Crawl Ratio In Sport S Manual?

[SamJ]

Hey everyone! In the market for a JLU. Struggling to decide which model to go with. I want to buy the 6 speed manual for everyday driving. I am worried about the 10% of time I will be on trails out west or in the dunes of Michigan. What is the crawl ratio between the sport s and the rubicon? I would feel more confident in 4lo with lockers if I am heading up a mountain pass but not sure I should be spending the extra cash at this point in my life to go Rubicon. Would the sport manual in 1st and 4lo crawl well in tricky trails?

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[Sean L]

Hey everyone! In the market for a JLU. Struggling to decide which model to go with. I want to buy the 6 speed manual for everyday driving. I am worried about the 10% of time I will be on trails out west or in the dunes of Michigan. What is the crawl ratio between the sport s and the rubicon? I would feel more confident in 4lo with lockers if I am heading up a mountain pass but not sure I should be spending the extra cash at this point in my life to go Rubicon. Would the sport manual in 1st and 4lo crawl well in tricky trails?

Sport, S, Sahara with Manual transmission will have a 48.1:1 ratio in first gear and 4LO

A Rubicon will have a ratio of 84.1:1 ratio in 1st Gear and 4LO.

Its A Much lower crawl ratio that makes it so good on the rocks. If you have a lot of rock crawling in your future go for the Rubicon. If not you can save a lot of cash by going with the Sport.

Edit: The automatic transmissions will be:

44.2:1 Sport, S, Sahara and MOAB in 1st gear and 4LO

77.2:1 for the Rubicon in 1st Gear and 4LO

 

[Will]

I will share my two cents on two vehicles I’ve owned that apply best to your question:

I owned a 04 TJ “X” which is essentially a sport and will have a similar crawl ratio to a JL sport. I daily drove it and rock-crawled it regularly, typically once a month, and never felt that my crawl ratio or the T-case was lacking any juice.

Fast forward and we currently have a JLU Rubicon which my wife daily drives and we love taking it on little adventures including rock crawling. 4-low in that thing (it’s an automatic), to me, is obnoxiously low. Don’t get me wrong, if we’re talking crawl ratios it’s the king and when you need it you love it. It has walked up vertical ledges with little gas and a lot of obstacles with no gas at all. Still, I found myself swapping from 4-low to 4-high on some trails where I used to leave it in 4low for the whole trail. Not too big a deal to me and for comfort you will do that on some trails no matter what model you’re driving. I also find myself utilizing the bump shift on the auto a lot and that is a big plus.

I guess my take would be, all JLs are very capable. I would say the lockers would be a bigger sale than the transfer case on the Rubicon but they go hand in hand with low gearing.

I absolutely love the 8-spd auto.

Hope that helps!

 

[WXman]

My JKU with 3.6 and manual trans was surprisingly good on the trails. Since the JLU has better stock axle ratios and a deeper 1st gear, it should be even better.

Having said that I'd still go automatic on a JL all day er' day.

 

[fat_head]

Lockers are a much bigger deal than the transfer case (in most cases for most people) I bought a Sport because I didn't want to finance a bunch of things I knew I would upgrade or replace in the future. I take my Sport (auto) all over the place. Rock crawling isn't my gig so the low range transfer case wasn't that important to me. The times I wish I had the Rubicons low range isn't going up the sides of mountains, it's coming down them. Engine braking would be nice.

 

[SamJ]

All great feedback! I'll be doing more basic trails and mountain passes not so much extreme rock crawls. For those of you with a manual is it true you don't need to use the clutch in 4lo 1st gear? If that's the case I feel like if I do come across more technical parts I can drop it in 1st 4lo and just worry about the gas a break. I drove the auto and it is really nice but I want to get better with a manual so this will be my daily for a while.

