The Tale of an Adventure Vehicle

I have always enjoied unique vehicles, and my previous SUV's have not disappointed. My first vehicle, and the vehicle that I started wheeling in was an Upcountry Grand Cherkoee, which I got rid of a year or so later for a 2000 Jeep Landrunner. I loved it because there were only a few on the east coast, and I could do some great off roading with the top off.



I had the Landrunner for close to two years, and I had an offer on it that I couldn't pass up. Years before, I had fallen in love with a Land Rover XD Discovery (one of 200) I saw at Foreign Cars Italia in Greensborro, NC but was no where near being able to afford it. Years passed and I had the opportunity to buy one in Virginia Beach after driving a family car for the first semester of my Freshmen year in college. I had invested half of the money from the Jeep and saved the other half with aspirations of another SUV when I found something I wanted; it was the XD in Virginia Beach.



I now had the quintessential SUV (for me) and loved everything about it. At first I really didn't care that it got 12-14mpg and that it was a bear to drive on the interstate, I was in love. Close to a year after owing it, I lifted it with OME Heavies. The ride was stiff compated to the Teraflex suspenison I put on the Landrunner and the taller ride height kept the gas mileage around 12. I did a good bit of wheeling in it around NC and really enjoied the time I had with it. A guy from Baltimore saw some posts I had written on a LR forum and contacted me about possibly coming to look at it. I really wasn't quite sure I wanted to sell something I had come to like so much, but gas mileage, and LR maintenance were big negatives. He wound up offering me more than I paid for it after two and a half years. Again, I couldn't pass it up.

Move forward to the FJ. My dad and I always loved the FJ40's, but he never could persuade me to have one as my daily driver. Seeing the pictures of the FJ concept, I really was not a fan. However, after reading early posts on this forum and ultimately test driving one, I decided to pull the trigger in July 2006. I reserved the exact one I wanted and got it a week and a half later. The first impressions were not as 'wowing' as the previous Rover for looks, but I was getting older, and so was my taste. I wanted to make it more rugged and suited to my needs, which meant a bumper with the provision for another Warn M8000. After studying some of the early bumpers from a select number of vendors at the time, my money went to ARB. My first off road trip in the FJ was to Uwharrie NF, a place I had come to know fairly well. I was really unsure of the limits with an IFS since my previous 3 SUV's had all been SFA's so I went with a small group of fraternity brothers that I trusted and were supportive of me taking my time.



I really had come to like the security of four wheeling with a winch, so I asked for one for Christmas, and my incredibly supportive parents picked up the tab. So off came the bumper that a friend of mine and I had previously installed and in went the winch. One trip to Uwharrie and banging my skid plates unmercifully was all it took for me to fix the rake from all the added weight in the front (below).