Josh is BACK! Reacts to His FIRST Episode (Ep 43) + Used TJ Buying Guide

**Tony and Josh sit down to revisit Episode 43 (August 2012)** — the very first episode Josh appeared on the old *XJ Talk Show*.

They play classic clips, react in real time, and laugh at how much has changed (including how young they both sounded). You’ll hear the original voicemail from Bob in Moab about XJ unibody reinforcement, Josh’s epic transfer-case seal leak story (“pucker moment” on the freeway), the Tom Woods Slip Yoke Eliminator discussion, and the interview with Dan from the *4×4 Podcast* — including Tony’s heartfelt thanks for Dan’s military service and the special flag & certificate Dan later sent.

Then the Zoom Roundtable jumps in with practical advice on **buying a used TJ**: frame rust (the real deal-breaker), 4.0 vs. 4-cylinder, soft tops, LJ vs. TJ pricing, and why a solid frame still makes the TJ a fantastic platform in 2026. Josh also delivers one of his classic “You You” rants on slow drivers, and they float the idea of a bonus DIY spill-kit segment (YouTube/Patreon exclusive).

### Key Highlights
– Josh’s first-ever appearance (Ep. 43) remastered & reacted to
– Classic voicemail + transfer-case horror story
– Tom Woods SYE talk & why you still need one
– Dan (4×4 Podcast) interview + military tribute
– Roundtable: What to check before buying a used TJ
– Spill kits, soft tops, and real-world build advice
– Josh’s heated slow-driver rant
– Call for video voicemails

### Timestamps (approximate)
00:00:00 – Back on Air – Trying Something New
00:00:30 – Remastering Early Episodes and First Interview
00:03:08 – First Clip: Listener Voicemail on Jeep Unibody
00:07:43 – Transfer Case Fluid Leak Story
00:11:54 – Slip Yoke Eliminator Cost and Core Return
00:14:48 – DIY Spill Kit for Off-Road Jeeps
00:16:34 – Bonus YouTube Spill Kit Segment Announcement
00:17:45 – Previewing Next Clip
00:17:57 – Setting Up Clip Position
00:18:15 – Interview with Dan – Weather Talk
00:18:47 – Chat with Dan: Military Service and Meet-Up
00:24:43 – Roundtable: Used TJ Frame Rust Issues
00:29:41 – Roundtable: TJ Soft Tops and Engine Choices
00:33:21 – Engine Torque: Inline Six vs Four-Cylinder
00:36:27 – Is a TJ a Viable Off-Road Jeep?
00:38:09 – TJ Inspection Checklist and Market Advice
00:47:22 – Straight-Six Torque Benefits and History
00:49:27 – Soft Top Options and Cost for TJ
00:50:32 – Price Comparison: LJ, TJ, and JK
00:52:27 – LJ Design Critique and Proportions
00:55:04 – First Impressions: Scrambler and Four-Door Jeeps
00:55:26 – Scrambler, IFS, and Desert Off-Road Build
00:55:40 – High-Speed Off-Road and Police Jeep Use
00:57:18 – Emergency Vehicles and MRAP Integration
00:58:42 – National Guard Surplus Jeep Auctions
01:00:28 – Wrapping Up TJ Conversation
01:01:07 – TJ Viability and Small Jeep Advantages
01:01:48 – JK vs JKU Footprint Comparison
01:02:12 – TJ Agility on Trails vs Larger Jeeps
01:03:43 – Closing Remarks on TJ Purchases
01:06:47 – Nikki G’s Random Stories
01:07:31 – Aggressive Driving Philosophy
01:10:52 – On-Location XJ Showcase
01:11:42 – Episode Wrap-Up and Thanks
01:12:13 – Calls to Action, Patreon, Disclaimer

### Call to Action
Got a build question, a part you’re staring at in the store, or just want to show us your Jeep?
Leave a **video voicemail** right now:
👉 https://jeeptalkshow.com/voicemail

### Support the Show & Shop Jeep Gear
Thank you for watching and listening! If you enjoyed the conversation with Tony and Josh, check out some of the products and upgrades we discussed:

– **Rough Country NP231 Slip Yoke Eliminator Kit** (TJ/YJ/XJ)

– **Bestop Replace-a-Top Soft Top** (1997-2006 Jeep Wrangler TJ)

– **Oil Absorbent Pads / Spill Kit Supplies**
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=oil+absorbent+pads+spill+kit

– **Universal Vehicle Spill Kit** (pads, socks, gloves, bags)

Thanks for riding along — stay safe out there and we’ll see you on the next one!

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Episode Transcript

[00:00:00:00 – 00:00:02:23]
(Music)

[00:00:02:23 – 00:00:07:27]
right, Josh, as I like to say, we’re back. Do you feel like you’re back? I mean, do you feel like a back?

[00:00:07:27 – 00:01:34:14]
I can tell you my back feels older than I really am, but yeah, sure. That’s good to be back in the seat. You got one of those little, uh, those bead things that they go on the back of the seat, I mean, the rubs your back. Oh, like the, like the New York taxi drivers all have. Yeah, no, I don’t, I don’t have one of those. So. All right. Well, I’ve been saying this more and more here recently. We’re going to try something a little different. Uh, I went back to the Jeep talk show archives and I think I mentioned to you, uh, I’ve been remastering the original episodes. Uh, I think it’s, uh, uh, one through 43 has been remastered and put out on our YouTube channel, uh, and of course they’ve been there, uh, for audio, uh, for a while. There was one that the audio level was really low. I think it was like episode two or something. So it was probably before we started doing compression and all kinds of wild stuff. So I actually updated the, uh, the audio. You were still figuring things out back then. Yes. That was my excuse. So I thought it would be good. Uh, it would be fun to go to episode 43, which Grock actually researched and told me that was the first episode that you were on. I know you and I have gone back and forth about what your first episode was. Oh God. So episode 44 was an interview. I knew it was somewhere right around there. Yeah. Episode 44 was an interview that I did with you. Uh, and all that was, uh, seeing if, uh, um, number one, if you were going to, if you were really interested in being on the show and number two, if you were worth a

[00:01:34:14 – 00:01:58:01]
because this is because, because he says, yeah, I’d like to be on the show doesn’t mean they’re going to be a good match. Uh, so, uh, and I said, I’ll say, I know first word one to respond about being on the show and I still think, uh, that everybody else is, is great and everything. But I think the, just the chemistry between us on the show has been the, uh, the best so far.

[00:01:58:01 – 00:03:05:22]
No, honestly, Tony, looking back, uh, you know, I kind of remembered that first interview vaguely cause that was over a decade ago now. Uh, man, things were a lot different back then. Of course I was in a different career. Uh, my equipment set up was different, but I remember I didn’t have a studio back then. I was still DJing part time, you know, on the side and stuff like that. And I remember hodgepodge some, some of my gear together to record something in the home office that we had set up at the time, totally different nowadays. Uh, but, but yeah, I’m trying to set up some degree of sound dampening and, and trying to get the audio to sound like, okay, I’m not, I’m not talking in a closet type of, uh, type of sound, but, uh, yeah. And I just, you know, listening to a little bit of snippet off the air, uh, as you and I were kind of setting up for today, good God, man, I sounded completely different back then. And maybe it was just the mic, you know, I obviously it was 10, 12 years ago or better, uh, and, and things change, but man, that was a lot of water to the bridge and things are definitely different now. Well, you’re apologizing ahead of time for the audio. I know what you’re doing. I know you will enough.

[00:03:08:03 – 00:05:08:15]
All right. Let’s now, this is, you’re not in this clip. This is probably my favorite clip of the day. This is just me talking. So I want to play the first clip with the, uh, the, the episode, uh, episode 43, uh, starting and actually what we’re going to have today is, uh, we’re going to start off with, uh, with a question that somebody called in to our voicemail. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a question called in like that. And it’s, it’s, it’s great. It was a nice surprise for me. Uh, and I want to encourage all of you guys to call in your questions and then, and have them on the show. Or so this is a common thing that we’ve had over the years is that we have had people call in voicemails. I was actually digging around some old stuff. Uh, and, uh, I found the, the voicemail vault. Um, I may be sticking these things in future episodes. And, uh, so we, we used to get voicemails. Oh, that’s fantastic. Yeah. It’s very unusual to have people call in. I mean, um, I think that, uh, that’s a very difficult thing. Uh, uh, you have to have a very popular, uh, podcast, very popular show, I think, for people to take the time to call in. But in this one, this episode, episode 43, you can watch it over on YouTube right now. Um, it was a, uh, a question from a, a user and you were the one that, uh, that answered it. Hi, this is Josh Northwest 99 on the forum. Uh, Bob, especially in Moab, Utah, if you’re going to be doing any sort of off-roading and whatnot, the, the unibody is definitely going to be beneficial, um, by being reinforced. You’re going to see a lot of improvements in auto on-road handling as well as performance off-road, uh, the Jeep Cherokee unibody, especially the two doors. I don’t know if you have a two door or four door, but the two doors are even more unstable. The, uh, the unibody not having a true dedicated frame likes to twist and flex as you go off-road with the suspension, pushing back up on the body. And as you go on, on uneven terrain, especially good information, then good information now.

