After I got tired of the GM V6 and the limited seating in my Comanche, I put an ad in CL for it for about double what I had paid for it. One guy was very interested in it and offered to trade me some guns and some cash. But I really didn’t need any more guns. The only other thing he had was a beat up Jeep Cherokee. It was a two door automatic and I really needed a four door manual, but he really liked the Comanche, so I figured what the heck…..
The Jeep had some of the same issues the Comanche had: bad ball joint, crummy tires, bad exhaust. But it had a few very good points on the Comanche: the engine and transmission were from a 1996 truck with low miles and it showed. It had the much better 4.0 HO straight six mated to a four speed auto, as well as a small chassis lift. It was the Laredo trim level, so it had a full time four wheel drive selection as well as two wheel high and four wheel low and high. Pretty damn handy actually. The engine was sufficiently powerful to spin all four tires on dry pavement if one was not careful, something unheard of with the old GM V6!
The worst problem with this truck proved to be the tires and drive line. The tires looked nearly new but upon closer inspection they were found to be severely dry rotted. Deep cracks were developing all over them and belts were starting to separate. The rear drive shaft was in bad shape, as per most trucks I have owned, I took it off and sent it in to the drive shaft shop to be rebuilt and balanced. After that it felt a little better on the highway, but the steering was pretty scary with the bad ball joint.
Hunting season was coming up fast so I ordered the ball joints. They cost me six dollars a piece. One of the strengths of the Jeep Cherokee is the availability and price of parts. Around here in Northwestern Oregon they are everywhere; if it’s not a Jeep Cherokee, it’s a Toyota Four Runner or 4×4 pickup; or a Subaru wagon, followed by Ford diesel pickups and old Chevys. But I was running out of time and money for tires.
We ended up going with the rotted old tires and the bad ball joints. It was a rather white knuckled experience on the way to our hunting grounds. Oh, and I should mention, we had no spare tire so we took along our tire plug kit and little air compressor. Of course it turned out that we needed it. After our early morning hunt we returned to a flat rear tire. Luckily it was plug-able. You might ask why I would drive such a truck and take so many risks to go hunting. Well this was the first year my oldest son was able to hunt alone having gotten his hunter’s safety certification. I had promised him that we would hunt no matter what. Of course actual hunting is only a small part of what I call hunting, but for me its a great reason to tramp about in the forest.
The truck got us there; what more could one ask of a truck? A lot more really. It made me miss my old Land Rover, but it got the job done, sort of. It averaged about fifteen miles per gallon, and since Reginald had owned two similar Jeeps I knew that to be about normal. On the highway it could get up to around seventeen, unloaded. My Rover got fifteen on the highway. The Jeep was pretty capable off road but not up to the Rover’s capabilities. It was smaller and held less passengers as well. Not to mention the seats were certainly not leather. But for the equivalent of seven hundred and fifty or so bucks, it was a good deal.
We didn’t get a deer, as usual. But we did have fun.
The trip back was not as fun. Our tire started leaking again and we were forced to make a pit stop at the tire shop. They did not have our size so we had to go to another. They had it but then found out the tire they had was bad as well. So we ended up with a slightly off sized tire (not good for the differential). We attempted to go out the next weekend and got as far as the foot of the mountain. But there we found that our other back tire was going flat. The tread had started to separate causing a long rip. I put a bunch of tire plugs in it and turned around. We made it into town to find a tire shop just before closing; they didn’t have our size either, so we went to another, same story. The tire began to leak again. I put the last of my plugs in it and it stopped. We begrudgingly accepted defeat and turned homeward. I was holding the steering wheel tightly the whole way back but the tire lasted.
After that Reginald found some old tires from one of his past trucks and bequeathed them unto me. I had Ace, my oldest son pictured above, put them on. The tire shop wouldn’t do it because they were too old. So I taught him how to do it the old fashioned way with two pry bars and some soap. We used the Hi-Lift jack to break the bead. But lacking a proper air compressor, getting the bead to seat was a different story. So I adapted the Icelandic method of using starting fluid and a match. I didn’t let Ace do that part! It’s a lot of work to do tires without a machine, but Ace got very good at it and by the last one could get it done in about fifteen minutes.
Now that we had some better tires, we had no place to go in it as hunting season was over. It became my de facto commuter car. It served OK in that role, but it wasn’t exactly fuel efficient. One day Reginald told me his friend was looking into getting a Jeep Cherokee and might want to trade for his car…..
Michael, this article brings back many memories. Back in 2001, before I graduated from high school, one of my cousins moved out west and left me his 1992 Cherokee Laredo. He said I could have it – for free. Since I lived in Vermont and many of my friends had four-wheel-drive vehicles, I figured that I couldn’t lose so I took it. It didn’t have a lot of needs – just two new ball joints, a windshield and a thermostat.
That Cherokee was one of the best, most reliable vehicles I have ever had, except for the atrocious gas mileage that left me wondering why I got it in the first place. I only averaged about 16 mpg on the highway at the time. But the drivetrain (4.0 six with auto) was indestructible. In fact, at 146k miles it was much more reliable than my mom’s 1993 Volvo 960 with lower miles. My friends and I took it off-roading in the woods of central VT and we had a blast. It was more dependable than their Land Rovers and Mazda trucks, too.
