LibertyCRD in 4 Wheel & Off Road, Letter to Editor

JJsTJ · **Posted:** Fri Feb 03, 2006 11:02 am

Decent letter to the editor in April 06 issue of Petersens 4 Wheel & Off Road from a Shawn Crowe from KY. Shawn questions the KJ bashing by the magazine and asks the mag to visit www.lostkjs.com to see what is going on in the KJ enthusiast world. I wouldn't bother buying the issue to read his letter, but peek at a copy when you get a chance to see his letter and their response to it.

Thanks Shawn for keeping up the fight and getting some more press for L.O.S.T. KJ's.

BTW, Who is Shawn Crowe? Found him I think....LibertyCRD?

LibertyCRD · **Posted:** Fri Feb 03, 2006 11:44 am

HOLY CRAP. That's me! Did I do a bad thing? :shock:

Edit: Oh Ok...I got my issue yesterday. I can't believe they printed that. But looks like they aren't changing their opinions...KJs still suck to them. Oh well. I love mine! And I just went wheeling last weekend with guys that had 6" lifts and 33" MTs, and I followed them everywhere they went except for one off-camber hill. So maybe I should send them pics.

JJsTJ · **Posted:** Fri Feb 03, 2006 11:50 am

Don't waste your time with them. Instead, send your pics to 4WD and Sport Utility mag as they recognize the positive aspects of the KJ.
Good job on the letter to them though!

Liberty & Justice 4x4 · **Posted:** Fri Feb 03, 2006 12:14 pm

I read the same article also, and no matter how hard Shawn ( libertycrd) tried to convince 4wheel & off road that the liberty was not in the soft-roaders class as the Suzuki grand vitara, Honda cr-v, Toyota rav-4, they would not bye it. They replied by saying , how many of your liberty's hit the trail bone stock and follow the TJ and YJ guy's. ( Soft- roaders & sissified.) I would like to know how many TJ & YJ are bone stock when they hit the trail?

Jeepjeepster · **Posted:** Fri Feb 03, 2006 1:11 pm

Liberty & Justice 4x4 wrote:

I read the same article also, and no matter how hard Shawn ( libertycrd) tried to convince 4wheel & off road that the liberty was not in the soft-roaders class as the Suzuki grand vitara, Honda cr-v, Toyota rav-4, they would not bye it. They replied by saying , how many of your liberty's hit the trail bone stock and follow the TJ and YJ guy's. ( Soft- roaders & sissified.) I would like to know how many TJ & YJ are bone stock when they hit the trail?

Yea really.

LuckeyDuckey · **Posted:** Fri Feb 03, 2006 2:55 pm

Quote:

how many TJ & YJ are bone stock when they hit the trail?

we were bone stock for many years. we added a winch about 2 years ago but we really bought it to take down some trees and thought it would be good in the long run for off-roading. we only have a few other mods and the one that changes the TJ's off-road ride the most are the disco's, which isn't a huge change. we're not even lifted.

what most of the liberty bashing people don't realize is it's not what you drive but how you drive it.

Tokyojoe · **Posted:** Fri Feb 03, 2006 3:21 pm

How many other vehicles out there can go out on the trail bone stock AND stay with a YJ/TJ? Very few!

Sounds like a bunch of A-holes at that rag. Make a statement and flood the companies selling ads in the mags with the comments and how we feel. The power is the company advertising, not the dipsh_t writers and owners of the mag. If you can convince 1. the companies to pull their ads or 2. convince the companies to start making after-market parts, we win.

ManicMechanicJoe · **Posted:** Fri Feb 03, 2006 5:24 pm

When I was on a Gilbert run with 5 KJs (pic in sig), only two of us had lifts. Yeah more had armor...but armor doesn't make the rig more cabaple. But I guess the XJ's on 33's and 35's were probably stock as well...

JJsTJ · **Posted:** Fri Feb 03, 2006 6:42 pm

Lots of diehard body on frame/round headlight/7 slot grille/sfa/leafspring/etc Jeep guys got their panties in a bunch each time there was a new model introduced and many eventually either grew to appreciate or Love and buy those new models. It Is happening with the Liberty too. We have many members that own multiple platforms of Jeeps. Heck, notice the folks that had a TJ or CJ and then Also bought a KJ to go w/ it. Or how many own a KJ and then also bought a Zj, XJ, TJ, CJ or whatever to go with it. Then there are those on this forum that have been here from the begining that don't even own a KJ but appreciate them And their owners.

Heck with the naysayers (sp?) and Onward and Upward for those that know better.

