Going Jeep

Originally Published: February 2011 Words: Tim Gibson Pictures: Steve Taylor

Having wiped out the Jeep’s original tailgate when its oversized rear tyre snagged on the way down a steep drop, Ivan relocated it in what could best be described as the pick-up bed

You see a lot of lifted Wranglers on 35s, and that’s Ivan’s intention for this one. In the meantime, 33x12.50R15 BFGoodrich Mud-Terrains are meaty enough to be going on with. They’re fitted on 15x8” steel wheels with plenty of offset to maintain the vehicle’s stance and lock

With the original soft-top replaced by a bikini hood from Bestop, there’s space for a pair of waffle boards to slide in snugly behind the rear of roll bar

A Warn fuel tank protector gives a good deal of protection beneath the level of the back bumper – as well, of course, as somewhere to place yet another sticker…

Diff pans from Solid replace the standard items on both axles. As well as increasing the axle’s oil capacity, they provide greater protection from rocks and tree stumps – no small matter when you’re protecting a valuable investment like a 4.56:1 ring and pinion and a pair of ARB Air-Lockers

The heavy-duty rear bumper, which was fabricated by one of Ivan’s off-roading friends, features integrated shackles for ease of recovery. Note also the green rear door – which was fitted after Ivan’s drop-off adventures in Powys. Mixed colours on your body panels is seldom a good look, which gives Ivan a useful incentive to keep getting it muddy

The rock sliders are Jeep’s own genuine Mopar units, and Ivan uses them mainly as a means of getting in and out. ‘They aren’t all that strong,’ he opines, ‘so I regard them more as sidesteps than sill protectors. But with a vehicle this high, you don’t need to worry too much about fitting really beefy rock sliders’

A 4.5-inch Rubicon Express lift kit delivers uprated springs and much greater articulation. Damping is by Skyjacker units, and there’s a body lift as well to add another inch to the vehicle’s overall height

JKS Quicker Disconnects mean that Ivan can drop off the front anti-roll bar, freeing up all the potential articulation in the suspension, then remount them for the road to keep it from handling like a newborn foal on ice

Unlike many modded TJs, Ivan’s retains the standard short-arm suspension set-up. It does feature adjustable upper units from Rubicon Express, however

The 9000lb winch adorning the Wrangler’s front end was purchased second-hand, which explains why it doesn’t look ever so pretty. And, indeed, why we can’t say with any great degree of certainty what it is. It still works perfectly well, though, with 1000 feet of Plasma rope spooling out through a hawse fairlead. The whole rig sits on a special mounting plate that bolts directly to the chassis, thus preserving the original Jeep front bumper. The winch has wired remote controls – Ivan does however intend to fit a dash-mounted winch control when he gets round to it, so that he doesn’t have to stick his arms and head out of the window when it’s pouring with rain

Jeep’s legendary 4.0-litre straight-six engine gives plenty of power and torque without any need for modification. It’s a famously reliable engine, too, and here it’s protected by a Safari Snorkel

The rear propshaft was replaced when the suspension went up. It’s fitted with a slip yoke eliminator, which allows it to be removed for greasing

Ivan Morley fell in love with Jeeps during an off-road driving day organised by the American manufacturer. Since then, he’s owned two Cherokees and a Wrangler – so who says marketing doesn’t work?

One of the best ways to build loyalty to a product is to give people a chance to see it in action. That’s why market traders offer demonstrations of their miracle cleaning cloths, or sharper-than-sharp knives. It’s why nappy advertisements include on-screen absorbency tests. And it’s why serious 4x4 manufacturers are keen to provide would-be customers with opportunities to drive their vehicles in the rough stuff.

The logic certainly worked in Ivan Morley’s case. Within months of attending a Jeep Skills driver training course, he’d bought himself a first-generation Cherokee 2.5 TD. That first Jeep has now been replaced – by not one but two examples of America’s finest.

The first of these, a second-generation Cherokee 2.8 CRD, can be seen as a direct successor to the old XJ. It’s fitted with an ASFIR transmission guard, but basically it’s Ivan’s everyday car. Off-road duties are passed on to the second Jeep in his toybox, the 4.0-litre Wrangler TJ you’re looking at here. And as toys go, what a Jeep it is.

The TJ had already been modified when Ivan bought it, and to a pretty high standard. That saved him a lot of time and expense, but it hasn’t stopped him from putting his own distinctive stamp on the car.

Take the bikini top as a case in point. This replaced a standard soft-top, and it lends the vehicle a more truck-like stance that points to Ivan’s taste for challenging terrain. He’s changed the tailgate, too – though this was more of a distress purchase, after he took the vehicle over the ‘Windscreen Kisser’ at Tuff Terrains in Powys and its oversized spare wheel got caught up, trashing the original back door it was mounted on. Does it surprise you to learn that the spare is mounted in the rear bed these days, too?

Not that off-roading forays into Mid-Wales has been the extent of Ivan’s adventures in the Wrangler. When he’s not out and about with clubs like J33P, Northern Monkeys and Birty Dastards’ Jeep Club, indeed, he’s a big fan of setting out on long-distance travels. He took his first Cherokee to the northern Spanish mountains in 2001 and drove from sea level to an altitude of 2000 metres. The people clambering out of cable cars at the top of Fuente De in the Picos de Europa were certainly surprised to see a car parked up by the station, he assures us…

Ivan returned to this spot with the Wrangler early in 2010, but was disappointed to find that many of the tracks he’d used ten years ago are now closed to vehicles (it’s not just Britain…) He still managed to have some fun in the snow, but his efforts to scale the same heights as last time were thwarted, albeit at a none-too-shoddy 1400 metres above sea level.

If all this gives you the impression that Ivan has come a long way since his days as a novice on the Jeep Skills course, that’s because he has. He’s honed his driving technique with the aid of friends in off-road clubs, and through extensive experience behind the wheel. He’s developed his mechanical knowledge, too, in order to take care of the routine maintenance at home.

With these enhanced skills under his belt, it’s no wonder that Ivan is constantly thinking of ways to improve the Wrangler. It’s not uncommon to see a TJ on 35-inch tyres, and these are definitely in the pipeline. An external rear cargo tray is being mooted, too.

So if Jeep is ever in any doubt about how well its driver training programmes work, it should dwell for a while on the experience of people like Ivan. His first experience encouraged him to invest in the brand for his everyday car. And when the off-roading bug really bit, it was Jeep that he stuck with. Now, that’s what you call brand loyalty.

RUBICON EXPRESS SUSPENSION, JKS DISCONNECTS, CUSTOM REAR BUMPER, SOLID DIFF PANS, MOPAR ROCK SLIDERS, WRANGLER, TJ