[00:05:10:26 – 00:05:39:29]
Yeah. Yeah, no doubt. Yeah. A lot of, cause a lot of people aren’t really wheeling the unibody as much anymore. The XJ is, is, uh, obviously it hasn’t been in production in, in over 20 years. And, uh, it’s probably not, not a common vehicle that you would see out on the trails as much as you would 10 or 15 years ago. Um, that being said, uh, it’s still a viable platform and yeah, people are still building it. And yes, there is still plenty of aftermarket support for it. And my God, Tony, did you sound young?

[00:05:41:04 – 00:05:44:28]
You sounded completely different in that clip than you do today. Holy

[00:05:44:28 – 00:06:08:28]
At first for a second there, I thought it was me that was talking about like, oh wait, no, those are his inflections. Yep. That’s Tony. I’ll be darned. Yeah. Uh, so I chuckled whenever I was making these clips, uh, cause of the whatnot you used. I need to find a way that I can go back and have AI search all the episodes and count the number of times you said whatnot. Oh God.

[00:06:10:09 – 00:06:11:29]
That’s a Josh word.

[00:06:14:14 – 00:06:17:01]
Well, in Latin, uh, button, I mean,

[00:06:17:01 – 00:06:45:27]
I think we made a drinking game out of button. So that was another made up. Yeah. My, my English and oh yeah, no, I, I, uh, I come up with all my own words of vocabulary all the time. So, oh, that’s good times. So how did you think you sounded? Did that, did that bother you? Because it’s like, uh, you had, didn’t have any of the compression or, uh, any of the stuff that you do. I know you’re a big audience. No, it wasn’t. Did it, is it hard for you to listen to that?

[00:06:48:11 – 00:07:42:05]
It wasn’t necessarily the, um, the lack of, uh, of processing or anything like that. I mean, yes, you know, now in my studio, I’ve got a compressor limiter gate system. It runs through a tube amplifier, you know, all that stuff. It kind of warms things up a little bit and whatnot. Definitely a different sound than a Bluetooth headset, like I’m talking on now. And of course, back then, during that interview, I was on a, uh, an omnidirectional, just standard microphone. Uh, and, and now I’m, I’ve got a condenser microphone in the studio, much higher end gear, uh, a lot better audio quality and stuff like that. But I had designed the studio for that when I retired from DJing in 2016. So it was sort of purpose built. And, and back then I was just using gear that I use when I was DJing, doing mobile gigs and doing announcing and stuff like that. So definitely, definitely different purpose, uh, purpose built gear.

[00:07:43:18 – 00:08:24:11]
All right. Let’s jump over to our next clip. But I was driving home, uh, one day and it was, I just, you know, I’d done the repair, the, the, the Slippy Oak eliminator the night before went to work the next day, driving home and I’m noticing this giant mist of smoke and spray behind me as I’m driving down the freeway. What the heck is that? And I get home thinking, you know, the worst that I’ve, you know, I’ve blown a, uh, you know, uh, you know, something in the engine or something like that. And I climb underneath and the entire undercarriage just absolutely coded in transmission for, you know, in the transfer case fluid. Yeah. And it’s from the transfer case back, which is, which is a good sign for the motor and the transmission, but a bad sign for the transfer case.

[00:08:25:25 – 00:08:47:07]
And luckily, uh, you know, I didn’t lose all that much. Yeah. It’s amazing how little, uh, transmission fluid, uh, ATF, whatever’s in the, uh, the transfer case, I think that the, the two 31s and the, uh, uh, the two 42s just take the transmission fluid, uh, for the, uh, for the T case. So it’s amazing how much mess that you can get out of a little bit of transmission.

[00:08:50:05 – 00:09:35:13]
Yeah. It’s like getting a little scratch or something on your forehead and suddenly your face is just covered in blood, you know, because the smallest little tiny hole in your forehead somehow makes you bleed like a stuck pig and it looks like an absolute murder scene. Yeah. Same thing when you get a, uh, a rear, uh, a rear seal, uh, output, output shaft seal leak on your transfer case. Uh, and amazing, just a couple of ounces of fluid, how it sprays out, goes down the drive shaft and just completely coats the undercarriage. I had totally forgotten about that, uh, about that incident and everything. And now I’m reliving it as I’m hearing my own voice describe it. And it was like, Oh yeah. And I remember that pucker moment. I remember that and thinking what I was thinking at the time and, and just, oh God, please make it home. Please make it home. Oh geez. What was that noise?

[00:09:36:22 – 00:09:44:02]
You know, you don’t know. You feel good. It’s a transfer case, but then again, do I have enough fluid in there to make it home?

[00:09:46:17 – 00:10:23:28]
Oh yeah. And, and there’s no, there’s no dipstick for that, you know, of course. And so it’s, it’s just a matter of, well, you know, either I, I, and I don’t think I was carrying a whole lot of tools with me back then either at that point. And, uh, and it’s one of the things, well, I know I don’t have what I need to fix. To fix it. I don’t have a replacement seal, let alone everything to, uh, to do that with. And I don’t have the means of popping the plugs and putting a finger in the transfer case and seeing if I have any fluid left in there. So, all right, let’s just rock this until the wheels fall off and let’s try and make it home and that’s exactly what happened there, but yeah, wow. I had, I had absolutely forgotten about that until just now. Good times.

[00:10:23:28 – 00:10:48:28]
right, Josh. Well, fun so far. I really enjoy hearing the audio and going back and remembering the stuff that we’ve talked about, because we’ve had so many shows together, so many episodes, and this is a great opportunity for the new audience because we’ve gotten new people, you know, there’s been hundreds or thousands of new people that have never heard the original episode.

[00:10:50:07 – 00:12:54:09]
Chris was talking to a gentleman yesterday, trying to get him lined up for an interview. And he had to tell me that this gentleman was on XJtalk.com before the episode started. And he has listened from episode one. He made it all the way up to the Jerry Huber interview that came out two, three weeks ago. So he is, he says he’s a little behind. Wow. So this guy has listened to over 14. He’s doing pretty good. Oh yeah, absolutely. So it’s outstanding. You never know what you’re going to hear. You never know what comedy you’re going to hear. You never know what information that you may not know. And especially for you people that want more XJtalk stuff, more XJtalk talk, these are perfect because that’s all we really talked about on the first episode. So go back to, just go to YouTube, look for episode 43, EP.43, and then have a listen to this full episode. Okay, let’s get over to our next clip, Josh. But it’s very expensive. I think it was $4.75 after I sent back all the other parts, the cores. They do require a core on that particular kit, don’t they? Yes. Well, it’s interesting because I spoke with one of the people there at Tom Woods and he said that you would be really surprised how many people do not send the cores. So they literally are sitting on $400 worth of refund. So, yeah, because you’ll be out of pocket, you know, about 800 some odd dollars initially, but you get a big chunk of that back sending in the core. You know, I didn’t check, but I believe they’re still selling the SYEs and this isn’t like the hack and tap. This is a genuine replacement shaft and really doing what I consider the SYE on the, mine was a 242, but they also sell the ones for the 243, but actually having a legitimate SYE modification.

[00:12:57:14 – 00:13:40:16]
Yeah, I believe this was for the 242 that we were talking about in context there. So the, the selectable, full-time all-wheel drive for that. Yeah. Yeah. That was, and I do believe they are still selling that as well. And I have, it’s been a little while since I’ve been on the website, but it is still a transfer case that is in vehicles. And I would imagine that Tom Woods still has inventory. Uh, but yeah, that’s one of those things to where you send them in the output shaft out of your transfer case. They take that in as core and, and they send you one that has been professionally machined and modified, uh, that will then drop back into your transfer case and, and give you what you need as far as a slip yoke or a mount for a slip yoke.

[00:13:40:16 – 00:14:47:18]
Sure. All right, Josh, let’s get on to our next Josh clip from episode 43. Again, you can listen or watch this on YouTube. Just go to our YouTube channel, uh, Jeep talk show.com slash Y T as in YouTube and do a search for E P dot four three. Yeah. Because the stock setup, it does. I mean, the, the, the stock setup makes it so that the, the, the output shaft is essentially hollow, uh, going right into the transfer case and your drive line slides in and out of that. And you lose that drive line stock with, you know, no you’re on the trail. You’re going to be leaking fluid all day long. And that’s not only bad for the engine, but it’s also bad for the transfer case rather, it’s also bad for the environment. Uh, you know, you don’t need to be spilling fluids out on the trails. So with the slippery oak limiter, it seals that transfer case up button tight. And you worst case scenario, you do break a drive shaft. Um, you’re not going to be stranded and you’re not going to be leaking fluids. Right. And even if you’re not a big environmentalist, uh, I’m not big on the environment, but I am big on closing trails. Yes.

[00:14:49:14 – 00:15:14:26]
And that’s always been my, my narrative is, is that it does get trails closed. It’s not a good idea to dump stuff out in the environment. Uh, but you know, the, the earth has been through so much. I don’t think our little, our little trail of transmission fluid is going to make that big of a difference. Uh, and I say, I, collectively it makes a difference. So I’ll give you that, but I still say it’s, we’re overly sensitive to, uh, damaging the environment, my opinion.

