Sometimes the simplest plans are the most effective. While we were at the 2016 King of the Hammers (KOH) in Johnson Valley, California earlier this year, we happened across this sharp 2002 Jeep Wrangler TJ that pays homage to the military.

King of Hammers is no lounge chair car show, held on Means Dry Lake bed every February, while the race would likely bring a stock Jeep Wrangler to its knees, Craig Wiedenhoeft has outfitted this particular TJ with the hardware necessary to take on this grueling event.

While Craig Wiedenhoeft’s Wrangler might have started off life as a garden-variety Jeep that spent much of its early days being towed behind a motor home, it appears to be making up for lost time.

“I’ve always loved Jeeps,” Craig explained. “I had always wanted to build one, and eventually I found the right one. I was looking for a few specifics: it had to be stock, a TJ, five-speed, and well taken care of. Fortunately, I found this one in 2012 with only 59,000 miles on it. It had been trailered behind a motorhome by an older gentleman, so it fit the bill perfectly.”

Craig named the Wrangler M1A1 as a tribute to the original Jeep. First built by American Bantam before being passed to Willys Overland and Ford to scale up production, the Jeep ended up becoming instrumental in the Allied war effort during World War II and was supplied to American, British, and Russian troops across the globe.

Decals on the sides of the hood pay tribute to the original Jeeps used by the Armed Forces in World War II, which would be denoted as the M1A1 iteration of the Jeep by military nomenclature.

The original Jeep is credited by many military historians as being one of the most important pieces of equipment in the Allied Forces during the war due to its durability, light weight, and off-road capability.

“The military uses M1 to specify the first model of a particular piece of equipment, and A1 would denote that equipment as being the first variant of that piece of equipment,” Craig pointed out.

Before Craig took ownership of the Wrangler it had spent much of its time hitched to the back of a motor home, making the bone-stock TJ a perfect candidate for the build Craig had in mind. He knew he wouldn’t run the risk of having to backtrack through someone else’s work to create a proper template for his vision. Rolling stock on the Wrangler is now a set of 35-inch Dick Cepek Crushers wrapped around 12.5×15 inch alloys. Barricade flat fenders provide the needed clearance for the larger tires.

After taking delivery of this particular Jeep, it wasn’t long before this fan of all things outdoors from Sacramento, California got to work modifying the Wrangler for more off-road capability – a four-year project that’s still an ongoing process.

“I started off with a simple lift kit,” Craig said. “By now I’ve upgraded almost every part of the suspension.” Of course, other elements of the Jeep have been upgraded along the way as well.

Much like the exterior, the engine bay is all business. While the internals on the 4.0-liter in-line six cylinder are unchanged from stock, Craig modified the intake, throttle body and exhaust to allow the Jeep to breath a bit easier. Even in its relatively stock form, the Wrangler’s power plant is a far cry from the Willys Go Devil engine that powered the original off-roader, which made all of 60 horsepower and about 100 lb-ft of torque, yielding a top speed of about 65 mph.

“The Dana 44 G2 axles have really expanded my wheeling capabilities,” he added. “Those are probably my favorite modification so far.” Housed inside the differentials are 4:56 gears which undoubtedly give the Wrangler a big mechanical advantage at low speeds versus the stock gearing, and an ARB air locker helps the Jeep get the power where it’s needed most when the terrain gets challenging.

While the Wrangler’s 4.0-liter inline six cylinder powerplant remains mostly unchanged from stock, it does breath easier by way of a K&N air filter, a throttle body spacer, and a Banks cat-back exhaust system.

The exterior of the Wrangler emphasizes function and enhanced capability above all else, essentially foregoing any purely aesthetic augmentation aside from a few decals. Fortunately that ends up cutting a pretty sharp figure anyway, as the original black paint is complemented by four Rigid Industries D2 LED lights on the light bar and a pair of Pro Comp flood lights on the front bumper from Barricade. Barricade also provided the fender flares that allow the 35-inch Dick Cepek rubber to clear the body work, while the hood louvers were sourced from Poison Spyder.

Next to the Banks-sourced cat-back exhaust system you can spot one of the Tom Woods custom driveshafts Craig installed on the Wrangler, which hook up to Dana 44 G2 axles with ARB lockers and 4:56 gears. He says these axles are his favorite modification to date, and we’d expect that the swap from the stock axles was fairly transformative for rock crawling duty, particularly with the steeper gear ratios.

The Wrangler sits on a Fox lift kit that provides three inches of lift from the springs and an additional one inch body lift. A set of Currie Johnny Joint control arms, a Currie adjustable track bar, and a Currie Currectlync heavy-duty tie rod system round out the suspension modifications. A Teraflex 4:1 transfer case has been fitted as well, keeping the crawl ratio extremely low while still providing a 1:1 ratio for everyday highway driving.

While Craig says the Wrangler continues to be an ongoing project, he says there is one thing he would have done differently if he had to it all over again, “At this point I would prefer it had a long arm lift kit.”

Long arm lifts are generally considered to provide a smoother ride on the road because the wheel travel has a larger radius work with, and therefore has a less dramatic curve that a short arm kit would. The longer, smoother curve of a long arm lift design tends to quell jostling and bumping by reducing push-back energy in the suspension.

By contrast, a short arm lift attaches to the stock control arm mount. As the length of the short arm lift increases, the angle made by the arm and the downward force of gravity becomes smaller, which in turn translates in vertical energy, resulting in a ride that tends to be less smooth while on pavement.

Like any proper off-roading machine, Craig’s M1A1 Wrangler protects the important mechanicals that are exposed in the undercarriage by full accoutrement of skid plates, including steering box, engine, transmission and belly up transfer case skid plates by Teraflex and a gas tank skid plate sourced from Rockmen.

The hassle-free design of the Jeep keeps modification headaches to a minimum, making the prospect of swapping out parts something Craig often looks forward to. “It’s been a fun build and everything is so damn easy on a TJ,” he noted. “With the exception of the louvers and flares, everything is bolt on. It’s just fun to work on.”

Considered one of the toughest off-road races anywhere in the world the KOH event has expanded from one race to a series of five races held throughout the week. Event classes include dirt bikes, quads, and other off-road vehicles, and attracts more than 400 teams and 30,000 spectators every year.

All things considered, we’d say Craig’s M1A1 TJ Jeep Wrangler is a well-sorted build as it stands now, but we look forward to seeing what he has in store in the future, and watching it run in future off-road events.

Craig’s build can not only tackle both the desert racing and rock crawling demands of the King of Hammers race, he can also comfortably drive it home when the event is over.