CUCV Blazer axles are 10-bolt front and rear with the aforementioned 3:08 gears. Not exactly monster axles, sadly. Edit: Lee beat me to this ^
The. XJ is the answer. Here's one of my three in its natural habitat:
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In reply to ebonyandivory:
Its natural habitat is nosediving?
The Pathfinders were quite good back in the day. More reliable than the Jeeps too.
Yeah, I thought the CUCV's had the same running gear as the trucks.
Swank Force One wrote:RoughandReady wrote: I vote 1st gen Pathfinder with a KA24 or a VG30. Rugged and doesn't come with the 4runner premium. I'd say the KA and VG are more reliable than the 4.0, as they come without cracked heads and simple as pie TBI. If you ever need more power, just make friends with drift fan boys.Cracked heads are really only a 00-01 thing. My 00 has 198k miles on it with original head, no cracks yet. (That i know of.)
I'll not claim to be a jeep expert, by any stretch, and I've heard that was a short term problem too. But....I had a customer last year that wanted me to R&R the cracked head his XJ and rebuild a replacement. He insisted on sourcing the head himself (I'm not sure if new cores are available). Long story short, after the 4th head be brought me was cracked, he gave up and scrapped the jeep. I believe it was early 90s, it was the super boxy body style. Might could just be really bad luck.
I shared another guy with an XJ. Constantly claimed "unbreakable" and E36 M3 all over my Volvos. I think his hubris resulted in lack of maintenance. One time one of his brake calipers rusted OFF (Former MI plow truck). Another time he started it up and the ECU caught on fire inexplicably. That was the end of that truck.
Sorry to thread jack, just wanted to share some XJ experience.
Bobzilla wrote: This is what Ben needs:
I'm sorry, what was that about reliability? My mom had one of those brand-spanking-new in the 70s. If it rained, it didn't start. I remember riding in the back with a tow truck pulling us down the road as she kept trying to bump-start it. She replaced it with a 78 K5 Blazer and it was WORLDS better.
Did I miss that 4WD is a requirement? If so I'd got XJ again. If not....
It's a shame the 97-01 Exploders are out. The 2wd 5L versions are great machines. Simple to wrench, although the 5L makes it a little tight. Ours is comfortable, will tow almost 7k lbs, gets around 18mpg in mixed driving, has the cheapest parts known to man, and has at 204k has been the most reliable vehicle I've ever owned. It's a got a real frame, one of the best motors ever made in it's final iteration, arguably one of Ford's best auto trans (4R70W), and the solid 8.8 Rear end with disks all around. I see really nice V8 models around here for $2500 fairly regularly.
4WD is a requirement, yes. 
Bobzilla wrote:Cotton wrote: In reply to bigdaddylee82: The trucks also had gearing that made them pretty useless for highway driving, but awesome if strictly offroad. They had 4:56 while the Blazers have a much more highway friendly 3.08. Both have the TH400HD 3 speed automatic. I have the cucv blazer and really like it. The gearing works better for me since I do some highway driving with it and I like the fact that I can carry 5 and remove the rear roof section if I want. They are really cool rigs, but just keep in mind the 6.2 is no powerhouse. Banks made turbo kits for them and they show us on CL from time to time for around 1k give or take.I didn't realize the Blazers had the 3.08 gears. Huh... interesting. Dad had both an 82 dually with the 6.2/TH400 and 4.56 gears (and 13 leaf packs!) and the military truck with the same 6.2/TH400/4.56 he got at an auction in Maryland. Both were topped out at 60-65mph.
Yeah, it works out great for the highway and when I need more balls offroad I just drop it in 4low. I always wanted one of the cucv duallies though because they just look so bad ass. Tuna mentioned the 4l80e swap. That's something I want to look into even though I have the 3.08s. I like the thought of dropping the revs even more because, well these things are strippers with no sound deadening AT ALL, so the NVH is up there. I mean my 99 Cherokee feels like a straight up Cadillac compared to the CUCV.
edit: One more thing. You can pretty much find anything you ever need to know about the cucv on steelsoldiers.com. There are great troubleshooting threads, but make sure and search because they aren't really newb friendly.
info on 4l80 swap: http://www.steelsoldiers.com/showthread.php?64004-The-mythical-CUCV-4L80E-swap
RossD wrote: Do the Trailblazers have weak spots? There are tons of them so that's a plus.
