I pulled the trigger. I wanted a manual transmission in my 01 XJ. If you are an XJ fan you know that getting a manual transmission in a 97+ XJ is a Jeep unicorn. the 84-96 XJs were a little easier to find, but the 97+ is a giant pain. In fact, I have been looking for such an XJ for at least a year and a half now. I search all the major Craigslists and ebay and anything I can find. The only ones I could find people were very proud of. There was a guy on a Facebook swap site that wanted something like $30k for one that had significant front end damage and a lot of miles.
FINALLY I was browsing CL last week and I found it. A 97 XJ with 165, the 5-speed manual, brand new clutch, brand new tires, a complete rust bucket and it was only $850. And it was in North Carolina. 16 hours from where I live. If you ever get to meet me, you’ll find out that I am not adverse to a challenge and have no fear. Naturally I called the guy. He seemed real nice and seemed to be very honest about what he had. I asked him if I could fly there and drive it home – he said no (he was right). I don’t own a truck, nor a trailer that can haul a car, but luckily I have some really good friends. A buddy let me borrow his Ram and I rented a U-Haul car trailer.
My original plan was to leave late Monday and get as far as I could, get some sleep, then take off again. Turns out my old man had the week off and said he’d like to ride with me to keep me company. So, we took off about 7:30 on Tuesday and got there around midnight to a town about 20 minutes away. That was a LONG drive. It was fun though – time to sit and chat and talk about life and growing up. The only exciting thing on the trip out there was this weird trailer porto potty thing.
I don’t remember where we were when I took the picture but there was a gas station that was doing construction and the men’s restroom was put out in this trailer. Had a few stalls and probably 3 or 4 urinals and sinks and stuff. Probably the fanciest porto potty I have ever used.
I am pretty sure I got a whopping total of 2 hours of sleep that night. Partially because I don’t usually sleep well the first night in a hotel and partially because I was excited and nervous to get this old heap. We got up at 6:30, checked out of the hotel and hit the road through the mountains. Got to see what was probably the most beautiful sunrise I had seen (which might not be saying much because I am not an early riser and have probably seen a grand total of 10 sunrises). It’s not the best pic of it, but it was an red sun through the trees in the mountains. Almost worth the trip itself:
We made it to the Wal-Mart (where we met) about 20 minutes before he was there so that we could check it over. No real leaks around the engine, tires looked good, major components that are worth money all looked good. Exactly what I wanted. The guy showed up and … he couldn’t find the key. He came there assuming he had locked them in the Jeep and left the hatch unlocked (because apparently in NC they just do this). He then realizes, after crawling through the Jeep and not finding the key, that he had left them in his new car that his mom is currently borrowing. Crap! He calls her and … no answer. Luckily, this Wal-Mart was just across the street from a Dodge/Jeep dealership. 20 minutes later he had returned with a new key.
I hopped in, fired it up (it fired right up despite sitting for a few months – so yay!). I moved it all of 80 feet in the parking lot and the look on my dad’s face was priceless. The front control arm bracket had completely rusted off of the unibody frame. When I turned the whole body shifted separate of the wheels. Luckily I was able to move it enough that I could confirm it does, in fact, shift real well and the clutch grabs like a new clutch. We let the rust slide and loaded it on up:
After a brief discussion on how North Carolina residents apparently use “some clay like stuff stuffed in trees” to which they shoot and it explodes the tree and knocks it down – we then parted ways (and now I have an idea I want to try at home). Snapped a few pics of the beauty that is this great country of ours:
Which, I believe, includes these man made beauties:
A few hours out and we got to see someone having a real bad day:
Couldn’t tell what happened but the bed of the truck was engulfed in flames. The FD was on their way and it looked like the people were out safely.
Something we noticed on the way out to NC was in Kentucky I bet we saw probably 30-40 cars on the side of the road that either had blown out tires (maybe 20%) and were broken down. I’ve never seen that many cars in duress.
The rest of the drive home was exhausting. Only a couple of hours of sleep makes driving significantly less fun. To make matters even more interesting, from about 20 miles east of Moline all the way home we had scattered thunderstorms that produced so much rain we had to pretty much come to a stop on the interstate. That added at least a half an hour to our journey and, after dropping off the trailer in the middle of the night, we didn’t end up home until about 2 AM. It was exhausting. However, I’d do it again in a heartbeat … but maybe split up the journey home into 2 days.
The truck performed great. Really didn’t even notice the XJ on the back the entire way home … other than the bad gas mileage. Took 9 1/2 tanks of gas for the journey, 2 Monster energy drinks, several snacks, and a lot of great stories and memories I’ll get to hold on to forever.