Red Sox Cruiser ROTW #1
Well to start I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for all their help and wisdom over the past month since I joined the cruiser family.
My name is Jerry, I am 26 years old and live in Portland, OR. I own a 1994 FZJ-80 (more about that later).
I wanted to begin with how I got to the decision to buy my 80. I have to give a ton of credit to CreeperSleeper(CS), he and I have been good friends for over ten years and is the reason I ever made it off road. My dads are less than outdoors-men and until i was a sophomore in high school I had never seen much of what the real NW Great Outdoors is all about. That is when CS took me on my first trip in his 1989 Chevy on super swampers. We were on trail for all of about 10 min. before we became detained for almost half the day and I loved every second of it. I must mention that the rest of the trip was much better. So I was hooked and now became one of CS's copilots on a regular basis in a barrage of different vehicles and every now and again I would take out my parents 94' Ford Explorer.
Christmas of 2000 and with over 200,000 miles on it my parents decided that I should continue to drive the Explorer into the ground (so I did... CS and I went wheeling the very next day). Bare with me I will be getting to the good stuff soon.
On one of our trips when CS was home visiting from college he showed up with a stock 85' Runner so we went wheeling and camping with the Explorer and Runner. This was pretty much the worst trip of my life and the reason we don't go wheeling in Yamhill anymore (and the reason why I now own a 80). CS gets two flat tires and I managed to back my Explorer on top of a stump in the middle of the night. So almost 24 hours later, a phone call to CS's dad to come rescue us/me and we are now on our way home with me very pissed off.
Fast forward a few years and that 85' Runner is now lifted, rear locker, gears, bumpers and a winch with 33" BFG's and it's mine. I got in a bad way financially and had to sell it :-(.
Fast forward a few more years and now CS has his 80 and is slowly building it and making it awesome and still dragging my miserable you know what into the woods, bugging me to get my own damn rig. Well, after a few more Toyota's and J**P's the stars align: I wake up and I have my 80.
My 80: I bought my 1994 with factory lockers on January 19, 2008.
Here are the current mods:
Metal Tech Sliders
Custom Front Bumper
CDL switch
pin 7 mod
removed flares (holes plugged)
trailer hitch receiver gone
spare tire gone
spare tire carrier gone
OME J springs
OME L shocks
35" Super Swamper TrXus MT's
Factory Toyota 16x7 black. steelies
Sway bars gone
Man-a-Free extrended brake lines
CS custom front bumper
Angle iron welded on my control arms
Alpine Head Unit
iPod interface
MB Quart 8" sub
Rockford Fosgate Amp
Midland CB
That's not too bad for one month. (Girlfriend slightly irritated that I spend more time with CS & my 80 than I do with her. She's adjusting well though
Future mods:
Rear Bumper (CS & RSC Built)
wheel spacers
5.29 gears
37" Tires
Beadlocks
Fender Trimming
Rear Cargo Storage Box
Well to start I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for all their help and wisdom over the past month since I joined the cruiser family.
My name is Jerry, I am 26 years old and live in Portland, OR. I own a 1994 FZJ-80 (more about that later).
I wanted to begin with how I got to the decision to buy my 80. I have to give a ton of credit to CreeperSleeper(CS), he and I have been good friends for over ten years and is the reason I ever made it off road. My dads are less than outdoors-men and until i was a sophomore in high school I had never seen much of what the real NW Great Outdoors is all about. That is when CS took me on my first trip in his 1989 Chevy on super swampers. We were on trail for all of about 10 min. before we became detained for almost half the day and I loved every second of it. I must mention that the rest of the trip was much better. So I was hooked and now became one of CS's copilots on a regular basis in a barrage of different vehicles and every now and again I would take out my parents 94' Ford Explorer.
Christmas of 2000 and with over 200,000 miles on it my parents decided that I should continue to drive the Explorer into the ground (so I did... CS and I went wheeling the very next day). Bare with me I will be getting to the good stuff soon.
On one of our trips when CS was home visiting from college he showed up with a stock 85' Runner so we went wheeling and camping with the Explorer and Runner. This was pretty much the worst trip of my life and the reason we don't go wheeling in Yamhill anymore (and the reason why I now own a 80). CS gets two flat tires and I managed to back my Explorer on top of a stump in the middle of the night. So almost 24 hours later, a phone call to CS's dad to come rescue us/me and we are now on our way home with me very pissed off.
Fast forward a few years and that 85' Runner is now lifted, rear locker, gears, bumpers and a winch with 33" BFG's and it's mine. I got in a bad way financially and had to sell it :-(.
Fast forward a few more years and now CS has his 80 and is slowly building it and making it awesome and still dragging my miserable you know what into the woods, bugging me to get my own damn rig. Well, after a few more Toyota's and J**P's the stars align: I wake up and I have my 80
.
My 80: I bought my 1994 with factory lockers on January 19, 2008.
Here are the current mods:
Metal Tech Sliders
Custom Front Bumper
CDL switch
pin 7 mod
removed flares (holes plugged)
trailer hitch receiver gone
spare tire gone
spare tire carrier gone
OME J springs
OME L shocks
35" Super Swamper TrXus MT's
Factory Toyota 16x7 black. steelies
Sway bars gone
Man-a-Free extrended brake lines
CS custom front bumper
Angle iron welded on my control arms
Alpine Head Unit
iPod interface
MB Quart 8" sub
Rockford Fosgate Amp
Midland CB
That's not too bad for one month. (Girlfriend slightly irritated that I spend more time with CS & my 80 than I do with her. She's adjusting well though
Future mods:
Rear Bumper (CS & RSC Built)
wheel spacers
5.29 gears
37" Tires
Beadlocks
Fender Trimming
Rear Cargo Storage Box
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However, my exhaust h8s it all. 