[00:15:18:10 – 00:17:02:17]
Yeah, absolutely. I know that certain regions are a lot more, um, a lot more sticklers about how and where and what and all that sort of stuff. And so it’s one of those things to where maybe you’ve got, uh, you know, somebody who’s on the trail on every single trail system, you’ve, you’ve got, you know, some sort of official that’s out there and they’re looking for that sort of stuff, not quite as like that out here. I mean, yes, I have been talked to before about, um, you know, vehicle maintenance and Hey, it looks like you’re, you know, your vehicle’s parked here and there’s a puddle underneath of you, something you can do about that. Maybe. So there was a time back, uh, yeah, right. Right. Uh, but this was back when I was a president of the Northwest chapter of, uh, Naxja, North American XJ association. And we, um, we had a couple of individuals who had gotten multiple talking to from, uh, from the people up on the, up on the trail. And we put together spill kits for the club members. And it was one of those things to where it was almost part of the necessary gear. Uh, if you’re going to come wheeling with our group, you need to have a spill kit. And, and honestly, it was just a couple of the spill pads, some rubber gloves, and some kitty litter. Really simple to put together all fit into a gallon bag, rolled it up nice and easy, uh, fits in just about anything anywhere in the Jeep. And as we all know, Jeeps are a premium for extra space. So if you can have something as viable and as useful as a spill kit on board that doesn’t take up much room, more room than a rolled up towel, uh, then that’s something that you should maybe consider about having, um, as part of your regular kit.

[00:17:04:02 – 00:17:58:01]
So Josh, we haven’t done this before, uh, and I haven’t talked to you about it yet. So, uh, feel free to tell me what your opinion is, but I was thinking we ought to do a little bonus, uh, segment, uh, for, uh, for our, our, our viewers on YouTube. So, uh, exclusively on, I love the bonus content idea content YouTube. So, uh, look for that. I don’t know how it’s going to, how it will show up because this is just something I’ve been thinking about, but, uh, I think we should talk about spill kits, making your own, what, what you put into a spill kit. And, uh, we’ll, uh, uh, the idea, we’ll see if it happens. I think we can make it happen. Uh, just look for it, uh, after this episode and again, it’ll be on YouTube. Um, so, uh, and, uh, yeah, a little bonus, uh, content there. We may put that on our Patreon as well. I like that idea. All right. So let’s, uh, let’s jump over to our next clip. You know,

[00:17:58:01 – 00:19:05:02]
it. I need to set these things up so they change color or something. I’m having too much fun talking to you. So I think this is the clip. Yeah. Because the stock setup, it does. I mean, the stock setup makes it so that the, the output shaft is essentially hollow. All right. Well, that’s a, okay. Now I know where I am. So here we go. I believe this is the first clip, uh, where we have a Dan, uh, from the four by four podcast, because, uh, episode 43, uh, is an interview with Dan and I’m, I bet you, I need to go check it, but I bet you, this is the first time we had an interview with Dan and I bet it is before the four by four podcast started. Uh, first off, Dan, is it hot out there? You know, it’s actually, it’s been a very nice day today. I think it may have just barely broke 90 degrees. Usually like two days ago, I was getting a, a nice hot wind. I call that the blow dryer. Yeah. It’s like sticking your head, your head in front of a blow dryer. That’s really all it is. You can’t even cool off. Now I think it’s cooled off to about 80 degrees, 82 feels nice. Well, you know, it’s, it’s the differences that you notice.

[00:19:06:03 – 00:19:29:22]
If it’s like three inches from the surface of the sun, now it’s 80. Then, you know, you’re thankful for faded. I don’t think that it’s, uh, they’re doing any new episodes. Uh, the website is still up. Uh, they still got hundreds or thousands of episodes that you can go and listen to. Uh, so I recommend going over that. It’d be funny if we could get a bunch of people to go over and check out the four by four, uh, podcast and Dan would look at it and go, what the

[00:19:29:22 – 00:19:48:26]
There’s just, where’d all these downloads come from? Yeah. It’s just out of the blue. Well, there’s so much content out there. There’s so much content from the XJ talk show and the Jeep talk show, uh, that, uh, people, I mean, they don’t, I mean, they love the show, but just the idea of going back, sometimes you can’t even figure out how to go back and listen.

[00:19:48:26 – 00:21:45:22]
All right, Josh, so a little more Dan, the four by four podcast with, uh, with this clip and as I, and as I told you, and as I told you in the email, I did want to thank you very much for your service to the country. It’s very important to me. I, uh, I was a kid, uh, during the Vietnam war and I never agreed then or now how they were treated and, uh, I’m glad to see that, um, uh, both political parties are trying to treat our soldiers. Um, at least in, at least verbally, they’re trying to treat them right. I don’t necessarily think that cutting, uh, military funding and stuff is a good thing, but there you go. Yeah. I, it is totally my pleasure. So that was, uh, that was really cool. I always try to thank our military personnel for their service. Uh, and Dan has done a lot of it. He’s done a lot of training of troops as well. And, uh, I just got to mention that, uh, Dan is career military. Oh, absolutely. I just got to mention that Dan, uh, sent me a flag and a certificate, uh, from one of his bases and I think it was a rack, uh, a base in Iraq that had, super cool. Had 9 11, um, debris set up next to the flagpole. They put that up there so that, uh, the, the base commander, uh, had that there, or maybe it was higher to show the army personnel what they were fighting for in Iraq. So I have a flag signed by the base commander certificate. Oh, cool. That, uh, Dan sent that to me and I love that. I mean, there’s actually an episode, I don’t remember which one it is, but there’s actually awesome that I talk about that in the show and I tear up because it means so much to me. It wasn’t requested. It was just something Dan sent to me. I’ve got it in a nice box, you know, display display case with the certificate and the folded flag and, um, it’s, uh, it’s in my living room. So I kinda, I’d kinda like to put it in a safe deposit box because if there was a fire at the house, I’d lose it.

[00:21:48:09 – 00:22:03:23]
Yeah. Yeah. That’s something you definitely want to hold onto and keep safe. That is, well, that was one of those keepsakes for sure. Uh, Josh, I can’t remember. Did you, uh, did you ever do, uh, uh, anything with, uh, with Dan on the four by four podcast, were you ever part of that show and interview or anything? I thought you were.

[00:22:05:17 – 00:24:41:04]
I can’t remember. I think we did do an interview once, but there was, um, one time where Dan and I actually got to meet in person. He was coming down, I think from, uh, Alaska and he was cutting, cutting through Oregon on his way to California. And, and he made a small detour to make it into my town to where, uh, we could actually meet up because at that time, um, we were, we had known each other, we’d been talking through the podcast for several years. And it was one of those things where like, you know, Hey, we kind of have a lot of similar build going on because his, his Wheeler and, uh, and daily driver was an XJ as well. Um, and that’s what he was transporting and moving his entire family in along with an off-road trailer that I believe he built from scratch. And so, and that was a big part of, yeah, that was a part of his, of his podcast as well, the building of that trailer, very purpose built. Uh, intended to, to not only, uh, be a part of, of his wheeling adventures, but this was also intended to help him move from up North down South. And so there was a lot of considerations that went into that. And, and I think he and I had talked a number of times throughout that build about some things that he wanted to do or things to think about as he was putting it together and whatnot. And so it was kind of cool to be able to, to, to be in person together and not only see, you know, the fruition of, of, of what he had built in person, uh, but be able to chat and shake hands and, you know, all that kind of stuff. And it’s, it’s always interesting when you, when you get to meet somebody face to face for the first time, but you’ve known them for years, you’ve talked to them a hundred times, but you’ve never actually met them. Uh, and there was something similar that happened to you and I at the, at the first, uh, the first chief talk show event in Texas, but, uh, but yeah, Dan had came down with the whole family, got to meet him and his wife and the kid and the dog and the whole, the whole, the whole, uh, the whole clan as, as it were, uh, he didn’t have a whole lot of time. We didn’t get a chance to like go have lunch or go wheeling or anything like that. It was kind of just a short, uh, pit stop. As I said, he was moving the family, so it didn’t have a whole lot of time. But, uh, but that was the one thing that Dan and I did get to do together. And in person was a little meetup. And I can’t remember, I know we at least took a couple pictures. Uh, that was about seven phones ago. So I don’t know where those pictures are somewhere in the cloud, probably on a hard drive somewhere in the computer or something like that. But, uh, but yeah, those are good times. Again, something that I had kind of forgotten about until it, until it comes up in a, in conversation.

[00:24:41:04 – 00:25:56:29]
right, Josh, on our recent roundtable episode, which is coming up in this episode here in just in a minute, we talked about what do you look for if you wanna buy a used TJ? What do you have to go through? What are the steps that you have to go through? And I thought that was a great topic because there’s people out there. We’ve got a couple of roundtable folks, regular roundtable folks that have done massive builds. To Matt actually took an LJ. He founded LJ. He’s got it on coilovers. He’s got it on 38s. He’s got, I think, front and rear. It’s an amazing build. And then Rick in Arkansas has done something similar with, he actually used a couple of Dana 44s from a Gladiator. And I think he’s got 38s on his. I don’t, I think he did call the coilovers as well. But the sad thing about both those TJ builds, which are awesome, LJ and TJ build, which is awesome. The builds are awesome, but the sad part of it is they’re both black. And it’s just so sad to see. And otherwise, beautiful. How dare you?

