Two Years of Wheeling, 32 badge trails 39,000+ miles, a short report out on trail damage and general observations.

[wibornz]

I do love me some wheelin stories... great write up Ted, and tell your wife I can empathize with her about being vertical.

The funny thing is she drives all the hard stuff as I usually am the spotter for our group. She is fearless, Out on the Rubicon trail, I spotted her through a difficult section and as she crawls by I say, pull and go as far as you feel comfortable with out a spot, if you think you need a spot, stop and I will come up after I get the other three Jeeps through this obstacle. I take a couple steps turn back and she has the rear drivers wheel up on a bolder about 4 ft high and then drops off a ledge and disiappears, I listen for a yard sale of our stuff getting thrown all over the trail as she flips the Jeep over. Nope, she is just comfortable with going from a full flex in the rear to dropping off a ledge and disappearing out of my view. I get the other Jeeps through and think to myself, fuck she drove that with out a spotter.

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[wibornz]

@wibornz first thanks for sharing and you really have enjoyed your Wrangler.

Second can you explain the diff issue systems a bit more. We have wheeled our 18 but not a ton. When we try to put it in 4 lo it struggles to go in. It then also “pops” out very often. Folks around me have always said that’s normal. This is our first Wrangler so I do not know what “normal” is.

There is a sensor in the rear end for a Dana JL44 axle. It reads the position of the locker and tells the computer in the JL how to display it on the fancy display for the Rubicon. It has no other real function other than to make a fancy display on the 8.4 off road display or the center dash display. This sensor is not sealed correctly and get contaminated with diff fluid causing it to not read correctly. The sensor eventually fails and throws a code that lights up a "service axle locker" light on the dash. There is nothing wrong with the locker, but the sensor can not read the position of the locker as it is contaminated with diff fluid. The computer then will not allow the lockers to be locked. There is nothing wrong with the whole rear end other than the sensor. The sensor is not used only on the Rubicon. So you can use a Dana JL 44 with a locker on a Sport or Sahara as the sensor is not required to make the locker work and the Sport and Sahara does not have the necessary software to rear the sensor anyways. The only thing you need to run the locker is two wires a hot and a negative to power the locker.

In my eyes this is Jeeps biggest failure with the JL Rubicon model. They will not sell you the sensor. I had to buy a whole new rear axle to get a sensor. Then that sensor lasted just over 2000 miles into a 5734 mile wheeling trip. I when I got home from the trip, Z Automotive released their bypass harness and solved the problem.

This thread will give you the full story about your question.
https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/“service-axle-locker-system”-light-on.13241/

 

[CaptStarboard]

@wibornz first thanks for sharing and you really have enjoyed your Wrangler.

Second can you explain the diff issue systems a bit more. We have wheeled our 18 but not a ton. When we try to put it in 4 lo it struggles to go in. It then also “pops” out very often. Folks around me have always said that’s normal. This is our first Wrangler so I do not know what “normal” is.

Not going into 4Low does not sound normal. Granted the Jeep is a hard manual shift into 4Low, but if you're in Neutral and on flat ground it should slip in flawless and STAY there during all wheeling. Have you checked to make sure something is not blocking the shift? trim? carpet? cables under the rig? something bent on the tranny connection?

That just doesn't sound right and would F' up you wanting to 4wd!

Cheers,
Capt Starboard

 

[Goin2drt]

There is a sensor in the rear end for a Dana JL44 axle. It reads the position of the locker and tells the computer in the JL how to display it on the fancy display for the Rubicon. It has no other real function other than to make a fancy display on the 8.4 off road display or the center dash display. This sensor is not sealed correctly and get contaminated with diff fluid causing it to not read correctly. The sensor eventually fails and throws a code that lights up a "service axle locker" light on the dash. There is nothing wrong with the locker, but the sensor can not read the position of the locker as it is contaminated with diff fluid. The computer then will not allow the lockers to be locked. There is nothing wrong with the whole rear end other than the sensor. The sensor is not used only on the Rubicon. So you can use a Dana JL 44 with a locker on a Sport or Sahara as the sensor is not required to make the locker work and the Sport and Sahara does not have the necessary software to rear the sensor anyways. The only thing you need to run the locker is two wires a hot and a negative to power the locker.

In my eyes this is Jeeps biggest failure with the JL Rubicon model. They will not sell you the sensor. I had to buy a whole new rear axle to get a sensor. Then that sensor lasted just over 2000 miles into a 5734 mile wheeling trip. I when I got home from the trip, Z Automotive released their bypass harness and solved the problem.

This thread will give you the full story about your question.
https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/“service-axle-locker-system”-light-on.13241/

Thanks for the explanation. That kind of sucks.

Not going into 4Low does not sound normal. Granted the Jeep is a hard manual shift into 4Low, but if you're in Neutral and on flat ground it should slip in flawless and STAY there during all wheeling. Have you checked to make sure something is not blocking the shift? trim? carpet? cables under the rig? something bent on the tranny connection?

That just doesn't sound right and would F' up you wanting to 4wd!

Cheers,
Capt Starboard

To be honest most of the time I have tried shifting it into Lo was not on flat ground. My dumb a$$ is usually about to get stuck so then I decide to shift into Lo. I will just mess with it in the driveway and see how it works.

 

[wibornz]

Thanks for the explanation. That kind of sucks.

To be honest most of the time I have tried shifting it into Lo was not on flat ground. My dumb a$$ is usually about to get stuck so then I decide to shift into Lo. I will just mess with it in the driveway and see how it works.

The more you shift into 4 low the easier it becomes. It is something that just has to get used to smooth it out.

