If my handle or Jeeps look familiar, you've probably seen some of my other stuff on the various other Wrangler Forums and pages. If you haven't, feel free to look around the links in my signature if you're bored...
Back in December 2023, my daughter was ~3 months into her permit (min of 6 months here in PA) and we were looking at some used cars/SUVs for her. We're up in the hills, with a really steep driveway, so when a guy that I used to coach with said he was selling his Jeep JKU Islander, I immediately asked for some more details. I knew some of the history and had seen it a handful of times and knew it would be a good option. This was still somewhat in the aftermath of the COVID used-car apocalypse, where used Kia SUV's were fetching nearly $20k. We did some negotiating and ended up getting the Island for a smoking price (at the time!).
[The Islander back in Dec 2023, with only 78,000 miles on the odometer]
I spent a few months letting my daughter practice driving it. In that time, we found a hardtop (it's a lot easier in the winters with constantly having to put bookbags and sports gear in the back), put some new tires on it, changed the fluids, etc. Also during that time, I found myself driving it more and more, appreciating the extra space (compared to my LJ) for camera equipment and coaching bags.
One day after a mid July practice, I ended up taking my son and two of his friends home. At this time my daughter was fully licensed and I hadn't been driving her JKU much at all, so I was basically driving my LJ every day. I peaked in the back to see if the boys were buckled up, and the two in the back had their knees up to their chins and it dawned on me just how small the LJ was. It was at this point that I realized that a SWB Jeep just wasn't going to cut it for anything but a "fun rig". I ended up making a comment about this on Facebook and said I should sell the LJ for something bigger. Lo and behold, I got a private message from someone on FB wanting to buy it. I shared the details (and my build page), and they drove all the way from Ohio to pick it up.
[The LJ waiting for its new owner to make the drive back from OH to pick her up]
Left with the need to replace the LJ, I was up in the air about what to get. I was looking at getting a new Ram Power Wagon, hoping that CJDR would bring back their 0% interest rate again to help with their massive overstock inventory. It would be a comfortable, but still a "practical" decision, since we also live up in the country and having a pick-up is handy for a number of reasons. However, the Power Wagon didn't have much of a "fun" factor, at least not like a Wrangler does. Getting the "itch" to replace the LJ was growing strong and I did some late night looking around on Marketplace and ran across this...
Three days later, I met the seller for a test drive. Other than a small dent in the driver front fender, and the absolutely filthy interior, the Jeep was in good overall condition for being 16 years old. Before I could even make an offer, the seller said that the absolute lowest he would go would be $6500. Knowing what the market was for these at the time, it was ~$2500 (locally at least) below what he could have gotten, had this thing had an oil change (or at least had the oil light cleared!) and gave the interior a decent cleaning. Needless to say, I drove my 209,000 mile, bright silver, 2008 JKU back home that afternoon.
Originally from Florida, with zero rot and just some mild surface rust on the frame rails, it seemed like a killer option for me to have a little fun with a new build, while still getting the space and practicality I needed. Here are some photos from the day I brought it home...
The filth on the inside of this thing would have made a lesser man vomit. I don't know how this guy, who bought this for his wife, actually intended her to drive it. This filth was just from the driver's door that I wiped clean so my arms and shirt wouldn't get stained... I don't know how some people live to be honest!
The seats... oh the seats. I don't know what the stains are from but they were disgusting. The saving grace with this Jeep was that despite the lack of cleaning, there weren't any atrocious smells.
With some Bissel "heavy stain" treatment, everything cleaned up nicely even after only a single pass.
I spent the first few days mapping out my build plan, but in the meantime I started to address some basic stuff to get her road worthy as school was about to start up for the year. The front brakes were easy enough. I threw these silly spacers in the trash and swapped the heavily warped "racecar" rotors out for some new Duralast Gold rotors from AutoZone (yay for 20% discount codes and free next-day shipping!) and a new set of DLG Pads.
Same thing for the rears. With some fresh caliper-pin grease and new pads and rotors all the way around, the braking wobble went away completely. I turkey-bastered the brake fluid reservoir and put fresh DOT 4 inside, then proceeded to bleed the front until fresh fluid came through.
In a stroke a good luck, I found a guy not too far away selling a set of Rubi Recon take-off wheels with near-new Cooper Discoverer AT3 - the same tires my wife has been running on her Grand Cherokee for a few years. These are excellent in the snow an as you can see in the photo, really helpful for our driveway. For $600 they were a good deal and fit well into my short term plans - they even came with brand new TPMS sensors. The seller also had a bunch of stock components - all low-mile take offs from his Recon build. He let me pick through what I wanted and I got a replacement set of UCAs to replace mine for pennies - win!!! On the same day, I met a lady who had a set of take-off Rubi rock rails for $100.
