All Things Jeep Blog & Musings

Is your head feeling a little left out? We have new Jeep tees coming into stock all the time, but I don't know what is the matter with the hat vendors. I beg for new product and I rarely ever get any. (Maybe I need to move to bribery?)

But last night, my begging paid off with some new Jeep hats. And, I gotta say, they ain't too shabby. (Well, actually one is VERY shabby, all rough around the edges, but we describe it as such, so no calling in and telling us you got a defective hat. It is SUPPOSED to look "already worn".)

So here's a peak at my 2 favs. You can find the rest of them on our new jeep stuff page. Like most of the hats, they are under $20.  

Here's the "shabby" one.

Here's the one all the guys will want to wear (trying to hide their smirks when we girls read it)

Well, do you?

I am not getting a lot of work done at night this week. Between the Red Soxs trying to clinch the division, the Presidential debates, watching the falling stock market, looking at my bills with the rising costs of everything, the arguments with my daughter about who pays for her cell phone usage, my evenings are full! Ugh.

But on a positive note, our new employee Marc started today. He's our Operations / Warehouse Manager and will whip us all into shape. Under his guidance, we'll be even faster, better, more efficient, and have more fun. (Is that possible.) He isn't a Jeep guy. But he's a warehouse guy. And that's what we need right now. Maybe I'll interview him in an upcoming blog post. If you have questions you want me to ask him (as if he didn't get enough questions thrown at him during the interview process), post them here.

And BTW, I may have to have **TWO** Customers of the Week. With the many great responses, I already have enough to take me into the middle of 2009! So I am going to post them on Mondays and Thursdays I think.

Today we are starting a new thing here. It's called our

All Things Jeep Customer of the Week.

(Insert round of applause here.)

We have some of the best customers in the world so we thought we'd feature you here! Today, we are pleased to feature our friend DUNCAN M from Manitoba, Canada.  Duncan's been a customer for many years and he's the President (I think) of his local Jeep club.

Here's his answers to some of the questions we asked Duncan.

1. What are you currently driving? model? year? color? etc.
 
2005 TJ Rubicon, Khaki & Dark Khaki, semi militarised.

2. Tell us your favorite modication you have made to your current Jeep.
 
My home made camo net bikini top.

3. When did you get your first Jeep and why did you choose a Jeep?
 
I got my first Jeep, an 82 SJ Wagoneer, in 1991. It served me well for 10 years before I sold it due to operating costs. It was 19 years old and starting to require parts that just weren't available anymore. It was a good Jeep with a 360 V8 but whose time had come to move on with someone else at the wheel. During this time I also owned a 55 Willys CJ5. It never saw trails as it needed clutch work and I never had time to complete it. It was all stock and excellent condition. It ran like a top and I was sad to see it go when I had to leave it behind during a cross country move. I chose my wagoneer because it was within my budget and I had had a dream about it the week previous. It was weird actually, I dreampt about a white woody sided wagoneer and then the following week while looking for a replacement 4wd found exactly that sitting at the back of a used car lot with a sale price on it. I got another $1000 knocked off and it was mine. It was my DD and mild trail rig for the next 10 years. I have been a Jeep guy since I was 7 years old when I saw my first Jeeps in a Rememberance day parade. That image of a convoy of army Jeeps has always stuck with me and to this day I still want to eventually own an old army Jeep.

4. Where's the most interesting place you've had your Jeep?

The most interesting place I have been with a Jeep is along the old Kettle Valley Railway line in the Okanagan district of British Columbia Canada. The scenic beauty along this old rail line, often along the edge of the mountains and through tunnels, is just amazing. If I could, I would do nothing but travel around with my Jeep exploring wherever I went. Opportunities are endless with a Jeep.

5. What is the most interesting thing you've DONE in your Jeep?

Created our 2 1/2 year old girl whos initials represent the model whe was concieved in - KJ (Liberty). Yeah, we also had an 04 Libby until July 08. It was great, but well, umm, family comfort took precedence on that one and the wife traded it in. I wish we still had it. The mini van sucks!!!

6. Ever get arrested while in the Jeep? For what?
 
Never been arested. What do you think I am anyway? LMAO

7. What music do you listen to while driving the Jeep?

Whatever is on the radio, generally I like rock, but only on the highway. I don't like music when trail driving, it is distracting and I like to hear what is going on around me.

8. How many Jeeps have you had in your lifetime?

Four... 82 SJ Wagoneer, 55 Willys CJ5, 04 KJ Liberty, 05 TJ Rubicon- current.

9. If you could win any Jeep, past or present, what Jeep would you want to win?

Hmm, I can't answer that in a singular choice. I would like one of each from 1941 to present. But If I had to narrow it down, I would be happy with any or all of the following: 1941 Willys MB, 1948 CJ2A in Harvest Tan, 1951 Willys pick up, 1953 M38A1CDN, 1965 Tuxedo Park CJ5, and/or a 1982 Scrambler.

