Changing from my old Ranger (“Ralph”) to my current Wrangler JK (Jayk) was not a simple transition.

Our traveling modus operandi was (and is) simple: drive Howie (the motorhome) to a flat place out in the boondocks; drive Ralph (our 4×4) out various back roads until they end; hike into the back country from there. Obviously, we wanted a “get anywhere” vehicle for our explorations, but just as obviously, we wanted to get back from wherever. Vehicle-wise, reliability was always Job-1.

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The DOWNHILL RUN

It began over three years ago, in late 2015, when Ralph’s engine started to act up (again). I had purchased Ralph back in 2005, with over 85,000 miles by previous owners — and not very considerate owners, it turned out. Ralph had suffered some abuse, including enough overheating to warp the cylinder heads. I had replaced them, but in 2015 they were failing again (likely due to block irregularities). It was time for some serious deliberation. Junk him or keep him?

Ralph was quite capable, both on the highway and off-road, and it seemed <semi-> reasonable to invest in a fresh engine. But Ralph was worth only $4000 or so on the used market, so spending that much on a fresh (Jasper) engine was emotionally challenging. BUT — Once I overcame that multi-thousand-dollar hurdle, additional investments in a fresh tranny and transfer case were easier. About $8000 overall. (Ouch.) However, the axles and drive-shafts and many other lesser components had already been gone through, so on balance I essentially had, at the beginning of 2016, a 20-year-old truck with a new drive-train.

All went well and good — for about 400 miles. One afternoon, way out in the Oregon back country, Ralph started missing on one cylinder and making horrendous clattering noises from the valve train. Talk about pucker-factor. Checking the oil revealed nothing on the dipstick — there were only about two quarts of oil left in the engine, black and smoking hot. I poured in a couple of spare quarts, and the clattering stopped, but the missing cylinder stayed. We limped back to Howie, hooked up and towed Ralph home and put him in the shop.

VERY long story short — there was a small leak in the intake gasket, and the engine had sucked its oil into #6. Fixed, checked, and we were back in business. But then, a year later, the valve noise started up again. Oh crap. Some intake cleaner fixed it. Six months later, more valve noise. More intake cleaner.

Admittedly, I was in denial, and I didn’t want to deal with an engine replacement warranty debacle, so I kept trying the cleaning technique, with varying success. Eventually, the noise became unfixable, and meanwhile, my warranty had expired.

I took the sad old beast to a good mechanic, and he spent several hours diagnosing it. Conclusion: the engine was shot, completely worn out at 20,000 miles. Apparently, the 400-mile event had taken a far greater toll than I had thought at the time, or in the intervening years. Jasper was quite helpful, and offered me a fresh engine (no warranty) for only $1800. But another $2500 would be needed to install it. Not as much as I had already spent, but it felt like salt rubbed in a wound.

Over several weeks, I won and lost many arguments with myself. But eventually, I decided to take the plunge and change vehicles. After 14 years of adventures with Ralph, it was not an easy decision, but I somehow knew it was time. (I should note that Karin was extraordinarily helpful, sympathetic, and patient while I worked through my many moods.)

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WHAT to CHOOSE?

Well, it’s one thing to decide to get a new vehicle, but in the case of a towed adventure vehicle, it’s quite another thing to figure out which vehicle will fill the bill. I had many demands:

• Must be 4×4, with a 2-speed transfer case. No AWD or wimpy stuff, a real 4×4 that could handle truly challenging terrain.
• Must weigh less than 4000 pounds to meet my weight limits towing behind Howie.
• Must not be too old, or I’d just end up with another pocket of troubles.
• Must not be too new, or it would be too expensive. Newer vehicles also tended to be bigger and heavier than older vehicles.
• Must have some decent horsepower (if there was one thing that I was really sick of with Ralph, it was the anemic 160hp V6).
• Nice to have a shorter wheelbase than Ralph’s long 125″, for better maneuverability both in parking lots and off-road.
• Well-mannered and versatile handling, suitable for use as a daily driver, around town, and long freeway jaunts.
• Must have good parts and service backing (even though Ralph was 23 years old, the make/model was quite popular, and parts were always readily available)
• Must be capable of flat-towing (four wheels down). Ralph had no “neutral” setting on the transfer case, and required a Remco driveline-disconnect to protect the transmission; a neutral-setting would be a bonus.
• Must have (to me, at least) some “curb appeal”. I want to be happy to walk up to my vehicle in a parking lot.

