Four years. Four long years I’ve been thinking about this. Back in 2010 I was in the market for a new 4×4. After 7 years since putting my CJ-7 Project onto the trails I had decided it was time to retire my 1978 Jeep CJ-7 and keep it clean and have some local fun with it but no more hard wheeling and rock crawling for the CJ-7. So in 2010 I thought long and hard about what I wanted.
I used to own a Toyota Pickup 4×4 and I beat the crap out of it for years. The Toyota Truck took every bit of the abuse without complaint. In 2010 I was wheeling with 4 other guys who owned Toyota FJ Cruisers. At the time the Jeep Wranglers had the anemic 202 horsepower 3.8 L EGH V6, while the FJ Cruiser used the 4.0 L 1GR-FE V6 putting out 285 horses. Most of my wheeling would be on mountain trails so an IFS didn’t sound too bad for my purpose.
So I got an FJ Cruiser. For the most part, the FJ was fine. Until I started upgrading suspension and soon found out how difficult it was to get a enough lift while maintaining a good ride. I kept the FJ for 4 years. Drive it daily. It was a gas hog getting my better than 12 mpg and the ride was stiff, seats uncomfortable, and it didn’t want to track straight thanks to non-stock lift and tires 1 inch taller than stock. So every day, I thought about trading it in.
Then Jeep came out with the 3.6L Pentastar V6 with 285 hp and 260 lb·ft of torque. Suddenly I was thinking Jeep again. I started doing my research in early 2013 and it all came down to color. I finally decided on a Rubicon X in Anvil. So in December of 2013, I put the order in, then waited 6 long weeks for my Rubicon. Jan 23rd and I was happy when I got the call from David Dodge Chrysler Jeep in Glen Mills, PA.
For the next couple of months, the state of PA got dumped on by about 70 inches of snow, delaying any upgrades to the Rubicon X that I might have in mind. So as the weather improves, the upgrades will happen.
This is my new project. I’ll document anything I do to this Jeep here on these pages.