 

[sf5211]

The more you shift into 4 low the easier it becomes. It is something that just has to get used to smooth it out.

This is true. I’ve gotten into the habit of shifting into 4 low once a day just to break it in better. It’s much better after a year and a half.
Hey Ted, nice write up on your Jeep and adventures. Also, I’m buying a piece of land in upstate NY. How do you like that small camper? My brother has a house across the road but I’m thinking about buying o small camper too.

 

[wibornz]

This is true. I’ve gotten into the habit of shifting into 4 low once a day just to break it in better. It’s much better after a year and a half.
Hey Ted, nice write up on your Jeep and adventures. Also, I’m buying a piece of land in upstate NY. How do you like that small camper? My brother has a house across the road but I’m thinking about buying o small camper too.

Love the trailer. We sleep great in it and it is easy to spend extended time out on trips with it.

 

[Bran]

Great write up Ted!! Thank you for sharing that, I'm up to a whopping 3300 miles on my daily driver JLUR now and loving it! I looked up the Z Locker Bypass on their website and they do a fairly good explanation about the sensor, and locker not being available, and the national shortage of DANA 44 axles. Looks like cheap insurance at about $180. Good info!!

 

[timn1984]

Great writeup , I am going on over 2 yrs and almost 20,000 miles. My adventure is really dull compared to yours. I could write mine in one sentence. Went to see grandkids in Nashville, they moved from Nashville to Lexington, Went to see them in Lexington. Boring story but priorities rule. Maybe some wheeling in the future.

 

[av8or]

Thanks for the great report! I’m at 9 months and 20k with (only) 6 badge of honor trails and have had little to complain about. I did have steering issues, but those were resolved with the TSB. Also had a stability control light that was most likely my own fault. Dealer fixed it with re-centering the steering wheel and a “hard” reset of the computer.

eventually I will get off my lazy ass and do a full review. I will have some things to say about the Mopar lift when I do. I will probably have a different lift soon, if that’s any indicator of what I think about it.

 

[cosine]

The funny thing is she drives all the hard stuff as I usually am the spotter for our group.

there's a reason to this. the spotter gets the blame if something breaks on the jeep. so she's the smart one. its your jeep. you spotted her. something breaks while she is driving. its automatically your fault.

i've spotted my brother and if he gets stuck. its my fault (partially , but not all the time). however, i'm the one that have to get into the slop and run the winch line out and get him out of the crap that i "spotted" him into which was his line he decided to run.

 

[cosine]

great post on the durability of the jl and the lifestyle you the sidekick have done with the jeep.

 

[me109stock]

So I picked up the JLUR back in Nov of 2018.

And immediately put 37s on it. Then started wheeling it the two days later.

Next week, the JLUR will be two years old. This is a current picture from today.

Here is a pics of the 32 badges that we have done. We have also wheeled many non-badge trails around the country also. Almost flipped the JLUR over backwards at Rausch Creek.

The bead lock rings took a beating though...

The only damage the Jeep took was on the last badge trail that we ran in Pennsylvania at Rausch Creek called Crawl Daddy. There was a rock sticking out that scrubbed the passenger rear fender flare. Not bad considering the trails we have ran over the last two years.

Almost. My bud Gary was stacking rocks to help get the nose of the Jeep back down. This happened as my wife was backing down the hill climb. She made it to the top, but the breakover angle was to much for her to crest the top.

This gives you a better view of how steep it was.

Things that I have had repaired over the two years that was not general maintenance...

I or maybe my wife twisted an axle while wheeling in Moab or the Rubicon trail.

I replaced the stock axles with Yukon Heavy Duty Chromalloy axles.

The dealer fixed a valve cover gasket that was leaking oil onto a O2 sensor.
I had the sensor in the rear diff go bad so I bought an axle to get a new sensor. That sensor went bad and then fixed that problem with the Z Automotive locker bypass harness. Jeep still pisses me off over the sensor in the rear of the Jeep.

The JLUR has been driven hard and has towed this camper over 14,000 miles in one year.

I have not had any steering issues or Uconnect issues, or any of the other problems that some have experienced other than the Service axle locker light as described above. My Tazer JLmini has worked flawlessly. I wish that I would have bought 67 Design stuff first instead of last. I put a CB in my Jeep, used it one time. I bought a Mopar Sun Shade, used it one time.

Love the Bestop Sunrider. I use this all the time. Love the ARB fridge. I tinted the side windows and tinted a strip across the windshield at first I was like meh for the strip across the windshield. After a week, It grew on me and I would absolutely do it again. You can see it in the current picture at the beginning. The ACE Engineering rear bumper and Stand Alone Tire carrier has been flawless and I would buy them again. I am suprised at how well the Roam Side Step Armor has held up. It is the body mounted version and has taken a pounding at Windrock, Rausch Creek, Moab, and the Rubicon Trail. Love the Roam front Bumper. I love how the winch is tucked down under the radiator and is almost hidden. I have a Smittybuilt X2O 12,000 pound winch that has worked everytime that I needed it. That sounds glamorous, but it has only been twice for recovery. The bad thing is the wireless function stopped working a few weeks after I got the winch. Note, I do spool it out and back in before each major Jeep adventure.

Very pleased with how well this thing is holding up considering it is not a daily driver and is used primarily as a drive to trail rig all over the US.

What lift are you running?

 

[Black Jeep Convertible]

Now I feel better about my used JL with 27k rental miles full of strangers.

 

[MNWrangx2]

and hey if anyone has a passenger rear fender flare, I am looking for one.

That's the first thing I broke too.

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