CANDIDATES, Pros and Cons

There was absolutely NO perfect choice, but there were a few viable possibilities:

• Early CHEROKEE XJ (stopped production in 2001) — A great mono-body design, light weight with good power (195hp) and handling. Hard to find one in really good shape; the old inline-6 engine had heating problems and other reliability issues.
• Suzuki Vitara / Chevy Tracker (stopped production in 2005) — Smallest and lightest of the choices, with full body-on-frame construction. Suspension design limited the maximum tire size to about 31″, and power was a dismal 135hp (although the lighter weight could compensate). Parts network is pretty good. Appearance is iffy, kind of a circus-clown car.
• Jeep Wrangler — The ultimate off-road weapon, but recent models are quite heavy, while earlier, lighter-weight models have high mileage and the old-style inline-6 engine. Awesome Pentastar engine in later JK models, 285hp!
• Toyota 4Runner — Similar negative issues as the Wrangler, but more so: heavier by far in later years. Not nearly as “curb-appealing” as the Wrangler, either.

Just about everything else I looked at was either too old and risky or too heavy. Bronco’s, Landcruisers, various pickups, etc. were all ruled out.

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The FALSE START

A long time ago, I owned a Cherokee XJ, and I loved it. It was highway-friendly, really decent off-road, a real “gentleman’s Jeep”, and could be configured well under my 4000-pound target. It seemed like a “sweet spot” choice. Pouncing on the Internet, I scoured the country for many days, and finally found a nice XJ out of state, with very low miles on it. The guy (a dealer) wanted $13,000 for it, a slightly high price but there were few such vehicles to choose from, so I agreed to buy it.

Then, things went sideways. The dealer kept promising things (pictures, specs, etc.) and then failing to deliver. He’d agree to call me back on a detail, and I’d not hear from him for days. It was as if he really didn’t care to sell the car; I had to nag him.

When we talked about the actual transaction (payment and delivery), he asked for a wire transfer before he would ship. Hmmmm.

Finally, after literally weeks of me bird-dogging the transaction, and multiple promises that the car would ship in a few days, I called him up for a status report. He had told me the car would be out of the shop on Wednesday; when I called him Tuesday, he said it would be going into the shop “in a day or two”. When I pressed him for how long it would take, his response was, “Oh, we’ll have it done by late in the week — unless something gets in the way”. Wow.

Meanwhile, I’d been agonizing over whether buying a 20-year-old car, even with low miles, was all that prudent. And later in the week, yet another conversation with the dealer revealed that the process had been delayed again, this time because the alternator had failed on a test drive.

After a solid month of excuses and delays, I finally pulled the plug. The dealer hardly shrugged when I called to cancel the deal.

Which left me back where I started, which to choose? There was another dealer on the East Coast, one who specialized in spiffing up old Cherokees and reselling them. Some of these went for staggering prices, like $35,000. I was impressed, but still reluctant. Twenty years is twenty years, and lots of things age out in that kind of time. Even the parts networks were closing up old inventory, and Chrysler had long since passed its old-parts support window.

In the end, I decided that the <old> Cherokee and Suzuki candidates just had too much risk involved, and should both be deleted from the list.

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The JK DECISION

That left me pretty much with the JK as my only choice. Honestly, I have to admit I’ve always had a soft spot for the Jeep. I actually owned an early CJ-5, a short-wheelbase nightmare of a vehicle. If the newer Jeeps weren’t any better, then it would have to be the Toyota that would live in my garage.

But in fact, the new Jeeps are night-and-day different, not only from the vicious little roller-skate CJ-5, but even from the later YJ and TJ Wrangler series.

Karin and I went out and drove a half-dozen different Wranglers, from 2012 through 2017, and we were pleasantly surprised at their good manners. Make no mistake, that short 95″ wheelbase can be a handful at speed in a crosswind, but with good driving technique and close attention, it’s very drivable. Fresh paint, plastics, and upholstery were a nice change from the decades-old stuff that we were used to in Ralph.

