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Steve's Outpost

Section 07 · The Garage

The '78 CJ5 That Started It

Red, open, an AMC 304 in the front of it and a crawl ratio four times lower than it left the factory with. Every rig since has been a variation on this one.

By Stephen V.Updated How we pick
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Everybody has a first one. Mine was a 1978 Jeep CJ5, and it is the reason there have been two more since.

It was red, it was open, and it had an AMC 304 V8 in the front of it — which in a vehicle that small and that light is a genuinely silly combination and exactly the right one.

A red 1978 Jeep CJ5 photographed from the front three-quarter on a dirt drive, with the top off, chrome wheels, knobbly tires and auxiliary lights in the grille
The face of it. Round headlights, seven slots, no roof, and a front bumper that has clearly been used for something.

The one modification worth talking about

The thing that made it what it was: a four-to-one low range conversion. That takes the crawl ratio — the overall gearing multiplication in low range, first gear — and makes it four times lower than it was.

If you have not driven a properly geared vehicle off-road, that number is hard to convey. A very low crawl ratio means the vehicle moves at walking pace, or slower, with the engine barely above idle and without you touching the brakes. It turns rock crawling from a throttle-and-momentum problem into a placement problem. You put a wheel where you want it, and the gearing does the rest.

That is the single change that separates a Jeep that goes off-road from a Jeep that works off-road, and in a short-wheelbase CJ with a 304 in it, it was the right one.

A red 1978 Jeep CJ5 photographed from the side with the top off, showing the tan interior, roll bar, spare tire and chrome wheels, parked on dirt among trees
Side on, top off, roll bar up. The short wheelbase is the whole character of a CJ5 — it will go places a longer vehicle simply cannot get the angles for.
The rear three-quarter of a red 1978 Jeep CJ5 showing the spare tire mounted on the back, the roll bar and the open body
Spare on the back, roll bar over the top, and not much else. There is very little to a CJ5 and that is most of the appeal.

Why it went

I sold it to fund the 1996 Grand Cherokee, which is the honest and unglamorous reason most first rigs go. A CJ5 is a wonderful thing and it is not a vehicle you drive every day in comfort, and at that point I wanted something that could do both.

The ZJ got a lift, steel wheels, 31s, bed-lined cladding, a new headliner and a set of lights behind the grille. Then that got sold too, and there is a 4Runner in the driveway now with drawers in the back and a winch on the front.

Three rigs, one instinct. Buy the honest one, then start changing things.

This page is short on purpose. The CJ5 was gone before I was documenting anything properly, so what you get is what I can state for certain — the year, the engine, the gearing and why it left — plus the photographs I still have. There is no parts list, no cost and no timeline, because I do not have them and I am not going to invent them.

Questions

Frequently asked

What engine was in it?
An AMC 304 V8, in a 1978 CJ5. Small vehicle, large engine, entirely the point.
What does a 4-to-1 low range actually do?
It multiplies the gearing in low range so the overall crawl ratio is four times lower than standard. In practice the vehicle creeps at walking pace or slower with the engine near idle and no brake input, which turns rock crawling into a question of where you put the wheels rather than how much momentum you carry.
Why did you sell it?
To buy the 1996 Grand Cherokee. A CJ5 is a joy and it is not a comfortable daily vehicle, and I wanted one that could do both jobs.

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Receipts

Sources

We do not run a testing lab and we do not pretend to. Where a measured number came from a manufacturer's published specification or someone else's lab, we name them and link them. Where we could not verify something, we say so on the page rather than quietly leaving it out. Read the full method.