Ok I just got a 93 grand cherokee for free. It has minor dents and the transmission slips bad when it gets warmed up. My plans were a 5.5 long arm lift 33's arb air lockers and some other stuff.  My problem is that I have now found out that the dana 44 is a aluminum housing and no lockers avalible for this diffrential.  So the jeep is free, I have already found another transmission, and I have the skills and equipment to swap the front and rear diffs. Is the grand cherokee worth building into a dedicated trail rig or should I just buy a cj-7 I found for 1200 and build it.  I did a xj 2 years ago and it wasnt near as expensive for parts as the grand is.  I just dont want to spend 6 or 7 grand building the grand cherokee if I can do the cj-7 for cheaper.  Weigh in with the pros and cons please.  

its what you make it just go with what looks good on you i would go with the ZJ because its different and theres an added bonus when Mr H2 or Mr Land Rover gets stuck you can bring the shame because your FREE jeep just walked the dog on his 700 dollar a month POS

heres the reasons i built my junk

77 CJ5

#1 every 18 to 25 year old chic from L.A. to D.C wants to ride

#2 every 1 told me to get a 7 because the 5s were death traps and rollovers were unavoidable whatever 3 years and all 4 tires have never left the ground unless i wanted them too (floping it on its side doesnt count right)

#3 its small short and can get too all the little fishing holes down in the black creek swamp

85 Grand Wagoneer

#1 it makes soccer moms cringe

#2 it makes there children cry

#3it carrys lots of people crap ext..

53 dodge M-37

#1 what

#2 the hell

#3 is that

as far as prices being higher i dont know never built 1 if i was you i wold do the minimum to make it road worthy and beat on it a little see how it feels if you decide you dont like it sell it and use the money for a CJ or whatever as far as trail worthy in my opinion its 20% rig and 80% one night i took a stock ranger where a newbie with a rubi couldnt get through check out this pic mabee it will give u some ideas

http://www.4x4wire.com/cgi-bin/gallery/imageFolio.cgi?action=view&link=readers_rigs/Jeep/Grand_Cherokee&image=chris_l.jpg&img=&tt=

i hope i helped in some way or at least didnt irritate you with my rambling best of luck see ya

it was free!i would take advantage of that.build it up a little a beat the crap out of it,nothing to loose.i hear ya about cj being cheaper along with the xj,but why not try building somthing differnt.might cost a little more but if you have the skills and tools it wont be as bad as if you had to have shops do work.that and the point of everybody and their mom has a wrangler type rig,build it and make it stand out,and if it dont pan out,sell it,you will atleast get your parts money back considering it was a free jeep.my 2 cents  

For a cheap lift go with a Tuff Country 3.5" (wht I have) It's a good lift and cheap. if you need more add 2" spacers and a Tcase drop kit.

For great ideas go to cardomain.com and look at pics of ZJ's there are alot on there. good luck.

As far as prices I mainly ment the lift kit and such. I guess I could buy a book on 4wd suspension and do my own link set up  and coil overs but by the time you pay for the coil overs you could have bought the lift. IM going to run at least33's and do some major body mods. Yeah the main reason I wanted to do the grand was the fact you dont see many of them. Luckily my buddy just called eariler and told me he picked up a dodge pick up he wants the big block out of it and has agreed to let me have the rear and front diff's for 200.00. He says the rear is a dana 60 and the front he thinks is a dana 44 but he is not positive on the front. so looks like the diff's are taken care of. The only two 5 in and larger lifts I have seen for the grand are sold by rubicon express and rustys off-road. Does anyone know other companys that sale 5 inch or 6 inch lifts for the grand.  

look at Kevin's offroad parts online.  

send us some pics, let us know how things go.  

I built up a 97 grand and had a blast with it. I only lifted it 3" and had plenty of room for 31's.  I did some pretty hard core stuff with it until it got t-boned by a dodge 3500 and turned it into a bannana. I would go for it 4wd hardware has a great 3" lift pretty inexpensive and very easy to install.  

I too was looking at their kit but it doesnot come with lower control arms so I got the Tuff Country lift. It had everything and was cheaper then buying the control arms seprate.