All this talk about annual safety inspections reminded me of this Cherokee I shot at our regular evening hike trailhead near Eugene. OK, it’s not nearly as stripped down as the ultra bare-bones (no brakes) Toyota pickup I once shot, but that one was truly exceptional, and an extreme example of what can be found on the road here due to the lack of inspections in Oregon. Compared to that, this Cherokee is practically a NHTSA safety demonstration car from the 1970s, although some restraint to discourage unexpected and in intended rapid evacuation from the passenger compartment might be useful. Maybe at least a bit of rope across the door?
Nah; that’s for sissies.
Why would anyone want to spoil the full effects of motoring by a door, never mind a window?
Just imagine how easy entry and exits are without doors.
The LED lightbar on the hood might be a bit of a nuisance to drivers coming the other way, but then it might be best to just get off the roadway when this thing approaches.
Now that’s a handy way to store the recovery strap; no need to dig it out and hook it up.
The missing front turn signal-side marker light is no problem; hand signals are going to be very easy and highly visible.
I don’t know if Oregon needs vehicle inspections, but they should at least require that doors or some kind of barrier is mounted on vehicles that are being used on paved roads. It is one thing to see this Jeep on the trail, and another around town. The issue is the speed at which one can travel up a trail with safety, and the speed permitted on paved roads.
There should be some sort of enforcement here.
I’m pretty sure that most states don’t actually require cars to have doors (and if you think about it, if motorcycles are legal, than doorless cars aren’t any worse).
But I’m thinking the regulatory trouble this Cherokee may fall into is the lack of an outside mirror, which I think is required in most states.
Well, there’s certainly no shortagle of doorless Wranglers running around. But at least they have an arrangement where the outside rearview mirror is still present.
In fact, I think the low, 3/4 door with the vinyl window is still available as an option (albeit a pricey one). I know it goes against the ‘wild and free’ lifestyle ethos but I would actually prefer those low doors as opposed to no door, at all (particularly since the half-doors offer an armrest). At the very least, a whole lot easier than having to remove/resinstall the metal doors.
I think you are thinking of the Ford Bronco, which has the outside rear-view mirror attached to the fender.
Pretty sure the mirrors on Wrangler are mounted to the doors, which makes me question how legal it is to drive them on public streets with the doors removed.
Side mirrors aren’t mandatory in many states, here’s a site with chart for state requirements. Oregon only requires the rear view mirror
https://www.carparts.com/blog/is-it-illegal-to-drive-without-a-side-mirror/
Yeah, Jeep (and a lot of aftermarket outfits) offers a kit to mount a mirror to the upper hinge mounts when the doors are removed.
So just because you don’t like jeep wranglers going doorless. I shouldn’t be able to remove my removable door from my wrangler?
No probs proving you can escape from the vehicle in a accident then. Those wheels stoking out from the fenders must be a no,no for sure?.
Yeah, this thing should definitely not be allowed on the road.
If I were to have a car without doors, I think I’d opt for vinyl seats, or waterproof seatcovers. Cloth seats like these must be awfully squishy for a few days after a rainfall.
Not a lot worse than any of the CJ’s and their descendants which never had doors as standard equipment, and the current ones all have removable doors as well, I believe. Owner’s discretion should prevail in these matters, methinks.
Agreed. I haven’t seen a wrangler or gladiator all summer that had doors attached, I saw a brand new Bronco without them as well. Many had light bars too, if it’s not on all the time who cares if it’s there?
No seat belts?? 🙁
If invited for a ride, I’d probably take a hard pass.
Don’t we see the seat belts hanging on the B pillars? The shot isn’t that clear, but they look like they are there to me. There is a buckle for one in the passenger seat.
Yeah I don’t know why everybody seems to be assuming there aren’t belts, it’s not a GM J body where the belts go with the doors! They’re mostly out of view and obscured but the upper points are visible, you can see them protruding out in the first and last pictures, the chrome driver seat buckle looks to be there in the last picture too, you have to look close
Amazing! Yes the lack of doors and seatbelts is disconcerting, but it’s amazing for me to see an XJ Cherokee with the rocker panels and suspension attachment points intact!
Most monster mudder XJs we see for sale seem to be a drivetrain and big tires connected to a few shreds of rust.
Same as riding a motorcycle with no helmet, you’re free to do that but you’re also free to pay for your medical expenses and live with a busted head.
This reminds me of the van/minivan practice of driving around with the rear sliding doors locked open. I saw one of those just the other evening. But you can at least close those doors when it rains.
I think this is a pretty foolish way to drive around – there is something like zero in the way of crush space if you get broadsided, for example. But hey, this is America. It’s a free country (as they used to say, anyway) and a guy is entitled to be stupid as he wants to be with his own safety.
It’s not the driver falling out that we’re concerned about…..it’s the driver falling out and the car continuing on driverless.
I was just saying to a passenger, the other day while passing a UPS truck (van) on the highway at speed, that one of the things that would give me pause around becoming a UPS driver is having to ride around all day in one of those big vehicles sitting on a stool with the door wide open. Yeah, they have a big safety belt (which maybe isn’t often worn). It still looks pretty scary to me.
So, maybe this is Eugene’s off-road UPS truck? What it lacks in cargo space is made up for by its increased mud-bogging prowess.
It’s not the Darwinian effect on the boobs who like unsafe vehicles, it’s the fact that invariably everyone else gets stuck picking up the $ tab .
-Nate
I’m sure this sort of thing happens in the outback where policing is more theoretical than practical, but I’ve never seen the like on the roads around here. My late father-in-law would have been able to rattle off a string of charges for the driver of this thing. Tyres beyond the guards is the first thing they’d get you for here. No doors (where originally fitted) might be a grey area, but I’ve never seen anyone run doorless.
Anyone else reckon this has had wider axles swapped in?
My biggest beef with jacked up rigs like this are the mismatched bumper heights. Then throw on a solid steel beam bumper and it’s lights out for any economy car they hit. I’ve never understood why they haven’t mandated front and rear mansfield bumpers for these alterations. I’m sure they could easily be engineered to use high strength steel quick release pins for easy removal and installation. I guess not enough people have been killed or permanently disabled yet. It’s death before design if you ask me.
You’ve met my neighbor, three blocks down the street? He’s got at least six XJ Cherokees in the yard, a couple of them modified into radical off-roaders. Yes, his yard is the eyesore of the subdivision.