10 Does your Jeep have a name? What is it?
 
Not really, maybe someday. It would have to be something that suited it somehow. A name needs a reason to be, IMO.

11. If it doesn't have a name and you had to name it, what would you call it?
 
I always thought Lunatic Fringe (from the Red Rider song), or Suzy Q (from CCR song), or perhaps Prairie Prowler. I don't know really. 

12. Is it a boy or a girl?
 
It's a Jeep silly. I've never referred to it either way... just as 'The Rubicon'.

13. Tell us about any stickers or custom work you have on your Jeep?

Club sticker on the back window, Club name on front windshield, Canadian Flag on the back window and winch fairlead plate. The few manufacturer stickers I have are all on the inside of the tailgate. The only custom work is my home made rear reciever hitch bumper. Works great for hauling my M101CDN 1/4 ton military trailer.
 
14. What's the most unique thing about your Jeep?

It is the only one in my town!!!
 
15. If you are a member of a local Jeep or off-road club, give a shout out to the club here:
 
Westman Jeep Association, Southwestern Manitoba, Canada. All Jeep, All the time! http://www.westmanjeep.com/

16. If you were a Super Hero and your Jeep had extradinary powers, what would those powers be?
 
It would do double duty as a boat, it would fly better than Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and would run snow like a Bombardier snow machine.

17. If you could chose one new gift for your next birthday, would it be:

- a fully restored, 1941 Jeep Willys,

18. What are your 3 favorite products available for sale at www.allthingsjeep.com?

Jeep Hats, Jeep Shirts, Cool Jeep stuff. ;)

Thanks Duncan!

Yesterday I sent out the following email to our crazy Jeep customers who order from us A LOT.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Jean @ All Things Jeep <sales@allthingsjeep.com>
Subject: We need you for our Customer of the Week!
To: sales@allthingsjeep.com
Date: Thursday, October 2, 2008, 7:40 AM

Hello Fabulous All Things Jeep Customer -

I need your help. I don't know if you are aware of my blog but since all the "marketing experts" told me I needed one to be successful on the web, I started one last winter. But I'm having a tough time writing in it regularly as I spend all my time running http://www.allthingsjeep.com/.

So last night lying in bed I came up with a brilliant idea. "Let's get our customers to write the blog so I don't have to!" What do you think? Surely there must be some crazy Jeep folks that would like to be featured in our blog, showing off their Jeep and their Jeep lifestyle. Or, better yet, maybe a few of them would actually like to be guest bloggers for all the world to see.

And that is why I am writing. I am not sending this email to every All Things Jeep customer. Only to a small number of you who may be on their way to being totally Jeep crazy. How can I tell? I looked at how many times you've ordered from us, and, uh, it's quite a few. (A BIG THANK YOU for that! Don't change a thing!) So, seriously, from me to you, wanna be featured as our customer of the week? My plan is to do a Customer of the Week post each week and feature your photos, and your answers to some of the questions below. If you want to participate, just hit "REPLY" fill in the blanks below, attach a photo or two (please no more than 2) and then click SEND.

I have no idea what the response will be so I have no idea when / if your story will be published. But the more entertaining you make it, the more likely it will show up at my All Things Jeep BLOG. And if I publish your Jeep story, we'll send you a $10.00 Gift Certificate to use at http://www.allthingsjeep.com/ (And, a giant thank you.)   So, what are you waiting for, start answering those questions below!

Happy Jeepin'.

Jean Wnuk
Owner
www.allthingsjeep.com
978-582-6606

PS - We have a 20% off all Jeep shirts for guys/women/kids sale going on right now in case you want to shop again!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Wanna participate? Here are the questions. Copy them in full into an email and answer each question and send the whole email back to me at sales @ allthingsjeep.com.

Maybe you'll be famous.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Customer of the Week Questions
(hit REPLY, answer these, and send this back to me)

1. What are you currently driving? model? year? color? etc.

2. Tell us your favorite modication you have made to your current Jeep.

3. When dd you get your first Jeep and why did you choose a Jeep?

4. Where's the most interesting place you've had your Jeep?

5. What is the most interesting thing you've DONE in your Jeep?

6. Ever get arrested while in the Jeep? For what?

7. What music do you listen to while driving the Jeep?

8. How many Jeeps have you had in your lifetime?

9. If you could win any Jeep, past or present, what Jeep would you want to win?

10 Does your Jeep have a name? What is it?

11. If it doesn't have a name and you had to name it, what would you call it?

12. Is it a boy or a girl?

13. Tell us about any stickers or custom work you have on your Jeep?

14. What's the most unique thing about your Jeep?

15. If you are a member of a local Jeep or off-road club, give a shout out to the club here:

16. If you were a Super Hero and your Jeep had extraordinary powers, what would those powers be? 

17. If you could chose one new gift for your next birthday, would it be:
- a new 2009 4 door Jeep Wrangler Rubicon
- a fully restored, 1941 Jeep Willys
- world peace
- a million dollar gift certificate to www.allthingsjeep.com
(this is a loaded question, we do hope you all choose world peace)

18. What are your 3 favorite products available for sale at www.allthingsjeep.com ?

Include your full name, address and phone number here: (We will only publish your first name, last initial and your city/state. This is just for verification purposes)

Don't forget to attach a photo of your Jeep

THANKS AGAIN. Watch our blog for the first installment of Customer of the Week next week!


