-road ride while increasing “flex” (amount of suspension travel) when going over extreme terrain. Also, to make the suspension perform more consistently both on and off road, the TJ has straight axles front and rear.

Of course, the TJ also has all of the modern features you’d expect:

• Power Steering
• Power Brakes
• AM/FM Stereo with CD and 4 speakers + central sub woofer for great sound, even with the top down!
• Climate control with A/C

Lots of modern safety benefits too

• Dual Air Bags
• Disc Brakes
• Roll Bar
• Three-Point Harnesses

The X Trim includes the 4.0L Inline 6-Cylinder engine. This thing produces crazy amounts of torque – perfect for climbing mountains on the weekend or screaming down the freeway during the weekday’s commute. It’s a simple engine to work on and parts are extremely easy to come by…translation – it doesn’t break and even if it does, repairs are easy and cheap.

I feel like Han Solo describing the Millennium Falcon when I say, “I’ve made a lot of special modifications myself”. The TJ is extremely capable right out of the box, but I’ve made a lot of improvements that make this Jeep ready to tackle the trail as soon as you pick it up!

• Warn 9000 lb winch. You can’t get stuck. With the trusted Warn brand, this winch has pulled me out of tight spots more than once. Have the confidence to tackle any terrain with this bad boy up front…a $900 value.
• Daystar 2″ suspension lift kit. Rather than radically alter the suspension geometry that can happen with those ridiculously high lift kits you see on trophy trucks and some Jeeps, this Jeep is fitted with a subtle but effective 2″ lift kit. This allows the truck to house slightly larger tires which is important in lifting your axle differentials up giving you more ground clearance. But, it doesn’t lift it so high as to ruin the center of gravity or change critical drive-line angles, etc. Also, by keeping the tires still relatively small, they’re also lighter which means less chance of breaking down on the trail.
• 31″ Mud Terrain tires. This Jeep is sporting 31″ Khumo mud terrain tires. They have a very aggressive lug pattern that does an excellent job at shedding water and mud for maximum traction. They also do a great job of grabbing onto rocks when rock climbing and can handle being aired down to aroun 12PSI with no sidewall blowout issues. The tires are about 1.5 years old and still have a fair amount of tread left on them.
• PowerTrax No-Slip automatic differential locks…FRONT AND REAR. These bad boys are this Jeep’s secret weapons. For those who don’t know, all of those 4-wheel drive trucks out there, aren’t really TRUE 4 wheel drive vehicles. As soon as one wheel looses traction on a normal truck, the wheel on the other side of the vehicle stops spinning. This is great for turning corners on pavement, bad when you’re climbing a mountain. These baby’s give you the best of both worlds. And I can tell you from experience that these things turn this Jeep INTO A TANK. It’s UNSTOPPABLE. More than once I’ve been able to easily climb an obstacle that another Jeep with tires twice as high as mine couldn’t make. Read more here. Together these lockers originally cost around $800.
• Big Daddy Off-Road custom front rock-crawling bumper with D-Rings. This thing is super thick, 1/4″ thick steel. With little nobbie things on the ends to protect your fenders from dings. Rock crawl without risking body damage to the Jeep. It also has the integrated mount for the Warn winch. The D-Rings make excellent attachment points for towing straps, etc for those times when you need a little help from your friends to get yourself out of a jam. You can see it here (with winch in action…this is at Tellico ORV on the “guard-rail” trail.
• Big Daddy Off-Road “rock sliders”. These things protect the side body panels from being crunched. They just look cool too….
  
• Big Daddy Off-Road rear bumper with swing-out spare tire carrier.
• Steering box skid plate – The stock Jeep steering box is in a very vulnerable place on the front axle…this way you don’t have to worry about it.
• TeraFlex front-sway bar quick disconnects. For on-the-road travel, the TJ is equipped with an anti-sway bar to prevent excessive body roll when cornering. However, when you’re rock crawling at 3 mph, the sway bar becomes a liability and seriously hinders your suspension’s ability to flex to the maximum. These sway-bar disconnects take only a few minutes to disconnect before hitting the trail. Once disconnected, they allow for an astonishing extra SIX INCHES of suspension travel. Once you’re done for the day, just find some level ground and hook everything back up and your ready to drive home on the freeway.
• Slick Tops, 3-in-1 Custom soft top. It’s a soft top, bikini top and tonneau cover all in one system.
• This Jeep is equipped with the factory Dana 30 front axle and Dana 35c rear axle. I have a set of spare Dana 35c axles that I will include with the sale. These things will never break on the road, but under really extreme stress off-road, I’ve seen it happen. Just throw these in the back and bring some basic tools with you and you don’t have to worry about it. I’ve personally never had a problem but I liked having the “insurance” policy with me.
• Hilift jack with accessory kit – a must have tool for every off-roader and with the bigger tires and suspension lift, the bottle jack that Jeep gives you wont cut it anymore anyway.
• 3 bike mountain bike carrier – I’ll throw in an awesome 3-bike carrier that attaches to the spare tire in the rear and the rear bumper. Perfect for loading up the mountain bikes for a day on the trails.
• Handheld GPS. I’m also including a used Garmin GPS IV, complete with a dash mount and AC adapter.
• Prewired for CB. I’ve installed a CB radio antenna mount on the rear, driver’s-side corner and the wire is already snaked to the front cab. All you would need is a radio and an antenna…the hard part’s already been done

Bluebook value on this Jeep in Good condition with 72,000 miles is over $10,000.

I’m selling this go-anywhere, do-anything, unstoppable Jeep for only $8,000!

That includes the Jeep, all of the great off-road accessories above, the bike rack and the handheld GPS. Don’t procrastinate on this one, I’m confident that this will sell extremely fast at this price!

For your viewing pleasure, I’ve included some of my favorite action shots and a video spot* for you below of this Jeep in action…(some of the pictures show the Jeep without some of the mods mentioned…those are just older pictures)

*I’m having trouble with the video…the video cuts off at about 2:54 into it, which really sucks because the best footage is right at the end I’ll keep working on it!

If you’re in the Carolinas and you’re interested in this car, please email me at robertneville73 @ gmail.com (remove spaces, obviously).

Why am I getting rid of this great car?

I’m not totally happy about it. For image reasons related to my job, it just was not cool to be lugging clients around in their nice clothes in my lifted Jeep. In addition, time constraints have made any off-roading nearly impossible.

I will miss this car. We’ve been through a lot together and for the last 5 years, it was literally a part of who I was. That’s why I say the Jeep needs a good home with someone that will love it as much as I did.

Questions not answered here?

Just leave a comment below and I’ll do my best to answer them. If I’ve left something out information-wise, you’re probably not the only one with the question.