How did the bug bite you?

[DonYukon]

The offroad bug, always kind of curious how others got into the offroad lifestyle.

For me growing up I was always a motorhead. and in HS i ended up going offroad a few times with my buddies "mudding" to this day some of my fondest memories tearing shit up and not having a dime to fix it so we learned to scrapyard dig and fix things ourselves. kind of evolved from there.

 

[rodney eppes]

Guess I was born with it, same as my desire to drive trucks & operate heavy equipment. My first car, 61 Ford Galaxy, I took it off-road. There was some subdivision & golf courses being built in my area. I didn't mind dragging mufflers or tailpipes! Enough so that I started running a Bolt through them, since the clamps didn't hold. lol A couple friends had pick-up trucks, 2 wheel drive. No of us had any locker or limited slip. I would go places they would not follow me! Wasn't anything Extreme, or my long, low, Galaxy, would have gotten hung somewhere. But here's guys in Higher sitting pick-ups, that wouldn't try it. Maybe they were just smarter. lol. Several vehicles later, I worked at a place where the mechanic had a 72 CJ-5. He decided to sell it, & I grabbed it. I went to Carolina Jeep, in Charlotte, & inquired about Clubs. They put me in touch with CTB, and, damn, they Still put up with me!

 

[Tom@Hilltop_Machine]

1998 my friends took me to Uwharrie. Scared the shit out of me and at the same time wildly exciting. Next year I was ripping out the stock axles of my CJ, putting on 33's, adding a lift, and a winch. And it kept growing ever since.

 

[LBarr2002]

When I was a kid, my Granddad had a cattle farm. Some of my earliest memories were sitting on his knee steering the truck checking the fences on the farm. As soon as I could reach the pedals, I would drive with him in the passenger seat. Probably around 12, I had keys to the truck.

In high school my friends and I spent most Friday and Saturday nights riding backroads and hitting a local "wheeling" spot. Summer job during college was herbicide spraying, and all my buddies worked at the same company. So we spent the week driving expensive new trucks down power lines and then our weekends riding dirt roads in our own junk.

Sophomore year of college I bought a parts Explorer. I ended up getting it running, and now that I had 2 vehicles things kinda got out of hand.

I had a friend with a couple full size broncos and an f250, one with a couple Toyotas, one with an FX4 ranger, one with a crown vic on 31s...

After I graduated college we took the explorer to Uwharrie and Gulches a few times. I ran a couple of the competitions at gulches but the explorer was too big, heavy, and clumsy. The class was dominated by samurais, so I bought a samurai. Then things really escalated.

 

[ManglerYJ]

I had a pretty stock 90 Jeep Wrangler on 30" all-terrains and a group of guys invited me to go wheeling in Royal Blue, TN in the late 90's. When we got there, I saw the string of Jeeps in various forms and builds from a bone-stock TJ on street tires to a SOA YJ with a 4.3 liter/Scout axles and 35x15.50" Swampers. At that time, 35" Swampers were pretty extreme, so his rig really impressed me. Since I had never been wheeling before, I was placed towards the back of the pack. The first "obstacle" was a hill climb with some decent sized rocks scattered throughout. I was struggling on the obstacle and it was pointed out that I wasn't in low range, nor were my sway bars disconnected. After a few spins of some wrenches and a pull of the lever, I was keeping up with the rest.

As soon as I got home from that trip, I started researching lift kits and bigger tires and lockers. I went from stock-ish to 5" of lift and 33's with a lock right in the rear to pulling the leaking 4 cyl out and replacing the whole drivetrain with a Tuned Port 305 out of a Formula Firebird, SM465 tranny out of a Chevy Blazer, Dana 20 transfer case and sprung over on 77 International Scout axles with a rear Lock Right on 36" Swampers. I moved from the Detroit area down to Charlotte to be closer to Tellico where I had heard stories of the most extreme wheeling I could imagine. In the meantime, I would settle for Uwharrie being in my backyard and dream of the day when I could finally finish my Jeep and take it to Tellico. Neither happened, unfortunately. My Jeep was sold when "life happened" and needed money for grown up things like a working refrigerator and bills being paid.

