'74 Jeep Cherokee

What is the attachment that a young man can have with his first car...or in my case: Jeep. It is a peculiar thing that Man can form a bond with a machine. Or is it? Your first vehicle is yours. It may need a lot of TLC and be very H.M. (High-Maintenance). It offers you your first taste of freedom and adulthood. You have to work to support having it around. It offers you the thrill of victory (as you romp on the accelerator and it sails down the Highway) and the agony of defeat (When it doesn't start before a hot date). It needs cleaning, detailing, fuel, periodic health checks, fluids, fine-tuning, and special care. Heck...it needs more to keep it operating than most things (I won't say females...'cause that will get me in to trouble), and I think you can see where it is I'm going with this. Basically, your first vehicle...that you acquire at a young age...teaches you an old important addage...right away...in your young life. "You only get back what you put in to things on this planet!"

HHmmmm...let me check my memory. 1974 Jeep Cherokee Full-Time 4 Wheel Drive with Quadatrac, Chrysler 360 cubic inch engine, Dana (cast-iron) Transfer case, Gm Ignition and Distributor, Turbo 400 Hydromatic Automatic Transmission, Oversized stock 2-Barrel Ford carburetor, One: Dead GM Air Conditioning Compressor, B.F Goodrich All-Terrain-(!)-Tires, and Limited- Slip Differentials with the added feature of Emergency Lock-Out (The equivalent to a "Get Out of Jail Free Card" if you started to get worried about the big mud hole you were in!). Plus, my wonderful stock AM radio...which is all I needed to listen to "Country music" with. Oh yeah, and many careless dings put into it from dumb, dumb, dumb things that I put it through. Yep...it all comes back to me now. I can see it sitting in the driveway...once again!

Memories? Do I go into them now...or later in this article? Well...since that is why I'm writing this particular article is because of the great memories...then...Please allow me to jump right in. First off, let me say that it is not a good idea to pair up a young High School Student...who only has the desire to be in and live in the Country...with a Jeep...especially if he doesn't live in the Country. Automatically...you are going to get either the Jeep or the young High Schooler...into trouble...Ha! OK...right off the bat...there is a conflict of interest there! Secondly, if you have even one wild hair on any part of your body...then sitting behind the wheel of a "Bad-Ass" V-8, Full-time 4 Wheel Drive, with fantastic corner to corner ground clearance, and great weight distribution (Thank God for a good medium-sized body weight. The CJ Series of the time were very light weight. This fact alone..helped to keep me from launching my Jeep into orbit). Then, a Jeep is not the vehicle that you need to be driving. (Emphasis on "Period" at the end of that sentence.)

Am I saying I was a little bit wild and crazy in my Cherokee Jeep? "No, No way!" That would be almost like bragging...and then that would make this article all about my escapades as a young man driving around in a Jeep...instead of the incredible and original 4WD SUV: The Jeep Cherokee! This Hub article is more of and in praise of my ol' Jeep's abilities. It is more about the Jeep...then me. I would like to focus on what it was capable of doing. It was the work-horse part of the team...I was the one sreaming: "Yeeehah!"...and only along for the ride....as we traversed up and over the steep side of some Motocross mound...somewhere. I'll let you be the judge of the "wild" part to this article. All I know is that as an even younger teen (before High School)....I used to pick the "orner·i·est" and "meanest" horse out of the pack to ride...when I used to work at a stables...back then. So, a wild ride on a Jeep was considerably "tamer". At least in my young and goofy brain...it was!

