Build a 3/4 J10 or a 3/4 ton Cherk?

[Gambler68]

I have a quandry. (puzzling problem).

I have ALL the parts to build an SOA 3/4 ton FSJ. (short of the high steer conversion). sitting on about 2 grand worth of parts so far.
4.10 geared HD44 front
4.10 geared D60 rear (needs disc conversion)
Tad Flip kit w/ 1" spring mounts
Th400 and 1:1 QT with PT kit
401 V8, needs machine shop cleaning, have tons of crap waiting to go on/in that (offy intake, HRC oil gears, matched cam/dizzy gears, 280H cam, lifters, cam and main bearings, oil midplate, etc). All parts are bought, just needs machine work done and assembling.)

now..I had written a full FSJ biography of all my crap, but even I got tired of reading it.

Two possible recepients of the above goodies:

78 J10 SWB. It's stripped and ready to recieve. It's been that way for a while. What I would end up with is a truck thats too high to haul anything, too heavy to get anything resembling mileage, would be KILLER on the rocks. BUT...I don't need/can afford FOUR running FSJs. You know, unless I start a cult or something to support me. hmmm...

79 Chero WT S. (Hammer in my sig). Currently being built for winter beating. All it's getting now is paint and a 4bb intake and light engine refreshing. Seals need to be done on qt>th400 for the winter. I had it running for a day, engine sounded good, and it drove ok. If it makes it through the winter, I'd like to put all the above into it, and use it's 360/qt/th400/44s for the J10 and sell that either done or a 'put it together yourself with this pile of stuff' deal. Anyways, if this gets the 3/4 ton conversion, it'd be like the J10 built, but can be used around town still/seat 4 people (there's 3 of us, me, gf and daughter, and choice of dog to go camping with).

What would y'all do? I've been brainstorming this all weekend and can't decide. I've almost posted the J10 for sale like 4 times, but can't bring myself to do it. :P My 68 J3000 is my 'truck' and is getting freshend up this winter too.

[j20brett]

Id build the chero. More room to put people when you go camping and everything stays dry in the back of the chero.

[BRUTUS]

If I were you I would do the 3/4 ton Cherokee because of the family considerations. Being single is fun to have the J-truck. I still load lots of junk in the bed as I don't consider it too high to be useable. I also get 10+ MPG because of my rear end gearing. I like to think that it does a lot of things fairly well so it CAN be done.

[Gambler68]

yeah..running the cherk for the winter and converting it next year is really what I'm thinking. Hopefully I can find a home for the J10 as it sits now, no way it's getting junked.

[Grantshire]

Based on you signature don't you already have a WT Cherokee? Even with my serious Jeep habbit I don't have a second of anything. I would go for the J truck unless you have gotten rid of the other WT.

[Gambler68]

Based on you signature don't you already have a WT Cherokee? Even with my serious Jeep habbit I don't have a second of anything. I would go for the J truck unless you have gotten rid of the other WT.

Yeah, Sundog is the one I got this spring and DD and wheel. It's done..as far as a stocker can be built up w/o major mods (good engine, 4" lift, 33x12.50 MTs, was sandblasted in and out, bedlinered, BJs carpet kit, nice interior, repainted but needs to be repainted again + clearcoat this time). I just don't want to touch it since we actually dropped 3k buying it and getting it home. It was built nice, correctly, and I want to keep it as is for a mild wheeler/daily driver.

The other Cherk I'm talking about was a freebie that *I* want to build/modify. Sundog was a "lets get that so we can actually get rid of this POS Ford Explorer and wheel a FSJ" decision. This one I'm totally willing to go hog wild with since I have nothing invested in it so far.

I think it's actually a good idea to have two of the same, because you can concentrate on replacement parts that would fit either or (of course that'd change some with a 3/4 ton conversion, but only u-joints and driveshafts really). Both would use TH400s and Quadratrack t-cases.

[Tad]

Might not be an issue up there but the main reason I put my time into the wag and ignored the Jtruck was for the lockable interior space.
Not that our locks are worth a darn but being locked is a necessity here.

[J10Mike]

Ya...As much as I like the J trucks, I should have built an offroad vehicle that was capable of carrying more than two people. If I had the choice again, the Cherk would get built.