JDM-ish? RHD ’95 Jeep XJ

[troysladeck]

After a year-long battle with myself on whether or not to keep this Cherokee, I've decided to keep it and build it so its time to catch up on a build thread.

I scored this Jeep on a trade deal in early 2023. I had a black XJ at the time and had it up for sale. I was on a Cherokee FB group where this chick bought this jeep from an estate sale, hated the RHD and wanted to trade for a lefty. I sent her my forsale ad and we met up in New Mexico to swap trucks.

It started life as a green Japanese export Cherokee and spent it's life in Japan until 2020 when it was imported back into the states. Everything cosmetic (Hanneman fiberglass, bumpers, paint, wheels) was done in Japan and the suspension, motor, and interior were bone stock. My guess is it was some sort of Sema type build and was just for looks. But I was stoked because it looked cool and allowed me to build the suspension exactly how I wanted it. This is how it looked staight from Japan.



I kept my wheel / tire combo because I had practically brand new BFG's and didn't want the fuckin Ling Longs that were on it. Quick wheel swap in the gas station parking lot went smooth. Thing ran so good compared to my black XJ since it only had 53k miles.


I got it home and cleaned it up and ended pulling a couple hundred feet of aftermarket wiring out. The head unit only worked on Japanese radio frequencies so I pulled that too. It was also wired for a backup camera but had no screen

I tried offroading it on the stock suspension and rancho shocks but it was soooo bad. So I decided to do a budget build just to get it drivable. Got some gladiator Fox takeoffs to fit, new Rockjock coils, Old man emu leafs, new track bar. Then just did drop brackets for the control arms and leaf shackles.



It was actually did pretty decent like this for light trails and was a blast to drive. It stayed like this while I caught up on maintenance items and enjoyed it.




Rugged radios RDM-DB in stock radio location, auxbeam switch panel, new steering wheel, redid the stereo system along with wired in a second battery


Drove the piss outta it for the 23/24 winter season. Dozens of camping and day trips



KOH '24 was a blast but was the first time driving it with 4 full size adults and it rode like dog shit. The rear end bottomed out on every little whoop and really frustrated me. Still had fun


Had a Sand Hollow trip planned for March 2024 and needed to fix the rear end. Decided on a low profile shock tower to house some raptor takeoffs and hopefully keep it from bottoming out all the time. All 1/4" plate. Designed them myself then had a buddy cut them on this plasma table and weld them up for me






Got it buttoned up a few days before the sand hollow trip and it rode like a damn dream. The old man emu leafs are pretty soft and the 1st gen shocks are pretty stiff so they evened each other out really well.



Random shot of a ride in the middle of summer in Parker. Pretty sure it was like 117F out and pretty miserable lol


Liked the Raptor shocks in the rear so much that I put some more on the front in August 2024. Between the XJ and my Expo I've gotten pretty good at rebuilding these things The Jeep stayed like this for the winter of 24/25'

 

[troysladeck]

The poor D30 really got put through the paces haha. Thought I bent the C's a couple times but never did.


So in April 2025 I was dead set on selling it. I thought it would do well on Bring a Trailer since its such low miles and RHD, so I brought it to Tucson (it usually stays in Havasu) and prepped it for sale. Repainted a lot of things, deep clean interior and buff exterior, and new Outlaw II's instead of the fugly red steelies. The auction didn't go well for me and I learned the hard way that the fiberglass was a huge dealbreaker to anyone looking for a low mileage XJ. Had to pay a couple hundred in fees to not piss off BaT since I decided not to sell it.


The upside to the shitty auction result was that I cared less about keeping it in good shape. Shortly after I drove it up to Sheep's bridge above Phoenix and thrashed on it for a few days. Went a lil deep on a couple crossings and flooded the floorboard once lol


This past september I finally did a long arm kit. Went with Rusty's JeepSpeed 4 link kit and was super impressed. The brackets wrap fully around the unibody and sandwich the floor, and got welded on too. 2" 0.250 dom links and 1.25" heims. Can finally flex out pretty good. Also did ruffstuff replacement shackle boxes on the rear which help out a ton






Last ride I took it on was a solo 75 mile ripper out during that hurricane in October. The entire desert behind Tucson was flowing with water and was an absolute blast

 

[gascapkevin]

Wow this thing is pretty much perfect. Can’t imagine what else you could possibly do to it.

 

[troysladeck]

Now that I've decided to keep it, I'm fully locked in on building it exactly how I want it. Ever since I bought a 1st gen Explorer 2 years ago I've realized how much I love TTB and how solid axle really doesn't have any benefits to me. On my explorer build page there's proof that I continually beat the piss out of the stock D35 beams and have little to no issues. Going to take the XJ a step further.

Pulling the trigger on a D44 ttb swap. Started collected parts a couple weeks ago and now have all the big pieces I'll need except coilovers. Jax no longer sells their ttb kit, but I found a dude who just started producing his own ttb crossmembers and purchased one. Theres some kinks with it but I think I've worked the issues out. Overall its well built but needed a little fine tuning.


CFM Industries coil over towers with a 3.0 coilover spring inside for a visual. It'll be a tight fit haha


@BATTEN hooked it up with some 5x5.5 outlaws that were sandblasted, so I hit them with a can of alloy armor and they turned out better than I expected. Found a set of Baja TA 35x10.5's for sale for $200 with decent tread and swooped them. Can't beat marketplace deals. Gonna give the skinnies a try in hopes that the lighter tire helps keep this thing nimble and narrow



I'll be in Havasu (where the Jeep is) for 2 weeks in January and my goal is the get everything hung, cycled, and welded so I can figure out what size coil overs to run. I hoping I can stuff a 3.0 14" but won't know until its all in place.

Track width and wheelbase are going to be almost identical to a stock Bronco which I think is so funny considering how much work this is going to take haha. Super excited to get started on it though