A few months ago I purchased a manual transmission, V8-powered 1989 Chevy K1500 — possibly one of the greatest pickup trucks ever. I used that truck to move my entire household, and fell in love with how it drives; it’s smooth, torquey, and supremely capable. But I’m a Jeep man — I have been for over 20 years now, which is why I don’t think that K1500 will fill the gap in my heart that will exist when I begrudgingly part ways with the 1985 Jeep J10 that the state of California won’t let me drive due to SMOG. For this reason, I have made a questionable choice that will on Wednesday put me in Idaho, about 1000 miles from my home.
With my J10 on the chopping block and my heart unable to truly cherish the K1500 like a Chevy truck fan would, I find myself with a truck problem. How will I carry big, heavy parts like those needed to build my eBay World War II Jeep? How will I cary washing machines and driers and drywall and other things needed to maintain this ancient house my wife, child, cats and I live in?
What I need is a Jeep pickup truck that won’t fail SMOG, and that leaves me with four options. The first is an old Willys pickup truck; this thing:
These are basically pickup truck versions of the first true family 4×4 SUV, the Willys Wagon, and like the Wagon, the Pickup was loosely based on the World War II Jeep (on which the first civilian Jeep, the CJ-2A is also based). They’re old, really don’t go much faster than about 45 MPH sustained, and they’re small.
The truth is, finding one of these in decent shape is difficult and pricey, and what’s more, they’re basically antiques; they’re for driving either on a farm or slowly around town; they are not meant for LA highways.
I could also hunt for a pre-1976 Jeep J10, which would allow me to forgo annual emissions checks. Of course, decent Jeep J10s from that vintage — coveted for their beautiful “Razor” grilles — aren’t cheap. Most of these have rust on the bedside seams, and fixing that is really tough. I’m lucky enough that my bed doesn’t’ have this.
What I could do is buy a pre-1976 with a rust-free cab but a crusty bed, swap my bed and 85,000 mile powertrain, and boom: I’d not only have a California-legal truck, but the rust on my floorboards and the back of my cab would no longer be an issue.
This would take time, of course, and then I’d be tempted to paint it all to make the bed match the cab. And in the end, I’d still have a temperamental, carbureted old truck that makes 112 horsepower.
I could also do an engine swap — namely do the 4.0-liter “stroker” mod that involves taking the crankshaft out of the 258 currently in my J10, swapping that into a 4.0-liter engine. (they are a dime a dozen), and installing a new Hydroboost brake booster (since the 4.0’s intake manifold would interfere with the J10’s brake booster) as well as an engine computer and all the requisite wiring.
It wouldn’t be trivial. The easiest “J10” option involves me just plunking down $15 grand for a nice pre-1975 J10.
Door number three involves buying a new Jeep Gladiator. This is a good option for a few reasons; first, because it’s newer, it’s more refined, more reliable (thus giving me more time to do family things), and safer. This latter point, along with the fact that the truck has four doors, means I could actually drive my kid around in it. Not to mention, it’s really the only option on this list that can actually tow.
The downside to this option is that the manual version of the truck isn’t rated to tow more than 4,500 pounds, and I refuse to ever buy an automatic ICE car again. What’s more, pre-2024 Gladiators don’t have rear side-curtain airbags, which is totally ridiculous. 2024+ trucks are too expensive, but older Gladiators are actually fairly cheap, with 2020s going for around $23,000. That’s not bad for a modern truck, but it’s only got a 5-foot bed, towing with the stick is limited, there are no rear side curtain airbags, and $23,000 is still $23,000.
That brings me to the final option, and the one that I’m exploring.
The Jeep Comanche.
And not just any Jeep Comanche; I just committed to purchasing the very last model-year: 1992. Jeep built only 1,000 Jeep comanches this year, so this is an extremely rare truck.
I’m usually not a snob about final model-years, but what I am a snob about is engine management systems, and all Jeep Cherokees and Comanches prior to the 1991 model-year had what was called a “Renix” fuel injection system, along with a “hot bottle” cooling system. These tend to be a bit temperamental, and the Renix-era vehicles make less power. I’ve gotten used to the Chrysler Fuel Injection system offered in 1991+ Jeep Cherokees and Comanches and Grand Cherokees, so I really didn’t want a pre-1991 Comanche.
So this left me with 1991 and 1992 options.
I’ve actually owned a 1991 Jeep Comanche before, but it was not only an automatic, it was horribly rusty and outfitted with a janky lift kit. I barely recall that truck since I owned it for only a year or so. But I do remember it being reasonably comfortable and capable enough to haul over 11,500 pounds of scrap metal to the metal-yard. Here’s old-me doing feral things in Michigan with that old Comanche “MJ”:
Some people call it a backyard. I call it a proving ground. pic.twitter.com/AEWDkHaUAj
— David Tracy (@davidntracy) March 3, 2020
Anyway, I recently spotted a 1992 MJ for sale up near Boise, Idaho. It is a bone-stock, final model-year model with the coveted AX-15 manual transmission. The asking price of $6,500 seemed reasonable, and if I sold my K1500, I’d actually come out ahead. So I told the seller I’d buy the MJ, only to later realize it was a no-AC truck. Oh well!
Tomorrow I’m flying from Burbank up to Boise to pick up this rust-free 200,000 mile pickup that I hope will fulfill my truck wants and needs. I hope it will offer a bit of the comfort/reliability of the K1500 and the cool factor of the J10.
We’ll see. Before I decide on which truck to keep, I have to get this machine from Idaho to California, which is a tall task for any 30+ year-old car with that many miles on it.
The post I Bought A 200,000 Mile Jeep Comanche Sight Unseen And I’m Going To Try To Drive It 1000 Miles Home appeared first on The Autopian.
