About to buy a jl

[mwilk012]

The problem with 37's and daily driving only on pavement is that you are sacrificing a lot for just looks. Gas mileage goes out the window, acceleration suffers (even with the new 8-speed, sorry), steering will be...different. You may even find it uncomfortable.

On top of this, you seem unfamiliar with the vehicle itself. The "Unlimited" title simply refers to the four door variant. Sport, Sport S, Sahara, and Rubicon are the trim levels, with prices increasing in that order. Honestly, if you are planning on lifting and installing wheels and tires anyway, for pavement I wouldn't recommend a Rubicon. You'll never use the features that you are paying for.

Sure, some of the posts are a bit on the harsh end of the spectrum, but most people just suggest you rethink this decision. If you only seek validation and not a legitimate response, why post it on a public forum?

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[$uicide$hift]

The problem with 37's and daily driving only on pavement is that you are sacrificing a lot for just looks. Gas mileage goes out the window, acceleration suffers (even with the new 8-speed, sorry), steering will be...different. You may even find it uncomfortable.

To add to this you should know that you are adding a lot of rotational mass by going with a 37 inch tire. That is a tremendous amount of extra weight that will add more strain to the entire drive train. People do this all the time but don't think about the adverse affects. If you think that regular maintenance will suffice with this change you are in for some more frequent expensive repairs down the road.

Your braking performance will suffer, you will go through brake pads quicker, and you will wear out drive train and steering compoments quicker than normal. The Jeep will also handle and drive differently, it may be more flighty on the road as well as increased noise levels. If you are OK with this go for it. You may however find that in the long run the modification was not worth it for just looks.

As the old saying goes, you want to play, you have to pay. Just because you won't be going off road does not mean that this modification will not increase wear throughout your drive train.

 

[Ausreed93]

See these are respectable replies, which I appreciate. I get the whole pay to play. Been doing that with my Tacoma since being on 35s. 37s are something I'll reconsider, but I'm pretty dead set on the wrangler. Is the Rubicon that much nicer to be worth the extra 10k? From what I've read and seen in videos it's all mainly off-road beef up modifications, which I'm thinking may help reliability for 35s or 37s as a daily.

 

[JL2018]

Troll? Really? 1st post is this? Please be the one who comes into my dealership and wants this....

That was my thought also

 

[mwilk012]

See these are respectable replies, which I appreciate. I get the whole pay to play. Been doing that with my Tacoma since being on 35s. 37s are something I'll reconsider, but I'm pretty dead set on the wrangler. Is the Rubicon that much nicer to be worth the extra 10k? From what I've read and seen in videos it's all mainly off-road beef up modifications, which I'm thinking may help reliability for 35s or 37s as a daily.

You can simply regear a Sahara to 4.10. The Sahara is more of the luxury package without paying for the off-road equipment.

 

[$uicide$hift]

See these are respectable replies, which I appreciate. I get the whole pay to play. Been doing that with my Tacoma since being on 35s. 37s are something I'll reconsider, but I'm pretty dead set on the wrangler. Is the Rubicon that much nicer to be worth the extra 10k? From what I've read and seen in videos it's all mainly off-road beef up modifications, which I'm thinking may help reliability for 35s or 37s as a daily.

You are wrong in regard to the off road beef up modifications making it able to handle bigger tires better. What makes the Jeep better for rock crawling is the transfer case with low gear ratio and the solid axles with softer suspension and more articulation along with better approach, break over, and departure angles.

Any vehicle that you lift and add larger tires to are going to see increased wear and behave differently on the road. People that want to build an off road rig with big lift and tires generally will go with a Sport model as they will be replacing the standard axles with Dana 60's so the Rubicon is not a value to them.

You can get this look but if you only do lift and tires with no other upgrades you will be causing a lot more strain and wear to all other components depending on how big you go. If you spend thousands to upgrade all other affected components you will be better off but you are still making changes that make the Jeep not as desirable for on road use. I think this is why people think you are trolling. You state you won't do any actual off road but want a rig that looks like it could climb a mountain.

