Jeepstertom
New member
1992 Jeep Cherokee XJ Limited (what's left of it):
I bought this as a Covid (2022) project to turn into a full blown camper cutting the body off from b-pillar back and incorporating a metal frame and foam panels to construct a "living" area (plans have changed). I paid the Covid premium for this XJ. It's a west coast XJ, but lived on a ranch on the CA central coast (ocean front) and was used by the caretaker (an old marine biologist surfer) to maintain the ranch. Thus, it has/had rust. Lots of it. It was very rough when I bought it, but I drove it home 5 hours and maybe touched the brakes two or three times due to the rotten brake lines. I promptly went to work on maintenance and removing the beat interior. The roof had a ton of rust, which aligns with my plan of cutting away most of it anyway, so the majority of the skin was removed. Note the drip rails and the structure below was kept in place. A 2x2 steel frame was welded into the opening and reinforced to the drip rail in multiple ways. This is stronger than the original skin (google rolled XJs), but I will still be adding a triangulated "roll bar" section behind the front seats to increase safety and roof strength. I've completed a large amount of work up to this point just making it safe, sound, and better set-up.
Current plan:
I finish a college program at the end of this year and after have plans to finally take an XJ on a solo cross-country road trip with many dirt miles. I haven't decided if I am removing the passenger seat to incorporate a sleeping platform (6ft tall), or adding a roof top tent to keep the interior open. After this trip I plan on keeping this XJ around as a basic off-road capable rig for travel that doubles as a "bug-out" rig that could sustain life for around a month. The road trip should help me figure out what is needed. I can't afford the "rock crawler" lifestyle currently, so it's going to be cheap and mild, but effective.
Here forward (August 2025):
- 4.0 - Auto - NP231w/sye - 156kmiles
- ~4" lift with control arm drop and adjustable shackle boxes in the rear. Some nice parts here and there. Drives surprisingly well
- 32x11.5 older KM2s with near 90% life on 15x7 Alloys.
- Currie Steering with Barnes Steering Box Brace
- Dana 30 front axle - 4.10s - Truetrac LS - Fully rebuilt everything
- Currie HP60 Rear Axle with Explorer Discs - 4.10s - Truetrac (now you know why I bought it)
- Bumpers (likely to be swapped).
- 95-96 Dual Diaphragm Booster swap - ALL New Ni-cop hard lines - Wilwood Adj. Prop. Valve.
- Most regular supporting minor mods.
I bought this as a Covid (2022) project to turn into a full blown camper cutting the body off from b-pillar back and incorporating a metal frame and foam panels to construct a "living" area (plans have changed). I paid the Covid premium for this XJ. It's a west coast XJ, but lived on a ranch on the CA central coast (ocean front) and was used by the caretaker (an old marine biologist surfer) to maintain the ranch. Thus, it has/had rust. Lots of it. It was very rough when I bought it, but I drove it home 5 hours and maybe touched the brakes two or three times due to the rotten brake lines. I promptly went to work on maintenance and removing the beat interior. The roof had a ton of rust, which aligns with my plan of cutting away most of it anyway, so the majority of the skin was removed. Note the drip rails and the structure below was kept in place. A 2x2 steel frame was welded into the opening and reinforced to the drip rail in multiple ways. This is stronger than the original skin (google rolled XJs), but I will still be adding a triangulated "roll bar" section behind the front seats to increase safety and roof strength. I've completed a large amount of work up to this point just making it safe, sound, and better set-up.
Current plan:
I finish a college program at the end of this year and after have plans to finally take an XJ on a solo cross-country road trip with many dirt miles. I haven't decided if I am removing the passenger seat to incorporate a sleeping platform (6ft tall), or adding a roof top tent to keep the interior open. After this trip I plan on keeping this XJ around as a basic off-road capable rig for travel that doubles as a "bug-out" rig that could sustain life for around a month. The road trip should help me figure out what is needed. I can't afford the "rock crawler" lifestyle currently, so it's going to be cheap and mild, but effective.
Here forward (August 2025):
- New ethos of "Minimum Effective Dose" - only whats needed and light as possible
- Possibly drop to 31's
- DIY lightest winch bumper build + winch
- Headlight/wiring upgrade
- Finish rear bumper stuff or swap to stock plus DIY Tow points
- Pick and build sleeping set-up
- Any final maintenance work.
- Cosmetics (minimal)
- Larger tranny cooler install
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