Phoenix Gold Phorum

Here are some pics of the trail run me and the G/F did yesterday. Nothing too technical, but a damn good time none the less! We went with one other couple that had an FJ. We took the interstate out to the Utah/Nevada border and took a 170 mile dirt road back. It was full of old railroad grades and old ghost towns. For more (better) pics go here. All in all a damn good day! O'yeah, on the last leg of the damn trail we did suffer a flat tire!! O'well, I guess that's just part of it!!

Noice!

wow man that looks friggin awesome !!

Would love to visit somewhere like that, tho I dont think the tib would last very long Nice landrover or something

Or that! I am this close to picking up a new Unlimited X.....THIS close....

Funny you should bring that up! The people that we were with used to be big Jeep people. They said that they did research for about 6 months before they decided on an FJ Cruiser. They said that on paper the FJ kicked the shit out of the new wrangler 4x4 wise. Then they did a test drive and that sealed the deal for them, they said that the wrangler is severly under powered! Just a word of caution for ya, you might want to go do a test of your own and see the difference.

I will. I am not concerned about power. I eventually plan on transforming the Jeep into a full-on rock assault rig. Dont need power for that....heck people use Suzuki 4 bangers and do just fine. Its all about gearing and crawl ratio. The Jeep motor has plenty of torque stock for anything I would need it to do.

I will drive an FJ just because....but I am pretty set on the Jeep. And it wont stay stock for long....thats for sure. And "on paper" doesnt mean anything...."on trail" is where the real test is. And there are plenty of reviews that say the JK bests the FJ....of course Toyota guys will say that the FJ is better and Jeep guys will say the JK is better.....you really cant judge by that.

Fact is that its doesnt matter what vehicle you have. You can build it to do anything you want it to do. I could make my VW crawl better than the FJ if I had the money and time to make it happen. hmmm......now thats an idea.......

Agreed, if your going to mod it to do whatever you want to right out of the box it really does not matter what the factory puts on it. All I can tell you is that I am thrilled with the FJ. It's pretty damn loaded from the factory, and with a few mods will be a great all around vehicle to be used for whatever we need it to do. BTW, I am a HUGE Toyota guy, and I have no experience with the Jeep, only what others tell me so you should probobly take everything I say about the Jeep with a grain of salt.

Good luck on the new vehicle search! I know how it can be when you get the itch for a new vehicle!!

I know....Ill start seeing them everywhere I look and they will tempt me and tempt me until I go buy one on a whim...lol...

I am hoping to hold off until I buy a house....maybe I will pick up an '07 on a lease return next spring or something....save a few g's.

I know the Toyota is a great rig...probably a bit more solidly built and reliable for sure....but the Jeep looks better to me. The crew I will be joining is mostly Jeep guys...they have lots of experience with them which will be nice...and tools, and extra parts, etc....

My co-worker with the FJ loves the thing, and everyone was impressed with how well it did on its first outing. I rode in it once on the road and seemed like it was probably a bit more civilized than the JK as well. But I am not buying a vehicle like that to be civilized in.

I am mostly buying the Jeep so I can A) Build it to enjoy a new hobby with a bunch of cool friends. B) Be able to put less miles on the VW, do some work on it, keep it out of the rain/snow, etc.... and C) Something with a bit more utility...although I havent needed to borrow a truck for much since I have had the VW...I can stuff that thing full of crap I tell ya.

Anyway off topic....great pics! Where is that at?

Audiophiliac wrote:I

Anyway off topic....great pics! Where is that at?

Just north of the Great Salt Lake here in Utah. This state has the best of both worlds, beautiful deserts and then in less that 2 hours you can be driving through the pines and aspen in the mountains! I love that part of it, now if we can just do something about this "group" that has control of this state.....

Cool stuff!

Getting off the road is a ton of run whether you're crawling, trail riding or just goofin' around.

i took my rental ford Taurus off roading with errin..... and put a 1/2 deep dent in the oil pan.

and then returned it

That was real fun there...........

Rentals, the only way to off-road.

What I really appreciated about my truck when I went out early spring was that it was overall extremely capable, stock. This truck is why I started loving Toyota. I always thought they were OK but now that I've owned one I'm very impressed.

Not to say I'm anti-Jeep or anything. My buddy has an old ('88 I think) stock Cherokee and he fared quite well on the trails.

I'm sure the FJ is a great off roader with it's many features and powerful drivetrain but I'm more into the looks and home mechanic aspects of the older Toyota trucks. hehehe.

I'd never really driven off road before that one experience but the truck gave me confidence and it just powered through all kinds of terrain and abuse. It laughed at stuff that had my co-pilot's jaw dropping.

That's another aspect of off roading that I really enjoyed. The co-pilot reactions to my driving. Good way to stay in check and also to know when to step it up a knotch. Theres that tension that builds when the co-pilots starts to become uncomfortable with the speed, the ability of the driving and/or difficulty of the terrain