At one point, every vehicle I owned was 4WD. I had my Jeep Wrangler, I was gathering parts to build a competiton buggy off a Samurai and I had a daily driver 87 Cherokee. After 16 years of mini-vans, I finally have a 4WD again in the form of a 2021 Z71 Tahoe. Sadly, only keyboard wheeling for me anymore.

 

[LBarr2002]

At that time, 35" Swampers were pretty extreme,

Crazy how that's changed. I remember my grandad having 265/75/16 put on the farm truck and they were huge. Then my brother put 285/75/16 on his truck

When I got started 33s were normal, 35s were big. Then everybody had 35s and 37s were big. Now everybody has 40s...

 

[XJsavage]

My bug started in Highschool. Late 90's to mid 2000's there was a group of four wheelers that called themselves the "Island Boyz". I joined around '04. It was centralized around Charleston SC and had around 15 members. What turned me onto it was the comradery. We all had four wheel drives, all partied together, all knew where each other lived and loved getting out on the road and traveling to the next destination. There's no off-road parks near Charleston but we spent plenty of time on the muddy back roads of whatever hunt clubs the wealthier family members of the club owned. It didn't matter if one of us was broke down, stuck, or in trouble, help from the club was immediate. We got pretty well known for throwing the wildest backwoods parties around. Always had plenty of pretty girls hang around. I was driving a 87 Toyota on 34" LTBs while I was in it. The other trucks had anywhere from 33's to 42's. It was awesome. High School graduations, birthdays, and holidays were always spent in the woods drinking beer gathered around a fire from James Island, John's Island, Wadmallaw, Ravenel, Georgetown and beyond. We invited anyone we knew. It wasn't uncommon to see donk cars and low riders pull up loaded with local rappers even. That is what gave me the bug. Good people and good times. Somewhere floating around in a box is a few Polaroid pictures of me with long blonde hair down to my shoulders, clean shaved and standing next to my truck on Swampers around '04ish. I loved that life and I've never changed.

 

[77GreenMachine]

I was a kid and saw guys riding around with muddy rigs and thought it was so cool. Did some light mudding in various places as a teen which sparked it all. But in 2009 I went to Uwharrie once in a stock Grand Cherokee with a buddy. We got stuck, but guys in mildly built wranglers who helped, wound up riding with them and doing more than just mud. I was hooked instantly and that’s where my addiction began. I had a 77 F150 with weeds growing in the dash in my yard. I spent the whole following year fixing it up, with dreams of going to Tellico. It closed before I got done.
I wheeled it at Uwharrie 2-3 times and sold it to buy a Jeep.

 

[drkelly]

I think seeing Four Wheeler and Peterson's 4wd and Offroad magazines in the stores got me interested. I subscribed to those magazines probably around 16 yrs old, and got interested in buying a 4wd. A good friend of mine down the street had an 85 S10 Blazer when he turned 16, then later sold it and bought an 84 K10 stepside. He put a 2.5" lift and some 33" Mud Kings on it and use to take it out anywhere local he could get away with it. My senior year in high school I ended up buying a 73 Jeep CJ5 that had been rolled over. I fixed it up and took it wheeling. That was my start.

 

[jeepinmatt]

I think seeing Four Wheeler and Peterson's 4wd and Offroad magazines in the stores got me interested.

I think that was part of it for me too.