[00:25:59:07 – 00:25:59:15]
(Laughing)

[00:26:02:10 – 00:26:08:05]
Rick’s is kind of black and silver. He’s got a lot of Genrite add-ons to it.

[00:26:09:19 – 00:26:22:22]
So what do you think? What are you gonna do if you’re somebody that’s in the market for a TJ? Maybe you’re just in the market for a good off-road rig and you’re looking at the prices of TJs. And TJ is an excellent platform to build off of.

[00:26:24:04 – 00:27:45:25]
Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I know the TJ is definitely one of those that’s gonna go down in history as probably one of the best Jeeps that they ever made. Now there is some Easter egg considerations, if you will, some not common knowledge that kind of comes with selecting a TJ that some people may or may not know about. And obviously when you’re gonna be looking into buying something like an off-road rig, a purpose built rig or something that you want to build up to do something specific, there’s gonna be a lot of considerations involved. You’re gonna need to do some homework. You’re gonna need to do a little bit of research and stuff. And as you delve deeper and deeper into finding out what makes a good choice for an off-road rig and those sort of things, you’ll maybe fall into the category of, well, let’s start looking at TJs. And one of the biggest things that I would think that a lot of people don’t know about when it comes to looking at a used TJ is one of those things that tends to pop up with some of the older rigs that not a whole lot of people know about. And that is a little bit of rust in the frame. And that can be a big, big time deal breaker. And if you don’t know what I’m talking about, well, some of the TJs that come in some regions,

[00:27:46:27 – 00:29:39:06]
the frame in itself had some spots in it that were known to trap water. And obviously if you get water and debris, mud, dirt, silt, all that kind of stuff that comes with driving a rig, both on-road and off-road, you get that moisture trapped in the frame, well, guess what’s gonna happen? Water and metal don’t mix too well, especially when it’s not protected. And frame rails generally are just bare steel. They may have a light coat of paint on the outside, but certainly nothing on the inside. And as that water gets trapped, you can actually get frame rust on the TJs in specific areas it’s in towards the rear of the vehicle. And right up by where suspension mounts would be, this can cause some serious structural damage that you may not know about until you actually get into your build and start doing suspension modifications and discover that the frame is seriously compromised, which can obviously ruin a build, can ruin the vehicle. One, it makes it unsafe. Two, it makes it to where you may not be able to build it. And three, well, it’s a very expensive repair. At that point, you can look at significant amounts of money for repair or even replacement at that point. And it’s a body off type of repair, meaning you’ve got to take the tub off the frame, the frame has to get stripped down and you need to do some serious welding or replacing the whole thing altogether. So it’s one of those things to where obviously, if you’re gonna be buying any used vehicle, you wanna crawl around it, you wanna crawl underneath of it, you wanna inspect it really good, but there are specific points to look at when you’re looking at a used TJ, especially if you’re gonna be doing an off-road build. And that’s one of those things to where just a little bit of research will save you a ton of money downstream as you get into building your first or second off-road rig.

[00:29:40:14 – 00:29:40:22]
Yep.

[00:29:41:23 – 00:29:54:04]
And we’re going to jump over to the round table segment right now and see what the round table folks, the Zoom people as they like to call themselves and see what they have to think about buying a used TJ.

[00:29:54:04 – 00:29:57:09]
(Music)

[00:29:58:16 – 00:30:04:25]
So we just had a big debate on it, big discussion. And I actually put all this stuff, all the information on both Jeeps and the…

[00:30:06:14 – 00:30:08:21]
When was it, 97? The other one was what, 2004?

[00:30:09:23 – 00:30:14:06]
(I’m Like That, Yeah) The black one was in 2004, the red one was in 97.

[00:30:16:02 – 00:30:56:17]
And when I put all the information into co-pilot, so does it work, and I put the pictures from that were posted, you know, initially it was all about the black Jeep, but then when I started the pictures, it dug in and said, you know, everything looks like the 97 red Jeep is a lot better option. And it gave pretty good reasons why. (Yeah, I missed the 97 detail because my 97, I lemon-lot, because it kept, I think it’s through the front vent on the on the cowl water would leak into the passenger side. And seven times in the I took it to Jeep to fix it and it never got fixed. So I ended up lemon-lawning it.]

[00:30:58:08 – 00:31:11:10]
So I figured that if we talked about what do you check for on a used TJ before buying, I figured all you salt belt people would be saying rust, which is I think a very good thing to check.

[00:31:12:16 – 00:31:22:11]
Oh, absolutely. It’s the frame that you have to check. I’m sorry, because other things can rust. But a few things will put you in a ditch like a broken frame.

[00:31:23:24 – 00:31:38:07]
Yeah. Well, it made me start thinking too, because I loaded all the pictures from the postings into Copile. I said, you know, it’s very easy that these pictures themselves were AI. (Right.) Oh, yeah, it’s amazing what you can do. You can make something look a lot better.

[00:31:40:01 – 00:32:04:27]
It’s the original picture, but you can make it look a lot, a lot better. So do you guys see, I never have to deal with any rust concerns down here, unless for some reason the vehicle came from up north or one of the places where they use a lot of salt. So I would think that there’s some tricks like you take a nice screwdriver with you so that you can try poking on the frame.

[00:32:05:27 – 00:32:25:06]
(Tap It On, And Listen, Yeah.) Straight hammer. Paul Pienhammer, man. Start tapping those key points. Do you, if anybody who’s been through that, do you talk to the owner about it before you start beating on the Jeep? Because that might save you a lot of time. Especially if they know it’s an issue.

[00:32:26:25 – 00:32:37:18]
Yeah, I haven’t done it. So, well, this chief apparently- Or will they let you damage their vehicle if there is a rust in places? Go poke it around with tools?

[00:32:40:10 – 00:33:09:22]
Yeah. Well, this one came from South Carolina. Yeah, I got it from South Carolina. He bought it for his daughter for school, but it turns out it just wasn’t big enough for her and friends. She wanted regular something normal. He sealed the frame. He put Eastwood, he used the Eastwood rust sealer on everything. Rhino-wide the tub under the carpeting. Oh, that’s good. There’s no surface anywhere that the only surface I saw were on the stupid nerf bars on the step bars.

[00:33:11:13 – 00:33:15:04]
And even then it was just small superficial stuff while he was just starting.

[00:33:17:27 – 00:33:30:08]
Lower quality steel. Now it’s really clean. How important? I mean, I think, I always think that a 4.0 is the only engine to buy. I think other people have different opinions on that. But

[00:33:31:15 – 00:33:43:17]
whenever I, if it has a 4.0 in it, if it’s 125,000, 175,000, I don’t consider that a big issue. Of course, you have to listen to the engine and see how it sounds when it’s running.

[00:33:45:00 – 00:34:27:27]
Well, after having two 4.0s, one in my XJ and one in the WJ, you won’t convince me that it’s not worth having a 4.0. Although I will tell you that my current 3.6 has more miles than my 4.0 had before it blew. So things happen. I was saying something when you can blow up a 4.0. I’m not saying you can’t. It’s just unusual. I mean, they haven’t had problems getting them to blow up with the cash for clunkers. Is it? Because all the 4.0 people go, I’ve never blown up my 4.0. It’s got 400,000 miles, but I’ve rebuilt it four or five times. I blew up my 4.0 with 6,000 miles on it.

[00:34:30:02 – 00:34:40:26]
But what I’m saying is all the 4.0 nut huggers are like, it’s got 400,000 miles. Okay. How many times you built it? Seven. Yeah. Well, no, this was, this was 6,000 original new miles. And I blew up.

[00:34:42:05 – 00:34:45:23]
There was a casting. I was driving down the highway. I was a boom. Like, what the

[00:34:45:23 – 00:35:07:27]
is that coast over the side? Totally dead. You know, when I call the dealer, Hey, I’m bringing this thing in, man. I don’t know what’s going on. Can I get a loaner? They go, nah, you didn’t buy the extended warranty. They get a page back when we had pagers. So I call on him like, we’re going to give you a loaner. I’m like, what do you mean? You give me a lot of this. There’s a whole size of a grapefruit in your block. Like what he goes, we think it was a casting defect. I’m like, all right.

[00:35:10:12 – 00:35:50:19]
So yeah, mine developed a knock that I wasn’t going to get fixed because I needed a bigger vehicle at the time anyway, but it developed a knock that got progressively worse. And then it just knocked one too many times and the engine seized and I may have thrown a rod or done something, but ended up selling it to the tow truck driver in hindsight for a lot cheaper than I could have gotten elsewhere these days. But yeah. No. Yeah. I think the tier answer, I think the 4.0 is a huge factor. My son’s got that 1990 YJ with the four cylinder in it. It’s just a

[00:35:50:19 – 00:36:16:06]
dog. I think if you have the automatic, the four cylinders, absolutely. As long as you have a manual, no, it’s going to manual. Well, that’s a problem is driving 35s. Right. And he probably didn’t read gear. Could be manual four cylinder on 37 factory gears and I keep up with everybody

[00:36:18:06 – 00:36:43:16]
as long as there’s only five miles an hour. Right. Yeah. Well, I don’t know about the road, but that’s not the point. Oh, he’s talking about real Jeep stuff. Well, he’s coming. He’s talking about moving back in December when he graduates. And I feel bad, but I’m like, dude, we don’t have room to keep that cheap. You know what I mean? And I hate him selling the 1990 with no rust on it.

