advantureroad
New member
Hello everyone. Picked this 98 up a few weeks ago for $1000. Runs pretty decent for its age, but the previous owner had it for several years and only used it in the winter. Didn’t want his nice cars getting eaten up by the Iowa road salt. By the looks of it, an oil change every 3 or 4 years was the only maintenance it’s ever had. Has some unibody rot I’m gonna have to repair as well as a full brake job and steering rebuild. I was going back and forth for quite a while on maybe getting something newer, but in the end decided I just didn’t want the car payment. I’ve heard and read how great these things are off road, decently comfortable on road, and easy/cheap to maintain. What I never heard was what a pain they are to get into. I’m 6ft, and have to do some serious body crunching to get in. I’m sure I’ll get used to it. The fugly wheels have definitely got to go. I don’t do any major rock crawling or mudding. I live in Iowa and get out to Colorado, South Dakota and other places with trails maybe twice a year. So far all done in my Chevy express van without any problems. Only drawbacks I’ve had with the van is the long wheel base on tighter trails(nothing even mildly hardcore) and obviously the 1 wheel drive in some situations. This is what lead me to the jeep. So I’m curious and would like to hear from anyone running stock height jeeps and how far you’ve been able to go, any regrets lifting or not? I’m not worried so much about dropping the money for the lift kit as much as I am the hit on gas mileage. Not expecting super great fuel economy or anything with and old box of a vehicle, but I’d like to get the best I can.