Guy
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 5, 2018
- Messages
- 473
I'll start this as a six-year report, and you guys can have at it as you will of course. 
After decades of using full-size 4x4's as my hunting rigs, I wanted a smaller, easier-to-maneuver rig, and also, well, I just wanted a Jeep. I'd had good results with Cherokee and Grand Cherokee vehicles as family haulers over the years but had long wanted a CJ, YJ, TJ, JK kind of rig. In 2012 I finally made it happen, with a base model "Sport" Wrangler. This one didn't come with many options. Even has hand-cranked windows, and a manual transmission.
Knowing where I like to hunt and fish, I almost immediately put some good all-terrain tires and a winch on it. Used it like that for a couple of years, sorting out my priorities, and then made a few other changes. Maybe I should have started out with a Rubicon, 'cause I've almost made it into a Rubicon? But... It's my Jeep and it's working out well. Ya, it's small. That's good, and bad. The day I got it home, I pulled the rear seat out. In the past six years, it's been back inside the Jeep maybe a week or two... At most. I use that boxy cargo area to haul my gun dog, camping gear, coolers, snowshoes, dead animals, whatever.
Pulled the carpet long ago. Just have some rubber floor mats now. Kinda noisy, but it's awfully easy to clean.
Let me see if I can think of all the big game critters it has hauled in the past six years:
4 whitetail deer carcasses (three of them at once!)
4 antelope
6 mule deer
2 black bear
Yup, that's about it. One deer I hauled on a rack plugged into the receiver hitch, but I've managed to cram all the rest of those animals inside. Mostly by quartering or boning them out and putting 'em in the coolers. Did transport three whitetail carcasses at once. That was quite the load of venison! Our friends had a very fancy SUV, and they didn't want those nasty carcasses inside it! Ha! So they carried our gear, and we put the deer in my Jeep.
Our bear season in Washington starts in August, and there's a deer season in September, so I do some warm weather hunting. One terrific addition was a 63 qt ARB fridge! Keeps my food icy cold running on the battery.
I wanted a little more tire, went with 285/75/16's, which is about a 33x11.50. I've tried both Toyo Mud Terrain and BFG All Terrain. Most of the time I favor the all terrain tires. They're 10-ply, so the little Jeep has a LOT more tire than it needs.
This required re-gearing to keep the little 3.6 V6 (285 hp) happy and I had a local shop drop the gearing from the stock 3.21's, down to 4.10's, and also add aftermarket air-lockers as well as an underhood air compressor. This has been a happy combo. The vast majority of the time of course, even off road, I'm running around with the diffs unlocked. Now and then I can lock the diffs as needed. I've used the rear diff lock quite a few times, but the front hasn't been of much use. Also added custom driveshafts front and rear and replaced the axle shafts in the front Dana 30 with heavy duty shafts.
Since the little Jeep needed a little more tire clearance, and I tend to carry some pretty heavy loads in it, a 2.5" Teraflex suspension was installed, with the heavier springs for a 4-door Wangler used in the back. Fox shocks and some other heavy duty steering & suspension components finished out those mods. It handles great, on and off road, though it is a pretty stiff ride on-road, when lightly loaded. That's as expected with the 10 ply rated tires and the heavy duty springs & shocks.
All was well, but... Sometimes I wanted to haul more gear for a more comfortable camp. Ran across a great deal on a small, used, "off-road" type trailer, a "Basecamp" trailer from Prescott Arizona. Welded aluminum box on a steel frame. Timbren suspension so there's no axle underneath, trailer brakes. Pretty simple, rugged setup. The "box" is roughly 6' long, 4' wide and 2' deep and it locks. The trailer has been useful on some longer trips or when I just wanted to take more gear. I could also use the trailer for hauling big game carcasses, but so far have not.
I live, and mostly fish & hunt in central Washington, but being semi-retired, I do like to take some trips. The Jeep has been up to Fairbanks, Alaska and back. That was a memorable 4,500 mile trip. Last spring it went on a sweep through the southwest; Utah, Arizona, Nevada, California, and back home to Washington for 3,600 miles, with the trailer along. Four trips to Wyoming now, about 2,000 miles per trip. I do wish the Jeep got better fuel economy, averages about 16 - 17 mpg on most trips. Did better on the trip to and from Alaska, I think because of the lower speed limits I encountered in British Columbia and Yukon.
The Jeep has adequate power, it's actually pretty sprightly when lightly loaded. The "Pentastar" V6 is a huge improvement over the earlier 3.8 liter V6, and with the manual six-speed & 4.10's acceleration is brisk. Heavily loaded, it's adequate. But... It gives up a lot to the V8 powered pickups & SUV's.
Comfort too is adequate, but again, a nice truck or SUV is a lot more comfortable, particularly for long trips.
Crossing a rain-swollen creek, trailer in tow:
Top of the World Highway, outside of Dawson City, Yukon:
Extra 5 gallons of fuel was a comfort on the trip to and from Alaska:
Winter camps:
Poking around the southwest last spring:
All in all, six years and 80,000 miles later, I'm still enjoying the heck out of the little Jeep. Probably should have bought a 4-door Rubicon to start with, but this is kind of neat, I've been able to modify it slowly over time, to fit my requirements.
