What Started it For You?

RDE2ROK

RDE2ROK

New member
Everybody has a story how they got started with a Jeep. Where did it start for you and where are you now? For me, I moved to Arizona and needed something to get out in the desert to explore and play around. I saw a 1978 CJ5 on the side of the road for $2000. Nothing pretty but it was a good runner. Perfect for what I needed it for. Needless to say that was the beginning. Then came the JK and it's worse than any drug could ever be. Exploring dirt roads turned into crawling over rocks. I don't know where it ends. All I know is I'm not there yet. Here are couple picture of the CJ to the JK. :gaah: :banghead:
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When I was a poor 16 year old kid growing up, I was always wrenching on some bucket of bolts. It started with me when I was given an old fj40 and had a free 455 oldsmobile engine sitting in the old mans garage that a friend helped me shoehorn into it. It was a death trap, but led me to my passion of off roading and Jeeps. Years went by until recently my son (Jake age 9) told me he wanted to go off-roading. So... sold off the pick up about 5 months back, and went and bought a JK (the boss said it would be OK if we got a 4 door...God bless her). And jake and I have been working on her (the Jeep, not the wife...lol) trying to get her trail worthy ever since.
 
Being raised around 4x4s my whole life I have always wanted a jeep before I could ever drive. I love 4 wheeling a lot and really wanted one for when I go hunting and camping. I owned a jeep cherokee (AKA Snail) before my JK and loved it going as much places that I could go and offord which was not many places or trails but it was fun and from that point on it started it and I have been obsessed ever since. Now I have my JK and cant wait to get it jacked up and go crawling on some rocks! :D

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As a teenager I had a jacked up truck,big tires and 4 wheel drive and I thought I was somebody.:cheesy: After I bought the JK, It had lockers 35" tires and a 3" lift. Some friends took me CRAWLIN! I had no idea what I was doing, and that was such a rush I couldnt wait to go back out. You never know where life will take you, but I'm glad it took me here!:2thumbsup:
 
Got my first car when i was 18 back in 2006. A used 1993 ford explorer. I used to go on the beach like crazy with that thing. After about 2 years unfortunatly it died (most likely due to the abuse i put it through)
 
Ever since that truck died i wanted a a jeep because of its abilities and looks and at that time the beautiful new jk unlimiteds started coming out and i was hooked. Unfortunately being a student at the time i didnt have a lot of money so i couldnt buy a jeep, my uncle gave me an old used car he was trying to get rid of for the time being until i could afford my own. I finally pulled the trigger in january 2012 after i had gotten a raise at my job, i test drove the new jeep to see how it was and fell in love with it. At first i just wanted to do a little bit of sand and snow and a few mods, then i found jk-forum and that went out the window lol. I now want to turn my baby into a full blown rig (budget permitting) i know itll take me a while but i know itll be worth it : )
 
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Getting started!!!!!

I first started with my 2002 chevy and playing in the river. After getting stuck I decided to go to a 2006 TJ unlimited. After adding another baby to the family and I was tired of getting her in and out of the two door so was watching tv and I fell in love with the four door commercial. I ran down to the dealership and asked for a trade in ha ha. Now its a way of life and a lot of family fun at the river. :thumb:
 
My brother had an '87 wrangler that I rarely got to drive when I was in high school, but when I did I loved it. Cruising to the lake with the top off was the best. I spent the next several years a poor college/grad school student without enough money to afford to pay attention let alone buy a jeep. I then spent the next several years after that trying to make a living and establish myself professionally. I drove my share of crappy old cars that were cheap to buy and maintain (read: I never spent for than 10K on a vehicle and I rarely did anything to them other than put gas/ oil in them).

Finally, last year my 14 year old car started dying and I decided to treat myself to a new car or new to me car. Criteria...something relatively nice with 4 doors and either 4wd or AWD. Driving one day a nice lifted four door wrangler caught my eye and I remembered how fun my brothers was to drive. So I went on a test drive figuring I wouldn't like it and would eliminate it from the list...I was fairly set on a Audi S6 or WRX STI. Needless to say I never looked back. The timing was good to order up a 2012, so I did. First new car I've ever owned.

