After months of research and slowly getting my wife on board, we decided we wanted to get into overlanding! Since we are both pretty young and early in our careers we didnt have a lot of money to spend buying a brand new 4Runner or Tacoma like I wanted... But nevertheless I set out to look for a cheap... reliable.. 4x4 that doesn't have a ton of rust and has enough room to for us to travel comfortably!
Originally I had settled on a 1996 Toyota T100, but it had some pretty serious problems (after pulling the heads and finding a cracked block) I decided to scrap that idea.. not literally, but I sold the T100 for $1000 my wife wasn't too happy so I knew I needed to buy something that is very.. very reliable now or I'd lose her trust and possibly my overland goals. So I went to marketplace and after searching about 2 weeks I found this guy!
A 1996 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo! It is the 4.0L I6 with the 42RE transmission and 242 Transfer case, practically the MOST reliable version of this old Jeep. The guy had said that he owned for the last 16 years and that it was just pulled behind an RV for almost all of the time that he had it. It was about an hour drive from my place so on Jan. 1 2020 we decided to look at it. My wife took some convincing since she thought I should buy a pickup truck since it would be more practical for other stuff I reassured her that this is a vehicle I know to be reliable and easy to fix (after all I am a tech at a Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram dealership lol).
Here are a couple more images from the Facebook post.
After seeing it in person and driving it around for a bit we made a deal, he had listed it for $1300 originally, but after negotiating I got it for $1000. We departed on the hour drive home, where I learned a few interesting quirks about the jeep!
First, it shifted weird into 1st gear... It would almost delay after I was stopped and put my foot on the gas
Second, the radio and the overhead lights don't work at all.. sometimes the radio will come on, but the lights never work
Third, the tires were in pretty bad shape
But outside of that it drove great on the highway and I got it home with know problems!!
Working at a Jeep dealership I drove it to work the next day and decided to change and check all the fluids and also get it up on the lift so I could really check the underneath!
The transmission was pretty low on fluid (as was almost everything else) so I added ATF+4 and it fixed my weird shifting problem! The transfer case was also low, so I drained and refilled it! I also bought gear oil from our parts department and some RTV and drained, inspected and refilled/resealed both differentials, which were also low on fluid on arrival!
I decided on Valvoline 10w-30 Synthetic Blend High Mileage because it's pretty good oil for the money, and even with my discount at work the Pennzoil our dealership carries in bulk was still more expensive (and also we only stock 5w30... not that it would make a huge difference)
After the oil and fluid changed I put on a set of RainX wiper blades and ordered some new tires!
I ordered Falken Wildpeak AT3W's!! I only went up slightly from the stock size because I have no plans to lift it currently and these are comfortable and relatively quiet! These are 29x9.5 (235/75r15)
The perk of being a mechanic at the dealership means I can install them myself... for free! I also ordered StanceMagic 20pc Chrome Lug nuts off amazon
The look pretty good on the Jeep! and the drive just as good as everyone says!
I also took off the ugly front hitch for the RV hookup when I was doing that, and put a Mopar battery in it since the old was wasn't doing so great!
This weekend we took it up to my sisters place about 2 and 1/2 hours away, to make sure everything drove well and it was perfect! we averaged about 17mpg for the 330 mi trip! After the trip the mileage was a 285,129!
So that is where I am at with the build so far! I have a whole laundry list of items I need to do, plus some stuff that I want in the near future that is more overlanding focused!
I will try to update every time I work on it or do anything major! I am still trying to fix my weird wiring problem so I can get a working radio and interior lights, but right now she is running and driving great!
Originally I had settled on a 1996 Toyota T100, but it had some pretty serious problems (after pulling the heads and finding a cracked block) I decided to scrap that idea.. not literally, but I sold the T100 for $1000 my wife wasn't too happy so I knew I needed to buy something that is very.. very reliable now or I'd lose her trust and possibly my overland goals. So I went to marketplace and after searching about 2 weeks I found this guy!
A 1996 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo! It is the 4.0L I6 with the 42RE transmission and 242 Transfer case, practically the MOST reliable version of this old Jeep. The guy had said that he owned for the last 16 years and that it was just pulled behind an RV for almost all of the time that he had it. It was about an hour drive from my place so on Jan. 1 2020 we decided to look at it. My wife took some convincing since she thought I should buy a pickup truck since it would be more practical for other stuff I reassured her that this is a vehicle I know to be reliable and easy to fix (after all I am a tech at a Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram dealership lol).
Here are a couple more images from the Facebook post.
After seeing it in person and driving it around for a bit we made a deal, he had listed it for $1300 originally, but after negotiating I got it for $1000. We departed on the hour drive home, where I learned a few interesting quirks about the jeep!
First, it shifted weird into 1st gear... It would almost delay after I was stopped and put my foot on the gas
Second, the radio and the overhead lights don't work at all.. sometimes the radio will come on, but the lights never work
Third, the tires were in pretty bad shape
But outside of that it drove great on the highway and I got it home with know problems!!
Working at a Jeep dealership I drove it to work the next day and decided to change and check all the fluids and also get it up on the lift so I could really check the underneath!
The transmission was pretty low on fluid (as was almost everything else) so I added ATF+4 and it fixed my weird shifting problem! The transfer case was also low, so I drained and refilled it! I also bought gear oil from our parts department and some RTV and drained, inspected and refilled/resealed both differentials, which were also low on fluid on arrival!
I decided on Valvoline 10w-30 Synthetic Blend High Mileage because it's pretty good oil for the money, and even with my discount at work the Pennzoil our dealership carries in bulk was still more expensive (and also we only stock 5w30... not that it would make a huge difference)
After the oil and fluid changed I put on a set of RainX wiper blades and ordered some new tires!
I ordered Falken Wildpeak AT3W's!! I only went up slightly from the stock size because I have no plans to lift it currently and these are comfortable and relatively quiet! These are 29x9.5 (235/75r15)
The perk of being a mechanic at the dealership means I can install them myself... for free! I also ordered StanceMagic 20pc Chrome Lug nuts off amazon
The look pretty good on the Jeep! and the drive just as good as everyone says!
I also took off the ugly front hitch for the RV hookup when I was doing that, and put a Mopar battery in it since the old was wasn't doing so great!
This weekend we took it up to my sisters place about 2 and 1/2 hours away, to make sure everything drove well and it was perfect! we averaged about 17mpg for the 330 mi trip! After the trip the mileage was a 285,129!
So that is where I am at with the build so far! I have a whole laundry list of items I need to do, plus some stuff that I want in the near future that is more overlanding focused!
I will try to update every time I work on it or do anything major! I am still trying to fix my weird wiring problem so I can get a working radio and interior lights, but right now she is running and driving great!
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