CJ-5 Daily driver?

If used as a daily driver then secuity is another issue. These jeeps can be easily stolen and parted.

 

Another point - stock-size tires, wheels and lift will make your Jeep less prone to rollover on the street. It is possible to roll them over on the street under the right circumstances.

When you drive the Jeep, you won't be in a crash-tested, padded cocoon like a modern passenger car. You will have to assume some extra responsibility for your own and other's safety - speed, look-ahead, concentration, that sort of thing. If you know the vehicle's limits and drive accordingly, you'll be fine.

 

I used my CJ5 as a daily driver for several years. It takes a lot of work and money to get one into daily driver shape though. Since I only have the small F134 4-cylinder in mine I put an overdrive in. Without it I could do maybe 50 on the freeway. With the od I can do 65 but only on level ground. Any sort of incline and speed falls off rapidly.

There's nothing inherently wrong with using these early CJs for daily driving, however I found that due to the freeway driving I need to do every day my CJ5 is just not ever going to be up to the task as far as daily use goes. I simply don't have enough power to get out of my own way and it's dangerous that way around here. If you only have a mile or so to go and it doesn't require highway speeds you may find yours will work OK for you on a daily basis.

The M715 I have is highway capable but gets only 10 mpg on a good day with a tailwind. Both Jeeps have, unfortunately, been relegated to the side of the house for now. Neither turned out to be practical enough for true daily use, and I poured a ton of money, time and effort into them for that purpose. They are a lot of fun to drive though!

 

mine is my daily driver right now, since my truck is on the east coast. i have no problems with it on the high way or anywhere else for that matter, just be carefl and ou will be fine

 

to me a cage is like seatbelts. they just make me feel safer. also you cant control what other idiots do on the road so having some extra insurance from grinding your head along the pavement is always a good idea.

 

I'm on the cage bandwagon too... You NEED one. You'll probably never use it, but if you do, you'll be very glad it's there. At a minimum I would put in at least a roll bar if not a complete cage. Don't forget that you can't swerve out of the way if something like a deer happens to jump out in front of you. You'll be better off just running square into it. It's easier to fix a fender than all the damage from cartwheeling the Jeep. Take the top off your Jeep and stand back and look at it. Envision where you will be sitting in it. Fold the windshield down and envision it upside down.......not a good picture. Just something to think about.

 

Certainly valid concerns here. I've seen some very well-made cages, and I'll bet the feeling of security would be higher, especially if it'd be a daily driver. A windshield will not support the weight of the Jeep in a rollover.
I and many folks feel secure enough with the roll bar, and am thankful to not have to deal with daily aggrivation of a reduced space to get in and out, nor the difficulty dropping dash for electrical work that comes with many cages.

(Ooohhh, those are tough pics to look at ) Mike it doesn't appear that Jeep even had a roll bar, and not wearing a seat belt is certainly reckless. Question: look at the front seat that's folded down. See that notch/hole in the top left? Might that be a provision for a shoulder belt? That's one thing I definitely would feel better about having...a shoulder strap to help prevent a face-plant in the event of a front-end collision. I wonder if that seat was made for something like that?

 

i have a full cage and 5 point harness, when i drive around town i only wear the lab belt portion of the harness, but when i know that i am going ot be at speeds higher than 50 or so i usually hook up the full harness, it is less comfortable, but at least i know im not going anywhere if i do roll it

 

May as well install front and side-impact airbags then. It'd be "safer", right?

(actually sounds like a good idea).

No ones arguing that a cage wouldn't be safer. The chances are extremely low...maybe 1 in 5,000 that someone would be in an accident where a cage would protect where a well-installed roll bar wouldn't. Crossing the street to get the mail carries greater risk than that.

(...digging for 20 clams...)

 

My point exactly. You turned out ok, no?

 

sparky you are right about the tractor thing. even if the chance is 1/10000000000000000 a cage to me is still a good idea since i would be the one to have that 1 accident that would need a cage. also i have seen what happens when things go wrong on the street all by yourself in a jeep. lets just say that was a good cage to take hitting a telephone pole while sliding on the side of the jeep. yeh it was bent slightly and yes i had to be replaced but the guy did not have his head pushed though his _____

 

Whups, sorry Mike...thought Dutch had just a 'bar. (that's another $20...:evil: ) I was looking for that pic. Can't recall, was that an offroad excursion?

The likelyhood of a roll on road is a very real concern, no doubt. However you always hear about an occasional roll on the news, but never the thousands of miles successfully travelled by Jeepers to and from work daily. IMO the chances are somewhat remote that a roll would happen, and even more remote that a cage would save your life where a roll bar wouldn't. It's a Jeep, not a minivan, so there has to be a reasonable assumption of risk just by taking the Jeep on the street. Maybe we should all wear helmets, football pads, and Hans devices to make things "safer". Where does it stop? A vote for a roll bar covers 99% of safety areas that a cage would, IMO. Plus I can drop the dash easily if necessary and not break kneecaps getting in & out.

If it's a matter of faceplanting the windshield, then perhaps some good recommendations ought to be had on lap belt vs. shoulder strap vs. 5-pt. harness for street use. For example, I feel quite safe with my roll bar on the street compared to the feeling of just wearing a lap belt. Hence the question about that seat in that link (did anyone else see that?).