mightyhare
New member
First post: 
Earlier this year, a friend and I organized some adventure bike training in the Uwharries (central NC) and I spotted a blue, dust covered XJ sitting in a barn at the training grounds. It appeared to have been sitting there for years, so I asked the property owner about it. He had parked the Jeep expecting for it to be his nephew's first vehicle, but he's decided to sell it since his nephew has no interest in driving any time soon. I've been back and forth for the last few months on adding another vehicle to the fleet, but my little daily (2006 Sentra with +400k miles) is really starting to show it's age and it's not the kind of vehicle that I get excited about working on. I figure I can daily drive the Jeep for awhile, so I sold my mighty Yamaha TW200 to a buddy and grabbed the Jeep a couple of days later.
I spent the weekend getting the Jeep sorted for inspection and thinking about what I wanna do with it. It will be used as a commuter, motorbike tow-rig, and I'll camp out of it at motorbike events. I can see myself running some of the neat overland/motorcycle routes here in the South Eastern United States. My Sentra has done most of the above, so I reckon leaving the Jeep mostly stock will suffice.
The suspension is sagging a bit, so I've ordered springs that, I think, will get me pretty close to the ride height of a stock XJ with the Up Country Package. I ordered a set of Bilstein shocks to go along with them. I'm looking forward to seeing how it all works out. For tires, 225/75r16 seems like a decent compromise so I'll grab a set of 3PMSF all-terrains. Given all of the space in the Jeep vs my Sentra, a larger ground tent is on my mind. Crawling in and out of my small 2P tent is kind of a drag. Something like the Gazelle T3 seems like it'd be a huge upgrade; maybe a RTT? I'll keep an eye on the used market and see what I can find.
To-do list:
Previous adventure rig:
The XJ in question:
Earlier this year, a friend and I organized some adventure bike training in the Uwharries (central NC) and I spotted a blue, dust covered XJ sitting in a barn at the training grounds. It appeared to have been sitting there for years, so I asked the property owner about it. He had parked the Jeep expecting for it to be his nephew's first vehicle, but he's decided to sell it since his nephew has no interest in driving any time soon. I've been back and forth for the last few months on adding another vehicle to the fleet, but my little daily (2006 Sentra with +400k miles) is really starting to show it's age and it's not the kind of vehicle that I get excited about working on. I figure I can daily drive the Jeep for awhile, so I sold my mighty Yamaha TW200 to a buddy and grabbed the Jeep a couple of days later.
I spent the weekend getting the Jeep sorted for inspection and thinking about what I wanna do with it. It will be used as a commuter, motorbike tow-rig, and I'll camp out of it at motorbike events. I can see myself running some of the neat overland/motorcycle routes here in the South Eastern United States. My Sentra has done most of the above, so I reckon leaving the Jeep mostly stock will suffice.
The suspension is sagging a bit, so I've ordered springs that, I think, will get me pretty close to the ride height of a stock XJ with the Up Country Package. I ordered a set of Bilstein shocks to go along with them. I'm looking forward to seeing how it all works out. For tires, 225/75r16 seems like a decent compromise so I'll grab a set of 3PMSF all-terrains. Given all of the space in the Jeep vs my Sentra, a larger ground tent is on my mind. Crawling in and out of my small 2P tent is kind of a drag. Something like the Gazelle T3 seems like it'd be a huge upgrade; maybe a RTT? I'll keep an eye on the used market and see what I can find.
To-do list:
Previous adventure rig:
The XJ in question:
