When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When it gives you a damaged Jeep Cherokee, make a badass trailer.
That’s what Youtube user hazeltonsounddotcom did with one year of free time and a donor 2001 XJ. He chopped off the front, but kept the doors to use for the angled nose of this XJ extension. That goes over a custom-fabricated trailer tongue.
This is not just a purely Cherokee-based creation, though. It’s been fitted with the turn signals from a Commander and the 15-inch wheels from a 2000 Wrangler. Those are wrapped in 33-inch tires and sit under a 6.5-inch lift.
This trailer isn’t just a storage space, either. It’s rockin’ a bench seat that sits in front of a 42-inch flatscreen TV.
It all goes to show what some TLC for a Cherokee can lead to.
This next video, on the other hand, shows what leads to a Cherokee needing some TLC in the first place.
It was quickly featured in this compilation of fast fails we showed you in late March, but this batch of footage shows you what the Cherokee is capable of and looks like before it flips its lid.
Derek Shiekhi's father raised him on cars. As a boy, Derek accompanied his dad as he bought classics such as post-WWII GM trucks and early Ford Mustang convertibles.
After loving cars for years and getting a bachelor's degree in Business Management, Derek decided to get an associate degree in journalism. His networking put him in contact with the editor of the Austin-American Statesman newspaper, who hired him to write freelance about automotive culture and events in Austin, Texas in 2013. One particular story led to him getting a certificate for learning the foundations of road racing.
While watching TV with his parents one fateful evening, he saw a commercial that changed his life. In it, Jeep touted the Wrangler as the Texas Auto Writers Association's "SUV of Texas." Derek knew he had to join the organization if he was going to advance as an automotive writer. He joined the Texas Auto Writers Association (TAWA) in 2014 and was fortunate to meet several nice people who connected him to the representatives of several automakers and the people who could give him access to press vehicles (the first one he ever got the keys to was a Lexus LX 570). He's now a regular at TAWA's two main events: the Texas Auto Roundup in the spring and the Texas Truck Rodeo in the fall.
Over the past several years, Derek has learned how to drive off-road in various four-wheel-drive SUVs (he even camped out for two nights in a Land Rover), and driven around various tracks in hot hatches, muscle cars, and exotics. Several of his pieces, including his article about the 2015 Ford F-150 being crowned TAWA's 2014 "Truck of Texas" and his review of the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider, have won awards in TAWA's annual Excellence in Craft Competition. Last year, his JK Forum profile of Wagonmaster, a business that restores Jeep Wagoneers, won prizes in TAWA’s signature writing contest and its pickup- and SUV-focused Texas Truck Invitational.