I created a thread that has links and gives you a starter for what you will want to think about. From here you can google things further to get more detailed information to help you decide what you are willing to deal with / sacrifice for the look you want.

https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/do-i-need-a-lift-and-tires.4889/

 

[Scottroxxx]

if you re-gear and do a proper suspension set up gas mileage and handling will be just fine for a daily driver. If you are worried about gas mileage don't get a wrangler at all.

 

[Muzzle of Bees]

Not everyone lives next to trails. The closest thing I have to trails is the beach, which I do frequent every weekend. I doubt most people who lift jeeps even on 35s actually off-road regularly. So what if I want 37s. I like the way it looks. Also wanted something I can take the top off. Well sounds like a jeep is good for me.

But if what y'all are telling me is a jeep can't do 100,000 miles in 5 years I don't want one. Sounds like reliablity issues.

Okay keyboard warriors carry on. Tell me about how y'all off-road at Moab every weekend and don't daily drive y'alls jeep because you have your bmw 7 series you drive daily

Why would ground clearance between the two models be an issue at sea level?

 

[mwilk012]

Why would ground clearance between the two models be an issue at sea level?

For playing Boat after hurricane flooding.

 

[Bluegoose972]

Yep, bought my Rubicon to be my daily driver. Yep, I put a lift and mounted 37" tires. Yep, I put bling, bling wheels on it...Had polished wheels on my Ram and I have polished wheels on my Jeep....not a fan of the black and it's my Jeep. I've had 4x4's my entire life and really enjoy driving them. I don't complain about the ride and I know the gas mileage will be down. It's what makes me happy and could care less what everyone else thinks.

Acceleration...No it isn't like driving a Hemi, but I'll put it up against a JK with an automatic all day long. This new 8 speed with the lower gears makes a huge difference. I test drove both a JK an JL before making much purchase and it was pretty night and day to me. Haven't driven a 6 speed manual and I think it would be fun to have, but my wife would never drive it and I want her to enjoy it also.

Gear Ratio...The Jeep performs great around town, but suffers on the highway with the 4.10 and 8 speed. Essentially, it doesn't want to go and stay in the 8th speed, 2nd overdrive, except when running down hill or flat with no wind. Problem is that with 37" tires, the overdrive drops the RPM's down to 1500 which is outside the effective torque range. Will be changing gears later this year to 4.88 to get the overdrive back into the right range. But for around town driving, you don't need to worry about the 8th gear.

Brakes...The new JL Rubicon comes with a big brake kit. This thing has no problem stopping the larger tires.

Gas Mileage...Just returned from a 170 mile road trip. Averaged 18.2 mpg and getting about 15 mpg around town (still a little early to tell). I'll takes those numbers all day long with 37" tires. And I'll probably get less MPG around town as this thing is really fun to drive.

Is it a Mall Crawler? Maybe. But I have already joined a local Offroad Club and look forward to taking it out and playing on the easy to moderate trails. I look forward to pulling the top off on the weekends. I look forward to pulling a trailer down to get firewood or materials for projects from Home Depot. Will I take it offroad...absolutely. But I'm not stupid and willing to take the risk of tearing up my daily driver by trying to show off my Jeep...have nothing to prove.

Just my $0.02.

 

[Bluegoose972]

if you re-gear and do a proper suspension set up gas mileage and handling will be just fine for a daily driver. If you are worried about gas mileage don't get a wrangler at all.

Not aimed at you Scottroxx...Just happened to be the message I replied to.

 

[Ruby Jack]

Going to get a jeep this week. First one ever so forgive me I'm kind of new to this but I have a couple of questions.

From my understanding the Rubicon and unlimited are different heights and the Rubicon comes with 4.10 gears and I read somewhere beefier axles.

My main goal is to run 37s. This will be my daily driver (about 20k miles a year) and i don't do much offloading, just go to the beach every weekend and may hit some soft sand. Ultimately just want it for looks. So I'll be adding a lift kit. With either model would I achieve the same ride height or would the Rubicon be taller because it started taller? Also are the 4.10 gears necessary or can I get away with the smaller base gearing?

Also I'm leaning towards a manual gear box just because an 8 speed seems problematic especially for bigger tires...