Let me get straight to the action:

* Once I pushed out an F-150 from where it was stuck in a road going reverse and uphill. Think that is a feat...My jeep was pulling a Datsun Mini Pick-up...up the same road at the same time. Sound like a crazy thing to do? It was late at night...my friends had gotten their Little mini pick-up stuck (High-Center) in a Dry Creekbed. Then, got another guys F-150 stuck in the road down to it trying to pull out the little truck.. It was very late at night when they came to get me. We had to dig and clear branches just to get my Jeep in between the two vehicles, because it looked like the best way to get the F-150 (which had nose-dived into the mud) out was to push it back uphill. While I was at it...and because it was late and I was ready to end this little saga...I tied on to the "High-Centered" Datsun mini-truck to see if I could pull it out of the creekbed at the same time. My Jeep pushed and pulled them both up out of the creekbed and road down to it...at the same time.. Practically, without spinning a tire!

* Once when we were out cruisin' my College campus...and my Jeep was loaded down with folks and a full ice chest...(HHmmm...I think it was full of ice tea...Yeah...that's what was in there...Alright!)...We rolled up to a place where some Big Monster Trucks liked to floor it up a huge, long and steep grade...with their wheels spinning...and mud flying. They put on quite a show when they did it, too! Everyone said: "Go try your Jeep out on that hill!" I naturally complied and just for fun...I backed-up to right where the hill starts to go up and stopped. I was truly expecting for my Jeep to dig in to the hillside, because it was its normal muddiness. Especially, with my Jeep loaded down. I floored it...and reached the top of the hill in an instant...without even spinning a tire. Even I, had underestimated what it could do.

* One day while cruising out (again)...We headed out to the Sam Houston National Forest. It was pouring down rain...but that didn't stop us! We went down this back entrance where the road (It was not a road by any stretch of a definition) was nothing but a series of huge deep ruts etched into it which were in turn then full of "swamp" filled mud in each rut...and in between the ruts, as well. We went deep into the woods down that road...which was a real feat for any vehicle to have made it back in there. Then, it got interesting..."Ka-Zowie, Whoops!"...We rolled up into a huge boggy mud field...with deep thick gumbo "Mud". (There weren't even any tracks from other vehicles attempting to have gone through it.) This was big trouble...I was going to get stuck way out in the forest for sure. I didn't have alot of speed enough to hope to speed across it...since...we had been doing good just to have gotten this far through all the deep mud. It was time for "Emergency Lock-Out". I reached into the glovebox and turned the dial inside. It was like putting on the Jeep's Superman Cape! All I saw was Mud flying...and when it finally stopped...much, much further on through the thick mud...we were clear of the entire Mud Bog Area...and up on higher ground. I wish you could have seen it! Heck...I wish I could have seen it from outside the Jeep. It probably looked like some kind of Mud Tidal Wave going across that field.

Well...that's a few of its' adventures. There were many more....and many.many great memories. Even after all this time, I look back on the fact that I actually sold it...with grief.

What was I thinking?

Do you sell off a best friend just because they start needing too much work? Well...that was eventually what happened to the Jeep...It had compression problems and needed a good rebuild done to the engine...before it broke down enroute back and forth to College (What it ultimately was needed for...in the harsh, cruel world of reality). Which was one thing, my young mind was very excited about at the time. I was going to have the engine cylinders re-bored, and add some racing pistons, and a good high-performance "mid-range" off-road cam. But alas, I had no money to do such a thing, since I was a College Kid at the time. (My Jeep had help me to drain my savings...I do have to give it some of the blame in that respect!) My parents were not interested in me fixing up my Jeep...they wanted me to graduate from College..Go Figure? So...I ultimately had to choose between College...and/or working to pay off getting my Jeep fixed back into running dependable order. Tough choice! I still wonder if I chose correctly...?

Oh Well....Happy Jeepin' to Ya'...or "Off-Roadin' "! Maybe some day...I'll see ya' out on the trails again...and we can race down some ol' muddy road or spin and slide around in a "mud-bogged" field...like I use to...in my '74 Jeep Cherokee!

(If everyone enjoys hearing about the ol' Jeep...I'll write a sequel to this one with some more tales of its' remarkable feats!)

'74 Jeep Cherokee

Brought to you by: "Me, Steve Walters"