Jeeps and your Health

I know, it sounds like a line to feed your wife about why you need to go wheel'n this weekend, but I do believe it is true. Getting out into the back country with your Jeep is one of the most important things you can do for your health.

I find my brain starts to shut down from the busy week, blood pressure lowers and my entire attitude is better within an hour of heading up into the hills.

The line, "it's a Jeep thing, you wouldn't understand", really is true. this is our emotional and for me, even spiritual connection back to what makes me who I am.

Perhaps it's because my childhood was spent in the hills checking up on cows, but I have met many Jeep'ers who I see have the same expression on their faces as these two guys have. We are where we belong. Exploring, on our own, only dependent upon ourselves to get through.

There is just something about a Jeep. A Pickup really doesn't feel the same. Even a modern fancy four door Jeep all "prettified" to be a SUV doesn't do it.

That unique Jeep sound of the exhaust, the grumble of the gears, it feels like the Wrangler is in it's element determined to move forward no matter what is in the way. I believe that Jeep feeling is what made the Vet's buy them after the War and why the Wrangler is still a vehicle that just puts a smile on your face.

Are Jeeps poorly made?

Are Jeeps really made of poor quality and craftsmanship?

The question was asked by a friend who had bought a YJ that constantly broke down on him. We covered the YJ a bit in an earlier blog post. However as I just had my heater core replaced on my TJ (very expensive because the dash, seats, steering yoke had to be pulled), at 112k miles, it does seem Jeeps are not built that well.

A couple things to consider is that Jeeps are built in a modular way to easily strip down and convert to no doors, no roof or strip out the carpet quickly to remove water. So they are not built like normal cars.

The second and most important element to consider is they spend a lot of time on rough back roads that would destroy a normal car. Often the mileage will be low but the actual hours the motor ran is double what a car doing 60mph have on the motor. Gas mileage can't be measured in miles when the road is so rough it took you an hour to go two miles. Naturally the motor was running that entire hour though not much distance was covered.

If we are honest, as Jeep owners, we do admit that Jeeps are not really built well. Certainly they have improved over the years. But if you expect a Jeep to be like your car you are going to be very disappointed. You need to look at the Jeep as a specialized vehicle that takes amazing abuse, crawls in and out of impossible situations. But the plastic will break, the engine and transmission will not last long on the open highway (in comparison with cars) and break downs will happen.