[00:36:44:24 – 00:36:50:00]
Does he got another car there or really? He’s got the Ford fusion, but he’s moving home. He’s graduating.

[00:36:51:22 – 00:36:53:29]
Exactly. The, the fusion’s gotta go.

[00:36:55:12 – 00:37:05:16]
He’s got to drive the YJ up here to wherever he gets a job. It goes 45 miles an hour. He’ll die up here. People kill him.

[00:37:06:27 – 00:37:09:16]
You know, take the side road. That’s all. That’s right.

[00:37:11:23 – 00:37:41:23]
I mean, I hate to do it, but I’m like, dude, there’s a problem was I’d have five cars here. I’ve got a two car garage and two car driveway. I’m in a suburbia. I don’t have place to keep the YJ backyard. First world problems. I’m not allowed to build. I’m not allowed to build a shed in my backyard. Well, you don’t need to build a park a vehicle behind the house. That’s definitely, that’s definitely in the HOA covenants as well. I can promise you that a

[00:37:41:23 – 00:37:43:00]
storage spot.

[00:37:45:25 – 00:37:52:22]
See if Travis is interested in buying, interested in buying it. Oh, good God.

[00:37:55:12 – 00:37:55:27]
Yeah.

[00:37:57:13 – 00:38:04:10]
Well, did you say more than 45 miles an hour? If it had a four, oh, I’d be more willing to entertain it, but

[00:38:07:03 – 00:38:19:16]
it’s just not. Yeah. All right. For the folks that joined, we’re talking about the, how do you check a TJ? Uh, I used TJ before buying it. Uh, we’ve talked about the rust. Uh, and I think we’ve also

[00:38:20:27 – 00:38:27:25]
indirectly talked about the engine and the transmission. Um, so, uh, anything else come to mind or you can add to that?

[00:38:29:10 – 00:40:21:24]
Um, I’ll, I’ll say it’s going to vary a little bit on the year miled or year model. So they did do a slight revamp in oh four, where they changed the back seat. They changed, um, those four cylinder motor option. Um, they went to a six speed transmission, which whereas, like I said, I have a four cylinder with the manual with the six speed. My first gear was a four 61 to one. Oh, it’s tight. So yeah. So it’s a real low gear. So that made up for as much as everybody says the four O makes a ton of torque. It was only 40 pounds of torque that it made more than the four cylinder. Like that’s not a huge jump. So if you had the manual, especially in one of the later TJs where you had the 2.4 instead of 2.5, you could get away with a lot more because you had the double overdrive and you had that really deep first gear. So, and then there were other little oddities. Like, um, if you have kids that you’re taking with you, you know, and, uh, and I forget this change either. Oh, three or oh, four. They added the latch system with shift. Anyone has younger kids. That’s the little male bar system that you can lock in car seats and stuff. You know, a lot of people don’t care about that for the off road vehicle. But if you are somebody taking young kids that may matter for you. So, uh, that’s one of the big ones. Um, there are a couple other little things, but that was, those were the big ones that like stood out for me. Um, other than the rest that was mentioned the motor, um, like I said, mine keeps up with all the 4.0s. It keeps up with all the JKs off road on the trail. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t think the longevity on the four cylinder is as good as the, uh, the six cylinder. That’s, that’s my problem with it. This is my personal choice. I would not have a four cylinder.

[00:40:22:26 – 00:40:38:12]
Like I said, all these four liter guys that have, you know, three, 400,000 miles, but they rebuilt it five times. Well, it blew up five times. That’s if you rebuilt it, it blew up. Like you might, it might’ve not have blown up, but it was gone. You had to rebuild it. That’s a blowup.

[00:40:40:16 – 00:42:52:11]
Well, we got a two five and a YJ and a four O and the TJ and the TJ was fine until I went to 35s still on the factory gears. And it doesn’t like the four O with 35 factory gears doesn’t get up as quick as the two five on 33s would factory gears. That’s the automatic versus the manual. Right. Yeah. And I said that earlier, like with the one that I was talking about, the later TJs, you get that four 61 to one for your first year. So you’ve got this super deep first gear so you can take off really well. And I mean, you know, we joke about 45, 50 miles an hour. My TJ will do 70. It doesn’t like it, but it’ll do it. I can run, you know, I live off of this, you know, four lane state highway. Like I live in a rural area that we leave my house. So you go straight onto the highway from your, from your driveway. Yes, you do pretty much like you leave my street and you’re on the highway. Um, but you can do like I’ve driven my Jeep to work a couple of times and, um, like I drove it where I work now, it’s not as far, but I drove it to work about 35 miles each way and then drove it during my work day. And it did fine. Like was I the fastest thing out there? Absolutely not. I just had to make sure that I was, you know, given it all the beans all the way down the on-ramp so that I could at least be, 50 getting onto the highway. And then I cruised about 60 in the right lane. I wasn’t in a hurry. I knew what I was capable of. You know, I wasn’t dumb about it, but it did it. And it was fine with 60. It just doesn’t like getting above 70 at 70. It’s like, no, I’m unhappy. You’re going way too hard. Yeah, I don’t, I don’t see a problem with the two fives. I mean, they, they work. I mean, that’s back in the day, right? Ford put a five Oh and a Mustang and they put a 2.34 cylinder on a Mustang turbo. Mine didn’t mind it. Mine was just two three. Oh, you had to get a non turbo. Yeah. So I mean, it worked. It just, you just couldn’t get there fast, but

[00:42:54:04 – 00:44:09:24]
I’ll say to my sister did have a non turbo in like 88 or 89 and she got multiple, you know, 85 mile an hour speeding tickets in that car. Yeah, it would go this way. It just took you a minute to get there. Yeah. Yeah. That picture creeps me out. Which I mean, and if we’re comparing like a TJ at this point, the newest TJ is almost 20 years old. If you took a high performance car 20 years ago, most of them barely make the horsepower that your average commuter makes now. Correct. So, I mean, what are the TJs 115 maybe? Well, I mean, a Corolla makes over 300 today. So a factory civic or something like that. It’s an easy book 90. So, I mean, like you take a Toyota Corolla, which is your last forever commuter car, it makes 300 horsepower today. That’s what a Camaro SS made 25 years ago. So being realistic, like you gotta be realistic about what you’re buying for its age and what it can do. Like that’s just, you gotta have a solid thought process when you go to look at them.

[00:44:11:00 – 00:44:15:22]
So the Jeep four liter is actually 190 horsepower.

[00:44:20:05 – 00:44:27:28]
Before the 2.4, this was in 2006. The 2.4 is 147 horsepower. What was the torque? What was the torque?

[00:44:30:03 – 00:45:31:01]
Torque for the four cylinder, 160 foot pounds, 165 at 4,000, four liter, 235 at 3,200. Jim and I, maybe I should use Grokken ask. I looked it up not that long ago, not using AI, just using like Google and picking multiple sites. And it was not that far off. It was like 40, 50 foot pounds. It really wasn’t that big of a change. And if you could get the manual with the low gear, now I will give the six, the six cylinder with the four, oh, you’re going to get a lower RPM because that’s how straight six is work. You know, like I have a Cummins in my pickup truck. One of the great deals about those is they make torque down low, which diesels do. But when you have a straight six, it makes it even lower.

[00:45:33:08 – 00:45:34:24]
Never heard that before. That’s interesting.

[00:45:36:09 – 00:45:41:08]
That’s a factory sales brochure that a straight six makes more torque down low.

[00:45:42:24 – 00:46:18:09]
I mean, I know that it did. I didn’t know it made more than a diesel did though. No, no, no. I’m saying like a, if you take, like I have a Cummins with a straight six cylinder diesel. So diesel is already made torque down low. But if you took my six cylinder diesel versus like a V8, like a power stroke or a Duramax diesel, my peak torque will still be four or 500 RPM blower because I have an inline six versus a V or, you know, a four cylinder style diesel. Right. It’s just one of those six cylinders. Nature is to make torque better in a lower RPM.

[00:46:21:25 – 00:48:09:00]
Well, I know whenever they, when I guess it was AMC went from that Chevrolet engine they had in their V6, I think to the straight six, the tractor engine, things improved drastically for the jeeps. Yeah. It made the torque lower in the RPM range. And that’s it is even with a V6 versus an inline six, a V6 is peak torque is probably still going to be in the three to 4,000 range and a straight six. You can get it closer to the two to three range. It’s just the nature of the inline six Ford had a, um, I think it was a 4.2 liter. They couldn’t, they’re F one fifties and they were a torque like absolute monster because it was an inline six and they geared them low in the transmission. They still had a fairly, you know, light rear gear so that you could drive them on the road. But just with that inline six, it made so much torque and then they gear it right. And they, they were better towing than the V8 trucks. So let me ask you this. I think one of the things that I would be on the lookout for, because it kind of happened when we got my, um, my oldest a TJ, she’s got a 2005, um, the, uh, if it comes with a, um, a, um, oh, I can’t even remember what it’s called the cloth top, the, uh, um, soft top. Thank you. Uh, that, uh, the soft top can be of, uh, not the best quality, depending on how it was kept and stored and taken care of. Uh, and I mean, it’s easy enough to buy a replacement, but, uh, have you guys priced soft tops, uh, for anything, but, uh, the, in this case, specifically the TJ, I think the one we got for my wife’s 2003 was around 650 bucks, but that was probably 12 years ago.

