9-25-08

A trusty tool is a hard thing to let go of

There are all kinds of tool men out there. Some live and die by Craftsmen. Some men won’t buy anything but DeWalt. Most pros love Milwaukee or Porter-Cable. Me, I’m a Jeep man.
The Jeep is like the Swiss Army Knife of the vehicle world. There have been so many chores accomplished over the years with the aid of my Jeep. I have pulled stumps out of the ground, dragged dead trees out of the woods, pulled cars out of ditches and snowbanks and even navigated sandbars in the Inner Coastal Waterway, all with my trusty Jeep.
I have had Jeeps since I started to drive. When I was about 17 my dad started buying Jeeps. The first one was just for fun. We had never had a four-wheel-drive vehicle in the family and didn’t know what they were capable of.
One fall, Dad and I decided to go on a Jeep Jamboree that was held in Tennessee. This is when Jeep owners converge on a sleepy little town usually in the foothills of the mountains. Trips are guided through trails that range in real easy drives to hard core your-Jeep-will-get-messed-up. We put a small set of mud tires on the brown ‘88 Wrangler and that was it. We had no idea what to expect on the trip and I don’t know if we had even been four-wheeling yet. The first day of rock climbing and river crossings sold us. I had no idea that any truck could go through the things that the Jeep took us through. We saw people pulling others out of deep mud holes and even using their Jeeps to upright other overturned Jeeps. At one point I even heated my lunch on a piece of tinfoil on the top of the engine block.
The Jeep had left our house a recreational vehicle and came back an incredibly versatile family tool.
We started using the Jeep to clear the woods in the fall, cleaning up fallen tree limbs and dragging dead trees all into a pile for a bonfire. In the winter when it snowed, we would park at the bottom of a steep hill that, when icy, prevented cars from making it up. The cars would slide back down like a child trying to run up a large metal slide with sandy shoes. With a snatch line and a few cups of coffee, we would sit out all night and pull people up the hill. In the summer time I loved taking it to Ocean City, Maryland and cruise the strip with the doors and top off. It was a tool to try to pick up girls. It never worked for me, though.
To this day I don’t think that we have not had one or two Jeeps in the family at any given time. I bought my first Jeep when I moved to Boston. This was an event for me. I officially owned my own. I bought an ‘87 Cherokee. It needed a tune up and the headliner was falling down, which doubled as a blanket in the winter. This Jeep was going to be the first one to be heavily modified. I jacked that old Cherokee up in the air and stuffed the biggest set of B.F. Goodrich mud tires under the fenders that I could. A new long travel drive line was added and a bunch of spray glue and thumbtacks put the headliner back in place.
When I was done, I had turned the tired old “grocery ‘getter” into one heck of a trail ready, rock crawler. I could get two and a half feet of wheel travel when the sway bar was disconnected!
Now here is where the story gets good. I took it to Boston. Talk about country coming to the city.
I landed a job with one of the top restaurant design firms in the nation. Very high class design and high class clientèle. I loved marching that monster to job sites and meetings. One day I had to take a very proper and well dressed female co-worker to a job site meeting with me. I had to help her into the truck. To my surprise, she enjoyed the trip. I remember one night my wife and I had to go to a party for one of my restaurant openings. We drove the Jeep. After the party, my boss took our group out for a real late night dinner and then dropped us off at our cars. I told him to “drop me off at that big Jeep.” He laughed and passed it. I said, “No really, that’s my truck.” I don’t know if he was embarrassed at laughing about it in the first place or didn’t want to be seen next to it. Either way, I enjoyed being the redneck in Boston.
Today I own two Jeeps: A ‘91 Wrangler that is beat up, houses a few spiders, is about to lose its muffler, but runs great. I also have a 2001 Grand Cherokee that I am waiting for Leigh to tell me is old enough to turn into an off road truck.
I have been recently wanting a pick-up and have thought about getting rid of the old Wrangler. I feel naked every time I think about it. There is so much I use it for around the farm. Just about every weekend I find myself using it to aid in some sort of chore. There are trees that need to be pulled out of the woods, lawn tractors to be pulled out of ditches and how would I get to my favorite fishing spot in a Ford Taurus? If I got rid of it, I would end up having to buy another one when my son is old enough to pick up girls. He will need tools, too.
I think I will just keep it. I don’t know too many men that would roll their ball-bearing glided, 14 drawer, professional series toolbox out to the roadside and put a “For Sale” sign on it.
Bryan Pinkey can be reached at bpinkey@nccox.com.