Fast forward a few months and I've gone from an "oil goes there, gas goes there" guy, to having done a few mods, installed my own lift and looking to do several more mods (front and rear bumpers + winch). Nothing quite like the feeling to taking a sawzall and drill to your less than 6 month old 35K+ vehicle! It's a sickness for sure, but I'm loving every minute of it!
 
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My family and I got into Geocaching. We found ourselves driving our two wheel drive Chevy suburban down dirt roads. As the geocaches got deeper and in harder terrain we found it hard to access them in this vehicle. Getting stuck in this gigantic vehicle sucked. One Sunday morning I was drinking coffee and fired up the laptop. I seen a 2008 JK 4x4 for sale in Thousand Oaks. I thought to myself......this is what we need. I turned and looked at my girl and said lets go. We drove my two wheel drive ford ranger to look at the JK. Not a half a block down the road on the test drive I knew it was going home with us. I never thought I would enjoy this jeep as much as we do. Turned out to be the best impulse buy I have ever made.
 
Wheeling has always been a part of my childhood. Have many a fond memory of wheeling with my Mom and Dad in their old 1974 Toyota Landcruiser and going all over the Anza-Borrego Desert & the Owens Valley. As I got older, the old Toyota became super expensive to maintain and my father got rid of it and eventually bought a Jeep. Now fast-forward some years later with my Intrepid getting ready to drain $5k in cash from my wallet I traded it in for a 2012 JKU Sport of my very own and I am loving it. Now I am planning a nice summer trip to take my Dad on some of the trails he used to take me on. So, in short, I guess I really should thank my Dad for my love of Jeeps and the desire to buy one for the last 12 years.
 
My love for offroading came about 2 yrs ago when i bought a 4X4 f150 and started driveing on dirt roads with my wife ( gf at the time) and exploring the back roads around us. One day my uncle to me down this trail that a series of 3 waterfalls and was hooked. Then all i wanted to do was go on trails and explore the dirt roads and trails of the country. As u can guese a stock truck isnt good for that and ended up doing close to 4500 dollars in damage to stering, driveline motor and few other things. Sold that for a car so family could go more places but all i want is a jeep so i could do more exploring. Ive always loved the look of jeeps and capability of them.
 
It all started in my childhood with atv's and snowmobiles. But having my best friend who I knew from 3 yrs killed in front of me on a trail because someone else was screwing around I hung up my helmet for awhile n found something alittle safer which was a lifted ford f150 flairside which was a sharp looking truck. But after blowing 2 new engines because it just wasn't made for running 37's and running full throttle threw the fields all day Haha. So after scraping that I bought a ram and used to beat that up till its was ready to retire. I saw wayalife vids and after going the dealer to get a new truck n seeing a 12 dealer lifted crush jeep I knew right away I needed to have one! So now I can enjoy going off-road again safety w the memory of my buddy and the whole jeep family. So now that im hooked my wish list is growing everyday and need another job just for the jeep!
 
My best friend got one and we wheeled it two days after buying...I then got hooked. Two years later I bought my own and haven't stopped modding or wheeling! Leaving for Moab in a week!!! 1500 miles one way to just...hop in the jeep and wheel some more :)
 
My Story

When I was a kid, my dad had a 73 FJ Land Cruiser. (we still have it and are building it up new) That thing was awesome in the day and ever since I always wanted something like it. Once I grew older, I began to see Jeeps on TV in movies and old shows (like the A-Team) and it made me want one so bad.

I never could aford one as a teenager, but when I met my beautiful wife years back in highschool, we always talked about getting one once we got married. Well, a few years went by (college for both of us), I got a new job in my career field and my wife was already working in hers; one night I sat down in the dining room with the laptop sat her down with me and we began to look at the options Jeep had at the time (this was '08). We checked out some Youtube videos of people with the new JKU and we were sold.

