I had an 82 CJ7 for twenty some years, towed it behind a motorhome mostly. We spent a lot of time in Mexico on the Sea of Cortez running on sand. The Jeep was a 6cyl 5 speed, really lacked power, if you had to shove in the clutch you were done in the sand. Swapped the 6 out for a tuned port 350 out of an iron camero and added an auto trans with o/d. Made all the difference in the sand. Used to spend about ten days every summer for years in Ouray CO, great off road drives in the San Juan mountains. Got a lot of enjoyment out of that jeep. Yes everyone used to wave. Sold it about 5 years ago.