HardRock's Jeep Wrangler

[Andy]

That's up there with the lental drinking eco somethings..

[EDGE]

sorry.... something obviously crawled up my arse and started hitting my rant button !!!!

[Andy]

Completely agree though. Why after three years of accident free, law abiding driving should I be hit with an increase in premium? There's no just cause for it. Ok, some people do genuinely get hurt in accidents that aren't there fault, but what happened to the society of 'man the f**k up!'

[Roadkill]

We could get on to dole scroungers, next . . . .  

Maybe we need a "Rant Section" ???

Glad the Jeep survived nicely.

[EDGE]

hmmm... dole scroungers.... there's another thing......

[Motorama]

going ot from your jeep thread a little,

A couple of years ago my daughter opened the rear door of my wifes Mondeo in Sainsburys car park whilst stood next to the car as she was about to get in. An Asian taxi driver, talking on his phone clipped the door at about 3mph narrowly missing my daughter. The door (drivers side) was pulled forward meaning i had to climb out the passenger side. I took details, and also took some photos of the damage to both vehicles, in his case a 6 inch indentation on the rear quarter. We pass the info onto the insurance company, get our car repaired, it turns out knock for knock, we get tired of arguing our case and cut our losses so we can move on. The end

No! not the end, 2 years later i get a summons from a court in Liverpool sueing me for £5k saying the guy has injuries 2 years on, cant work, cant do DIY, cant go to the gym etc etc. He produces a false witness, surprisingly(not!) another Asian taxi driver saying my daughter opened the car from the inside, not the outside. I ring the insurance company and tell them the guy is lieing, lives half a mile from me, and works for a company 5 doors down from my house and that i've seen him every day for the last 2 years driving his cab, i have photos of the minimal damage to his car, and ask for proof of gym membership. They werent interested at all, basically told me it was cheaper and easier for them to pay him than fight him. As far as i'm concerned its fraud, it's a crime making a false claim. Rant over

Nice Jeep, i'm trying to find a cheapy as a winter runabout before the snow comes, i have a 4x4 F150 but the mrs wont drive LHD

[philoldsmobile]

Quoting: daveyboy

wrong, people who crash into the back of other peoples cars are plebs

true, the false claimants are common dirty thieves, not plebs....

I'f i knew of someone calming for an injury they didn't have i'd shop them in an instant, they are stealing directly out of my pocket.

[Roadkill]

So we do need a "Rant Forum", then ?

[Titsy]

Quoting: philoldsmobile

true, the false claimants are common dirty thieves, not plebs....

I'f i knew of someone calming for an injury they didn't have i'd shop them in an instant, they are stealing directly out of my pocket.

[philoldsmobile]

Quoting: Roadkill

So we do need a "Rant Forum", then ?

couldn't hurt.....

[HardRockCamaro]

Cheapy Wranglers are hard to find, I saw lots of tired (TJ gen) ones at 3k privately and even at 4k in dealers.  The only ones I've seen at around a grand have been broken (blown diffs or gearbox or whatever).  
You might get a tired YJ generation fairly cheap.
On the other hand, even if you have to pay more you won't lose money on it anyway...

If you just want uber cheap 4x4 I'd have thought a Cherokee would be the ticket as there are plenty for £500 -> £800 with seemingly nothing (much) wrong with them.

[Motorama]

my thoughts exactly, have a £1k budget, should find a decent post 97 facelift Cherokee for that

[EDGE]

I saw plenty of Cherokees at that price when i was looking. They seemed fairly sound too,

[philoldsmobile]

cherokees are one of my favorite American cars, if not due in a small part to the fact you don't need to make any excuses for them, judged on merit they are an EXCELLENT 4x4, I also reckon they look better both inside and out than a range rover or shogun, reliability is excellent, and they are capable off road, and good on road.

what more can you want.

not sure what model its called, but this is the shape i'd have.. cheap as chips, too!

[Motorama]

Thats a Grand Cherokee, slightly larger than a Cherokee, better legroom in the back, i've had a few of these and they are great, but always a little thirstier than the Cherokee

[philoldsmobile]

Quoting: Motorama

Thats a Grand Cherokee, slightly larger than a Cherokee, better legroom in the back, i've had a few of these and they are great, but always a little thirstier than the Cherokee

slightly heavier i'd guess..

either the Grand cherokee or the original cherokee are damned fine machines

[Motorama]

Quoting: philoldsmobile

slightly heavier i'd guess..

that and some of the early ninties ones run a Quadratrac permanent 4 wheel drive system

[philoldsmobile]

Quoting: Motorama

that and some of the early ninties ones run a Quadratrac permanent 4 wheel drive system

Ahhhhhhhh! that'd do it!! nice vehicle though, get that sucker on LPG and you got yourself one practical motor!

