In praise of the Stock JL

[ViperJon]

Topless and doorless on Long Island.

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[_olllllllo_]

Couldn't agree more. I've done a few things - replaced the tires, wheels, bumpers, headlights, taillights, suspension, steering, fenders. seats. Also re-geared, added skid plates, and put in a nuclear-powered engine, but otherwise I'm keeping it stock all the way.

Which nuclear powered engine did you go with? I can’t decided between deuterium or thorium. Such big decisions.

 

[Rubicollie]

This isn’t my first Wrangler, but it is my first Rubi, and I’ve been looking forward to getting it ever since I sold my last Wrangler in 2011. It has left me (almost) speechless with doing EVERYTHING I have asked it to with ease. Showing all the tourists in Arizona that you don’t need to pay for the tourist company Jeep rides
Only mod I’ve done is put light protectors on the fogs, front turn signals, and headlights.

 

[Deleted member 35398]

This isn’t my first Wrangler, but it is my first Rubi, and I’ve been looking forward to getting it ever since I sold my last Wrangler in 2011. It has left me (almost) speechless with doing EVERYTHING I have asked it to with ease. Showing all the tourists in Arizona that you don’t need to pay for the tourist company Jeep rides
Only mod I’ve done is put light protectors on the fogs, front turn signals, and headlights.

Really well done pictures. Please tell me those weren't taken with a phone.

 

[ODDs]

This isn’t my first Wrangler, but it is my first Rubi, and I’ve been looking forward to getting it ever since I sold my last Wrangler in 2011. It has left me (almost) speechless with doing EVERYTHING I have asked it to with ease. Showing all the tourists in Arizona that you don’t need to pay for the tourist company Jeep rides
Only mod I’ve done is put light protectors on the fogs, front turn signals, and headlights.

Beautiful! Where was that at? Looks like Sedona area?

 

[WES IV]

Hurray for stock!
My Wrangler Sport will remain stock because it looks so good plain and simple. Sure I could change it up but why? Mine will be the odd man out I guess.
Pictures to follow of my Firecracker Red machine.

 

[brazos]

Since this thread has come back up, I thought I’d report on what I’ve done to the Jeep I said would stay “mostly stock”:

Rubicon takeoff rock rails $100
Spydertrax 1.75” wheelspacers $230
5 33” Falken Wildpeak AT tires (traded stockers in at DT) $640
Removed rear seat and made flat platform $0
Outback Trailgater table $345

In August I’m going wheeling with @walweb in Colorado, and we’re going to install his takeoff Rubicon suspension. $200

I’m pretty sure that will be all. $1515 total.

I still consider it mostly stock. I also still smile every time I look at it, and take it off-road nearly every day.

Those two up top insist on that.

 

[Sand Flea]

Mostly stock except for a few appearance items (caliper covers, bullet antenna, de-badging) and a few practical items (front 2" receiver and rod holder, rear hatch window LED strip wired to the dome light, and relocating the rear camera because of my Thule bike rack).
The only other thing I might do is to replace the tires with chubbier 'sand friendly' meats.

 

[D60]

What the heck is a caliper cover? I'm not kool enough to know apparently

 

[Sand Flea]

Covers the ugly factory calipers with something a bit nicer.
Look for them at Quadratec.

 

[xtopherm]

Dont take this as disrespecting those of you who modify your Jeeps.
It’s not that at all. I love reading about all the cool stuff y’all do.
When I bought my JLU Sport a couple of months ago, I was expecting to do much of the the same.

But two things have happened since:

1. My stock Jeep has plumb AMAZED me at what it can do. It has done everything I have asked with ease. I’m really only interested in going places, not rock crawling for its own sake, but I’ve gotten into some hairy situations, at least by my standards, and my Jeep has pulled through without issues.
I intend to upgrade tires, and maybe add wheel spacers. That’s it, I think. I hated the plastic bumpers at first, but they look ok to me now.

