Ddge6spdRam

I have been thinking the same thing,about getting a Cherokee and chopping off behind the rear seats and building a caga for it. I would like something to ride the trails up here ssince I can go more place in a 4x4 then I can a quad. I have been looking at Amigos,Rodeo,Troopers,Wranglers,Cherokees,Nissans, Toyotas,anything 4x4. I just need to roll in the cash for the 4x4 and to buy a car that has a 3800 S/C engine in it.

If you get a Cherokee at first I would just sawz-all the fender wells and put larger tires on it and maybe some spring spacers. That is all I am going to be doing if i buy a little 4x4 since I really don't need any high lift on it.

Fronty Owner

but you can only have so much travel when your connected in the middle of the vehicle.
when you move your pivot point to the center of the wheel base, you can have more travel. The limiting factor is your springs and U-joints. A spring will only stretch so much.

Ramtough

Just keep in mind before chopping the body up, that the xj cherokees( the small ones made form 84- 02 are unibody and will need every bit of that cage for structural tie in points. otherwise youll flex the floorpan and lower door pillars into a pretzel the first time you twist it up. as far as best years, anything after 92- 93 when the switched from the renix fuel injection to the chrysler one. early models were designated H.O. for high output. 96 -up they made improvments to the drivetrain and in 97 gave the vehicle a minor facelift and stiffened the body up 30%. the last couple of years also switched to distributorless coil on plug (good) and added two precats to the exhaust (bad) among other slight changes.

If you do stay with an older version you might luck out and find a late 80's model with a dana 44 under the back.
Jeepsunlimted.com is where i used to go on the web but that site has some trolls lurking. good info if you can sift through it all.

Here is a link to mine http://community.webshots.com/user/mongoose19
I have let the poor jeep go and its been sitting for over a year now and im getting an itch to get er running again especially now that i have the dodge to possibly trailer it around.
goodluck with your choice just rememebr these two acronyms. Just Empty Every Pocket and Jerk Engineered Every Part! Its a love Hate relationship