I’m not sure I’ve seen a Carolina Squat 1988 Jeep Comanche before, but the seller says this one has been lifted 3″ in the front and 2″ in the back. I guess, to each his/her own, but I’d drop this thing down within the first week if I owned it. It’s such a great truck, too nice to embarrass it by doing that. Poor thing… Enough of that, they have it posted here on craigslist in Shafter, California, and they’re asking $5,600. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Rocco B. for the tip!
The acid wash jeans of current trends, that higher-in-front truck-squat thing, is lost on me. I know it’s a popular thing – although it’s illegal now in areas of the country. I just don’t get it. But I also don’t get having your pants hanging down to your knees and whatever other trends there are still lingering out there. That being said, if it isn’t a safety issue, which some jurisdictions claim, then, since at least for now, this is still America, you can dang well do what you want here, just so it’s legal and not hurting anyone else. How’s that for an editorial paragraph?!
The seller has mostly Batman angles on the photos that they provided, and there weren’t any showing the rear of this Jeep at all, so I’ll just put the coolest photo here, one showing the 5-speed manual. That’s what you want in this Jeep, I think. Although my opinion is just that, my opinion, no more or less valid than anyone else’s opinion. We don’t know what the bed looks like or the tailgate; hopefully, all is well with it, other than the dent on the right fender. They mention having a replacement fender for that side, so that’s great news.
Jeep made the Comanche from 1985 for the 1986 model year until the end of 1992 in both rear-wheel drive and 4WD, as shown here. This one looks great in the photos from what we can see, and it’s priced lower than Hagerty’s #4 fair-condition value for some reason. I think the see-saw lift is hurting the value. If it were a nice, original truck, it could easily be a #3 or better truck, which they have listed at $12,200. Then again, life is too short to only think about what a vehicle is worth to someone else. If you like it, that’s more valuable than money.
The engine (great photo, by the way!) is AMC’s 4.0-liter OHV inline-six, one of the best. It had 177 horsepower and 224 lb-ft of torque rolling through a transfer case and a 5-speed manual to all four wheels as needed. They say it works great, and it looks like a nice one, if you don’t mind having the front end a bit higher than the back end. Why is this one priced so low?
Driven one. 5sp 4.0. Small on the inside for sure. Peppy drivers though. And get you where you want to go in 4wd. Are those Cherokee rims ? Nice enough but look out of place, prefer original wheels, even if they aren’t alloys.
Stan, I’m possibly in the minority here. But I always liked the plain steel rims on these. I also would prefer the stock height too. Love that its a 4.0 and a stick. And I like the buckets too. There’s bumps and bruises here and there but if theres no rust thats a huge plus. I always thought these were great trucks.
Those rims are from a 1997 and newer Cherokee. My dad has them on his 1997 and I have been a Jeep tech since 1993. My 1990 Cherokee has the older turbine AMC rims on it. This one has the desired 4.0 5-speed 4×4 set up NICE!!
It say $6900 in the current listing.The squat isn’t hardly
noticeable on this.These are cool pickups,& hopefully some-
one will buy this & use & take care of it.
There’s a GMC pickup with the Carolina Squat running
around here.When it’s behind me it’s extremely blinding!I just
don’t get why anyone would spend all that money to do that.
You’re right, angliagt, I was somewhat kidding about the “squat” and lift on this one, and it’s hard to tell from the weirdly angled photos. It looks super nice to me, and a 1″ raise in the front is probably not really noticeable. I still don’t get it at all, but I also don’t have a neck tattoo or a nose piercing, so I’m way behind on the trends.
I’m with Stan and Dave on changing out those wheels, though.
Also going to join what I suspect is the majority opinion re: Why?” on the whole squat issue.
Will need to do some further investigating on this particular vehicles. Very much what I’m looking for,
bobk
In fact, the only issue that I see offhand would be how much would it cost to “de-mod” the whole Carolina Squat modification.
bobk
Lovely looking Jeep. I remember when it was first intro’d back in the 1980s. While I love the Jeep XJ Cherokee, I remember thinking “A Cherokee pickup truck? Awesome!” It’s a damned shame that it wasn’t on the market for very long before being discontinued. I still don’t get why Jeep discontinued it.
It was discontinued because Chrysler already had a mid sized pickup with the Dakota. Also the Cherokee was so hot and profitable, it made more sense to build more Cherokees than build Comanches at the Toledo plant.
They could’ve still offered the Comanche, couldn’t they?
wrkin on 1 now (from Cali). No triangle window, shorter bed, but same engine/4WD (grey/red stripe, nice). Screwed up fuel system (ele & some custom on in-tank FP/sender). “Sick’n goda tempture” (lill boy in tv advert 1970s) but looks brand new…
I’m a Jeep Tech since 1993 and wonder why to and why they did not make a extra cab model even though it was probably easy to make a Comanchee out of a Cherokee!
Some trucks (my 2007 F-150, V-6 powered, 6650 LB, GVWR Work Truck) the rear of the truck is normally higher than the front to support the fully loaded capacity.
The “Carolina Squat” look kills forward vision, probably for a car length or two. To say it’s dangerous to be in front of one is an understatement. Fortunately, South Carolina made this modification illegal in 2023 or 2024.
Back in the late 1950s, Chrysler’s Ramchargers race team had on old Plymouth sedan, (the High and the Mighty) with a Hemi stuffed in it and had the nose “seriously elevated” so that on initial takeoff it would change the instant center of gravity, to gain more starting line traction. As nothing like that ever showed up at an NHRA event, I’m guessing that the NHRA banned that type of modification.
I worked at a AMC dealership when these came out. AMC a little intro meeting in the Sacramento area. The hosting hotel had a,vacant lot out back where they set up a very lame driving course. That included some 5′ high dirt mounds to drive over. It was incredibly boring. After about 40 minutes of loping around in 1st gear, our general manager said $50 to the person with the best time! That was all I needed to hear. Being an ex-pro-rally driver. I waited until the guy in front of me was far enough ahead as not to slow me down. I charged around the course and the last mound was towards the end. I flew the truck over the mound and landed right next to the guy who had been ahead of me . I won the $50 and the AMC guys banned me from any more “test drives” that day. A couple of other dealerships people tried to beat my time. (to no avail) and then the AMC guys pulled all the keys. I really like these trucks, we had virtually no issues with them in the service department. And I have almost bought one a couple of times. Since they are a Cherokee underneath all the suspension pieces you could ever want for off road are readily available.
The lift on this would look much better if they had put taller tires on to go with it. Think the pricing is fair if it’s as nice as it appears to be.
Love the Comanche pickups. Never heard of the Carolina Squat…maybe the seller was trying to create a gasser pickup?
Listing update: the seller deleted this listing, did one of you grab it?
That’s not a squat. That is nothing more then a leveling kit as the thing left the factory with a hill billy rake in the back. Fairly common when lifting and lowering trucks for the front and rear to be different heights to achieve a level look.