We're Into Jeeps

TV host and Jeep lover Tiffany Stone, in her own words.

“About a year ago, I had an idea that I wanted to build a Jeep,” said Stone. “And I wanted to build a SEMA-esque type of Jeep.

“So I pushed myself and I made the goal, and a year later this is kind of what we have.”

Trail to SEMA

“I’ve done a bunch of different things in a year, and actually I got the majority of it ready for my first Trail to SEMA I did in 2018.

“It was kind of crazy to have a stock 2018 JL. And then, you know, four months later it has a lift kit and custom exhaust. It has suspension. We changed out the wheels and tires.”

Why Jeeps?

“Really what I love about all the Jeeps is you can have something stock and within a year you can completely transform it and make it into kind of whatever you want.”

Love of cars runs deep

“The love of cars kind of evolved. I worked with Toyo Tires first, and I was an umbrella girl for Formula Drift. And then I was very fortunate to work with Chrysler.

“I was a presenter for about four or five years. You would learn everything about the vehicles, and you would become a presenter.

“Then I got an opportunity to work for Mopar, and that’s kind of where I got to learn about the history and the heritage.”

The call of the desert

“And then, fast-forward a little bit, I started understanding there was a whole other off-road dirt motorsports circuit. I went out west, and then I got into the desert scene.

“And, once I got the taste of Ultra-4s, I realized I could take something like that, like a stock Jeep, and build an Ultra-4 vehicle that can go rock crawling, that could take me out to the desert.

“So, it kind of just started, and it kept going from here until I was like, ‘You know what? I want to do this myself.'”

Facing fears

“When I did Trail to SEMA, I wanted to do something that would make me feel. I wanted to do something that would make me push myself.

“I am deathly afraid of heights, so when I did Moab Rim last year and when you look down and you could just fall hundreds of feet…”

“It’s the competitiveness. It’s the adrenaline. I thrive off that. And, so I think that’s why I built a Jeep, too. Plus it’s an outlet for me.”

Comfortable on camera

“What’s really cool is I interview drivers all day long. I interview drivers about their cars, their trucks, their buggies, their super buggies, their side-by-sides.

“And, finally, what’s really cool is I get an outlet for myself. I get an outlet to be like, ‘You know what? I wonder what that would look like on my Jeep? I wonder what those wheels and tires would look like on my Jeep?’

“And I think this is where I’ll just keep progressing and evolving to build that 4600 or that 4400 Ultra-4 vehicle.”

How Stone defines success

“Everybody always asks, ‘What does success mean to you? What is successful? What does it mean to be successful?’

“There’s a term in the Japanese culture called kaizen. There’s no best, only better. And that is something that I would like to live by because, if you do something that you love, you are always working.

“You’re continuously working to be better than what you were.”