My jeep (RIP or SAVE IT???)

We went out wheeling this weekend with the S&N Fab guys from Washington and had a great weekend. Lots of fun times and crazy crawling. Yesterday as I was driving back up to the tow rigs my steering was feeling a little funny and I jumped out to check it. Even with my 3/16th steering box reinforcement on the outside of the "frame rail" I ripped the unibody in half. Basically from the back edge of the plating that I did the unibody just tore all the way across the bottom and up the back side, when I steer the whole front of my jeep moves back and forth. Also right where I ended my subframing (right where the "frame rail" goes from flat to where it bends up in the front) my unibody folded a little bit. I'm tired of working with this unibody shit, especially after seeing some badass buggys school my cherokee on the trail. I dont' know if I should plate the hell out of it and wheel it some more till it dies or let her rest in peace now and build something that actually has a frame? What do ya think?
-cal

Ya know, it's OK if you're not having fun in this league and want to drop down to one where they use frames.

:dunno:

if what you have is not workign for you, then just take that leap and kiss your xj goodbye. however you will become one of the many who have this little buggy thing that...well its just not right. but to be able to wheel something and still be able to drive to get groceries(or whatever it is you may need) is pretty cool.

but yeah, if a buggy is what you want then go get started on that thing

wow you guys are almost as bad as land cruiser guys where you are in your own little world. A little world where cherokees are the shit and nothing else is worthy. Let me tell ya, the cherokee world isn't an elite league! Have fun playing around on the trail with all the hundreds of thousand highschoolers with a lifted cherokee who think they are the shit.
-cal

You asked what WE thought you should do. This is a forum dedicated to Cherokees. What were we supposed to say "Yea we think you should ditch the Cherokee???"

I'm tired of working with this unibody shit, especially after seeing some badass buggys school my cherokee on the trail.

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You said it yourself. If you don't want an XJ anymore then get rid of it and don't bother to ask us for our opinion. I don't know if your XJ was a daily driver or not but you certinatly can't drive around on ethe street every day in a buggy.

"I don't know if your XJ was a daily driver or not but you certinatly can't drive around on ethe street every day in a buggy."

Why not? And who nominated you for WE?

I drove my hardtail chopper to college and work every day for about a year, also before I went in the service, I daily-drove a two-stroke enduro bike (both were hardly "street legal"-other than the tag on the fender- and yes, there were compromises) First wifey had a 70 Coronet R/T 440 for a DD :dunno: Classy but a tad uneconomical...

The XJ is multi-purpose, but again there are compromises being made. At one end of the spectrum ya have a great little grocery-getter that can run some mild trails, at the other you end up with a built rig that can run harder trails but tends to self-destruct over time, and becomes very labor-intensive to 'harden' the uniframe. Some folks take the XJ into that 'next level' where many of the OEM drawbacks are exorcised, but at the expense of some versatility.

Some states are fairly restrictive as to what they'll let ya put on the road, others are not...

I like to keep an open mind about things... and truth be told, I don't have ANY projects on my wish list that have anything to do with XJs, MJs, or Jeeps of any flavor. It's people like jeepguy97 that make me look SO forward to next year. 81 and a wakeup

I was aying that if he drove the XJ on the street all the time as well, that a buggy would probably not be very practical. I suppose you could drive a buggy on the road but most I've seen aren't legal and I know I would get tired of paying fines all the time.

Just keep the xj title and use enough of the sheetmetal on the buggy to call it a cherokee. But if you were trailoring the xj it's probably not a big deal. At some point everyones xj will be on the verge of self destructing and you will either get a new one and start over, get out the tube bender and plasma cutter and end up like Beezils' or One Tons rigs or build a buggy. It's all about what makes sense to you.