Jeep CJ-5 - Stability

I ran into Jack and Leslie Robbins, owners of R.V. Repair Body and Paint (R.V.M.D.) located in Menifee, California, recently at the Hi Desert Round-Up in Barstow, California. Their ?71 registered Jeep definitely stood out from the crowd during one of the numerous four-wheel-drive games. After spending a few moments with the couple, I was told an interesting story about the birth of this custom creation.

I became involved in four-wheeling in 1986 when my soon-to-be wife took me out to Ocotillo Wells, California, and got me hooked on the challenges that four-wheeling involves. I purchased a bone-stock ?77 Jeep CJ-5 and proceeded over the next 20 years to modify it to my needs.

As a couple, we became very involved with the sport of rockcrawling in 2001 and even tried our hand at competing. Unfortunately, we totaled our CJ-5 in December of 2004 during the Truckhaven Hills event near the Salton Sea. It was a pretty bad wreck, resulting in rolling end over end twice and side over side three times. I nearly lost my hand and was in the hospital for quite some time, but fortunately my wife walked away with only small bruises.

Soon after we healed up, we began looking for a new vehicle to build that would provide a little more stability in the dirt, hence a longer wheelbase and wider axles with a number of safety features. This ground-up restoration has taken some time, and we honestly can?t tell you if we would go through this again ? but we sure do love wheeling!?