How A Tennessee Man Amassed The World’s Largest Junkyard Of Jeep Cherokee XJs

[GON]

Interesting read. Pretty savvy business man also. Of note, some jeep owners blame him for the high price of XJ parts. The man claims the opposite, without his business many XJs would have been scrapped, thus less used parts on the market.

"If you’re a fan of a particular car or truck, you might have a few laying around your yard. Maybe one’s a driver, one’s for winter, and the rest are for parts. Dexter Browder’s yard is a bit like that, but he doesn’t just have a handful of Jeep Cherokees. He’s got about 700 now."

How A Tennessee Man Amassed The World's Largest Junkyard Of Jeep Cherokee XJs - The Autopian

If you’re a fan of a particular car or truck, you might have a few laying around your yard. Maybe one’s a driver, one’s for winter, and the rest are for parts. Dexter Browder’s yard is a bit like that, but he doesn’t just have a handful of Jeep Cherokees. He’s got about 700 now. […]

www.theautopian.com

 

[HemiBenny]

Kudos to him for turning his love of Jeeps into a prosperous venture. I think it’s great that he’s supplying parts to keep a lot of these Jeeps on the road and/or the trail.
Thanks for posting the link. It was the perfect read while having a cup of coffee on this fine Saturday morning. ️

 

[atikovi]

Wonder if the zoning department knows about it. Or the state EPA. Getting a junkyard license is nearly impossible these days due to all the regulations.

 

[AZjeff]

In most of this country once you get away from urban areas you can do whatever you want on your land. Just how it is. Good for him living the Jeep life all day every day.

 

[Kira]

I know of Goldwing Saab parts (in western New York) and now this guy.
Are there vehicle specific yards all over this country?

"All-American", in Rahway, NJ, was once 'Jeep only" but expanded to all 4-wheel consumer level trucks.

When the foreign car yard closed on Staten Island, I thought I'd die. That shipping kills you!

 

[joekingcorvette]

The fact that he can pull an engine in 15 minutes is very impressive.

 

[Astro14]

I know of Goldwing Saab parts (in western New York) and now this guy.
Are there vehicle specific yards all over this country?

"All-American", in Rahway, NJ, was once 'Jeep only" but expanded to all 4-wheel consumer level trucks.

When the foreign car yard closed on Staten Island, I thought I'd die. That shipping kills you!

Erie Volvo isn’t too far from you…

 

[Kira]

Thanks for that....I completely forgot about "Erie VO-VO".

 

[AutoMechanic]

I see one of the very rare Solar Yellow ones in that picture just like our Jeep. Ours needs an engine I bet he could help with that too haha. Hate to see that yellow one has been crashed it appears.

 

[eljefino]

Interesting read. Pretty savvy business man also. Of note, some jeep owners blame him for the high price of XJ parts.

If you don't like what he's paying, outbid him.

 

[4WD]

XJ’s are pretty cool builds - but will almost always exceed budget

 

[D60]

Even 700 is a drop in the bucket. I guess people within ~150 miles could be upset if they have nothing better to worry about.

I can't believe how many XJ's are still on the road here. It's even more amazing if you look at the weld quality on the unibody.

My ex-wife's '99 (which was quite late in the model's lifespan, mind you) looks like a toddler welded it. And yet somehow at 200k miles it's holding together so I guess you can't argue with results. But I promise you you'd never get a passing grade in technical school with the welds that are on there -- any welder worth his salt would be embarrassed to have his name on welds that literally look like silly string from a can combined with tons of porosity.

 

[jeepman3071]

XJs and their parts went crazy high about 10 years ago. I bought my first car, a 1990 XJ Cherokee Limited with 88k miles for $3000 back in 2006. I always loved XJs since I learned to drive on my dad's 1987 XJ. I had 2 more after the 1990, and one benefit was they were always a better deal than the TJ Wranglers, especially for a broke college kid. When I sold my last Cherokee in 2018 due to rust, I set out to find another one. Clean examples were bringing close to the $20k mark with 100k+ miles. Just not worth it in my opinion for the kind of vehicle it is.

I ended up buying my '98 TJ Wrangler instead for $8k, and it is a mint condition California Jeep with zero rust.

 

[Nick1994]

Getting interior parts and some other parts is getting real hard on the XJ’s. I’ll try to figure out how to reach out to the guy to buy some stuff.

 

[PF52]

They're scarce here in the salt belt. My brother has one, so I keep my eyes open for them.... He moved his away to the relative safety of Colorado 20 years ago so I haven't seen it since.

 

[Snagglefoot]

IIRC the 4.0 6 cylinder engine was prone to breaking ring lands on the pistons. Not sure if this scarred up the blocks beyond repair or not. Anyone know?

 

[Chris142]

Are there vehicle specific yards all over this country

Yep. There is a huge Cadillac parts place not far from me.

Cadillac King - Google Search

This guy only does scouts.

I H Only - Google Search

You won't find jeep wranglers in most yards. The jeep places nab them.

 

[Nick1994]

IIRC the 4.0 6 cylinder engine was prone to breaking ring lands on the pistons. Not sure if this scarred up the blocks beyond repair or not. Anyone know?

View attachment 188636

Pretty overblown problem. It exists, but not that common.

Really the only big problem is the 2000-2001 cylinder heads cracked.

 

[Snagglefoot]

Pretty overblown problem. It exists, but not that common.

Really the only big problem is the 2000-2001 cylinder heads cracked.

Looks like Edelbrock has it covered.

 

[daves87rs]

Pretty overblown problem. It exists, but not that common.

Really the only big problem is the 2000-2001 cylinder heads cracked.

+1