[00:48:10:08 – 00:48:21:07]
I paid two 50 for mine about three years ago. Now my name is Amazon special and I, I think you set your expectations with, you know, it’s an Amazon special,

[00:48:22:07 – 00:49:16:16]
but I’ve had it for three years. I haven’t had any issues. Um, it’s not a best top obviously. No, no. And like I said, you gotta set your expectations with what you spend. You know, I would expect way more out of the best top at its price point than I would my Amazon special, but I haven’t had at least you have a top. I mean, even if you gotta buy it three times, it, it still wouldn’t be spending as much money. It was what it is cost for a best stop. Yeah. Yeah. You have to look at though too is where you’re at. Okay. Up here that twill top and the winner does me just fine. I’m not going to go cheap on a cheap top because I need the insulation. Oh no. If you can afford it. I mean, I think best top is always the way to go. Well, I don’t disagree with the knowing your location at all either. Like 99% of the time I don’t run on top. I use my top more for storage than I do for

[00:49:17:20 – 00:49:23:15]
actually driving. Um, I will say it holds in heat really well when we go out in the winter and wheel.

[00:49:24:18 – 00:49:33:01]
But I’m also wheeling in, you know, 20 to 30 degrees. I’m not getting into the negatives and stuff. So it may be way worse than that. It may not work in that. I don’t know.

[00:49:34:23 – 00:49:35:10]
Yeah. But

[00:49:38:05 – 00:49:44:27]
well, if you’re in a YJ or a TJ, it doesn’t matter what top you’re running. If you’re not running carpet, because you can just get all your heat from your floor.

[00:49:46:06 – 00:49:59:12]
You’re not sure. And if you’re missing it, like I put an aftermarket shifter on my, uh, transfer case, those four little holes where the factory shifter bolted up, what a lot of heat through. Oh my gosh. Especially for little half inch holes.

[00:50:00:14 – 00:50:01:22]
Are there brutal? The

[00:50:01:22 – 00:50:07:26]
YJ with the two five. My Lord, man, that thing is stupid hot.

[00:50:09:09 – 00:50:34:00]
Well, I think if you’re, if you’re in the market for one, you need to know what you’re doing to you. Like, are you just going to throw 30 threes on it and go run fire roads? Are you looking for something you’re going to build? Cause like, if you’re going to build it by the four cylinder with, you know, the Dana 30 and 35 and who cares cause you’re gonna change it all anyway. But as long as you start with a solid frame, right? Yeah, you gotta have a solid frame and completely agree. That’s the big issue with TJs.

[00:50:35:02 – 00:50:52:23]
But if you’re not going to do a whole lot to it, then consider spending more money for the Rubicon. But right now Rubicon TJs pull up ridiculous premium for a good clean one. People that wanted TJs 30 years ago, they go, finally, I’m going to get me a Rubicon.

[00:50:53:23 – 00:51:00:25]
Yeah. And it’s, I mean, for what they cost now, you like, you could step into a clean JK. Like

[00:51:03:09 – 00:51:21:15]
we had a guy here. A comparable, comparable TJ to comparable. Like it, it’s a TJ, but like even an LJ, uh, you can step into a four door JK for less. Oh, yeah. For an LJ. Absolutely. Well, that’s cause it’s a JK.

[00:51:22:20 – 00:51:29:01]
I mean, I’m talking like I can get, you can get into a Rubicon JK for less than a clean LJ.

[00:51:30:07 – 00:51:38:18]
I could buy a built JK for less than an LJ. Like I could buy, I could buy a JK on tons and forties for less than a clean LJ.

[00:51:39:28 – 00:51:43:00]
Yeah. Uh, what are they, what are they? Sorry, go ahead.

[00:51:44:12 – 00:52:09:04]
No, go ahead. What are, uh, I know the LJ is here running about 20,000. It depends on condition. I’ve seen them as low as 10 for really rough. And I’ve seen them as high as 35. Really. I saw one for 42. Was it built? No, it was a Rubicon. It had a, it had lift on there, but it looked like it was, uh,

[00:52:11:15 – 00:52:30:28]
easy build. It wasn’t like something that actually went off road. I think that’s somebody, you know, a little bit over the top. Oh, yeah. Clean LJ. I’m seeing them. I can, you’ll find them in that 12 on the low end up to 18, uh, not a Rubicon Rubicon bump it up. You’re going to start looking at 22.

[00:52:32:08 – 00:52:41:19]
But I spend more time on faith. If I got paid by the hour or the amount of time I spend on Facebook, uh, I wouldn’t need to be on Facebook marketplace.

[00:52:43:24 – 00:52:48:09]
I mean, but I think that’s the, and I get that the LJ was a lower production model,

[00:52:49:18 – 00:53:05:10]
but when you’re investing your dollar, unless you just absolutely want to LJ, you can get a lot more for your dollar in a JK or JKU. I mean, I like LJ’s don’t get me wrong. Yeah.

[00:53:06:14 – 00:53:11:02]
But for me, it’s always, I hate to say return on investment because not return on investment. You’re going to lose your

[00:53:11:02 – 00:53:12:07]
ass. Oh, absolutely.

[00:53:13:15 – 00:53:19:01]
But what you’re getting for your dollar, you’re going to do way better

[00:53:20:11 – 00:53:33:18]
in a JK or JKU than you would an LJ and the TJs, you could still find some deals. And it seems like the market like softened up a little bit in the last year, like they were really skyrocketing where the four cylinders were pulling over 10 K.

[00:53:34:27 – 00:53:42:11]
And it has softened up quite a bit where you can get into a four liter Rubicon for, you know, 10 to 12. That’s still good condition clean one.

[00:53:43:29 – 00:54:09:18]
But in like low mileage, not a high mileage one, like I’ve seen 50, 60,000 mile TJs for 12, 13,000. But I think that LJ, there’s something about those that those people go crazy. Like I like them, but I don’t $10,000 more than what I can buy a TJ for like them.

[00:54:10:25 – 00:54:25:20]
I did. If, if I want to know what an LJ was, what I bought mine, I would want the LJ just from all the headaches with rear suspension and opinion angles. And well, you remember when the LJ came out, nobody wanted them because they were ugly as

[00:54:25:20 – 00:54:39:15]
Yeah. Like everybody thought they looked really strange. Yeah. It looks strange. They’re not, keep turn pretty vehicles in the first place. It’s pretty. We’ll know. But like when the LJ came out, everybody looked at and go, that’s

[00:54:39:15 – 00:54:50:22]
wrong. Like it was, it was the proportions weren’t right. Jeeps had always been fairly square. Like it didn’t matter what angle you looked at them for. It looked like a cube.

[00:54:51:25 – 00:54:55:20]
And then that LJ came out and they’re like, that’s not right. That’s a rectangle, not a cube.

[00:54:57:09 – 00:55:08:16]
And then the proportions for the, you know, the drop off angle and all that. And I just looked at them and I was like, that’s terrible. I remember, I remember the first time I saw an OJ, I was like, yeah,

[00:55:09:23 – 00:55:13:03]
I remember most time I saw a scrambler in person. Scrambler is ugly as

[00:55:15:10 – 00:55:37:11]
Yeah. We’re the same way with the four doors. Like, you know, we’re all, we got two doors, but the four doors to me look goofy as well. Like, I mean, they’re, they’re good for what they are. When you need the room, they just, they do. Hey, what are you saying? Well, Hey, I’m not hating. This is the Jeep talk show. We’re talking Jeeps. That’s right. I would prefer to have a two door gladiator. I think a two door gladiator would be snazzy.

[00:55:38:17 – 00:55:40:08]
Have you seen, have you seen the scrambler?

[00:55:41:12 – 00:55:52:26]
I think so. The new scrambler they’re going to put the, we already, we already checked that box. We’re going to get one when they come out, but they’re running the square headlights and the three 90 twos.

[00:55:55:19 – 00:56:04:17]
I believe it when I see one. Well, there’s supposed to be 27 or 28. Is it an IFS? I was just going to say that’s IFS.

[00:56:06:14 – 00:56:18:29]
No, no, no. They were really talking about that. Oh, absolutely. He wants to build a desert run style of prerunner type rig with IFS. Oh, go buy a Raptor.

[00:56:20:19 – 00:56:31:16]
I got to agree with that. Just because the size of a Raptor, you’re going to be able to have better drooping suspension, which in the desert at high speeds, that’s what you need.

[00:56:33:10 – 00:56:38:09]
The proportions work better in a Raptor than they do. I do not need a Jeep going high speed in the desert.