I hated jeeps as a young teen because everyone I knew who drove a YJ was a douchecanoe (even though that word didn't exist in the 90s AFAIK). Then when I was about 14-15ish, my neighbor offered to sell his 76 CJ7 (which I thought was way cooler,) to me for a decent price (Man, I would kill for a clean, stock rust free CJ7 for $2k these days!). I'm pretty good at not leaving well enough alone, so next thing you know it had POWER steering and front DISC brakes! Got all the parts from Tarheel4wd, and after seeing the super nice, clean, "built" CJ's they had in the showroom, and all the cool stuff you could buy for them (which was basically a winch, lights, bumpers, and a bunch of stuff from Bestop and Tuffy), I was hooked! Found some 32" MTs on bullet hole wheels and man that transformed that open diffed 3 speed T150 jeep into an offroad monster! Made some 2" lift shackles so the tires would clear, and took it to Uwharrie. I think it was a CORE run, but I'm really not sure how I got hooked up with them, and didn't really remember any of the people I met, because it was a short day trip and didn't socialize much, and mostly spent time slipping the clutch and wishing my defroster worked, haha. I did meet one dude about my age who lived in Hickory and had a 99 TJ, and we ended up being lifelong friends and I met my wife through him. Fast forward 6 months, after a a few trips with him to local "wheeling spots" (powerlines and such), I decided I needed a TJ because I was a high schooler and needed something "cool" that had more flex and would impress chicks. I sold the idea to my parents on the merit of a TJ being safer because it had airbags and ABS. But really I wanted a 5 speed, more power, coil springs, and bright yellow. Ended up finding ol yeller just down the road in Mount Holly, 6 months old, 6k miles, and about 30% less than a new one (imagine that these days! ). It took about a month before it was a on 31's, and probably another month or two was a 2" spacer lift and 32" MT's, bombing down powerlines and through the mud and to Uwharrie. In less than 2 years, it was on 3.5" BDS springs, 2" bodylift, flat skid on the framerails, 35" Procomp Xterrains, 4.56 gears, Warn 8274 hanging off the front, and shaved rear D60 with ARB. And of course a lightbar with 4 KC Daylites on it. We went to Uwharrie and Richlands a lot, and did Globe quite a few times in those early days. Ended up making it to Tellico before it closed, but only once, and never made it to Callanlantee for some reason, even though I spent a ton of time in Boone in the early-mid 2000's. Now I regret not going to more places when I had the flexibility to do it.

 

[DSM Turbos]

I always liked how Jeeps were open air so I eventually got one and already enjoyed being outside and hiking and going places where normal people can't go. That and my dad telling me a jeep wasn't safe for a first car so that made me want one even more.

 

[YJJPWrangler]

A friends dad in middle school had a yellow TJ. We were going somewhere and the dad saw an empty construction area with some riprap and mud holes.

Bought my 87 YJ when I was 14 and worked on it till it was driveable. New TBI 4.2, SYE 231, 4" Black Diamond lift, swapped in a disc 8.8 and 33" general grabbers. Went one time to Uwharrie and powerline trails galore. Totaled it in college and was jeepless till I bought the Willys 5 years ago.

 

[justjeepin86]

It's funny really, I never thought about off road, even growing up on a small family farm. I always had a car growing up thru high school. Fast forward to college. I stayed an went a year to community college and a good buddy of mine went off to Boone. He bought at 79 CJ7 shortly there after in 1997. I went up to hang with him some and thought the Jeep was awesome. It was bone stock on 31's with a 304 and 3 speed. I went home and started searching for one myself. I picked up a 1986 CJ7 bone stock in really nice shape for $4500. Little did I know I lucked out and landed the Dana 44 rear. The first thing I did was install add a leaves and 31 Mt's. I transferred to App after my first year at cc and the rest is history. Several guys from my buddys frat had trucks and jeeps. We wheeled Globe, Sampson, and Callantee. Seemed like we were at the Globe every week trying like hell to get over that rock, lol. There was an epic night in the rain coming down the hill on the loop after the rock. It was wet and @Chuckman dropped is CJ on it's side on the downhill.