The next day we went down to the dealer and started to look. I wanted a brand new vehicle because I never had one before and I thought it would be a great idea, and besides, at the time Jeep was offering the limited lifetime warrenty on the drivetrain for the first owner of the vehicle. It took three days to find the Jeep I wanted; the dealer had to drive out of state to pick it up because it was the only Rubicon that had a towing package and all the other options that I wanted. I didn't want the Flame Red color, i wanted Deep Water Blue, but they couldn't find one for me so I settled with Red.

We modded it up as much as we could afford over the next couple of years (lift-kit, wheels, winch and other minor stuff). Then near the end of '11 I heard about the new pentastar engine and the extra gear in the box for highway and I just had to have it; We traded up and transfered all the equipment from the '09 to the '12.

So here we are now with the new Jeep and my wife says I can't buy another one until this one is paid off. :thumb:

Sorry for the long story. I cut out a lot of detail to make it somewhat shorter. :brows:

Then
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Now
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:standing wave::standing wave::standing wave:
 
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:thumb: It's fun reading everyones story. It's not just another "car" it's a JEEP! and as you know they are different in a lot of ways, it's a love affair! Everyone that owns a jeep has a story. Keep the stories coming! They are awesome!!:clap2:
 
It started when my Acura got hit and totaled. Then my Volkswagens engine blew. My mom said why don't you just buy a jeep I was a little apprehensive at first but I'm in love now my Cherokee runs better than the previous cars (granted not as fast though) and it's just fun to drive. I love driving the back roads of Pa and Md. I love driving through the open fields spotting deer. It might be stock but it still goes everywhere I want it to go. Simply put I love my jeep I'll own it till it's rusted into the ground, then I'll get another

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Since I was 12/13, I fell in love with jeeps. My mom always thought they were dangerous and wouldn't let me get one. Then life happened, four kids later, it wasn't in the cards.
A few years ago, I went to do some work throughout Central America. In Belize, we rented a Cherokee. I was having a blast driving that thing. On the trip back to the states, I was talking with some buddies, two of which owned jeeps. I mentioned always wanting one and the one dude say what's stopping you. Damn right, what was stopping me? So I got home, told the wife I wanted to look at one at the dealership. Well, you know how the rest of this goes. Here she is. Still a work in progress, but having fun with her. Now my kids all want jeeps when the can "drive".

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When I was around 12 years old I lived in upstate New York. I grew up but ing and fishing. We used to have neighbor that lived up the street from us. It was his vacation home away from the city. He asked my father to bring him out hunting one day. We took his new Cherokee at the time. After hunting we decided to drive around and we found an old dried up stream coming from the mountain. The Cherokee was stock and we climbed up the stream bed in that thing. It was the most fun I had going less than 5 mph. I never forgot it. About 8 years ago I ran across a 99 XJ on Craigslist and bought it for $2800 with only 80k miles on it. Started with a teraflex 2" spacer lit and 31's and graduated to a rustysoffroad 6.5" lift with 35's. If any of you have a current omix-Ada / rugged ridge catalogue its on page x3. Since then we've owned an '89 YJ, '88 MJ, and now the JK. Although only the JK remains, it will stay with us until it falls apart. Already planning on a new 2 door for the Mrs.
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I mis my MJ though.
 
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TwistedJK said:
When I was around 12 years old I lived in upstate New York. I grew up but ing and fishing. We used to have neighbor that lived up the street from us. It was his vacation home away from the city. He asked my father to bring him out hunting one day. We took his new Cherokee at the time. After hunting we decided to drive around and we found an old dried up stream coming from the mountain. The Cherokee was stock and we climbed up the stream bed in that thing. It was the most fun I had going less than 5 mph. I never forgot it. About 8 years ago I ran across a 99 XJ on Craigslist and bought it for $2800 with only 80k miles on it. Started with a teraflex 2" spacer lit and 31's and graduated to a rustysoffroad 6.5" lift with 35's. If any of you have a current omix-Ada / rugged ridge catalogue its on page x3. Since then we've owned an '89 YJ, '88 MJ, and now the JK. Although only the JK remains, it will stay with us until it falls apart. Already planning on a new 2 door for the Mrs.
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I mis my MJ though.
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That's awesome. I hope to have a similar story for my son like that.
 
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