[00:56:39:29 – 00:56:42:13]
If the suspension’s right, it’d be fun.

[00:56:44:14 – 00:56:48:17]
The scramblers ought to be fun if they do them right, because it’s supposed to be a two door.

[00:56:50:13 – 00:57:08:11]
So it’ll be a two door, like kind of extended cab with a bed on it. So it’ll be pretty neat. Now, I would not mind seeing a police chase where the high speed off-road IFS suspension Jeep took off off-road. Catch me if you can, hopper.

[00:57:10:19 – 00:57:11:27]
I think it depends on where you’re at.

[00:57:13:22 – 00:57:26:28]
Because as much as I mean, I know you’re in Houston, Tony. Houston’s got some really fast police cars that a lot of people don’t know about. Oh yeah. Like I know they they’ve got a Lambo. I know that they’ve got a Viper.

[00:57:27:29 – 00:57:35:07]
We have a Viper and a completely unmarked Camaro, like the lights are in where the

[00:57:36:07 – 00:58:02:13]
sun visors are supposed to be. And that’s the only lights. Like I know there’s a lot of cars like that in Texas. So if you go somewhere out in the desert, the idea that they don’t have something that could go through the desert seems kind of. I would be really surprised. But that would be a chase. I’d would be worth watching. That would be cool. It would be cool. But I mean, like you think about the Rubicon, all of the Forest Service Tree and Sheriff’s up there, they had built Jeeps because they have to go through the Rubicon, right?

[00:58:03:25 – 00:58:40:08]
So the idea that there’s not some sort of pre-runner style pickup for the desert areas is, I think, a little naive. Maybe I’m maybe I’m not informed on this, but I don’t know why emergency groups fire the police, all of them. EMS don’t have a Jeep, an off-road capable Jeep lifted so that when the water’s high or they need to get to somebody that may be a little bit off-road and maybe wet. I think they all need to have at least one modified. I could tell you, I could say we have M-RAPs. Sorry.

[00:58:41:15 – 00:58:45:06]
A lot of them have picked up M-RAPs, you’re right. But then there’s also cargo issues with the Jeep.

[00:58:46:16 – 00:59:11:07]
So a lot of like we were watching Shark Week earlier, you go to the beach, everybody’s got pickups that are slightly lifted like TRD Pro, Tacomas, or I haven’t seen any JTs, but the bed on a JT is so short that I don’t think it works for it. But like I know we have F-250s out here where I live and, you know, Cal Country, because they need them to get through pastures and fields.

[00:59:12:10 – 00:59:27:03]
So it just depends on where you are in the country. Yeah. They evacuate someone on a backboard in a pickup truck a lot easier than anything else too. Yeah. They don’t want to police. They told the Florida police have a Jeeps for the beach.

[00:59:28:04 – 00:59:32:05]
I bet they got pickup trucks in the lifeguard EMS too, though.

[00:59:33:18 – 01:00:04:08]
Yeah, they do. I don’t know what the purpose is in the Jeep, other than just maybe the four-wheel drive just for the beach. But yeah, I don’t think you’re going to haul anybody in it or do any emergency stuff. But they do have some. A few of the sheriff’s departments out here, well, not out here, out in Colorado have four-door Wranglers they use that are pretty decently built to go back and send the trias and stuff.

[01:00:05:08 – 01:00:13:23]
Oh, that’s just Park, Colorado. The police department has a timer out near Rocky Mountain National Park. Wow. Wonder what the point in that is.

[01:00:15:13 – 01:00:18:09]
Well, if it’s a one, it makes sense. No, it isn’t.

[01:00:19:10 – 01:00:22:25]
Yeah. It’s a surplus because they get them.

[01:00:24:18 – 01:00:52:05]
They get them from like National Guard sell off. So National Guard, so they have their auction state does sells it on. And in most places, it works is a municipality by it. Like I can’t go to a state auction selling national selling National Guard equipment and just buy the National Guard equipment. It’s got to go to a municipality first. That’s because of your record.

[01:00:54:08 – 01:00:59:06]
That probably doesn’t hurt anything either. I will fly out again.

[01:01:01:13 – 01:01:04:09]
So if I drive like this in a GEO metro, what the

[01:01:04:09 – 01:01:05:12]
would I do in a home?

[01:01:07:11 – 01:01:44:18]
So let me let me wrap up this this TJ conversation. We talked about what to check if you’re interested in buying a used TJ. Let me ask this question. Is it a good idea to buy a used TJ? I know that Kevin had said that depending on the price, it might be better to get a JK because you get a little more for more bang for the buck. But is do you guys think a TJ is still a viable off road rig that would be fun to have and build up and take off? Oh, 100%. Yes. There’s a certain element to having a smaller vehicle off road of more

[01:01:45:24 – 01:01:47:07]
pucker factor, I think, right?

[01:01:48:08 – 01:02:32:28]
Whereas the JK has got the more stout, especially JKU, it’s got a more stout footprint. Wider wider longer. Yeah. Yeah. That that little, that little TJ just enhances the pucker factor a little more, I think. Right. Uh, but it goes beyond that. I can take the little red brick in places without as much effort as some of the JKs and gladiators. I will win. Oh, sure. Yeah. No, yeah. Especially in wooded areas with although when there’s a lot of trees, it’s a lot easier to navigate around all that stuff. Um, how did hidden falls that one of the trails we did when I was down there, I didn’t, I was not even where I was supposed to be, but it didn’t matter because I just turned and went through the trees.

[01:02:34:00 – 01:02:45:28]
You were behind me in the cheap talk show gladiator, Tony, and are in front of me. No, you were in front of me and you had to go around some trees that I could fit through. Yeah.

[01:02:47:12 – 01:02:58:03]
Yeah. I remember that not the trip that that trip that Bob was on, but the one that I was at there when we went through some trees after watching everybody try to conduct hard waterfall,

[01:02:59:10 – 01:03:17:03]
I was able to zip through like the straightest line versus a lot of the JKs and JTs were like, or JL use JK use. We’re having to like make three point four point turns to make some of the stuff. And I was just, you know, zip, zip, zip, because I didn’t have the wheel base to get out that I

[01:03:18:08 – 01:03:27:21]
didn’t have the wheel base. They did. So I was able to make sharper turns and not have to worry about where I was swinging in the back or in the middle because there’s no middle.

[01:03:29:02 – 01:04:11:04]
Yeah. I can’t remember the gentleman’s name. He’s a listener viewer that comes here on the round table quite often, but I remember Chuck trying to get up. I think it was TRO. He was trying to get up over that ledge and he couldn’t make it in that scrambler. He tried hard. And then the other guy in the TJ just walked right up at such an amazing thing to see. It was just so easy. Everybody was having problems with TRO that I think it was when you leave the end of TRO. I’ve done that at Barnwell where I’ve been out there with 20 JK use and XJs and they’re struggling with something and I’m like, get the

[01:04:11:04 – 01:04:41:27]
out of the way. Yeah. Now I was saying that on some of the really tall ledges like out Moab poison spider and a couple of those, uh, the JKs, even duchess, uh, LJ goes up it and I get to it and I’m on my back bumper looking straight up going, no, no, this is an arrest fee for going over backwards. I’m good. Just coming down that drop on seal bender, Bob, when you were behind after you came down I was watching. I’m like, Oh

[01:04:41:27 – 01:05:13:06]
no. Where did I do that in a TJ? Well, Bill, we were out on, um, things and things one year and Bill had his, it was the first year he had his two door out there. Yeah. I was going, he went down something you were with us, right? Yeah. Yeah. I followed him down and I lined up for it and Bill’s like, hang on a second and he gets out and records it. My front tires are over the edge and I’m going, if Bill’s getting out to record, this is, I do it. How, how dumb am I about to be?

[01:05:14:27 – 01:05:51:02]
Somebody says, wait, I need to video this. Yeah. Don’t go yet. I need to get set up. That’s on the one where you hit, you could go. There’s three paths to the left and one to the right. Yeah. And he went down to steepest and he was like, that was pucker factor. I followed him. I was puckering. You know, it’s a serious trail. Well, they say, let me get my camera set up and let me dial nine one on my phone. Yeah. Well, I went down that and my bumper was straight down into the dirt. I actually got out and look cause I was sure I bent my license plate.

[01:05:53:15 – 01:06:17:17]
Well, I mean, that’s, I mean, that’s part of this short two door, two door life. Like I’ve laundered my Jeep and a Creek. I’ve laundered my razor. I’ve laundered in a couple different places and that’s just part of being short. You got to know, like if you feel that back end start to come up, you need to hammer the throttle because otherwise you’re probably going over. Yeah. Get that power while the tires are still touching the ground. Absolutely.

[01:06:19:00 – 01:06:46:06]
All right. So I think we’ve covered the, the TJ. I think everybody here either said the TJ is a good Jeep to buy. And there’s, I think the thickness, the metal, including the, the frame, all the rest of that stuff, make it a good long-term Jeep as well. As long as you take care of it and make sure it doesn’t have a lot of rust. Well guys, I sure appreciate it. And maybe we got somebody out there that was thinking about a TJ and they’re looking at it a little more seriously now.

[01:06:47:10 – 01:06:52:09]
From the mind of Nicky G! Thank you for watching!