Next came a 2" body lift, 33 mt's, and cage tied to the frame. Then, I geared it 4.56 and put a Detroit in the rear. WOW, what a difference. Next was a 3" BDS YJ lift and 36 tsls. Took it to Tellico with that setup and had a blast. I can't say I drive like many you since I welded the front spiders and never broke a stock axleshaft. I actually lost a lot of the fun of the Jeep when I went to tons, 39's, and motor swapped. Missed driving to the trails and driving home. That's why mine will stay on 33's now.

All that to say, I had a blast flunking out of college!

 

[paulevans76]

Best bud in high school got a hand me down 88 4runner when he turned 16 (in like 1997) and we started grabbing the petersen's magazines and stuff like that. I REALLY wanted a CJ, they were the coolest thing I could think of driving. Instead I had a normal boring car. Once I went to college in 99, I ended up getting a 91 trooper with pretty low miles for $2k from a friend of my family. So whenever I would come back home I'd take the trooper and he'd take his 4runner and we'd go exploring and get stuck all kinds of places we shouldn't have been. I learned to wrench screwing that rig up my first few years of college. My first engine replacement (due to punching a small hole in the oil pan while wheeling) was done using all borrowed tools and brains

I eventually found some websites dedicated to isuzu offroad stuff and figured out how to modify the rig and get bigger tires on it, then saw some solid axle swaps and well built trail rigs, and the bug bit and hadn't let go since. I've had all kinds of rigs over the years, but usually always have an old trooper in the fleet.

 

[StretchASU]

All through high school I wrenched and wheeled with a bunch of guys. For a number of reasons I didn't have a rig then, but was the wrench and winch bitch. First was a budget boost on a 97 4 cyl TJ, then it snowballed from there doing bolt on stuff for friends. I think @getstucksome is about the only one left on this board that ran in that similar circle and era from 02-05 around Charlotte as we all got our licenses and did tons of dumb stuff. @farmboy was a few years younger but way ahead of us on the rig evolutions and I remember the mini fracas on here when he was skirting the old age qualifications since his older bro used the same account. Places like Old Hebron, 521 and Tank Town and others around Charlotte were the norm. We would usually make one trip to Uwharrie a year and thought Daniel and Kodak were the most hardest core shit in the world back then. In college I got my 99 Toyota 4Runner and the NCTTORA crowd went to Callalantee while I was in Boone and I tagged along for a weekend and it has been steadily downhill since then. There is a ton of overlap in groups of friends from different parts of life that are a part of this community to this day.

 

[89wrangler]

Gonna tell my age, but mine started way back in '67 or '68. I used to stay for a few weeks in the summer at my grandparents place in southern Indiana. On morning a cousin who's parents owned a local furniture store we used to hang out at asked me it I wanted to ride along to one of their other stores to make a delivery and then he had to pick up an old Jeep to bring back. Of course I wanted to go! We make said delivery with truck and trailer and then head over to pick up the Jeep. It was an old flat fender, still had army tires on it, really faded paint, no top, two worn seats. I thought that was absolutely the coolest vehicle I had personally seen up to that point. He loaded it up on trailers and we headed back to his farm. Once there he unloaded the Jeep and said "want to go for a spin" I was like heck yes!! we got in and he said hang on (no seat belts) and proceeded to drive though a field, through the woods, across a creek, hit some mud and then ended up back on the road. I was Hooked! Something about riding with no top or doors, inching through the woods and across the stream was just burned into my head. Between the open air driving and bouncing through the woods, that feeling and craving to do it again never left me. Then later started picking up a couple 4WD magazines when I could and dreaming about the off road scene and building a rig. Fast forward to my junior year in high school in 1978 and I finally got me a 1973 CJ5. Had a built 304, 3 speed, D20, D44/30 and some 33's. A bunch of buddies and I used to spend almost every weekend wheeling in mostly mud with a few hill climbs. Even have pics in our yearbook of us "doing our thing" lol. As time progressed, I learned about mud and the cost associated with it, as well as how to work on my vehicles, especially ujoints, wheel bearings, brakes and tie rods and started steering more towards trail riding as I got older. Since '78 I have had at least one Jeep in the stable if not two or three and love the adventure of off road trail riding, exploring, rock crawling. Looking back, It all started with that flat fender ride.