Regards, Guy
After decades of using full-size 4x4's as my hunting rigs, I wanted a smaller, easier-to-maneuver rig, and also, well, I just wanted a Jeep. I'd had good results with Cherokee and Grand Cherokee vehicles as family haulers over the years but had long wanted a CJ, YJ, TJ, JK kind of rig. In 2012 I finally made it happen, with a base model "Sport" Wrangler. This one didn't come with many options. Even has hand-cranked windows, and a manual transmission.
Knowing where I like to hunt and fish, I almost immediately put some good all-terrain tires and a winch on it. Used it like that for a couple of years, sorting out my priorities, and then made a few other changes. Maybe I should have started out with a Rubicon, 'cause I've almost made it into a Rubicon? But... It's my Jeep and it's working out well. Ya, it's small. That's good, and bad. The day I got it home, I pulled the rear seat out. In the past six years, it's been back inside the Jeep maybe a week or two... At most. I use that boxy cargo area to haul my gun dog, camping gear, coolers, snowshoes, dead animals, whatever.
Pulled the carpet long ago. Just have some rubber floor mats now. Kinda noisy, but it's awfully easy to clean.
Let me see if I can think of all the big game critters it has hauled in the past six years:
4 whitetail deer carcasses (three of them at once!)
4 antelope
6 mule deer
2 black bear
Yup, that's about it. One deer I hauled on a rack plugged into the receiver hitch, but I've managed to cram all the rest of those animals inside. Mostly by quartering or boning them out and putting 'em in the coolers. Did transport three whitetail carcasses at once. That was quite the load of venison! Our friends had a very fancy SUV, and they didn't want those nasty carcasses inside it! Ha! So they carried our gear, and we put the deer in my Jeep.
Our bear season in Washington starts in August, and there's a deer season in September, so I do some warm weather hunting. One terrific addition was a 63 qt ARB fridge! Keeps my food icy cold running on the battery.
I wanted a little more tire, went with 285/75/16's, which is about a 33x11.50. I've tried both Toyo Mud Terrain and BFG All Terrain. Most of the time I favor the all terrain tires. They're 10-ply, so the little Jeep has a LOT more tire than it needs.
This required re-gearing to keep the little 3.6 V6 (285 hp) happy and I had a local shop drop the gearing from the stock 3.21's, down to 4.10's, and also add aftermarket air-lockers as well as an underhood air compressor. This has been a happy combo. The vast majority of the time of course, even off road, I'm running around with the diffs unlocked. Now and then I can lock the diffs as needed. I've used the rear diff lock quite a few times, but the front hasn't been of much use. Also added custom driveshafts front and rear and replaced the axle shafts in the front Dana 30 with heavy duty shafts.
Since the little Jeep needed a little more tire clearance, and I tend to carry some pretty heavy loads in it, a 2.5" Teraflex suspension was installed, with the heavier springs for a 4-door Wangler used in the back. Fox shocks and some other heavy duty steering & suspension components finished out those mods. It handles great, on and off road, though it is a pretty stiff ride on-road, when lightly loaded. That's as expected with the 10 ply rated tires and the heavy duty springs & shocks.
All was well, but... Sometimes I wanted to haul more gear for a more comfortable camp. Ran across a great deal on a small, used, "off-road" type trailer, a "Basecamp" trailer from Prescott Arizona. Welded aluminum box on a steel frame. Timbren suspension so there's no axle underneath, trailer brakes. Pretty simple, rugged setup. The "box" is roughly 6' long, 4' wide and 2' deep and it locks. The trailer has been useful on some longer trips or when I just wanted to take more gear. I could also use the trailer for hauling big game carcasses, but so far have not.
I live, and mostly fish & hunt in central Washington, but being semi-retired, I do like to take some trips. The Jeep has been up to Fairbanks, Alaska and back. That was a memorable 4,500 mile trip. Last spring it went on a sweep through the southwest; Utah, Arizona, Nevada, California, and back home to Washington for 3,600 miles, with the trailer along. Four trips to Wyoming now, about 2,000 miles per trip. I do wish the Jeep got better fuel economy, averages about 16 - 17 mpg on most trips. Did better on the trip to and from Alaska, I think because of the lower speed limits I encountered in British Columbia and Yukon.
The Jeep has adequate power, it's actually pretty sprightly when lightly loaded. The "Pentastar" V6 is a huge improvement over the earlier 3.8 liter V6, and with the manual six-speed & 4.10's acceleration is brisk. Heavily loaded, it's adequate. But... It gives up a lot to the V8 powered pickups & SUV's.
Comfort too is adequate, but again, a nice truck or SUV is a lot more comfortable, particularly for long trips.
Crossing a rain-swollen creek, trailer in tow:
Top of the World Highway, outside of Dawson City, Yukon:
Extra 5 gallons of fuel was a comfort on the trip to and from Alaska:
Winter camps:
Poking around the southwest last spring:
All in all, six years and 80,000 miles later, I'm still enjoying the heck out of the little Jeep. Probably should have bought a 4-door Rubicon to start with, but this is kind of neat, I've been able to modify it slowly over time, to fit my requirements.
Regards, Guy
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