2. I have noticed that almost every upgrade comes with a downside, usually diminished road performance (handling, noise, mpg), and/or requires further upgrades to address the problems the upgrade caused. (Spare tire issues, speedometer recalibration, new inner fenders, regearing, driveshafts, and on and on.)
It seems to be an endless cycle of “I did this, so now I need to do that”.
I know y’all love that, and I’m not putting it down. At all.

All I’m saying is that it’s a pretty remarkable little road/off-road machine as delivered, and I’m really pleased with it as is. I’m staying mostly stock.

Well said! I was thinking about this very issue much of the day yesterday. I went on a wheeling trip so I had a lot of highway miles, followed by hours on the trail with a mix of Jeeps, followed by hours more on the highway. Lots of time to ponder.

Definitely trade-offs with mods. Cost obviously, but the change in on-road manners is a big one for me. I have a 2019 JLUR and I did the MOPAR 2+ inch lift, 35 inch tires, bumper/winch/lights and some armor on the underside and a trackbar and steering stabilizer.

It is an absolutely beast on the trail - of the dozen or so Jeeps on yesterday's run, even with those relatively mild mods, it was probably most capable overall, and helped tow and winch other Jeeps out of trouble several times. But, you know what? Most of the stock jeeps did amazingly well most of the time. Everyone on the run had at least mildly upgraded tires (none of those Sahara road tires), but there were only a couple other Rubicons with lockers. The open diff deeps could not take the same lines and got stuck a lot more, but overall I think the owners had just as much fun.

Yet even the relatively mild mods I've done were enough to completely change the handling of my JLUR, and not for the better. I've got the longer lower control arms, so my caster is good and my toe in is correct, etc (so it is not an incorrect alignment or anything), but you can really feel those longer springs, the higher center of gravity, the altered roll center with the trackbars (front trackbar is an adjustable steersmarts yeti) the weaker acceleration, the weaker braking. The big tires are much harder to balance, bang around on the road, and make the gearing on my 6-spd manual much taller - too tall to really use 6th for much of anything without re-gearing, which as you point out, is an example of mods necessitating more expensive mods.

So, while it is relatively easy to make some incredible improvements in on the trail performance (as I said, mine is truly a beast - there isn't much, if anything, that I'd want to do that I cannot do with my current rig). But the increased capability does come at a trade-off in terms of $$ cost and on-road handling and driveability.

For me personally it was definitely worth it because I spent 4 stressful years wheeling a stock sport JKU (only upgrade was 31 inch tires) and every club trip was, for me, a bit of an ordeal - scraping the belly, getting stuck constantly, having to be the person to slow the crew down, get the winch help, take the by-pass, leave at lunchtime to avoid the optional black trails, etc. I personally did not enjoy wheeling until I got a slightly more capable rig that had the capability to take on more stuff, clear more stuff, and recover itself if it got stuck. I spent 4 years planning exactly what mods I wanted/needed to be able to do the kind of east coast wheeling my clubs do.

Of course this is a really personal and subjective thing. For me, on balance the mods were definitely worth it - I like to tinker and wrench on the jeep (did them all myself and had a blast), I'm getting accustomed to the on-road handling trade-offs as I drive it more, and I am having vastly more fun on the trail. But I'd be the first to acknowledge that different people might balance the tradeoffs differently. That's the beauty of jeeps - you can do your own thing. Have fun out there and be safe.

 

[ThirtyOne]

Well said! I was thinking about this very issue much of the day yesterday. I went on a wheeling trip so I had a lot of highway miles, followed by hours on the trail with a mix of Jeeps, followed by hours more on the highway. Lots of time to ponder.

Definitely trade-offs with mods. Cost obviously, but the change in on-road manners is a big one for me. I have a 2019 JLUR and I did the MOPAR 2+ inch lift, 35 inch tires, bumper/winch/lights and some armor on the underside and a trackbar and steering stabilizer.

It is an absolutely beast on the trail - of the dozen or so Jeeps on yesterday's run, even with those relatively mild mods, it was probably most capable overall, and helped tow and winch other Jeeps out of trouble several times. But, you know what? Most of the stock jeeps did amazingly well most of the time. Everyone on the run had at least mildly upgraded tires (none of those Sahara road tires), but there were only a couple other Rubicons with lockers. The open diff deeps could not take the same lines and got stuck a lot more, but overall I think the owners had just as much fun.