Any thoughts and inputs would be greatly appreciated.

If you don't plan on off roading and do plan on putting 20k miles on it a year as a daily driver, I'd suggest you get a Sahara and just use stock tires/suspension.

The Sahara is the "luxury" model, but is still quite off-road ready, so you get the best of both worlds.

 

[Ruby Jack]

Not everyone lives next to trails. The closest thing I have to trails is the beach, which I do frequent every weekend. I doubt most people who lift jeeps even on 35s actually off-road regularly. So what if I want 37s. I like the way it looks. Also wanted something I can take the top off. Well sounds like a jeep is good for me.

But if what y'all are telling me is a jeep can't do 100,000 miles in 5 years I don't want one. Sounds like reliablity issues.

Okay keyboard warriors carry on. Tell me about how y'all off-road at Moab every weekend and don't daily drive y'alls jeep because you have your bmw 7 series you drive daily

Lol... I don't get why you are getting offended by the replies.

Let's look at it from another car comparison. A Rubicon is sort of like a Mustang GT350-R. It's a specialized model built for a specific thing in mind. In the GT250-R's case, it's tracking in the Rubicon's case it's trailing.

What you want to do is basically spend more money for a specialized vehicle that is good at that one specific thing at the cost of many others. It won't be as comfortable, it'll be harder to drive, it'll have less electronic features at the cost of being better at the one job it does. Why would you spend $10k+ more to be more miserable while road driving it? Why get a GT350-R for daily driving when you can save a ton of money and get the GT350 and look just as cool, go 90% as fast, but also be a lot more comfortable in the 99.9999999% of the time when you're not tracking it?


That is why you are getting so many "WTF" replies. You want to pay more for a specialized vehicle and then not use it for it's intended purposes. If you're not going to off road it, there are 10000 other models out there that is legit better for you. And yes FCA has pretty shit quality and I'd be impressed if my Jeep lasted 100k miles... If you want better quality, look into the 4Runner TRD, that might be a better choice for what you're looking for.

 

[Stuff]

See these are respectable replies, which I appreciate. I get the whole pay to play. Been doing that with my Tacoma since being on 35s. 37s are something I'll reconsider, but I'm pretty dead set on the wrangler. Is the Rubicon that much nicer to be worth the extra 10k? From what I've read and seen in videos it's all mainly off-road beef up modifications, which I'm thinking may help reliability for 35s or 37s as a daily.

Is the Rubicon 10k nicer? Not really. I wouldn't say it's "nicer" at all, just more capable and stronger. I guess you can get leather and the bigger screen...

From what is sounds like, you don't sound like you need most of what a Rubicon offers. However, you're set on 37's, yes the Rubicon has the upgraded axles and 37s weigh a lot. It's not clear yet where the line of what the JL's axles can survive, but in the previous generation JK Wrangler, you really didn't want to put on bigger than 35s on a Sport/Sahara. So, if you're dead set on 37s, I'd highly recommend the Rubicon, even though you'll probably never want stuff like the lockers.

To me, 37s are the perfect size tire for the JL, so I don't blame you one bit for being set on them. I'm going 35s eventually though, for my axle's sake.

Good luck on whatever you choose.

 

[kdog]

I own a 2012 JKU with 2" lift and 35" tires. I have ordered a JLU Rubicon. Here is my two cents.

I am buying a Rubicon as a daily driver (inner city Houston) because i think the 33" tires and stock set up is a great compromise between "aggressive look" and comfort/ride quality. I found the lifted JK w 35's to be serviceable but a little rough for daily. I also love that the Rubi comes stock with higher fender lines that can accommodate 35's with no lift. I spent 7k to lift the JK and add the wheel/tires so i consider the difference in price from a Rubi vs Sahara to be a fair deal.

I would buy a Rubi and drive it stock for a while. If its not aggressive enough for your taste, add 35's. If that doesn't work add a lift. and so on.

As far as if the Rubicon is worth 10 k more. I think so. I also think a loaded Rubicon is a bargain compared to the other vehicles i would consider driving (Land Cruiser 80k for example).

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