I’ve had the same experiences with the shops that I’ve taken my Jeep to. I’ll be honest with them, tell them what I attempted to do and they take it from there.

Pretty much this; ball joints and trackbars. What can exacerbate the issue are tires that are poorly balanced.
What’s funny is when folks say “Oh it’s the steering stabilizer, just replace that and you’re good”. At that point, they’re just masking the root cause.

Getting to see the back country or going to places where I know it’s not easy to get to always does it for me.

Some scary stuff on here.

Though I can’t speculate on the engine itself, I do know that a crashed car that’s flung off a cliff, in Santa Cruz (41st Ave), left in waist deep water, only lasts a few years before it’s completely rusted out and broken up by the waves. So this engine still may be “fresh”

You beat me to it. I actually went wheeling earlier that day of my 25th reunion, and had to drive it to the reunion as my commuter was being worked on. What was funny was the looks I got when I pulled up in my lifted, dented, door-less LJ, covered in mud. It wasn’t the most hard core rig by any means but having it…

It looks pretty cool and it’s a nice take on the books (which I’m kicking myself for selling my FF #5).
So they’re going into a new dimension, is it the negative zone? IF is it, and Marvel gets the rights back, it be a great way to bring in Annihilus, and the Anninulus Wave story line into to the Marvel movie…

This. It can also hit/rub up against the auto tranny pan when the suspension is fully articulated, which then tears the flexy boot off. Also, even with a 2 inch lift, the CV joint on the front drive shaft is prone to breaking (the seal lets go or cracks and grease is magically applied all over your transfer case,…

Interesting. I was just looking at the new Rubicon Unlimited and was thinking there was no way in hell I'd pay that much money for a rig that I know I'll abuse on a regular basis (and not even factoring in the cost for lift, tires, etc.). What may make it worth it could be to order the base model (Sport) with no…

That may be the case as I believe one of the local Jeep dealerships has an agreement of sorts with a local 4Wheel Parts store, where the dealership covers the typical warranty stuff but any issue with the lift, one can to to the 4WP and have them work on it. It was the case when I purchased my LJ back in 2004.

Interesting idea. The thing that has bothered me with the show is that it resembled J. Michael Straczynski's Rising Stars, which starts as one of the "Specials" is investigating the deaths of his fellow group

If I ever get Oprah rich, I need to have one of those with that body style and a modern diesel drive train and use it as a tow/exploration rig.

I also must nominate the 1979 Pontiac Sunbird Coupe as a fun wheeling toy. Before I knew was off-roading was, I was taking my Sunbird on all kinds of trails and dirt roads to get to those more elusive surf spots. That little car got me places it shouldn't have, all with it's 4 cylinder, 90 horsepowered fury.

Nice article! Pretty much what I've been feeling about Jeep concept rigs. It'd be nice to have Jeep introduce a new rig that might actually be put into production. Or at least put the J8 into production for the US.

Yes, I think I should go to many, you know, for science.

As cool as they are, I can't get too excited about concept rigs as they'll never see production. It's almost like being at the strip club where you can look and drool all you like, but you'll never get the chance to go for a ride.

Great tip! I've been this method to do the base boards for a while. Also, if you have hard wood floors and you're using the tape method, it can help to use a skateboard as a seat to easily move across the floor while taping (and yes, I clean the wheels prior to doing this).

It always amazes me how well built and durable the Ultra-4 rigs are; to take a roll like that in stride and still keep going (even if they don't, the drivers still walk away with no issues: like Big Ugly Racing)

The wife and I name our cars (she names hers and I name mine based on the cars characteristics

That's just amazing work! Right now I can only dream of having the skills of being able to build something like that for myself (though, I'm just happy I can weld 2 pieces of steel together where the welds only contain 30% booger-ness).