13th Annual All Breeds Jeep Show - It's Show Time

For many years people have loaded up their show Jeeps, beater Jeeps, clean Jeeps, and dirty Jeeps and headed for York, Pennsylvania. Some attendees traveled hundreds of miles to the event so many have viewed as a "must see". Some hoping to bring home a trophy while others are out to show off just how many dents, crushed fenders, broken windows, and ample-used skid plates they have earned. For whatever the reason, they all had a common goal and that was to have a great time. Summer 2008 was no exception, and July 19 & 20 proved the 13th Annual All Breeds Jeep Show is still a Jeeping good time.

By 7 a.m. Saturday morning the line of Jeeps was already starting to form. Everyone was anxious to start their busy day of checking out all the Jeeps, getting new ideas, playing on the obstacle course and RTI ramp as well as shopping with the vendors and picking up some good finds at the swap meet. This year there were 520 registered Jeeps and 4,625 spectators.

If you are curious what the biggest Northeast Jeep show looks like or you are trying to decide whether or not make the trek out to attend, here is a glimpse of the many Jeeps and activities that we got to enjoy. For information on the 2009 Pennsylvania All Breeds Jeep Show go to pajeeps.org.

If checking out the 71 vendor...        read full caption If checking out the 71 vendor booths wasn't enough to work up a sweat on this steaming hot day, there were 25 swap meet booths to rummage through. You could find anything from frames, engines, axles, to tires and rims. If we'd had a few more tools with us, we could've built this MB and driven it home.	Talk about a line up worth...        read full caption Talk about a line up worth being in. Number three please step forward. It was fullsize Jeep heaven.	Mick Abel from Airville, Pennsylvania,...        read full caption Mick Abel from Airville, Pennsylvania, did a fantastic job restoring this '61 FC-150 after finding it on eBay in the tractor section for $1,500. After dragging it back from Colorado, he dropped a motor from a '62 CJ in it, painted it John Deere green, and used a swimming pool liner to make this cool top for the bed. He also has two FC-170 projects at home.
The obstacle course may not...        read full caption The obstacle course may not have been an Ultimate Adventure but Denise Riccardi of Sykesville, Maryland, was having a great time just the same in this '81 CJ-8 with a 408 small-block Chevy with Dart heads and Howell multi-point fuel injection. Every day sounds like an adventure with her husband, Kane, who built the Jeep. While testing a new Flowmaster muffler, he laid it on its side in the neighbors driveway at 30 mph, destroying a new custom-length hard top.		Some may say it's creative,...        read full caption Some may say it's creative, while others will say it's begging.We say stop your whining, we think this winch will do just fine for the type of wheeling you do.
	We came across the '89 Cherokee...        read full caption We came across the '89 Cherokee covered with mud and hoped this year the event coordinators had added a mud pit. They hadn't. Instead Jared Rockstroh had imported his own mud to the show. We're not really sure what he thought he would need to be pulled out of but we did learn that if you bend your windshield wiper back it will hold your strap on the hood so you can put it through the passenger window. However, we're not sure why we need to know this.	Some people seem to get a...        read full caption Some people seem to get a little carried away and forget that there really is a stopping point. This TJ flexed to the point he lost his spring. We're guessing that works really well on the trail (maybe its time for a limiting strap).
	There is just something cool...        read full caption There is just something cool about a decked-out and restored MB. With a machinegun, tripwire guard, period-correct trailer, and all other kinds of military parts, it was all we could do to fire off this picture while we were staring. This 65-year-old jeep kept the track warm with his many trips circling the show.	That's a really nice paint...        read full caption That's a really nice paint job to be playing around on the rocks. We loved this color. It wasn't quite yellow, yet wasn't orange. We did manage to chase down Jason Kress as he was playing around on the obstacle course long enough to find out the color is "Wheatland Yellow" aka school-bus yellow.
Talk about a trip back in...        read full caption Talk about a trip back in time. If you were in WWII seeing this would've brought back some memories. Jonathan Norris of Wantah, New York, hit the obstacle course in his '44 Willys MB and even dressed the part to go along with it. We had a good time watching this life-size G.I. Joe play around in his completely stock war jeep.	All we can say is, if we had...        read full caption All we can say is, if we had a clean, un-bobbed Scrambler like this we wouldn't be taking the risk of hammering the body in the obstacle course. Immediately after the dirt pile came the rock pile.	The last thing we thought...        read full caption The last thing we thought we would see at this years show was a rollover, but we were wrong. OK, so it was a pushover. Ron Allen demonstrated how to recover a vehicle that's on its side by pushing a Jeep over then showing how to safely and quickly winch it back up.
Bob and Vianne Shope of Harrisburg,...        read full caption Bob and Vianne Shope of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, had to make a pit stop at the grocery store before heading out to the show. They needed to pick up some fuel for their '88 YJ which they found in the baking aisle with all the other oils. This 85 hp 2.1L Renault turbo diesel from an '87 Cherokee with dual-fuel capability runs primarily on vegetable oil. They use it as a daily driver as well as off-road. Would you like fries with that?	This little ray of sunshine...        read full caption This little ray of sunshine owned by Russell Shipman of Pinesgrove, New Jersey, is still just as pretty as the day it rolled off the assembly line. It was bought new in 1961 when the Vice President of Seabrook Farms in New Jersey was stuck at home in a huge snow storm. He called the office to have someone with a four-wheel drive pick him up just to find out no one owned a four-wheel drive, so he sent an employee to the dealership to buy this Willys CJ-3B so he could go to work.	Bob Millen, of Plymouth, Michigan...        read full caption Bob Millen, of Plymouth, Michigan drove over 500 miles with his '76 CJ-5 Renegade Levi's Edition. He is the original owner of this well-cared-for Jeep and with little modifications. Starting at the age of 7, Bob was a huge fan of Jeeps. He would cut out any pictures he could find in magazines with the intention to have one someday . By the age of 18, he had saved enough for a down payment on his first Jeep with a sticker price of $5,282. He can still hear his Dad saying, "You want me to co-sign a loan over $5,000 on a vehicle that doesn't even have a radio, carpet, A/C, or a hardtop. Are you sure about this?"
The old adage goes that if...        read full caption The old adage goes that if you paint a vehicle black, it will never make it into a magazine because black just doesn't photograph well. Darlene Good's '49 VJ Jeepster just proves that rule by taking exception to it. The Jeepster took home Second Place in the Willys Stock Class and had us drooling over it anytime we walked by.	Some people seem to get a...        read full caption Some people seem to get a little carried away and forget that there really is a stopping point. This TJ flexed to the point he lost his spring. We're guessing that works really well on the trail (maybe its time for a limiting strap).	With what appears to be the...        read full caption With what appears to be the big Unimog portal axles, 52-inch Michelin XL tires, and an otherwise stockish, but obviously well-used Jeep on top of it, we were really curious about the build. It's not easy to get those heavy drivetrain parts to stay under a unibody XJ. We never did catch up with the owner of this Jeep: after walking through the obstacle course like it was a mall speed bump, the Jeep and owner disappeared.