Just curoius as to how tough the cherokees are, seeing that they are uni-frames. Im used to being around K5 blazers (BOF design). My dads rig was an 84 K5 Blazer, 8 inches lift (6 inch suspension lift, leaf spring not blocks, 2 inch body lift), 35" Super Swampers. We took it straight down through the woods, plowing over trees and all. We knocked down several trees that had 3-4inch diameter, never got even close to stuck, never took any damage either except scratches. ran it through ditches, etc.. Just curious how the cherokee stacks up when it comes durability.. XJs, ZJs..

 

Well it all depends what you decide to do to it. You can make just about any car or truck into a tank depending on what you are willing to put into it. The xj is a great all around vehicle and will do better than most other offroad vehicles out there

 

Sounds like you would be happiest with a tank.

 

lol i never said that i would be doing this, i just mentioned that my dads k5 blazer was a boss. It was stock besides the lift and tires. Im considering getting a cherokee and when i told him he was like "Arent those unibodys." Just got me thinking

 

From what I've gathered, the XJ (and ESPECIALLY the MJ) frames are quite strong. If strength is a concern, you can always plate the unibody rails, and make them much stronger. But if you look, a lot of guys here on the forum do some serious wheeling.... all with stock unibodies.

 

comparing explorer, blazer (s10 or k5), and cherokee for off road/durability. go to the ford forums, they say the explorer is better and they brag about its full frame and not having to worry about unibody cracks. go the the chevy forums and they say the blazers are better but the fords are garbage, but the cherokee is labeled as "light duty crap" Come to the jeep forum and the cherokee is said to be better off road. i dont even know. I dont care about comfort, i want a good tough trail rig.

 

id say for the cost, a cherokee is pretty god damn good. especially on fuel to get to the wheeling places. i know K5's came with 305/350's and they are gonna suck fuel, Exploders/S10's are gonna need a SAS for any serious wheeling and cherokee, well, indestructible straight 6 that gets around 15 on the hwy with tires, comes with straight axle up front and they are cheap and disposable.

 

I had an 84 ford bronco. Similar to the blazer. Took it wheeling up here in the Rockies, not the best. It was rough and way to heavy. But the 351 did nice other than the Carb. Then I put a massive lift and tires it was a beast. Anyways took my stock XJ on same trail and it rode like a caddy compared to before. XJ hands down better stock VS stock to a full sized bronco

 

with GM trucks you get the K member cracks and the steering box trying to come off with bigger meat,also the 10 bolt can only take so much. With fords you get the brake problems and the front bushings going out with lots of use. with the XJ larger tires will weaken the unibody up front so you have to add some steel strapping and the steering box can move around (there is a kit for that and no welding is required). As a few people around here say JEEPS are not bought they are built. I have had a K5 and an explorer I wouldn't trade them for my XJ.

 

The Jeep cherokee is ASWOME in stock form and in my opinion is the BEST stock SUV. They seem to be good when modified but mine is mostly stock. I use mine off road alot (I ranch/farm) but do not rock crawl. I put my money where my mouth is here!

The chevy 1/2 ton is a good truck stock but the frames give alot of trouble if you get to rough on them. I have several friends who have broken their frames but they do alot of stupid stuff.

When you get into a 3/4 ton full size 4x4 now that is a completely different game. You can do crazy things with those trucks if you can afford the fuel!

Thx-Ace

 

not sure what a boss is lol

 

I'm sure Urban dictionary would say boss is something along the lines of good, quality, strong and reliable... Haha, anyways... My story:

The jeeps: a TJ With 6" lift, 33x12.50's and ARB's front and rear. And my 99 XJ. Stock expect for 235/75 dura trac's and a 2" BB.

The scenario: this past summer of 2011 we all got jeeps- first me, the my roommates boyfriend, then my roommate got one this fall... They went with "matching" TJ's. Well, one's a 98 and one an 01, both blueish with 6" lift and 33.12.50's... We would go out almost every weekend and just tool around looking for good wheeling. Well we found some quality stuff within several miles of home (go middle of nowhere VT!!). And of these several spots, we would find varying degrees of difficulty. 90 percent of the time, my XJ was right there with Mike's TJ (the one with lockers).. Only like 3 times can I recall him being able to flat out make it through when I couldn't. Any other situation besides really challenging and I was good to go!

The things I couldn't do:
On a hill with about a 30* (+/-) incline, there was a waterbar to help prevent erosion. The waterbar was pretty substantial due to sevarity of the hill, so I tried several different approaches, finally ending up on top of waterbar in deep mud, kinda at a 45* angle to hill. Well this is when I discovered how much I really hate open diff's.. BUT! Eventually I freed myself!!

Out on some state land -_- we came across an older skidder trail that looked kinda unused. So up we went. It was deep enough to at times be over my roof! Kinda cool.. But, with considerable spinning, I made it right up. The only thing preventing me from proceeding was the darkness and he fact that we had never done the trail before so it seemed silly to risk getting stuck or broke down at night, on state land...

Then there was like once or twice when the TJ was willing to absolutely bash his way through the mud or whatever and I wasn't! So thats been some of my experiences! Get some frame reinforcements and you'll be worry free!

 

Pound for pound, a unibody vehicle is stronger than a body on frame vehicle. Alot less flex in the chassis.
It uses the whole body of the vehicle as the structural stiffener between the front and rear suspension.
Body on frame uses two narrow frame rails between the two, and is subject to alot of twisting force. Have you even watched the separation between the cab, and the bed of a pickup truck as it tries to manuever over obstacles?
You can add stiffeners to a full frame vehicle to make it as stiff as a unibody vehicle, but you are adding alot of extra weight.

 

How strong is a cherokee?? Ever seen that movie Roadhouse?.. THAT tough....

 

Dalton! Lol