Why not just go back to your campsite to get the bear spray??!! 🤦

Super cool. My favorite video scenery possibly! That was awesome. Thanks for sharing John! Hey see you in a few weeks! :)

Nice video. You looked like a caged animal in the hotel room. I can’t even imagine how much it sucked for you. Glad you found your life! The scenery was amazing in the mountains at the end

hopefully they flushed the cooler and lines, but from what you have said I doubt they did, may be time for a newer vehicle....a truck so you can have more room with a topper or small slide in camper...

Just drove it with my camper! Worth it!

Omg John sorry for your jeep 🥹

Post the name of this place so If I am in that area I do not go there!

Never trust liars!

You need to learn some patience. And shopping around for the cheapest price, gets you the cheapest results. Then hassling them trying to speed it up, resulted in them, taking even more shortcuts to try to get you off their back. I get it you cant afford to sit in a hotel room. Next time maybe rent a van, probably way cheaper than a room. And you can move around still. Get all your stuff out of the Jeep you need and go camp out. Im just giving you advice. Not just be another butt kisser….

Good mechanic shop time $150/hour minimum. Show up every day, different hour, see who is under the hood. Or where your parts are on the rebuild table. Good mechanics will show you. Small shops can get extremely busy and not have call to update. Understand that some projects take more days than estimated due to parts availability, and parts delivery. Mechanic may not have recent experience with exactly your model, and therefore may not be as fast as a previous mechanic.

I'm a mechanic and so is my dad we have run into people in your situation. He traded a guy vehicles this was like 1993 a 65 f100 for a buick station wagon. I've given people parts for very good deals. Back when I worked at a shop I always went above and beyond for traveling people.

So sorry John. Seeing you in a hotel room just doesn’t compute for me. 🤗

Man next time reach out to the overland community for help I’m sure someone can help out give a number for a good mechanic shity can’t trust shops these days

I’ve been there seems the same every where,glad you are back traveling

Using your intelligence, you chose a jeep. Should have bought a Toyota. Sorry truth hurts.

Good for you for going back there and confronting them! What a rip off. Wishing you another safe and happy long journey with your jeep John!

4K!?? Used Facebook market 500-800$

Wow 326k is a good amount of miles! Frustrating situation all around. Hopefully youre good to go now for a goodong while!!

Its a shame you had that issue with the mechanic. Its always a crap shoot. About every 500 miles smell the transmission fluid and see if it is nice and red and not burnt. Check it often on a freshly rebuild as if something is Goin to happen it will in the first 500 miles. Hope it has some sort of warranty

Dude! This sucks ! Fricken scam artists. Best of luck and hoping for positivity. JAY

Sorry this happened to you John. Mechanics these days are professional scamers. I hate when I need something fixed because it's always the same fast talking bs. They always say that other things need to be replaced as well $$$$. Gone are the old time mom and pop local mechanics that treated you fair 😔

I subscribed thanks

I love the honesty in your video , I know you will get another 300K out of that jeep . I dive a 32 yr old truck myself

Dang that sucks. Nothing worse than feeling like you are getting shafted by a mechanic. Hope it all works out for you.

Big John man that sucks. Hope everything is going better now

😮😢😊

Whew what a week! Glad you were able to finally get your jeep fixed and back on the road. Hopefully things will get better soon!

Man that was a story straight out of Jersey I feel like. Jesus what a nightmare. If they were just honest you could’ve saved money on the hotel even. Definitely keep that paper receipt safe and always know where that CreditCard receipt is also on your statement. You never know if you’ll need it again. But let’s have some faith in humanity and pray that everything stays as it is and you can continue on with your life. Cheers brother

It seems like whatever you need repaired, you always have to go back a second time because they didn't do it right. Happy fishing John.

Is there any honesty in the auto mechanic industry anymore?? OMG 😱

The lowest bid isn’t always the best.. glad you got it fixed at least it didn’t leave you stranded out in the boonies with no cell service. On to more adventures

At least it didn’t go out on you when you were way out in the boonies with no cell service

Better days! I have a Jeep and am sad for the day she no longer has the resources to keep on going. You may wish to invest in a gym membership. For 20-40$ a month, it's nice to have a daily place to shower and spend hours out of the elements.

