Topped Out at 65 mph

Not quite scientific enough and it may take more than 40? feet of track --

 

Getting into the debate late but REALLY??? you guys would drive one of these things that fast. On my maiden voyage to bring home my "57 CJ5 I hit nearly 45mph, never again. This daredevilette has never gone over 40mph again, I have no need for speed. In the next few weeks she's going to our new home in the country 20 miles on a two lane country highway with a 60-70mph speed limit, that's what they make trailers for.

 

Hope everyone recognizes the dangers of mixing the CJ with speed. Some apparently thrive on danger (they have a high threshold)--but even as a young man I drove a CJ2A cross-country 1200 miles and never topped 45 mph--guess mostly to spare the Jeep.

 

Meh, when I was back in Nevada, I'd regularly blast along at 70-75 in my CJ, being as there wasn't any other traffic to really be concerned with putting in danger. And that was before I had decent brakes and started working on fixing the steering geometry. Up here in the Seattle area, if I get it out on the highway, I generally run 60-65, and it's not terribly uncomfortable. It's all subjective.

 

One reason it's subjective is because the sample is biased.

Very few of the people who flipped a Jeep at 65 are still here to post about their experiences.

 

Well, yes, there is that.

 

The survival statement would apply to just about any old car made before about 1970. Seat belts used to be the first thing removed from cars when I was a kid. Have seen lots of people over the year ejected from the vehicle or turned into hood ornaments from lack of one. As for flipping virtually all old trucks suffered similar problems and a lot still do today.
Driving sanely and with what your comfortable with goes along way to staying alive, along with upgrading your jeep to better aid your survival, one of the reasons I ditched the ross for saginaw, also why I added disk brakes and better seatbelts.
I have driven mine a lot on the interstate at 70mph, wouldn't advise it on really windy days but other than that it runs fine that way.
I have put about 20,000 miles on mine at mostly 55mph+.

 

Nope. Like it says in my signature line, 4.27:1. This has been verified.

 

At 25 mph, the speedo was reading 5 mph slow. At 45, it was ten mph slow. At 65 mph on the GPS, it was reading around 12 mph slow.

 

I have added power to my 9-inch brakes and have all new lines, hoses, shoes wheel cylinders and master cylinder on the vacuum booster. It stops nicely with little effort. I to have ditched the original steering for saginaw and tilt. I am not concerned with how fast the Jeep is on the highway, since it will be on a trailer behind my Xterra Pro-4X. You want a nice 4 X 4, the Xterra is top of the line as far as I am concerned. I was following my brother in his Bronco in Utah and using high-range when he was in low, with no problems. The Xterra has downhill descent control, selectable locking rear diff, traction control, a Rockford-Fosgate 380-watt sound system, heated seats, and a bunch of other nice things to have. But I still like the thrill of three sticks or more and muscling my way through rough terrain.

 

Does it really matter? You'll find out that you F134 will top at different speed depending on the wind, hills, pavement quality, windshield up or down, canvas top on or off etc... the old engine, pass 55 mph, has very little oomph so anything out of the "perfect" condition will affect the top speed.

I consider myself happy when I do 55mph and have a little pedal left. Sometime you get a good tail wind and hit 60 mph and you feel like superman! Most of the time it averages between 50 and 55 and the engine seems to be happy with that. Don't like it on a steep grade because it goes down to 40-45 mph pretty quickly. This is where I whish I had a 2 1/2 gear - eventually I'll add an overdrive for that reason alone.