10 reasons why daily driving your Rockcrawler is awesome

It's easy to tell when I'm at work

Awhile back I was sitting and perusing the internet while our newborn baby slept and I came across this internet gem "Truck Yeah-I Regret Lifting My Daily Driver" and got decidedly ruffled. I've daily driven my fair share of lifted disasters and don't regret a moment of it, how could this guy toss a lift kit on his Cherokee and hate life? It looks to me like he jumped the gun on calling his jeep ready to evaluate as a daily, so much of what makes a lifted jeep better on the road was missing. Gears for mileage, stout steering, replacing a number of high mileage drivetrain parts, thats all part of the process and contributes to peace of mind and that "I don't have to worry about that" feeling needed in a good daily car. I think he just wasn't happy with it because it wasn't done.

August will mark the 2 year anniversary of daily driving our lifted jeep for me. While you can find the more in depth info about our rehash here, the short skinny is it was the nicest trailer beater we've ever had. Its beat, ugly, and has been wheeled hard enough that it has a few creaks and groans that won't ever be cured. It has also has been slowly fixed and upgraded over time, and sports a nice complement of stout drivetrain and suspension parts for a little jeep on 35's. For a big slinky crawler it drives with excellent precision and the beaten down leaky 4.0 remains one of the more powerful examples of the mill I've owned (somehow, it has some decent rev limiter time on its clock as well as an astonishingly low number of oil changes). Sure there is a ton of stuff I'd like to do and upgrade, but as it sits it is a "done" package of suspension, drivetrain, steering, and armor upgrades. I like driving our jeep, and here's why.

Sneaking away during a bounty hill race to wheel some empty trails

1. Seat Time. I had never realized it but even though I built this jeep I didn't have a ton of seat time in it. Since my wife is the named owner she has driven it mostly both on and off road, I may be the local expert in spotting for this rig but she is definitely the most experienced behind the wheel. Settling in for a short drive 5 days a week has given me a chance to get to know all it's little details, where it shifts, balance, sway tendencies etc. All useful knowledge when we hit the dirt, so maybe I won't be the one that breaks it next time.

Doing the fix it dance, notice what's actually getting worked on 

2. Always caught up on maintenance. Anybody care to guess how many fluid changes my last trailer beater got? Anyone?.... ZERO that's how many. I paid 175$ for that jeep and ran the black transmission fluid for 2 YEARS! Not in a daily though! Our current rig is treated to 5k transmission services as well as 3k oil changes with high quality fluids. See what I said there about high quality too? because of the demands of daily driving as well as the occasional jaunt through woods our junk gets treated to high quality parts both in the form of maintenance parts (balljoints bearings brakes etc.) as well as quality fluids to keep its moving parts happy. The trailer queens needed to not let me down 3-5 days a year, our black jeep needs to do the same for at least 260 days a year. But isn't that a more expensive way to take care of a car? Your damn straight, but if you were already wheeling it you probably should've been buying good parts anyway, trailer queen or not. But that leads me straight into my next reason...

3. Your rig gets a bigger line in the budget. Part of adulting and rockcrawling is making sure everything fits in the budget. Often owning a 3rd vehicle or a trailer queen means its relegated to the bottom of the budget, and since we're on the toddler spending model right now sometimes off the budget entirely for periods of time. Daily drivers always need to be running and as such they get more allocated in the budget. Dailys need regular oil changes, brakes, and all the other daily driver expenses. You were going to have to pay for it anyway, might as well sink it into your rig. Spending wisely and sourcing some nice gently used high dollar upgrade parts also means that most upgrades can find their way into the budget as well.

Breaking out the air compressor after a day at the AOP.

4. Your junk is always ready. Its gotta take you to work right? that means it at least runs and drives, and running and driving is a far shorter jump to wheeling than sitting and deteriorating. The greatest enemy of a ready to use toy is sitting, clutches get frozen up, rubber seals go dry, the list goes on. When I get a rare chance to sneak out to the dirt I know my junk is ready, because it was probably parked out back at work the day before. It's a lot easier to pack the tools and pick up lunch than bring a rig back from the dead for weekend fun..

Full of as much stoutness as a dana 30 can muster.

5. It's oversuited to whatever the road has in store. We build this junk to hold up. We would be crappy rock crawlers if we didn't. The Tennessean cited a state report that insufficient roads cost Chattanooga motorists upwards of $1,400 per year in additional costs both for lost time and increased maintenance. I for one can say I've plowed the front tires into potholes in this town that would eat a little car wheel and tire for lunch, much less any other part of the suspension. Our lower links are all 1/4 wall DOM steel tubing and the joints in the lower arms are the same joints used by racers on 43" tires with 800 hp motors. If we decide we need to jump the train tracks on the way home I think it will be ok..... a commuter sedan not so much.

Waiting on Ultimate Adventure 2015 to arrive

6. It demands your attention on the road. One of the major burdens of driving this pig every day is that it asks a lot of your attention going down the road. There is no swaybar at all, the all rod end steering is super precise, and despite brake upgrades it's still good to be conscious of stopping distance. That's not to say that it is a poor driver, but nothing is automatic about how it moves (well it does shift its own gears...for now) and it will make you pay for your mistakes much like any purpose built performance vehicle. So while everyone else is texting and letting the blindspot monitor tell them when to wake up and drive, I'm focused on keeping my machine in line and watching out for the people driving the little boxes.

Cruising at 70

7. Everybody looks....EVERYBODY. There's a lot of good and bad that comes with driving something that stands out. However there are some days that I feel like I'm driving a supercar rather than a beat to snot jeep. I get a lot of thumbs up at stoplights, people come and ask about it when it's stopped at a gas pump, I even catch people sneaking pictures going down the road. Everybody knows when I'm working because there is a big ugly jeep parked outback. I also get a lot of snide looks, but those mostly come from the tires screeching whenever I make a low speed turn in a parking lot.

Road tripping to see family

8. The gas really isn't a big deal. It averages 14-16 mpg around town which in the grand scheme is slightly better or on par with most 1/2 ton trucks. The addition of the 4.56 axle gears makes this possible. Our little jeep with an auto will still get 16-18 mpg on the highway which makes it cheaper to drive for short trips than the truck that would normally tow it. Having a proper and experienced technician do your gears can be pricey but for us it's an important part of any build that shouldn't be ignored. Spend the money on axle gears and drive your junk places!

Blast from the past getting up trail 39

9. Projects get done. Gone are the month long projects, it's one of two running vehicles that are necessary for this little family on the go. Whatever gets done to it needs to fit into 2 days and failure is not an option. While this can prove to be challenging to try and schedule major projects  (I've been kicking around swapping the front axle for awhile to a bigger dana 44) it does serve as motivation to get in gear and get stuff done instead of letting it sit for years without major drivetrain parts like it did before we moved.

Even though I'm driving now it's always been hers

10. IT'S FUN TO DRIVE!!! At the end of the day it's a barrel of monkeys drive around suburbia. I've been driving it enough that I know just how to make it dance, stand up on 3 wheels, you name it.  I drive it hard and have a good time doing it. After a long day at work I honestly can't think of a better way for any car guy to unwind than to cruise in something fun. It's precise, purpose built, geared right, and it's always ready to party.


So dude, I'm sorry you regret lifting your daily driver, that's a shame that you spent all that money to be sorely disappointed. Keep on building it though there are still a lot of super cool bolt on parts hitting the market for that old Cherokee that will make you a lot happier on the road than the off the shelf suspension kit. Me on the other hand I'm going to get dressed for work and see if I can catch a little air over the train tracks on my way in to the office.