I still like them alot.
My sister owned one of these for several years – one of the few non-VW-diesels in her life. She bought it new in 1993 and insisted on the 5 speed. They were really hard to find even when new. It seemed that for every 50 or 75 automatics, there was a 5 speed somewhere.
With the 5 speed and the 4.0 inline 6, that Jeep was REALLY fun to drive. But it was small. I was still fresh out of my 86 Fox-body Marquis wagon, and I concluded that the Jeep was no bigger, and maybe a bit smaller. But it was higher up in the air, and a LOT faster. I never got around to telling sis to call me when she was ready to get rid of it, and she eventually traded it on a Tahoe as her kids got bigger.
I always loved the looks of these, and went so far as to go looking for one a few years ago. These are still quite expensive and are by all accounts one of the most durable of its breed. These are much more common than Explorers and Blazers now. But I found something else, so no Jeep yet. Now I have a new neighbor with a really nice later white one. Maybe I’ll have to amble over and chat about the really nice Jeep.
A friend of mine had a ’94 Cherokee 4 door with the straight six and five speed he bought new. Other than replacing the clutch and transfer case once, he never had a problem with it in 15 years and over 300,000 km. Then he gave it to his brother…and that was all she wrote. He pretty much trashed it, and my friend is still ticked at his brother for it. I rode in the Cherokee a few times, and it was a great ride. I’d take a good used Cherokee over a new Liberty or Wrangler any day.
Bought a new ’85 Cherokee in the fall of 1984, in Santa Monica, and rode the tip of the SUV phase. Within a year or so, they were the Mommy-mobile of choice in LA.
Sold it in 2000; fifteen years and 170k miles of memories later. Some very fun times in the back roads all over the West, from Arizona to Eastern Oregon. Our two older kids practically grew up in it. Had the Chevy 2.8 V6 and Chrysler Torqueflite; fast it wasn’t. But it got us to many memorable places and back. Thirsty, and it did need a bit of work along the way. I’ll do a full write-up on it when I get to it in my AB series. I have a very big soft spot for these.
An XJ Cherokee will be my next addition to the fleet, once I have a place to park three vehicles. Definitely looking for a truck with the 4.0 liter Six and Selec-Trac, as I like having the option to run in 4wd on dry pavement. Toyota didn’t figure this out with the 4Runner until the mid-2000s, which are still kind of spendy for a 3rd winter/offroad rig.
My uncle had a ’91 Cherokee almost exactly like this one, but four door. He drove it 200,000 or so trouble-free miles in eight years (as a doctor, he appreciated the reliability and foul-weather capabilities). When my uncle bought a new Volvo S80 in 1999 (that’s a different story!), he gave the Cherokee to the CNA helping my grandfather. The CNA appreciated the upgrade from his rusty ’86 Taurus, but apparently did not know basic car maintenance, and managed to kill the trusty 4.0L engine by neglecting to check the oil.
I wowed a few guys at work with the starting fluid method of seating tires. On our Golf Carts..
I taught one guy how to break the bead on a 33 by running over the tire with another rig (with 35s) and It earned me the nick name Hillbilly. Though I grew up in suburbia and i’m not a Bill..
When I eventually take my cousin’s advice and move to the PNW I need to buy you a beer..
Agreed!
Fancy tyre machines hadnt been invented when I learned how to backyard repair tyres a couple of tyre irons and a rubber beating cue still work.
I had a ’91 Cherokee for about four months while I was in college in Upper Michigan. My brother was no longer using it. It was probably the coolest car I’ve ever owned (although that may not be saying much: my cars have pretty much all been pretty dorky). It was a blue four-door, similarly equipped to the two-door in the article, with the Selec-Trac 4WD/AWD system that I even got to use once.
Returning home from college for Christmas, I was driving it in 2WD mode with the cruise control on during one of those freezing rain/sleet events that happens every winter. Changing lanes to pass a semi, I spun the thing around, and just as it was about to come under control, bumped into the concrete barrier somewhere near Saginaw. We limped home together (that was one tough vehicle), it got parked in the garage and was never used as a daily driver ever again. although my wife never liked it, I miss it all the time, and my son (now 2) has a major thing for Jeeps. She’s sympathetic towards him, and has warmed up to those boxy old trucks. I wonder if I’ll have a shot at owning one again…
I had one of these as well, a 2-door ’98 6/auto. Dependable, if you don’t count niggling little build quality issues. The only two drawbacks: gas mileage and lack of rear doors, especially with a newborn. My wife, the trooper, made it work for a year and a half until we could upgrade to a CR-V.
I’ve owned two Cherokees – one a 1998 and the other a 1994. The 1998 was only a few years old when we bought it so it was ok. The engine felt rock solid but everything else around it felt really cheap and cheesy. I changed the brakes on it and snapped off all the bolts. Not impressed.
The 1994 I got free after the previous owner ran low on oil and seized the motor. After a few months I finally admitted it wasn’t worth fixing and moved it on.
somehow, i knew that michael would have a two door cherokee. for some reason, i way prefer these to the four door version, probably because they are relatively rare. a good simple honest car which is more than you can say for most of the cr*p they sell now.
I like the looks of them also, but they are less practical. They are pretty simple and honest. Not the best car ever, but for the money, a good deal.