I figured if nothing else, the Rubi rails were better than leaving the surprisingly sharp and rusting remains of previously installed steps.It's amazing what some decent looking wheels and Rubi rails will do. Turns this from an old lady/man/mom car into something that isn't totally embarrassing in the parking lot.
I just recently replaced my daughter's garbage Kenwood headunit with an Alpine iX-W670 and Alpine backup camera. I liked it so much I went ahead and ordered one for mine as well. While the dash was apart, I replaced the broken HVAC control panel with an OEM Mopar one I found on eBay:
Next up was fixing the non-functional horn. When I first brought it home, the horn only worked when the alarm was going off, and it was a junk "air horn" style that sounded like it had a squeak toy stuck down the pipe. After ripping that out and replacing with a low-tone "highway blaster" from AutoZone, I attempted to start diagnosing why the horn didn't always beep when I pressed the horn button. Starting at the top and working down, the logical step was to make sure the fuses were first good, then check to see if the switch was working. Thanks to YouTube, I figured out how to remove the horn pad/airbag and lo and behold, as soon as I did, I quickly realized the likely culprit. The white wire was broken off and resting above the connector. A quick $90 on Amazon got me a Mopar replacement and all is well:
It was $94, but a necessary evil. I wish I could get the keyless entry going next, but looks like I'll need to dig into that a tad more.
I had this rattle/squeak in the front bumper area that was from the bumper itself. I have no idea what was rattling inside it (the fog lamps checked out fine and bolts were tight) but ended up picking up a cheap RedRock Attack Stubby bumper off of XT for next to nothing. It's not my "long term option", as I'll likely go with a frame-chop option at some point, but it will help with my short-term plans of getting me through the winter...
In another late-night perusing of Facebook Marketplace, I found a guy selling an aftermarket flat black grille. I've always liked the Willy's style flat-black grille and this thing was ~2 miles away. For $50, I gave it a shot. It came with LED turn signals and some funky grill inserts, but thankfully those were easy to remove and swap out.
Although my main desires for getting the JKU were due to wanting some more size and space, it is unlikely that this Jeep only be my "daily driver". You for sure won't find any traction boards bolted to the roof, or a fridge in the back (at least not one permanently mounted!), but you could probably describe the build as an "Adventure" build. I don't anticipate extreme rock crawling, but I do intend to hit up the tougher trails in nearby parks and states, and would like to regularly hit up AOAA and Rausch Creek (seeing how it's only 1.5 hours away). With that said, it will be built to "daily driving" standards.
After much internal debate, I've settled on the following build plan:
- V8 power - the 3.8L and even the 3.6L is underpowered and always felt sluggish to me, even on stock sized tires. A Hemi swap is something I have some experience with and make a lot of sense in a JKU. Although I am considering a 392 swap, the 5.7L VVT Truck Hemi has a lot of benefits (fit, accessory layout, cheaper, etc.) and with some basic bolt-in goodies, can make an easy and reliable 450hp.
- Modern Auto Transmission - lazy transmissions are worse than underpowered engines. A ZF 8-speed mated to the Hemi is essentially a "gift from the gods" as it was described to me by a friend with a 6.2/ZF combo in his JKU (also on tons).
- 38-40" tires - should add enough ground clearance while still being able to park inside the garage.
- Overbuilt - this has always been a long-time build approach, regardless of purpose, mainly because "I have to drive this home". Overbuilt also often adds to reliability, see below...
- Reliable - if I am not confident enough to drive the Jeep across the country to Moab, I didn't build it correctly. Reliable to me also means reduced maintenance intervals. I simply don't have time to be pulling apart control arm joints 2-3 times per year for greasing and cleaning. I also spend a good amount of time off-road by myself, so being also to reliably "self recover" is part of this as well.
- Street friendly handling/manners - for sanity or if my son wants to drive it for any reason. I'm a big believer in "as low as possible, as high as necessary". Good steering feel, no wobbles, brakes that work, stuff like that.
- Ability to keep the Jeep "mostly" inspection friendly - PA requires annual "safety inspections", one requirement being that the tire thread is completely covered by the flare/fender. No one will bother me in my local area, but driving to some of the off-road parks can attract unwanted attention from local law enforcement, so best to squeak under the radar when you can.
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