 

[Sean L]

All great feedback! I'll be doing more basic trails and mountain passes not so much extreme rock crawls. For those of you with a manual is it true you don't need to use the clutch in 4lo 1st gear? If that's the case I feel like if I do come across more technical parts I can drop it in 1st 4lo and just worry about the gas a break. I drove the auto and it is really nice but I want to get better with a manual so this will be my daily for a while.

You'll still need to use the clutch from a stop... but with a Rubicon in 4LO as far as I know you'll be able to idle up some steep grades without needing to feather the clutch or throttle up.

 

[AlamedaJeep]

All great feedback! I'll be doing more basic trails and mountain passes not so much extreme rock crawls. For those of you with a manual is it true you don't need to use the clutch in 4lo 1st gear? If that's the case I feel like if I do come across more technical parts I can drop it in 1st 4lo and just worry about the gas a break. I drove the auto and it is really nice but I want to get better with a manual so this will be my daily for a while.

I have a Sport S, so this is from that perspective.

As far as not needing the clutch in 4L, you can start the engine in 4L (press the button) without depressing the clutch and get it going that way if you want to.

The crawl ratio on the Sport is obviously not as low as on the Rubicon, but it is still pretty low. Once you get moving it is pretty hard to kill it, and you can crawl slowly with no gas.

 

[Spank]

Hey everyone! In the market for a JLU. Struggling to decide which model to go with. I want to buy the 6 speed manual for everyday driving. I am worried about the 10% of time I will be on trails out west or in the dunes of Michigan. What is the crawl ratio between the sport s and the rubicon? I would feel more confident in 4lo with lockers if I am heading up a mountain pass but not sure I should be spending the extra cash at this point in my life to go Rubicon. Would the sport manual in 1st and 4lo crawl well in tricky trails?

The JL Sport is plenty capable on the trail. The trail and crawling capabilities between a Sport and Rubicon aren't as significant as the price difference makes you think.

 

[SamJ]

I have a Sport S, so this is from that perspective.

As far as not needing the clutch in 4L, you can start the engine in 4L (press the button) without depressing the clutch and get it going that way if you want to.

The crawl ratio on the Sport is obviously not as low as on the Rubicon, but it is still pretty low. Once you get moving it is pretty hard to kill it, and you can crawl slowly with no gas.

So from your experience where are people stalling out? If I can start in first without having to feather the clutch much I guess I don't see where people are burning up the clutch.

 

[Az-jewel]

So from your experience where are people stalling out? If I can start in first without having to feather the clutch much I guess I don't see where people are burning up the clutch.

I’m using the clutch a lot for rock crawling. It’ll stall, even giving it gas, on a steep rock. I’ve got a 6-speed sport s on 35’s, not re-geared yet.

 

[Arrowhead]

The times I wish I had the Rubicons low range isn't going up the sides of mountains, it's coming down them. Engine braking would be nice.

Have you tried out the hill decent control?

 

[fat_head]

Have you tried out the hill decent control?

Since that post I've resolved the problem by upgrading to a 4:1 transfer case. Also going into manual mode on the auto trans works well.

But to answer your question, no. Hill decent control kind of implies an even-ish surface. When descending and dependent upon the surface I'm on, i might need to go 2mph or 6.

 

[Badweissenbier]

I have a Sport S, so this is from that perspective.

As far as not needing the clutch in 4L, you can start the engine in 4L (press the button) without depressing the clutch and get it going that way if you want to.

The jl won’t really do that , however some have reported it will if you hit the starter within 10-20 seconds of a stall. Never could get my rubi to do it. Course I couldn’t stall 4l 1st gear anyway.

 

[Arrowhead]

Since that post I've resolved the problem by upgrading to a 4:1 transfer case. Also going into manual mode on the auto trans works well.

But to answer your question, no. Hill decent control kind of implies an even-ish surface. When descending and dependent upon the surface I'm on, i might need to go 2mph or 6.

While I'm not a huge fan of it and don't really use it, it is pretty cool. It's like cruise control for the rocks. You can feel it applying the brakes as you drop over obstacles to maintain speed.

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