New Member SCbart looking for 1st. Jeep

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SCbart

#1
#1
Hi everyone,
New member in Chapin looking for my first rig. I am a complete newbie who is working out that mid-life crisis by getting a jeep to do the family adventurer thing in. All with the Queens blessing of course. In fact my wife has been pushing me to do this pretty hard. :grinpimp:

Anyway, back to the typical newbie post:
I am looking for a late model XJ (Cherokee) to fit the family into. Nothing too hard core, mild lift would be great with 33" tires partly because they look much better with larger tires.

Goal is a rig for going down forest service roads pulling a lightweight trailer for camping etc. or doing the same at the beach for camping/surf fishing.

Looking through craigslist and I am generally bewildered by all of the possible choices.

So any advice about rigs for sale, what to look for, what to avoid would be greatly appreciated. Also I am looking at a lot of rigs with lifts already done. How do I evaluate a rig like that? Besides the death wobble drive test. For that matter how do I evaluate the thing in general.

So any help, advice or comments are appreciated and most welcome.
 
97TJGUZZY

97TJGUZZY

SUPPORTER
#4
#4
ok, so with the budget you are working with, I would keep it to 33s or smaller, and try to find the jeep with the lowest miles in the best shape. The first one makes no mention of mileage that I could see, and the bottom one mentions a new motor, but no word on the transmission, difs, driveshafts, tcase...etc.

With that budge in mind I would think you should be able to find a late 90s cherokee with 100-120k miles and add a mild lift and tires. I would avoid anything bigger than 33s on a unibody if you want it to last.

with that said, there are always the hidden gems where you can find a late 90s cherokee build to the hilt and in great shape for 5k...so I would say dont settle for beat up and used in that price range.
 
S

SCbart

#5
#5
Well that a good place to start thanks. I feel out of my element here but getting advice like that helps a lot. Would bumping my price make a huge difference? I could afford a more expensive rig but experience tells me it will need some investment no matter what I buy. I was trying not to go all in on the first truck I buy.
 
97TJGUZZY

97TJGUZZY

SUPPORTER
#6
#6
SCbart said:
Well that a good place to start thanks. I feel out of my element here but getting advice like that helps a lot. Would bumping my price make a huge difference? I could afford a more expensive rig but experience tells me it will need some investment no matter what I buy. I was trying not to go all in on the first truck I buy.
Click to expand...
with a cherokee xj you are looking at a 11-12 year old jeep at a minimum, if you bump your price to say 8k I think that brings you into the low miles WJ range. Depending on family size, bumping to 9500 or 10 would get you a nice LJ in good shape.
 
S

SCbart

#10
#10
First of all a big thank you to 97TJGUZZY for his input, big help. If you drink beer i am buying round when i get my jeep. LBarr2002 I like that top one too. I am going to investigate this and see what I find.

Thanks a gain for the help,

Jim
 
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