I flirted briefly with the idea of going to a soft-top. The soft-tops that we drove were actually not all that noisy, but there was always the concern about water and dust leakage. Also, the visibility through the blurry plastic windows was just awful. So despite the 100-pound weight disadvantage, the hard-top was a must-have.

Certainly, if weight wasn’t such a major consideration, I’d likely have chosen an Unlimited (4-door) over the two-door I eventually bought. The JKU wheelbase is 10″ longer, which isn’t enough to seriously impact maneuverability, but definitely softens the “twitchiness” on the highway. Also, the 4-door makes for easy access to cargo, which would be nice.

But let me tell you, the turning circle on that 2-door is purely awesome, well under two lanes, and going into and out of supermarket parking lots is no longer an annoyance or a challenge. And I did end up a few hundred pounds over the 4000 limit, but life is simply not perfect.

After lots and lots of test drives and endless discussions with Karin, we both decided on a low-mileage 2013 JK, largely based on colors, surprisingly enough. First, the interior was a gentle medium brown, not the ubiquitous black butt-searing stuff we found in all the other models. Second, the exterior was a beautiful sage-green, just the kind of tone to blend in with the environments that we frequent. Here’s a sunset shot with our kayak mounted up top.

In addition, our new steed was equipped with excellent after-market 17″ wheels, albeit with some not-so-impressive A/T tires.

The HARD PARTS

Selling Ralph was definitely painful, especially because I had to let him go cheap with his crap engine. But the guy who bought him appreciated the configuration, and will put him to good use.

Then, getting Jayk configured for towing was the usual set of chores:

• Re-do the front end for towbar brackets
• Wire the chassis and rear lights with diodes for proper towing electrical
• Design/install a supplemental braking system compatible with Howie’s configuration
• Ensure proper driveline disconnect (free-wheeling) for towing
• Ensure proper steering-lock defeat for towing

The jobs all went well, with few or no glitches or gotchas. Jayk’s transfer case disconnects seamlessly, and he wasn’t even equipped with a steering lock, so nothing had to be done there. Everything ended up working just great, not to mention looking right at home behind Howie.

In addition to the towing issues, Jayk also needed a bit of suspension lift, a roof rack (for transporting our kayak), and some other enhancements. I elected to do all the work myself, just to be sure it was done right and that no shortcuts were taken. In brief, it took me more than a full month to have him ready to go wandering.

Also, getting Jayk set up for exploring involved a complete revision of storing/stowing every piece of gear that I carry. Whereas the technique in Ralph was to simply throw it all in the truck bed, with Jayk, the tiny cargo compartment had to be carefully organized and stacked. To be truthful, this part of the conversion is still in process.

In May of 2019, we took Jayk out for his first real sojourn, a weeks-long exploration of northwestern New Mexico (see my previous post). He performed flawlessly, running 70+ on the highways, crawling through rasty off-road sections, and towing almost imperceptibly behind Howie (much better than Ralph when towing).

I rewarded Jayk’s alacrity with a brand-new set of Hercules (Cooper) Terra-max T/G all-purpose tires. These are about 35″ in diameter and almost 13″ wide — a truly impressive set of footwear. Plus, I can run the monsters at very low pressure (25psi) and this gentles the notorious Jeep choppy ride considerably. I haven’t had a chance to off-road them yet, but they should be purely awesome, and especially great in sand with that big footprint.

SPELLING?

You may be wondering why his name is spelled “Jayk” and not “Jake”. No mystery, it’s for the simplest of reasons: I couldn’t get California specialized license plates with any combination of “JAKE”. So I settle for something that could be pronounced “Jake” OR “Jay-Kay”, and I’m happy with it. (Although, with CA DMV’s glacial progress, I probably won’t have those plates until my grandkids retire.)

Well, I hope this little saga has been more informative and interesting than boring. I sure did have quite a time (plus and minus) going through all of this. So stay tuned, for the ongoing adventures of the four of us: Greg, Karin, Howie and Jayk.

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