Last fall I went with some friends off roading in Gorges State Park on a 17 mile jeep trail with a couple of trucks. Since that time, one of my friends and I have been wanting more off road capable vehicles. I told Ericka my desire to some day have a Jeep or some other vehicle that I could take off roading. Ericka told me she loved off roading as well and would love for me to have an off road vehicle. Ericka and I started dating later and got married and we have continued to look for an off road vehicle. We decided that once we found one we would sell her two wheel drive Ford Expedition and the jeep would be hers to drive. The kids also love off roading and we have done softroading in my Subaru Forester, but it does have it's limitations, one being the CV Transmission, one of Subaru's flaws. Ericka and I have showed the kids the kind of Jeep that we want and since she and the kids are big car nuts they are always spotting Jeeps and other older muscle cars that they like.
After months of hunting around on Craigslist and Facebook Market Place, I found a couple of Jeeps that could be possibilities. I sent the links over to our friend Blake and he said that one of them looked like a really good deal. So on a Sunday in July, Blake, Stacey, Ericka and I went to look at the Jeep. After test driving it and talking it over we decided that despite the minor repairs, the price that the seller was will to let it go for was well worth the problems that Ericka and Blake could fix easily. The repairs had to be done right then as the power steering was leaking bad which turned out to be a broken hose. Also had some brake problems although they were not bad enough to keep us from getting it home. On the way home we stopped at Blake's house to replace the radiator and see if we could get the brakes working correctly. The seller told us that the radiator needed to be replaced and that he had it in the back of the Jeep. Turns out the box he had in the back was the AC condenser instead. So he was either wrong or he thought he had put the radiator in the back or something. Anyway went and picked up a radiator. Worked on the brakes and could not get them to work right. Later we came to the conclusion that it was the master cylinder that was bad so I ordered one.
Since the Jeep is going to be Ericka's she had to get the tag, title, registration and insurance in TN. Tuesday, Blake came over and put the master cylinder in the Jeep and we got the tag on it and Wednesday we took it off roading out near Dupont Forest. The Jeep is awesome. The seller was building it to be a rock crawler so it is quite lifted with big off road tires. Everything that we threw at it, took it as if it was not there. Had a lot of fun playing in mud puddles and had to pull Blake out because he bottomed out in a mud hole.