CaKJFreedom · **Posted:** Fri Feb 03, 2006 8:19 pm

"Then we win". Then? We already got our KJ's and know what they can do. We already won. They just didn't know we were playing.

Steakgoddess · **Posted:** Sat Feb 04, 2006 11:45 pm

GOOD for you, LibertyCRD!!

LibertyCRD · **Posted:** Mon Feb 06, 2006 8:55 am

Thanks.

KW AV8R · **Posted:** Mon Feb 06, 2006 9:14 am

For those of us who can't get to a copy, could someone copy and paste the letter and response? Or can I check this out online? Time can be limited online for me right now so really can't do a search.

LibertyCRD · **Posted:** Mon Feb 06, 2006 9:46 am

I can't copy the article right now. But basically a couple months ago the magazine did an article where they grouped the Liberty in with the Escape, CR-V, RAV4, etc. So I wrote them a letter and told them the Jeep Liberty was not even in the same category as those SUVs. The Liberty (KJ) has a solid rear axle, heavy duty driveline, cast iron A-arms up front, true 2-speed t-case, etc. The KJ is a real 4x4, and the other SUVs the magazine was grouping it with are not. That's essentially what I told them. And I told them KJ fans have been wheeling the KJ since it came out. And I pointed them to our website forum.

Well, they wrote a short response and they basically said "how many of your Libertys are stock when they follow TJs and YJs out on the trail? With enough money you can do anything. When companies build a car and call it a truck that's what we don't like". Basically that was their response. So essentially, 4WOR magazine considers the KJ to be a car. A cheaply built, uncapable car that isn't even worthy of the Jeep name. That's pretty much how they feel about it. It's sad...

I'll tell you one thing. I would gladly volunteer to follow any member of the 4WOR staff in their stock TJs and YJs out on the trail. I guarantee they couldn't loose me.

lilmatty · **Posted:** Mon Feb 06, 2006 11:42 am

Bad weekend for KJs I guess. The Tappet brothers on NPR Sunday, well one of them, referred to the Liberty as a big gas guzzling SUV and warned off a caller to stay away from it. To their credit his brother disagreed.

KJKev · **Posted:** Mon Feb 06, 2006 1:21 pm

In the first month I had my Lib, I joined a local Jeep Club. Of course, they were all Wrangler owners with a couple of older, modded Cherokees thrown in for good measure.
They were skeptical about my KJ,,,,hell, I was to. So I followed them to Rockport Off-Road Park. www.rorp.com

Thats where I showed them that my BONE STOCK KJ could keep up with their lifted, big tired, armored Jeeps. They were much impressed. I must say I was too.

There is only 1 way our fellow Jeepers are going to believe. You have to show them.

Hmmm...and I didn't see a Ford or Suzuki out there. I did pull a Toyota out of the mud tho....LOL.

KJKev

Se7enLC · **Posted:** Mon Feb 06, 2006 2:07 pm

lilmatty wrote:

Bad weekend for KJs I guess. The Tappet brothers on NPR Sunday, well one of them, referred to the Liberty as a big gas guzzling SUV and warned off a caller to stay away from it. To their credit his brother disagreed.

But the KJ *is* a gas-guzzling SUV! Some of you may not like the name "SUV", but it does guzzle gas like a big SUV even if it is small in size.

LibertyCRD · **Posted:** Mon Feb 06, 2006 2:11 pm

I think what people are fogetting is the KJ is not all that small! It's got 69 cu. ft. of cargo space when the seats are folded flat, which is more than the Grand Cherokee. And it weighs over 4,000 lbs.! So of course it's going to guzzle fuel in gasoline engine trim. The CRD isn't as bad...returning mileage in the 20s however which is as good as many family cars.

dog_party · **Posted:** Mon Feb 06, 2006 2:25 pm

I didn't buy my KJ to impress a bunch of morons. I don't care what they drive or what they think of my truck. If I based my self-worth on their opinion of me...well, I'd just shoot myself. My KJ serves my purposes better than any other vehicle could dream of. If my purposes are different from theirs...good, I won't have to camp next to them. And THAT makes me

PitViper · **Posted:** Mon Feb 06, 2006 6:36 pm

They can kiss my.... KJ

As many of you guys have said, we are not KJ bias... many of you own, or have owned CJ/TJ/XJs and many of you like me are on your 2nd KJ.

I love both of my KJs... I’ve been impressed since day one.

If I had more money i'd have one for every day of the week.

LibertyCRD in 4 Wheel & Off Road, Letter to Editor

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