The patient, prepped for surgery we'll show next month.
Jeeps have been four-wheeling longer than most of you readers have been alive. In fact, there is no one working at 4-Wheel & Off-Road and probably not even at Jeep itself that was alive when thatfirst Jeep prototype rolled out of a small workshop in the hills of Pennsylvania in 1940. From the very first day the Jeep was finished, people have been trying to change it; different engines, stronger steering, bigger tires, lower gearing, lighter weight, and so on. In fact, we would warrant a guess that along with the Volkswagen Beetle, the Jeep may be one of the most recognizable and historically modified vehicles ever. The 4x4 guys can't stand stock trucks, and from the start of the 4x4 aftermarket industry there have been parts to bolt onto your Jeep.
So now it's 2007 and we are looking forward to our Ultimate Adventure trip, and we've decided to take on what could be our most challenging U.A. vehicle buildup ever. If you've been living under a rock for the past eight years then you don't know that Ultimate Adventure is a weeklong road trip where we take a handful of readers, some advertisers, and a couple of our cronies and go wheeling. Every year we go to a different part of the country, and we usually travel about 1,200 miles total and try to hit four or five major wheeling destinations in some corner of the U.S. Since Jeep came to the market this year with its new four-door Wrangler JK, we decided that would be a great vehicle to build up-but here is where the trouble lies. Jeeps have been built for more than 65 years and in that time almost every modification has been tried-some with success and some without-so how could we possibly do something new and different? And then on top of all of the engine, axle, tire, gearing, and locker options sits a simple yet excruciatingly difficult decision. What is the direction of this vehicle going to be, as in color, and theme? In the past there have been military Jeeps, farm Jeeps, resort Jeeps, race Jeeps, tour Jeeps, fire-fighting Jeeps, rescue Jeeps, police Jeeps, ugly Jeeps, show Jeeps, Barbie Jeeps, beach Jeeps, sand Jeeps, drag Jeeps, postal Jeeps, and every type of trail Jeep under the sun, so we know that building a Jeep that will stand out from the crowd is going to be difficult. Plus there are tons of great aftermarket accessories available for the new Jeep JK, so many that choosing what we will or will not use on our JK is enough to keep a guy awake all night scheming. Next month we'll show you the first steps we took to transform a bone-stock '07 Jeep JK into the UAJK, but for now here is just a sampling of the many ideas we've been considering.
This is the type of Jeep Editor Rick Pewe is used to-battered, broken, barely running, and as far as he's concerned, perfect. He'll be the guy behind the wheel of the UAJK on Ultimate Adventure so building something he'll be comfortable driving, and proud of, is an important goal. | 
This is the type of Jeep that Tech Editor Fred Williams owns-oddball, ugly, and powered by a diesel engine. Fred is in charge of the buildup so don't be surprised if some of his favorite attributes show up in the UAJK. |
On the other hand Jeep has done some really cool stuff for the military as well. We could always paint the whole thing olive drab green, but has it been overdone? Heck, even Hot Rod magazine is painting their Camaros OD these days, and we hate to be followers. | 
The guys that built these two Jeeps are assisting in the buildup of the Ultimate Adventure Jeep. Both vehicles are highly modified, and depending on who you ask... |
...they may or may not qualify as a Jeep any more. How will their influence affect the final vehicle we'll be wheeling this summer? Stay tuned. | 
Jeep has always had some very unique models straight from the factory over the years. Should we build a late-model variant of one of these? |
Of course we're not just talking about paint here. Finding a drivetrain that we can assemble quickly over the next three months, that is reliable in the dirt, and can be easily fixed if anything goes wrong is a priority. Plus a suspension that can take the abuse of a week of wild wheeling, yet still be ready to put in hundreds of miles of highway to the next rock pile, mud hole, or sand dune is a requirement. However we don't want to bore you with the same old Jeep build just rehashed and stuffed in a new body. | 
Plus there is the question, how much is too much? We know that 99 percent of you will never duplicate our buildup here, but at the same time we don't want to get so far out into dreamland that you dismiss our project as stupidity. We want to build the ultimate dream Jeep, the Jeep you'll look at and say "Wow! I want that!" Maybe it's something we wish Jeep would make, but at the same time we're not trying to say that the new JK isn't worthwhile in its own right... |
...In fact, we chose the Wrangler JK as our 2006 4x4 of the Year because it's pretty darn awesome straight out of the box. It's just that we're 4x4 guys and we just can't leave well enough alone. We've got some ideas, we've given you some clues, but we're still open to any ideas or input you might have. Log onto our Web site at www.4wor.com and post your ideas in the forum section and then come back in 30 days to learn some more of the plan. | |