 

[dgoodwin10]

We had a friend with a pretty built YJ that was a member of CAOS and invited my dad and I on an overnight wheeling trip in Gardendale, AL back around 2000. I was 8 years old had never even sat in a Jeep until that weekend and still vividly remember how much fun that trip was. My school was doing a magazine sale and saw a Jeep on the cover of Petersons and subscribed in August of 2003 and haven't thrown away an issue since. The CAOS trip made me nibble and subscribing to Petersons really set the hook and got me interested . I spent countless hours web-wheeling on forums throughout high school, but we mostly rode 4 wheelers and took our trucks on the local power lines. I didn't have any friends that were into actual wheeling until college. I've been to Gray Rock, Stony Lonesome, Morris Mountain, Choccoloco Mtn, Windrock and a handful of others with that crew and still ride with them today. I met a few on this board in 2011 while working recovery at the ECORS race in Auburn. I rode with a guy in a yellow TJ on, I think, Treps and was one of the first on the scene to watch @rockcity 's buggy earn its nickname Smokey.

By the time I'd saved up enough pennies to buy something, all my friends had sold their full sizes and gone to side by sides, so I bought a 2004 Yamaha Rhino with an HCR +6 kit and stroker motor (See the thread HERE). Wheeled it a fair amount at all the major parks local to me and had a ball. Not long after that I picked up a 97 TJ and planned to keep it stock and use it as fun third vehicle and share DD duty with my truck. That plan stuck for a few years, but I ultimately sold the Rhino and decided to graduate from golf carts to a full size and am building the TJ to be a capable DD / weekend wheeler on 33's (Build thread HERE).

 

[Croatan_Kid]

I was 8 and picked up an issue of Four Wheeler magazine when I was walking through the magazine aisle at the local Food Lion. It had a white, 98 Chevy dually on the cover on (I think) 38" Swampers. I read that thing front to back several times and got my dad to get me a subscription because it was only 10 bucks a year. So through that, by the time I was 9 I could visually ID basically any axle, transmission, transfer case, or whatever I saw. I fully nerded out on it. I memorized the equations to calculate speed based on gearing/tire size/RPM, the effective ratio change from going to a larger tire, and a few others. I liked the building aspect of it. I always worked on stuff at the house because 1. I don't trust other people to work on my stuff and B. I don't want to pay somebody to work on my stuff. The parts themselves cost enough. Once I finally got my license, I drove my dad's K10 until I got my 99 Silverado 2006. Then in August 2007, I picked up my CUCV from the local MCAS, and not even a year later I started on the Cummins/NV4500 swap at 18. I could regear it or throw big tires on to compensate, so tires it was. I build them all to drive, but they can also be wheeled. Everything around here is illegal, but I'm usually the guy people call when they bury something somewhere where they shouldn't be. So I get to go wheel, not get in trouble, and make a few bucks because it's always a really bad time of day (usually night) when they get stuck.

Anyway, later on in 2012, I did the whole SAS setup on my 99 Silverado and a few months after that, built the 6.0 to swap in it. I picked up the HD in 2015, wrecked it a year later, rebuilt it, and started looking at the SAS stuff for that. I can't leave anything stock.

The plans are to probably keep the CUCV like it is...other than compound turbos and fine tuning the clutch pedal or maybe an Allison swap. I'd like to wheel it some somewhere away from here, but I'll likely do a tear down on the 99 and change the front suspension setup, lower it, and possibly toss the AAM 11.5 in favor of an AAM 10.5 for clearance. Ideally, I'd like it a few inches lower, front on coilovers, sitting on something like 40s or 42s, and then make that more of a wheelin rig that I can still drive to work. I may even ditch the 78/79 Ford 60 for another 05+ Super Duty setup like my other truck. We'll see how it goes.

