The Jeep

When I was 14 years old, Josh turned 16 years old. Josh got his drivers license but needed a vehicle to drive. The 1979 Ford Thunderbird worked fine for a while but Josh and I hatched a plan to get a vehicle with a little more pep. My friend's family owned a CJ-5 Jeep that came complete with soft top (with a few extra holes for air conditioning and anti fog in the winter), a 2 ton wench, an escape hatch through the floor boards, custom rust perforated body, and last but not least a gas gauge that was very dependable . . . dependable to never move no matter the amount of gas in the tank.

Josh and I got a 4 inch lift, got new tires. Sanded down the rusty spots on the body, got some new rims to go with our new tires. Changed out the mufflers for some very lowd glass-packs, and replaced the suspension on our own. It was an off road machine. It had only 3 gears, but a rebuilt corvette engine that allowed us to peel out in all three gears. While the power allowed us to do some awesome offroading and climb some great hills, the bad gas gauge got us into some trouble. Several times Josh and I were late for school because we ran out of gas and had to push the jeep to the nearest gas station.

One outing remains the epitome of what this jeep had to offer. Josh and I and a few friends decided to go camping in the west desert (for those of you not from Utah this is the desert two valleys over from Salt Lake-about 50 miles west of Salt Lake City.We got all our gear together, loaded up our jeep with the soft top secured. Due to our multiple unpredictable fuel shortages we decided to bring a couple 5 gallon tanks in case we ran out of gas (it got 5-7 miles per gallon we estimated).

We got to the camping ground and set up our tent. Just as the evening was beginning to begin a terrible wind storm. Where we were camped is also full of sand. The sand blew everywhere. The wind and sand was so bad that the tent we had set up was blowing away with Josh and I inside. We used the jeep and some well placed stakes to secure the tent better but the sand was too bad to let us breath. To make a long story short We decided to head home after fighting with the wind and sand for a few hours. We quickly packed up our gear and headed out on the highway. The gas gauge, being of no use other than to cause worry, made us empty the two extra fuel tanks into the jeep's tank. We headed home.

The jeeps maximum speed was about 58mph and we were giving it everything we had. The cross winds were so bad that the high wind speed outside the vehicle created a negative pressure outside in relation to inside. THe poor soft top couldn't withstand the pressure and both doors of the jeep suddenly flew open while we were driving at top speed down the interstate. Our solution was to use one of our trusty tie-downs to tie the two doors shut from the inside.

That jeep was a fun project but unfortunately was too expensive to buy insurance for it. We sold it to a poor soul that my dad gave more than he bargained for when he bought the jeep. They guy ended up taking the old tires, rims, an old collapsalbe kayak, some old wood, a few random pieces of junk my dad was going to throw away, and the old gas tank that we got replaced before we sold it. The guy was so excited with his new found treasure he got his girlfriend to come over with her car so he could get it all home.