YJ vs Tracker

Mr. Chaos

Active Member
Joined
Sep 29, 2011
Location
Asheville/Waynesville
This will be for a winter driver/toy as i dont want to drive my new dd in the snow.
I want something to learn to wheel in and that can grow with me as an offroader

I have narrowed it down to 1 size of vehicle, which is wrangler/tracker/samurai size.
I would like sfa/sra but the tracker is rather simple to sas especially with the trail-tough trail slayer kit.

I owned a Jeep MJ for about 8 months but it needed a transmission and i got laid off in that same period so it was sold. I honestly wasnt a fan as it was too small interior space wise and i didnt need a truck, certain parts like the tail lights being NLA.

I know the YJ has a crazy aftermarket but it does come with a $2500-3000 price premium over the tracker.

I am not interested in the XJ at all.

Sway me one way or the other.
 
Yjs are gonna be more expensive. That said it will be easier to build as you wheel more, there are also more used parts available for them. Trackers and samurais are going to be a lot smaller than a yj. If you ever planned on doing serious wheeling you'd most likely need to stretch them a good bit.
 
YJ.
 
Just saw your from Waynesville/Asheville area. Your welcome to come to our club's meeting next Tuesday night. Members have or have had both of those rigs and can and will go into depth about the pros and cons of both.
 
If you thought an MJ was small... 2 door trackers are tiny. A 4 door is decent size, but there's a lot of glass...

I drove the 4 door '96 tracker I bought for the engine a little bit before pulling the engine. I liked it, had good power, good gearing, and drove fine, but didn't flex very well in stock form.
 
I think a Tracker with a Trail Slayer kit is going to cost more than a YJ. The Trail Slayer kit is $2,800 before shipping etc.

For the record, I like both vehicles.
 
LBarr2002 said:
If you thought an MJ was small... 2 door trackers are tiny. A 4 door is decent size, but there's a lot of glass...

I drove the 4 door '96 tracker I bought for the engine a little bit before pulling the engine. I liked it, had good power, good gearing, and drove fine, but didn't flex very well in stock form.
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I meant interior space wise there is almost no interior space in an MJ you have like 4 inches behind the seat.

drkelly said:
I think a Tracker with a Trail Slayer kit is going to cost more than a YJ. The Trail Slayer kit is $2,800 before shipping etc.

For the record, I like both vehicles.
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The Trail slayer kit is a iirc a 4-6 inch lift with a 3 link front 4 link back and will work with 33"s and 35s. so you are looking at $4000ish with axles for the trail slayer stuff.

The cheapest wrangler or cj I can find on cl now is a very rusty CJ-3a or a $4k yj with 200k and looks beat and a $4k CJ-5 with no top or doors. The cheapest tracker is a $2k 89 with 125k miles and a couple $3k nicer trackers

What I really want is a 74-80 IH Scout II with the 345 but that is a little hard to find in this area of the country. I have a few months before I will be ready to buy so I am still researching 4x4's prob around Halloween i will make a decision and start looking.
 
Mr. Chaos said:
The Scout would be something later down the road for light wheeling and cruising, not something that might become a trail pig like a tracker, samurai or yj will likely become.
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well in that case I wouldn't buy anything. If your making a dedicated trail rig then choose what size tires what axles what engine trans and tcase combo you want and how many seats and build a chassis around that. Your going to pay a premium to buy a yj or a Sami or tracker that's all together just to replace 90% of everything once it's all said and done. Buy a scout to lightly wheel and cruise and build a true rig exactly how you want.
 
Mr. Chaos said:
The Trail slayer kit is a iirc a 4-6 inch lift with a 3 link front 4 link back and will work with 33"s and 35s. so you are looking at $4000ish with axles for the trail slayer stuff.

The cheapest wrangler or cj I can find on cl now is a very rusty CJ-3a or a $4k yj with 200k and looks beat and a $4k CJ-5 with no top or doors. The cheapest tracker is a $2k 89 with 125k miles and a couple $3k nicer trackers

What I really want is a 74-80 IH Scout II with the 345 but that is a little hard to find in this area of the country. I have a few months before I will be ready to buy so I am still researching 4x4's prob around Halloween i will make a decision and start looking.
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It looks like this one sold. It appeared to be a good deal.
Cheap yj beater

This one looks good, and you would have more than $6,500 into a Tracker with the Trail Slayer kit and axles.
95 yj on tons

There was another one for sale on 42's that looks to be gone now that was a steal.
 
I've had good and bad experience buying a prebuilt rig but when parts alone are worth more than asking price of a complete rig, its hard to go wrong.
 
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