[HardRockCamaro]

In response to PhilO's question in another thread:

Quoting: philoldsmobile

Quoting: HardRockCamaro
Now I have my shiney new LPG conversion


how did that go?

Too early to give any real judgement really as I only picked it up yesterday, but first impressions are good.
It drives just the same on gas as petrol, possibly even smoother actually, the changeover while driving is seamless.  I can make it... stumble(?) if I flick from gas to petrol then back to gas again when its cold but it's a minor thing and if I just leave it alone to do what it wants there is no problem.

I did 68 miles before the first LED went out and I've driven another 20 miles and it's still on the 3rd LED.  I know the gauge is hopelessly inaccurate but I am hoping for 200 miles from 58 litres in mixed driving.  My mileage varies a lot with London traffic so it's hard to make comparisons.

The install is pretty neat at first glance, I haven't gone over it with a fine tooth comb or anything.

Filling point:


70L LPG tank where petrol tank used to be. Factory skid does not fit over it...


New 42L petrol tank in front of rear axle


LPG gauge and changeover switch in bottom right


6x Prins VSI injectors


LPG Evaporator / Vaporiser / Filter


Prins LPG piggyback ECU



I'll see how I get on with it.

LPG prices near me:

Sainsbury's - 64.9p  (run out and price will go up on next delivery I suspect)
Morissons - 72.9
Shell - 73.9
Texaco - 79.9

[Motorama]

what size is the tank?

[HardRockCamaro]

LPG:
It's a 70L capacity (58 usable), and iirc is about 360mm diameter and about 768mm long...

Petrol:
41.25L capacity (original was 65L iirc)

[philoldsmobile]

exactly the same deal dad had on the tahoe - very very good setup. Looks like Stuarts work is still to its usual extremely high standard.


leave the selector in lpg (auto) mode, and forget the kit is there..

[HardRockCamaro]

Well I've now been driving the car on LPG for 4 weeks covering 1070 miles...

How does it shape up?  

First off a few prices...

I did my sums before fitting the kit assuming petrol would cost around 130p/L going forward (where I fill up it's actually only 126.9p/L) and that LPG would cost 75p/L whereas I am paying just 64.9p/L (only Sainsburys sells at this price, everywhere else is between 72.9 and 79.9).

Without being scientific about it the fuel economy seems to be about 10% worse than on petrol (which is what I had assumed).  I am averaging 15mpg on LPG whereas I used to get 19mpg on petrol *BUT* that 19mpg was before I lifted the Jeep, was with the soft top not the heavier hard top, and was not to London commute focussed.  Since the changes to the Jeep and my commute, I had noticed I was getting about 210-220 miles to a tank *at best* whereas I was getting more like 240 so I'd say 17mpg on petrol in my current circumstances is a more realistic figure.  At some point I will be more scientific about measuring this to be 100% sure.

So, the numbers...

Miles covered:  1,070

Total amount of LPG used:  318.4 Litres @ 64.9p/L = £206.64
Petrol equiv at 10% less L:  286.6 Litres @ 126.9p/L = £363.65

LPG saving = £157.01


So LPG is saving me £146.74 for every 1,000 miles I drive.

(even if Sainsbury weren't so cheap and I had to pay at 72.9/L at Morrisons I'd still save £123 per 1,000 miles)

The cost of the conversion was £2,250  

So it will take 15,333 miles to break even.

Rather impressive...  

A rough estimate tells me that running the Jeep on LPG is only a few % more expensive than running a normal 1.8L petrol family car.

[Incursus]

Quoting: HardRockCamaro

So it will take 15,333 miles to break even.

Rather impressive...

That's only about 1 1/2 years driving.

got an impressive 23mpg out of my last tank

[philoldsmobile]

Quoting: HardRockCamaro

A rough estimate tells me that running the Jeep on LPG is only a few % more expensive than running a normal 1.8L petrol family car.

interesting, that validates the guestimation for the tahoe... we always estimated the running costs of the Tahoe on LPG to be about the same as a 2.0 petrol mondeo!

the jeep working out the same as a normal 1.8 backs that up nicely..

LPG is fantastic when done right, but there are so many (normally DIY or cheap and old) conversions out there. done right (like the jeep is) its fantastic.