I'm disabled. Lost my ability to walk in a motorcycle accident. No insurance no green card. I was a contact welder for Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth. I sold everything i couldn't use 30ft lowboy gooseneck, the powerstoke, mud drag truck 750hp yes i have the Dyno sheet. Talked my uncle into selling his XJ . Been in the family 20y now. I freak All of my friends out 2500 mile trips multiple times a year. been All over southern Arizona up to Moab and back to DFW, a few times... You Jonh inspired me. Im only 44. It took me a while to get over who I'm not, and who i still can be. I thought of giving up, then it's only some one who cares about me that Will find me.. nope. Started living with what the Lord left ME. I love Life. Absolutely thankful for finding out Life isn't over. Hope to me you one day Sir

Good luck everything will get better. We are heading to Montana the end of this week to vist friends we made when we lived there and I hope the weather is better than it has been out west. Safe travels.

Well John the AW4 is a good transmission. Some problems are fixable without removing or rebuilding. Shift solenoids common problem. Your transfer case would probably last a million miles without requiringa rebuild. But now hopefully you have new parts to keep you going a few more trips around the country. Happens to all of us, enjoy your adventures.

Dang not a fun week for you. Saying a prayer it's all good moving forward

I sure hope that trans last. It is damn near impossible to get ANY quality work done on a vehicle these days. It's always somethin and comes with an outrageous bill. It's almost like no one actually cares if they hose you because you really have no recourse. Had a christian brothers shop tell me i needed a new engine in my chevy truck to the tune of $10,000 because there was no oil pressure ( cost my $500 to get that diagnosis) I said there is no way. A little research and $75 later i fixed it myself with a sending unit. Gdamn crooks have taken over the auto mechanic industry

This is exactly why I have almost always done my own work, can't trust most shops. The times I have had to use a shop for repairs I have almost always been disappointed. I know in your situation you had no choice.

You sure did have a rough go of it. Hopefully your troubles are behind you and you can continue living the dream. Anyway, time for a beer😊

Hopefully the jeep is all good, keep going forward John, the brookies are calling.

Also after years of this life, hotels arent much fun for me either.

To bad you can't make it to reno. I have 5 aw4s for a who lot less.

Car problems on the road are difficul and stressful enough when living out of a vehicle but trying to find a reliable garage and being at their mercy just adds anxiety Definitely sucks. Glad to see you are now on the road again, looking forward to you catching some fish. Hang in there John!

Here's to getting another 100,000 miles on your XJ.

I had a similar story from a few years ago. My wife and I were traveling through southern MO pulling our 35 foot travel trailer, when my transmission light came on. I pulled over as soon as I could find a safe place and called a tow truck who towed my truck to the nearest Dodge dealership and my camper to a mobile home park, where we stayed the next 10 days (which they originally said would take 4 days) while they overhauled the transmission after they said the transmission cooler had plugged up causing the transmission to overheat. They said they were able to blow out the blockage in the cooler and rebuilt the tranny. Ten days later I hooked back up to my camper and made it about 180 miles before it overheated again. I had it towed to the nearest Dodge dealership (another $450 tow bill) who said the cooler was blocked and needed replaced. they replaced the cooler and it lasted two months before more problems when it wouldn't shift into overdrive. Took it back to my local Dodge dealership and they said the problem was from the transmission having so many miles and the valve body being worn out and pump weren't changed during the overhaul the southern MO Dodge dealership had performed and suggested a new tranny. I called the southern MO dealership and their fix, was to have my local dealership rebuild the tranny again, which they refused to do, saying the valve body had too many miles. So the southern MO dealerships fix was to remove the tranny, then ship it to them to be rebuilt again, then ship it back to my local dealership and have them reinstall it. I refused their suggestion. After two months of my truck sitting in my local dealerships lot and the southern MO dealership refusing to make some restitution (from their $3800 rebuild) to help me pay for a new tranny, I paid my local dealership to install a new tranny in the truck out of my own pocket. Which I would have paid the southern MO dealership to do, if they had only told me that it needed a new one. I filed a complaint with the Chrysler Corp which went nowhere. I thought taking it to a dealership was the safe bet, since I was hundreds of miles from home, and I wasn't familiar with any shops in the area. My lesson was learned the hard way.

Your problem, no angelic voices, no beer!!!

Stay strong brother. Keep enjoying freedom!!!

Uuuggghh….. So frustrating trying to find trustworthy mechanics. Even more so when living in your vehicle. Hope Idaho is amazing. It’s on my top 3 places I can’t wait to explore when I get back out there.

Never been, planning on going this weekend, but the more I read and see its just a swapmeet of stuff I will never buy. What does interest me is other folks builds in the camp area, but I could never pay 300$ for tht