[01:06:52:09 – 01:06:59:17]
NickyG. I just wanted to let you guys know that I used to work at a fire hydrant factory. Yeah, you couldn’t park nowhere near the place.

[01:07:03:01 – 01:07:04:27]
Didn’t like that one. Try this one on for size.

[01:07:06:12 – 01:07:09:26]
Yeah, a bridge near my house was closed. Yeah, I can’t get over it.

[01:07:12:02 – 01:07:13:18]
And last but not least,

[01:07:15:17 – 01:07:28:03]
I thought I heard my printer playing some music last night. Turned out I was just paper jamming. What can I say? It is what it is. Alright boys and girls, I’ll chat to you later and have a good one. Bye. So

[01:07:28:03 – 01:07:31:24]
(Music)

[01:07:31:24 – 01:07:34:22]
right, Josh, I hear you have another

[01:07:34:22 – 01:07:35:07]
you,

[01:07:35:07 – 01:07:38:13]
Nothing personal to you guys, but

[01:07:38:13 – 01:07:38:28]
you.

[01:07:40:02 – 01:07:43:28]
Take it, Josh. Well, a lot of the people probably are thinking by now, holy

[01:07:43:28 – 01:08:41:26]
Josh likes to drive fast all of the time. He’s always talking about speed and people being in his way and stuff like that. Look, it’s going to kind of follow in the low that common theme here. I am in a bit of an aggressive driver. I drive just like I walk through the grocery store with purpose and determination. I have a place to go. I’m trying to get there. And if you’re in my way, you’re part of the problem, not part of the solution. And this is one of these things. I’m sure we’ve all experienced this a million times before you’re stuck in a line of traffic or whatever. There’s somebody in front of you. There’s eight, nine car links between them and the vehicle in front of it. And it keeps growing and you’re behind them for five, 10, 15 minutes. And now suddenly there’s a quarter mile gap that’s in front of this person. And you can’t figure out why. Okay. Look, I’m, I like to do 47 in the 35. Maybe that’s just me. You know, I’m typically going five, 10, 15 miles over the speed limit, just because I got a lead foot. That’s the way I was raised. That’s the way I grew up. That’s the way I am. It’s the way I drive. You don’t like it.

[01:08:41:26 – 01:09:10:22]
you. All right. So if you’re one of these people that I’m behind you and I’m, maybe I’m, I’m pushing you a little bit. Maybe I’m crowding you a little bit. Maybe I flashed the lights a couple of times. Hey buddy, it’s time to push the skinny piddle. Get out of the way. Okay. So let’s say there’s two lanes of traffic going on and same sort of thing going on. I move over to make the note to make that passing maneuver, start that passing maneuver and you start speeding up by 10, 15, 20 miles an hour.

[01:09:10:22 – 01:09:11:28]
you. You

[01:09:11:28 – 01:09:27:20]
Where was that gas pedal when you were five miles ago, when I was stuck behind you doing 27 in the 35. Seriously, when you’re doing 27 and a 45, I’m going to start honking my horn and flashing my lights. If you’re an idiot that can’t read the

[01:09:27:20 – 01:09:32:19]
sign and I’ll do this, I’ll point to the speed sign. Look for five

[01:09:32:19 – 01:09:35:19]
and you’re doing 27 move the

[01:09:35:19 – 01:09:49:28]
out of the way. And oh, now you’re going to find your lead foot. You’re going to find that skinny pedal. When I get up next to you, I’m not going to flip you off. I’m not going to do any big aggressive maneuvers and try and, you know, bring me off the road or anything like that. I may be

[01:09:49:28 – 01:10:06:06]
off. I may be shaking my fist a little bit. I may look at you with a mean mug on my face. But look, you’re the one that’s part of the problem. You’re going under the speed limit. I understand that people may be scared of other vehicles around them and whatnot. Maybe you just shouldn’t drive. Okay. So your

[01:10:06:06 – 01:10:08:05]
car take over. I don’t give a

[01:10:08:05 – 01:10:28:22]
There’s plenty of taxi services out there to begin with. So there’s lots of ways for you to get from point A to point B and going 15 miles an hour under the posted speed limit is not the way we do that. Okay. So if somebody starts to pass you and you obviously have a lot of room in front of you to the next car, you’ve been going under the speed limit. Well, don’t get

[01:10:28:22 – 01:10:32:28]
off and suddenly try to accelerate when somebody’s trying to pass you, you’re being a

[01:10:32:28 – 01:10:34:03]
So

[01:10:34:03 – 01:10:34:27]
you. You

[01:10:34:27 – 01:10:36:13]
We’re going so

[01:10:36:13 – 01:10:47:19]
slow under the speed limit. And then finally finding your acceleration when somebody or the entire lane of traffic starts passing you, you’ve got seven cars that are all honking at you. Maybe you’re doing something wrong.

[01:10:50:07 – 01:10:51:11]
Okay. I’m getting a little heated here.

[01:10:51:11 – 01:11:20:01]
All right, Josh, another fun episode. It’s great. I keep saying it’s great to have you back here. You’ve been gone for so long. It’s just nice being able to record and talk with you again. Hopefully all of our viewers and listeners are liking it as well. Like I told you, we’ve had several people comment on is Josh really back? Reminds me of the John Wick thing. Where he goes, yeah, yeah, I think I’m back. Yeah, I’m back.

[01:11:22:14 – 01:11:37:26]
All right, so join us again next week. Speaking of XJs. What’s that? Oh, you see one? Sorry, I just pulled in this parking lot. Here, I’m just gonna grab the camera here real quick. Sure. Can I switch the camera? I can switch the camera and…

[01:11:39:07 – 01:12:24:08]
Oh, that’s not switching the camera. Here, we’ll look at it like that. There, there’s a nice XJ bill. He’s got a decent, oh, anorak set up on there. Long arm kit. This looks like some flat fenders and stuff as well. It’s blue, right? Yeah, I’ll take that XJ any day of the week. And it’s blue. See if it’s locked. (Laughing) So who’s this guy over here in this truck looking at my Jeep? That’s funny stuff. Well, I think a lot of us modified Jeep owners are used to people looking at our Jeeps. All right, Josh, let’s wrap this up. We’ll see you again next week. Thank you for being here with us, especially considering you have to do a job and make time to record stuff, which we really appreciate.

[01:12:25:10 – 01:13:20:20]
All right, so are you– Speaking of making time, Tony, I just wanna put a plug out there if I can. As we’re kind of going back and revisiting some of these older episodes and reliving some of these moments and stuff, just that first clip when somebody had called in with a question to the XJ talk show way back in the day, it had me thinking of, well, we’ve got the ability now for people to not only call into the show, not only leave a voicemail, but leave a video voicemail. And so let’s say you’re in the midst of a build right now, or there’s something on your Jeep that you’re thinking about, or maybe you’re in the store and you’re thinking about this particular kit or these particular shocks, or maybe those particular tires. Why not head over to jeeptalkshow.com slash voicemail? Do that right now while you’re in doing whatever you’re doing, and you can actually record a question with video for the show. We can interact with it, we can talk about it,

[01:13:21:28 – 01:14:34:23]
and we can show not only people that you know, but also the entire world, what you’re working on, and we can talk about it and actually give you advice and comment, give our two cents about whatever it is, your build, the tires you’re looking at, a piece of gear that you’re questioning or something like that. So get involved with the show, get involved with us, let us get involved in your Jeep world as you kind of incorporate your Jeep world and with our Jeep world. Let’s all become happy Jeep world people together, huh? Yeah, jeeptalkshow.com slash voicemail, we’ll see you there. Excellent, so are you ready to join the Jeep Talk Show crew? Become a Patreon subscriber today at the jeeptalkshow.com slash contact and unlock exclusive perks while supporting the show. Keep the adventure rolling by leaving a five star rating and review on your favorite podcast platform to help grow the Jeep community. If you’re watching the Jeep Talk Show on YouTube, don’t forget to like, subscribe, share, and comment. Stay in the loop following us on social media and signing up for our newsletter for the latest Jeep news and must attend events. Got a question or idea for our next episode? Send it our way to jeeptalkshow.com slash contact. We say it several times, so you’ll remember it,

[01:14:34:23 – 01:14:39:21]
dammit. Thanks for riding along and let’s hit the trail for more epic adventures.

[01:14:41:21 – 01:14:53:07]
All right, Josh, I think it’s time to do the bonus content that you can only find on YouTube and maybe Patreon. So you guys go find

[01:14:54:27 – 01:14:56:24]
You’re my friend, you’re my new friend.

[01:14:56:24 – 01:15:43:21]
XJTalk.com LLC and the Jeep Talk Show podcast is attended for entertainment purposes only. The views and opinions expressed by the hosts, guests and contributors are their own and do not represent professional advice, endorsements or recommendations. We strongly advise consulting a licensed or certified mechanic or automotive professional for any repairs, modifications or maintenance to your vehicle. By listening to or using any information provided on this show, you assume full responsibility for your actions and any resulting consequences, including potential risks to safety, property or legal compliance. The Jeep Talk Show and its affiliates disclaim all liability for any damages or losses arising from the application of this content.