Yet even the relatively mild mods I've done were enough to completely change the handling of my JLUR, and not for the better. I've got the longer lower control arms, so my caster is good and my toe in is correct, etc (so it is not an incorrect alignment or anything), but you can really feel those longer springs, the higher center of gravity, the altered roll center with the trackbars (front trackbar is an adjustable steersmarts yeti) the weaker acceleration, the weaker braking. The big tires are much harder to balance, bang around on the road, and make the gearing on my 6-spd manual much taller - too tall to really use 6th for much of anything without re-gearing, which as you point out, is an example of mods necessitating more expensive mods.

So, while it is relatively easy to make some incredible improvements in on the trail performance (as I said, mine is truly a beast - there isn't much, if anything, that I'd want to do that I cannot do with my current rig). But the increased capability does come at a trade-off in terms of $$ cost and on-road handling and driveability.

For me personally it was definitely worth it because I spent 4 stressful years wheeling a stock sport JKU (only upgrade was 31 inch tires) and every club trip was, for me, a bit of an ordeal - scraping the belly, getting stuck constantly, having to be the person to slow the crew down, get the winch help, take the by-pass, leave at lunchtime to avoid the optional black trails, etc. I personally did not enjoy wheeling until I got a slightly more capable rig that had the capability to take on more stuff, clear more stuff, and recover itself if it got stuck. I spent 4 years planning exactly what mods I wanted/needed to be able to do the kind of east coast wheeling my clubs do.

Of course this is a really personal and subjective thing. For me, on balance the mods were definitely worth it - I like to tinker and wrench on the jeep (did them all myself and had a blast), I'm getting accustomed to the on-road handling trade-offs as I drive it more, and I am having vastly more fun on the trail. But I'd be the first to acknowledge that different people might balance the tradeoffs differently. That's the beauty of jeeps - you can do your own thing. Have fun out there and be safe.

Good post!

 

[brazos]

I purchased my JLR (delivered 3/19) to join some club runs and jeep/jeepers jamboree's. The Rubicon Trail Jeep/jeeper's jamboree has a requirement of 35" tire minimum. Many of the Jamboree's recommend 35" tires. Also looking at members photo gallerys of just about any 4x4 club, 35" or taller tires are the norm. I will be assessing the need next month when I will be attending Mile High Jeep Clubs All-4-Fun week and Big Horn Jeep Jamboree. Hopefully I can follow a JLR with 35's on a few trails and see how I fare.

Congratulations on the correct spelling of “fare”.

Very rair.

 

[xtopherm]

My Sahara is mostly stock with pretty much quality of life and performance upgrades.

I don't rock crawl and I don't mud. I run the beach sand and fish, so my mods were toward that end.
I have a 2" receiver hitch on the front that mounts my modified 'Angler Rod Racks' surf rod holder.
The other advantage the front receiver gives me is another anchor point if I need to pull out someone who is stuck.

Other than that, I relocated the rear camera next to the rear 2" receiver so I could mount my Thule bike rack.
In addition to hauling bikes, the Thule rack carries sand chairs and umbrellas for a day at the beach.
Keeps the sand (mostly) on the outside.

Beyond that, a bullet antenna, caliper covers, and a really cool interior LED light from Brawlee that lights up the cargo area at night.
The only other things I'm considering are a CB radio for fish reports, and possible a fat set of Nitto 555 street treads to make beach running at 20 pounds a little easier.

Before you spend $$ on new tires for beach driving, try going lower on the air pressure. Even on a C rated tire, 20lbs is not going to get you enough swell for a big soft foot print. In the national seashore in my area, the park rangers insist you go down to 11lbs and will give you a ticket if you don't and you need to get towed out.

 

[Mfdaly1]

Love my stock JLU. 6sp. Only upgrade is hard top.

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