No one can doubt that Grand Cherokees make great all-round rigs. You can daily drive one, go wheeling, grab some groceries, head to the mall, hit the trails, blast down the highway, and with a little work, you can build these rigs into truly amazing off-road vehicles—all with five-passenger capability. It’s somewhat amusing to us that for a long time people have been converting Wranglers to V-8s for more power (ourselves included), when it would arguably be cheaper and easier to buy a V-8 Grand and chop it up until it’s more like a CJ, YJ, TJ, or JK. So you spend $10,000 to $40,000 dollars on a Wrangler only to cut it up and spend another $4,000-$20,000 dollars on a V-8 swap. Why not spend $2,000-$10,000 on a V-8 ZJ or WJ and get to cutting and fabbing till you have a big tire’d, strong axle’d, small, roofless WJ or ZJ buggy?
We would not worry about the...
We would not worry about the cage interfering with the windshield and roof—which would be gone. The front fenders would either be massively trimmed or dropped all together. Out back the miniature rear wheelwells would be chopped out, stretched, and rebuilt to tuck big meats. If it’s done right, it might even be street legal. If not, trailer the Chuggy.
This is not for the beginner, although it could be the evolution of a mild ZJ or WJ build. This idea is better suited to experienced fabricators, do-it-yourselfers with patience, or the guy with deep pockets and a good fabrication shop nearby. Here is how we’d do it!
It would be easy to stick...
It would be easy to stick with the factory auto tranny, but given how trail-oriented and road-unfriendly this build is, you could supplement your favorite bombproof tranny like a granny-geared four-speed, C-6, TF727, or TH400. Parts for an NP203 from Off Road Designs mated to a twin-sticked NP205 would allow lots of gearing options and tons of strength.
Like XJs, the ZJ and WJ vehicles...
Like XJs, the ZJ and WJ vehicles have Unitbody construction. Therefore, hard wheeling over the years will cause the body to develop stress cracks. This is gonna be exaggerated if you start cutting off the roof and hacking into rockers and rear quarter panels. To turn our Grand into a Chuggy, we are gonna want to chop the top, so finding or building chassis stiffeners like those available for ZJs from T&T Customs is a must.
Bumpers, or really the plastic...
Bumpers, or really the plastic bumper covers, would be long-gone in favor of tubular or plate steel versions built for abuse and a decent-sized winch like a Warn VR10000. We would also convert the Sanden A/C compressor to work as an air compressor. We would plumb the compressor to pressurize part of the cage as a tank and carry a tire plug kit so we could omit a big, heavy, space-eating spare.
Also adding a good rollcage...
Also adding a good rollcage that ties to key suspension and chassis areas is a must for safety and keeping the rig in one piece. There are a few cage kits out there that can be modified and supplemented to work for our Chuggy, like from Rock Hard 4x4. However, custom would be best. You’d want to go through the floor and tie the cage into the chassis stiffeners, control arm mounts, rockers, and so on.
Axles are easy; we’d want...
Axles are easy; we’d want a full-width GM Dana 60 front with a three-link suspension, coilovers (or air shocks), and we’d probably run full-hydraulic steering with a ram from The Off-Road Connection. We’d also toss on a couple of universal Currie Antirock sway bars front and rear to aid stability. Out back a Dana 60 would fit the bill, or perhaps a shaved GM 14-bolt with disc brakes and a triangulated four-link on some 4- to 6-inch-lift coils and some high-quality shocks. The full-width axles would help keep the 40- to 42-inch tires out of what sheetmetal is left. We’d run 5.13 gears and Detroit Locker in the front and a spool out back.
For a fairly dedicated trail...
For a fairly dedicated trail rig like this, there is no way we would run any tire that does not have a reputation for strength and unequaled traction. We are thinking of going with the venerable TSL Swamper in a 39.5x13.50-17 size. For wheels, beadlocks are the way to go, so some 17x10 Champion beadlocks would get the nod.