Really, I just like building stuff. I have a truck and trailer now though and once I can recoup from some questionable life decisions that cost me a lot of money, I plan to drag one of them around from time to time to beat on it!

 

[Southern_Transplant]

I had wanted a Jeep since HS. But I never had the money or time. Then I got stuck out in El Paso with this guy back in 2006:

https://youtube.com/channel/UCbBSncfhtHw41xvUw-KtFhg

We hit the trails before deployment and after. I used some of my deployment dollars for my first rig after that. It was a 83 CJ7 with a 4.2 with a 4.0 head and a T-18 4 speed with a Dana 300 twin stick. 4.88 gears and a lunch box locker in the back meant that it was a mess on the road, but it got the job done on the trails. It had some tired 4" super lift springs and a 1" body lift. Damn I loved that think..

 

[Jody Treadway]

Back when @thebrotherinlaw was either dating or just married my sister, he had an old CJ5 we'd take wheeling at Green River.
Then my dad and I would buy and flip (for profit) 4x4s.
When I started at the Jeep dealer in 97, that pretty much sealed the deal. Picked up a purple YJ and became the humble icon I am today.

 

[upnover]

I guess back when I was 11 or 12, and the first time I was old enough to help my Uncle Jack pick up hay, I was usually the one driving the truck through the fields, going up and down the terraced field, I was amazed how well his old Jeep truck pulled the trailer. That's when I was introduced to 4WD. Along about the same time, My dad had an old 48 Dodge truck that we'd take to the hunting club land. In the summer Dad was take us back in there to ride out Mini Bikes, then come hunting season, we'd go in t hunt. Several times the Old Dodge would not make it out by it's self, and we'd have to be pulled by one of the other club members with a Scout, or Jeep It I remember one guy had a International travel all. Fast forward to High School, when I turned 16, it wasn't my first vehicle, but my second, was a 48 Willy's. It wasn't a flat fender though, it had a 67 CJ body on it. From then on, I was hooked.

 

[Andy J.]

My folks took my brother and I to visit my cousin Ben and his family when I was in my early teens. Ben has a tan YJ that was on maybe 31” MTs at the time and I instantly fell in love (the only love at first sight experience I’ve ever had ). I thought it was the coolest vehicle I had ever seen. I started picking up 4x4 mags and convinced my parents to get me a Jeep for my first car a couple years later. They bought me a 86 CJ7 with a 4.2, D300, & the d44 rear. A few weeks later my dad and I joined the CTB for a ride, bald 31’s and all. I’ve been trading my future retirement for parts and tools ever since.

 

[ponykilr]

My first new vehicle was an 88 Toyota 4x4. I wheeled the heck out of it on the factory Toyos. I bought an 85 on 33s and was even more hooked. I owned many Toyotas after that.

I bought my first Jeep in 1998, a ‘92 Wrangler 2.5, 5spd. I eventually swapped the motor and trans for a chevy 5.7 and 700r4.

I bought a new ‘05 Rubicon and lifted it to run 33s. It was totaled and I went back to Toyotas. I am a sucker for a nice 3rd gen 4Runner… I have had a few nice Fords as well.

Then I bought this ‘04 Rubicon which was almost identical to the ‘05.

I used to go to URE a good bit and had several places around JoCo to wheel but haven’t wheeled this Jeep any except for messing around here on my piece of heaven. I plan to change that this year.

 

[Bebop]

How did the bug bite you?

No idea.

But I've got a picture of me at 2 years old behind the wheel of a WW2 Willys.
You could say I was always into it.

 

[DonYukon]

all good replies. Alot of you started with the magizines. I would buy them as well. Also loved seeing the old pictures