- Jean

I'm writing this from home tonight and awaiting the first presidential debate on TV. Kids are watching some new show on the Disney channel and I'm hanging out on-line. And someone who replied to an earlier blog posting linked back to a site I hadn't seen before. On it, I found an explanation for what Jeep TJs' VIN numbers mean. Like bar codes, I've always understood the purpose of VIN numbers (a unique code to identify your vehicle) but never really had a clue as to what all those numbers and letters mean. So this was fun to read.

And then I got curious as to what I could find out about all the other vehicles in our driveway. Here's a short primer on the basics: Understanding Vehicle VIN Numbers and the most comprehensive listing of Jeep VIN numbers for various models that I could find: Decoding Jeep VIN Numbers

Nothing more current came up but I guess if you have a newer Jeep, chances are you already know most of this info.

OK, time to go and listen to McKane and Obama tell some stories. Bye.

A while back I started a thing on this blog where I offered 50% off a single style new t-shirt to my blog readers for a short period of time. Then I became a total slacker and stopped doing it. (I hang my head in shame.)

In any case, the deal is back and I got a great new tee that just slid in the door today. (The bar codes are being stuck onto the packaging as I speak and I promised Kerry that I'd have one of these sold before she even finished the job. Let's see if I can pull that one off!)

Here's the tee. Here's the code you need to enter at checkout to get the cool new Jeep t-shirt for 50% off.

Enter this code during checkout: cool-blog-reader

Here's a link to this totally cool, fairly obnoxious Jeep tee that sells to everyone else for 18.99. But as a cool blog reader, you can buy it for just 9.49.

http://www.allthingsjeep.com/tra-6795.html

Enjoy.

This past week, to celebrate our birthday, we've been throwing extra goodies into our customers' orders when we ship out the boxes. Some of those goodies have been some of our old bumper stickers that we no longer sell.

Today we got this email from Norm:

I received the decals that I ordered (see below) today.     Thank you for giving me my laugh of the day.  Enclosed was a free "Hummer Recovery Vehicle" decal.  The 'paved roads' sticker is going on a Hummer H1! I am president of the Canadian Hummer Club.   Somehow I don't think my Hummer friends would like to see the yellow "Hummer Recovery Vehicle" with the Jeep towing the Hummer on the back of my vehicle.   I'll pass it on to the next Jeep Rubicon that I see!   Norm London
Canadian Hummer Club
http://www.canadianhummerclub.com/
See website for forums and events.

----- Original Message -----

From: All Things Jeep

To: Customer Norm

Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2008 5:14 PM Subject: Your All Things Jeep Order #88729 has shipped!

18-Sep-2008

Hello,

Thank you again for ordering with All Things Jeep. We appreciate your business.
Your order has shipped!

The items that have shipped are listed below.

==============================================

Ordered: 1 Shipped: 1 ATJ30922 "Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads" White Decal $4.25
Ordered: 1 Shipped: 1 ATJ30169 Paved Roads Decal: Another Fine Example of Unnecessary Government Spending Sticker $5.00
==============================================

So, a little lesson here. Some of our best customers could be HUMMER OWNERS! But now I've learned my lesson, not all Hummer owners are uptight, stuffy, never been off pavement 4x4 owners. Some have a sense of Hummer, oops, I mean HUMOR.  So a shout out to Norm and his Hummer buddies up in Canada. Have fun out there!

Check out this slammin' hoodie! This sweatshirt will rock your world. Forget those old, boring hoodies in the back of your closet. Update your look with our sweet rockstar Jeep Hooded Sweatshirt, available in one place only. Here.  

Available in unisex Sizes Small-3XL starting at $38.

Also available in a tee in sizes small-4xl starting at 18.99

 http://www.allthingsjeep.com/tra-7947-fleece.html

http://www.allthingsjeep.com/tra-7947.html

Heh heh. Got an email recently from Tico, the founder and president of the Maryland Rock Raiders. They have a very cool event planned for Sept 27-28th. It's their 3rd Annual Off-Road Fundraiser to benefit the American Diabetes Association. Here's all the details: www.//www.marylandrockraiders.org/

Sounds like a good time. But when I went to their website and took a look my attention was mostly taken up by the cool little utitlity they have running below the event details that makes your picture look like it's on fire. Kind devilish looking and since we all feel a little daring and devilish when we wheel, how do I get MY picture up there?

Check it out!

So here is the shirt design we've created. I love it. What do you think? Would you wear it? And if so, what would you want to see it on - hoodie, thermal, tee? And if not, why not? Thanks!