Hi everybody just joined here. I want to get a Jeep for taking on trails/off-road. Jeeps are new to me. Live in the Midwest. What do you all think about this rig? Seems like it already has some basic characteristics and mods to hit mild trails which is what I'm after.
What can you tell me about the mods it has? Does this seem like a good purchase for getting into the hobby?
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(His Description Below)
1998 Jeep Cherokee. Runs great. Drives very nicely for a lifted Cherokee. Just had the front end rebuilt around 2,000 miles ago
3 core aluminum radiator
Tubular header
2.5 inch mag a flow exchaust
8 point roll cage
2x6” welded rockers
4.5” rubicon long arm lift
Custom bumpers
Currectlync power steering
Double cardan rear drive shaft
Battery in rear.
Dana 30 with spartan locker front axle
Chrysler 8.25 rear axle
It’s a great jeep body’s has dents and is a little rough but drives fine interior is pretty gutted
4x4 works nicely

 

What is the asking price?
Clean title?
milage?
transmission?
Seems like a decent rig from the info given. He didnt list the gear ratio which is puzzling. That is pretty important.

I have no idea about your local laws but you should check into them and see if it is even street legal.

 

All comments above are good things to consider. There are useful extras on it if you really want an off road Jeep but this will likely not be good for daily driving. It looks like it has been ridden hard and put away wet. I’ll guess we are seeing a photo of the good side of it. I would expect and look hard for: 1) lots of rust on the floor pan especially if it spent most of its life in the Midwest; 2) less than high quality lift where you have to spend a bunch of money to correct, especially the rear leaf springs; 3) shoddy workmanship on mods and/or repairs; 4) lots of things that don’t work or work correctly. If the price is right, you have cash to put into it and you can work on most everything yourself some of that might not matter. Do lots of homework first. This forum will be very helpful.

 

Not sure about title
167k
Auto
Not sure of gear ratio

I doubt it's 100% street legal. The only thing I see getting harassed here about would be the tires sticking out past the wheel wells. But very few police would even bother caring.
It would not be driven on the road much anyways.

 

Yeah it is a little beat up which is okay with me considering not only it's price, but also because it's going to be thrown through mud holes and banged against trees anyways. It won't be a daily driver. I just want it mechanically to be ready to use with some friends on the trails.

All sides of it look about the same. There's no big damage or horrible rust. At least not in the pictures.

What would I be looking for on the lift? How do I know if it's good or bad?

​​​​​​I don't want to take on any major repairs right away, but I'm certainly expecting to spend some time and money on it.​​​​​​

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You didn't mention price, so hard to say whether it is a good deal or not, but there are a couple of things I would be curious about myself because of the way they are listed. The double-cardan rear drive shaft kind of indicates to me that it is a hack and tap rear and not a true slip yoke eliminator, which is fine for most people, but not quite as durable if that is the case. Not a deal breaker, but most people would mention that it has an SYE if that were the case. As others have mentioned, I would be real curious about the gearing. If they lifted and put those big tires on to wheel with a stock 3:55 gear ratio, you are going to be disappointed in performance and re-gearing can be a rather significant expense The Rubicon long arm is a good enough lift as long as it is in decent shape shouldn't be a concern. What on the front end was rebuilt and why (would look at potential accident damage or something that could have tweaked the unibody). And of course rust is always a concern, especially floor pans and rockers. You can crawl under and look for issues if it is carpeted and you can't pull it back, but would really check for rust underneath, as that gets a bit more costly to fix. Other than that, if it is a killer price, there are definitely some components to it that add value and you are handy in doing some of your own work can always upgrade/replace where needed. It definitely wasn't a pavement princess, so regardless of what is in it, there are likely things that will need to be replaced. What I like about my XJ is how easy it is to find parts.

 

The price is $2,750 OBO.
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Well nevermind it sold anyways :/

I'll have to find a different one now!

 

Thing was beat dude. You would have been wrenching something significant real soon anyway. Try finding something that hasn’t been jacked and pounded (unless that’s your kind of thing)...lol

 

Well I'm kind of specifically looking for just that haha.
I'm not willing to invest a lot, especially since I'm not daily driving it. Just need something mostly ready to beat down the trails with a new times a year with some friends and work on when I'm bored.
I just looked at a '97 tonight and tomorrow there's a 95% chance I'm going back to buy it for a whopping $1,000. It's not as clean, fancy and built up as some other ones for sale and like many of yours. But for such a low price it's hard to pass up and serves as a good starting point to make a something of my own.