Yesterday was the first day of spring. Frankly, after a nasty winter in Portland, we’re looking forward to some much-needed sunshine and better weather. We’ve already done lots of work on The PDXJ in preparation for spring, summer, and a host of upcoming events.
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Let’s face it: The Jeep Cherokee (the XJ, not the new Cherokee) is really a malaise-era vehicle at heart. It’s an old design fitted with relatively modern amenities. Well, OK, some relatively modern amenities.
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During Portland Snopocalypse 2017, I’ve been driving The PDXJ (project 2001 Jeep Cherokee) quite a bit; it’s been pretty much unstoppable in the snow. Then again, vehicle is only as good as its tires. I must say, I’ve been very impressed with our Yokohama Geolandar M/T+ tires during this snowy mess.
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This meme: This is my New Year’s resolution. We picked up our 2001 Jeep Cherokee, aka, The PDXJ, in July 2016. Almost immediately, we started working on it, and we haven’t slowed since. Whether it was standard maintenance things, minor repairs, or aftermarket upgrades, I feel like all we’ve done is work on the thing….
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You’ve got your 4WD vehicle, and you’re wanting to add larger tires on it. Cool! You’ll likely be able to go more places and do more things with that extra bit of meaty rubber and you know they look good. However, there is one downside that comes along with adding larger tires: Your rig is now…
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Until recently, the where was something missing in our Cherokee’s JCR Offroad Vanguard bumper: a winch. After all, what good is a winch bumper without a winch? This week, I installed a WARN VR10-S into the bumper on The PDXJ, aka, Project Cherokee, aka “Cranky.” This is Warn’s latest winch in its standard-duty VR lineup. I’ll actually…
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I’ll make no apologies: I like Yokohama tires. I first had Yokohamas back in 2006 when I got a set of 205/50/16 AVS ES100 tires for my Scion xB . A couple years later, I shod my Toyota Yaris’ wheels with 195/55/15 S-Drives. In fact, I just replaced them last month with the same tires. So when…
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The Jeep Cherokee (XJ) was made from 1984–2001, and there have been tons of lift kits on the market during those 18 model years. So when it came time to choose a Jeep Cherokee Lift for Cranky, our Jeep Cherokee project, I decided to look to a company that had plenty of experience lifting Jeeps. Skyjacker has been…
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Our Dinoot J-Series trailer just got new rolling stock. I mean, I just got done with putting them on. Previously, we had 235/75/15 (29″) Kumho mud terrain tires that matched our Suzuki Sidekick. However, since this is now going to be towed behind Cranky the Cherokee, it needed matching shoes.
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I’ve long held the belief that a vehicle’s nickname manifests itself. It shouldn’t be forced or given prematurely. Well, we decided that our project Jeep Cherokee now has a nickname: Cranky.
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