- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
Obviously this is a built crawler, but a TJ with a TDI....
Bench Racing; New Daily Driver, diesel powered 4x4 truck
- Thread starter Greg
- Start date
- Location
- Bountiful, land of rocks
Make it an LJ and give it some wheelbase? I've been driving a TJ all week with a spacer lift. It actually doesn't ride/drive to bad. The soft top isn't the most pleasant but it's kind of haggard at the moment. If you took a TJ to LJ specs with a hard top, I think your idea would be pretty sweet?
- Location
- Grantsville, Utah
TJ truck. I'm sure that's what you meant to say.
- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
I really don't want/need another project, with a TJ/LJ conversion... but I agree, a LJ would drive much better on the freeway and offer more cargo room. I would love a LJ, but they start at $9k where I can pickup a TJ for $2-3k.
I'd run a hardtop and hard doors, add insulation to the top and sound deadening material to the cab & tub.
Yeah....
- Location
- Bountiful, land of rocks
I haven’t seen an LJ for $9k?
- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
RockChucker
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Highland
A feller I work with bought a wrecked 04 LJ off Davey's Jeeps for like $4500. I think it was like $900 shipping to his house and another few hundred to make it driveable with suspension and front axle replacement. Their stock is always turning over.
http://daveysjeeps.com/repairables.html
http://daveysjeeps.com/repairables.html
- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
That's a great deal! I've looked at their inventory before, not a bad option!
- Location
- Bountiful, land of rocks
That green LJ is killing me.... anyone interested in a trail Jeep?
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Wow it is even close to my house.
- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
Swap a TDI into a 2WD Ranger and I bet you'd see 40+ MPG on highway drives, long as the gearing was right.
- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
Bumping this back up... I've still been looking for a clean XJ with a manual trans and a reasonable price, but that's HARD to find! I could find a clean auto trans XJ and swap a manual in, but if I'm going to do that I feel like starting with a Grand Cherokee and swapping a AX-15 manual in would result in a more refined vehicle.
I'm think of a WJ in this case. I found a pretty clean '99 that has a 4.7 V8 that has a rod knock for $750. The thing is, the Grand Cherokee is around 1000#'s more than a XJ. The 4.7 makes around 300 ft/lbs of torque... which would be very similar to a TDI with injectors, bigger turbo and a tune. I'd expect somewhere around 30 MPG out of it with the TDI.
Is it worth all the effort and getting a 'better' vehicle in the end? Or just keep looking for a manual XJ? The manual XJ would make the swap much easier and cheaper in the end.
I'm think of a WJ in this case. I found a pretty clean '99 that has a 4.7 V8 that has a rod knock for $750. The thing is, the Grand Cherokee is around 1000#'s more than a XJ. The 4.7 makes around 300 ft/lbs of torque... which would be very similar to a TDI with injectors, bigger turbo and a tune. I'd expect somewhere around 30 MPG out of it with the TDI.
Is it worth all the effort and getting a 'better' vehicle in the end? Or just keep looking for a manual XJ? The manual XJ would make the swap much easier and cheaper in the end.