Cherokee "police package" welding?

[tbburg]

I was screwing around the other day on allpar.com and came across an article on mopar "police package" and "fleet" vehicles. Link here Almost on a side note, the article mentioned that many of the weld seams on the fleet use vehicles were double and even triple welded.

If a metal body seam in a Plymouth called for three spot welds per inch to put it together, Plymouth put nine!,... ...,Besides the extra welds, there were heavy duty panels, extra cross members, and body stiffeners that were not always included in Chrysler shop manuals.

There are talking about older chrysler fleet vehicles, but I got me wondering:
Did other manufacturers use the same procedures for "fleets", and if so:
Did they continue this into the 80s/90s, and if so:
Is there a difference between regular and fleet Cherokees that would make the fleet service vehicles more suitable for competition use?

Would probably be easy enough to check by comparing the number of spot welds on a standard and police wagon in the front inner fender pinch seam, the firewall/cowl pinch seam and the door pillar seams. Anybody know the answer or have an ex-cop wagon laying around?

 

[souske]

I have a FS XJ, I wouldnt think this was the case, as my 96 was much stiffer.

 

[Goatman]

I would doubt it, the XJ was originally built by AMC.

 

[ILLXJ]

I haven't noticed any differance between mine & Hales. They are both 96's. JIM.

 

[Begster]

I had a '99 2 door that was originally a government vehicle, and with 150K on it, you could see the frame rail around the steering box moving when you turned the vehicle, and it looked like some of the pinch welds around the area had broke. I ended up stripping the entire car to just the shell, and I didn't notice anything that was extra strong or different.

 

[HollisM16]

I'm willing to check mine against anyone else's... former Forest Ranger vehicle. It came with all the skids (front, t-case, gas tank) but I haven't noticed anything special about the body flex.

I do know that Jason Lafortune (TMR: Temper-Mental Racing) typically buys the former government fleet vehicles for Jeepspeed racing, which is where I got the idea to get mine from a government auction. Maybe he already figured this out...? Or maybe it's just because you can get them cheaper from Uncle Sam. =)

 

[XJJack]

I'm willing to check mine against anyone else's... former Forest Ranger vehicle. It came with all the skids (front, t-case, gas tank) but I haven't noticed anything special about the body flex.

I do know that Jason Lafortune (TMR: Temper-Mental Racing) typically buys the former government fleet vehicles for Jeepspeed racing, which is where I got the idea to get mine from a government auction. Maybe he already figured this out...? Or maybe it's just because you can get them cheaper from Uncle Sam. =)

That is because AJAX buys them in groups when they are avalible then Jason and the rest of us can buy them from them everyday for cheap.
They usually come 2 door manual with all the things you want to start with and non of the things you want to replace.

 

[1985xjlaredo]

I know that my 85 had thicker sheet metal than my 88. The fender was alot heavier than the one on the 88. Hood was heavier also