Greg Cozier

I'm thinking about buying a '94 Limited Cherokee for some off-road motorsport for which I currently use a Toyota Hilux turbo-diesel pickup. Terrain will mainly be mud/gravel but at times speed is required so straight-line stability is necessarry - 100" wheelbase would be ideal. Here are my questions:

1. Is the stock engine/t.mission good enough for light abuse without modification?
2. Are the axles strong enough for off-road racing or are larger axles required?
3. If the stock axles are GTG, what locking/limited-slip diffs are available/best?
4. I will need a solid front bumper with light protection, is ARB the only (expensive) possibility?
5. I am concerned about the short forward control arms with 3.5" lift and straight-line stability at speed, who makes a good kit to extend these arms?
6. Is is possible to convert the back end to coil springs and long trailing arms?
7. Who makes a solid rear bumper that can be mounted strong enough for recovery?
8. Who makes the best 3.5" lift kit?

Thanks for any thoughts, I though you boys might save me some research grief and advertisers' spin.

MasterShakeXJ

1. the engine should be fine, you could always do a throttle body spacer, or intake.
2. depends what size tires your gonna run and what kinda "racing" your talking about. look for an XJ with an 8.25 in the rear, theyre stronger than the 35.
3. dont know a lot about lockers, i'll let someone else cover that.
4. theres a lot of possibilities for front bumpers. you just want something thats gonna tie into the frame, and mount to the steering box. ARB isn't the only company though. just do a search, theres companies like jcr offroad, nates 4x4, etc.
5. I have a 3.5" lift that came with HD lcas, but you can buy adjustable control arms. I think RE(rubicon express) makes adj. lcas. I have the RE 3.5" kit with the set length lcas and I've been fine.
6. I'm sure it's been done.
7. as with front bumpers, just search. but make sure it's gonna tie into the frame rail. an easier/cheaper alternative for rear recovery is a hitch. I have a reese class 3 hitch that was about $130 and it works just fine.
8. most companies just do like 3, 4, 5 etc. But RE makes a good 3.5" kit, thats what I run on my XJ. rusty's makes a decent kit, but not a 3.5, just 3 or 4. check out RE though, sometimes it's cheaper to buy from someone else as opposed to buying from RE directly.

120mm

I would give a part of my anatomy for your Turbo-diesel hilux. I'm assuming you aren't in the US?

wicked_xj

4.5 with 32s

93XJLI

yagsiFC

if you are looking for bumpers check out WWW.JCROFFROAD.COM , they make good quality product for a decent price. i have their rock sliders, roof rack and 1 ton steering. I would have bought my bumpers from them if i knew about there sight before i bought mine

Greg Cozier

No, down in the Caribbean. The Toy is a joy to drive with possibly the best turbo-diesel engine I've ever tried but for offroad motorsport it is limited by the independent front suspension, poor weight distribution (light rear) and poor departure angle. Probably the best vehicle for what we do is a V8 landy with 100" wheelbase but they are heavy and expensive. I think I can get the Cherokee to landy specs with allot less money if I can solve the axle articualtion/control arm problem. I had a Cherokee before but the short control arms cause major bump steer problems at high speed.

Some pics from last weekend:

A landy doing what landies do; rescuing stuck Toys.



Mayhem:




Not driving home:


Me properly stuck: