Jeeper from St Louis
 

I'm a Jeep guy from St Louis who is fed-up with the price of gasoline. I currently don't use either of my Jeeps for daily driving duties except when the weather is 'really bad' or 'really nice'. My current DD is an 07 Dodge Grand Caravan... it's got the fuel milage computer thing, which is how I got turned on to hypermiling and ecomodding. My wife won't let me do very much to the Grand, so I'm currently scouring the classifieds (craigs list) for something small that I can mod.

btw: I've been modifying vehicles for 25 years... from Mustangs to Jeeps. I'm currently building a new suspension for my 01 TJ (which I designed myself), and collecting parts for a complete frame-off of an 84 CJ7. I was an Avionics technician on F-14 Tomcats during Desert Storm. So electricity is something I know pretty well. If I can help any of y'all, just ask.

Anyway, happy to be aboard (but waiting for the right deal to pop up on a hypermiler project)!

Welcome. There are a few Jeeps here. I'm trying to get my brother to join, too. He's got an 1954 Army Jeep and a Jeep Liberty.

welcome fellow jeeper!!

Jeepers... Commence!!!! lol, welcome to EM.

Welcome to EM. What kind of setup are you running on your TJ?

I've gone a bunch of different ways with my TJ over the years. At one point, I daily drove it with 4" lift and 33's. That got expensive! Now, it's pretty much a toy.

Currently, the TJ sits on 35's with maybe 6" of lift. I'm building my own long arms for it. The upper rear, I built a triangulated upper A-arm type set-up. The rear lowers use Currie johnny joints on one end and stock rubber bushings on the other. The rear suspension is fairly close to being finished. The only work left is to recess some new upper shock mounts into the frame and build some lower mounts behind the control arm brackets. I should have the new shocks this weekend, and plenty of time to work on the thing. So it may finally be back on all 4 wheels soon. It's been in the garage since November. The front end still needs to be designed and built. But I'm not sure if I want to go with a '4-link radius arm' or a '3-link+trackbar' set-up. So I may just keep the short arms on it for a little while longer.

I've built alot of stuff on the TJ... the winch mount/bumper, rocker guards, skid plates, etc. The engine is a 4.0L with an AW4 transmission (from an XJ). It's got Sirius radio, and a couple amps powering the soundbar and a sub recessed into the rear seat. The head unit is an Infinity Gold CD, taken from a ZJ (took way more work than just slapping it in). The axles are stock dana 30/dana 44 for now. There's way more...

The CJ7 is as bone-stock as they come except for a CB and a plow. It was my uncles Jeep. My kid will be driving this year, so we're rebuilding it together for him to use... The plan is to return it to 'almost showroom' condition. It may get an inch lift, so as to clear a set of 31's on a seperate set of stock rims (wheelin' tires). But otherwise, it's going to be an around-town cruiser on showroom tires.

The minivan is pretty new. It's my wifes. But my work is farther than hers, so I drop her off every morning. She won't let me mod it. But I have been hypermiling it when she's not around :) I'm can get a pretty consistant 24mpg in the thing. The trip to and from work is about 50/50 city/hwy driving. So that's decent. She gets too nervous when I shut the engine off on the highway, so I limit that kind of stuff to when she's not around. Otherwise, I set the cruise at 55-60 and watch the gas guzzlers pass from my spot in the right lane.

The minivan is nice, but I'm on the lookout for a small car to just mod-out. Y'all have alot of great ideas! So I'm inspired (that could be dangerous).

Welcome to EM!

Are you a member of the StL Jeep Club? They help out with a Rally race every year down in MO, where I get to hang out with the members for a couple of days. Great group of folks.

That's great that you're looking for a small commuter car -- it sounds like you're on the right track.

Best FE to Ya...:thumbup:

RH77

That group of Jeepers are mostly from Midwest Jeepthing and/or a couple other local clubs (there are half a dozen Jeep clubs in StL). I was once a member of all the St Louis area Jeep clubs, but it got to be too much going to meetings and such. So now I just stick to one (Metro East Jeepthing). I'm still friends with alot of those guys tho, who help with the 100 acre wood rally.

Yea, more Jeeps! :)

Welcome! Let the TJ's be represented!