The front differential case is made out of aluminum.....I've seen several of these with a bad input bearing and a nicely ventilated case.
Tom_Spangler wrote:Bobzilla wrote: This is what Ben needs:I'm sorry, what was that about reliability? My mom had one of those brand-spanking-new in the 70s. If it rained, it didn't start. I remember riding in the back with a tow truck pulling us down the road as she kept trying to bump-start it. She replaced it with a 78 K5 Blazer and it was WORLDS better.
that was made as a joke. I know Ben's propensity to own E36 M3boxes that require him to fix something on a regular basis..... so the Scout fit's right in. I mean, it doesn't fit a single bullet point for him. PArts are scarce, it's not cheap, it gets single digit fuel economy and it is about as reliable as a first generation Bosch ABS in a 1991 Caprice.
Bobzilla wrote:Tom_Spangler wrote:that was made as a joke. I know Ben's propensity to own E36 M3boxes that require him to fix something on a regular basis..... so the Scout fit's right in. I mean, it doesn't fit a single bullet point for him. PArts are scarce, it's not cheap, it gets single digit fuel economy and it is about as reliable as a first generation Bosch ABS in a 1991 Caprice.Bobzilla wrote: This is what Ben needs:I'm sorry, what was that about reliability? My mom had one of those brand-spanking-new in the 70s. If it rained, it didn't start. I remember riding in the back with a tow truck pulling us down the road as she kept trying to bump-start it. She replaced it with a 78 K5 Blazer and it was WORLDS better.
How bad did it hurt to force that one out? 
Hey, I am trying to use larger words lately.... trying to expand my repertoire.
Bobzilla wrote: Hey, I am trying to use larger words lately.... trying to expand my repertoire.
make the vocabules bigger?
3 and 4 not so much any more, but I'm surprised no one mentioned Gen I 4Runners.
If you aren't actually off-roading, for $3k you can get a lot of AWD Astro and parts to truck it up a bit...
There are 21 4runner 4x4 listings on CL in LA at the moment, older than 1997. There are a ton of 4runners available for sub $3000, almost any of which are better than an XJ,,,
maj75 wrote: There are 21 4runner 4x4 listings on CL in LA at the moment, older than 1997. There are a ton of 4runners available for sub $3000, almost any of which are better than an XJ,,,
Love the opinion. Unfortunately I don't agree. It depends on what you want out of the vehicle. A frame that isn't full of rust? The XJ will probably win that one.
maj75 wrote: There are 21 4runner 4x4 listings on CL in LA at the moment, older than 1997. There are a ton of 4runners available for sub $3000, almost any of which are better than an XJ,,,
That'd be awesome if they were across the country.
I've done fly and drives before, i'll do them again, but i'm not really going to do one for a $3k daily driver SUV.
Looking for $3k 4runners in my area is an exercise in futility.
That said, if i could find a nice 4runner with no rust in my price range, i'd get it. I like them better than XJs.
Appleseed wrote: 3 and 4 not so much any more, but I'm surprised no one mentioned Gen I 4Runners.
http://fortwayne.craigslist.org/cto/4288536297.html
http://bloomington.craigslist.org/cto/4296659443.html
Bobzilla wrote:maj75 wrote: There are 21 4runner 4x4 listings on CL in LA at the moment, older than 1997. There are a ton of 4runners available for sub $3000, almost any of which are better than an XJ,,,Love the opinion. Unfortunately I don't agree. It depends on what you want out of the vehicle. A frame that isn't full of rust? The XJ will probably win that one.
I'd love to see how you fill an XJ "frame" with anything.
In reply to Swank Force One:
However, if you did get a $3000 4runner from Cali and get it home (sorry I don't know where that is) I'm guessing it will be worth a lot more than $3000. ;)
Fletch1 wrote: http://fortwayne.craigslist.org/cto/4288536297.html
Not bad, i could maybe get down with that if it's still available after the MSM goes. I'd rather the next gen, and if it's gotta be the 4 cylinder, i'd really prefer the manual.
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