First drive report - highway only

[MacBigButt]

Took my new JL for its first long drive last night. My JL is an Unlimited Sahara, loaded with everything but dual tops and tow package. Long story short, I'm thrilled and feel like a kid who just bought his first car with his own money

This was just a 2 hour highway run, but I did get caught in some crappy weather on the Malahat (google "Mahalat BC"). The Malahat is a nice coastal, highway that has quite a twisty climb and is a great test for overall drivability.

Handling - tucks into corners quite nicely, not quite as good as my old Landrover LR4 but pretty effortless and no absentmindedness on the straights like JK's I've driven. The weather turned to crap as I was climbing the Malahat, snow-ice-rain-wind, typical coastal mountain winter mess. Would have been nasty in 2WD and not consistently bad enough to use 4Hi but Selec-trac worked great.

Power and transmission - Very good, roars a bit when the RPMs are above 3K but accelerates well going up steep highway climbs. Tranny did a great job of shifting down for engine breaking going down hill. Never felt a lack of power.

Noise - Up to about 70kph its as good as my Landrover was, over 70kph its starts to get bad road/wind noise from the back. Think this might be the stock tires more than wind noise.

Comfort - I'm a big guy, 6' 4" - 300lbs, I was able to find a few different positions that were very comfortable. A little shy on shoulder room and the roll bar is a little closer than I would like but otherwise I fit Ok.

Headlights - The new LED headlights are awesome!

I hope to get out on some ugly, muddy, rutted logging roads this weekend to see how the suspension holds up.

Hope this quick writeup is useful to folks.

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[ResponsibleAdult]

Great road for a first drive! What a beautiful area.... It's been years since I've been there, but it's the kind of place that sticks in your memory.

Congrats on your new Jeep!

 

[Rainuck]

Congrats on your new JL. You mentioned loaded except towing and dual top, so I assume you got the Anti Spin Diff rear that comes with the uplift from H/T to A/T stock tires? Can I ask did it come with the Bridgestone Dueler A/T's or the Wrangler A/T's I see in the build sheet both are available but it doesn't say which is default. Not a fan of the Duelers at all as I had them on my JK originally...thanks I plan to order a config almost identical to yours but may wait for the sky one-touch

 

[MacBigButt]

Congrats on your new JL. You mentioned loaded except towing and dual top, so I assume you got the Anti Spin Diff rear that comes with the uplift from H/T to A/T stock tires? Can I ask did it come with the Bridgestone Dueler A/T's or the Wrangler A/T's I see in the build sheet both are available but it doesn't say which is default. Not a fan of the Duelers at all as I had them on my JK originally...thanks I plan to order a config almost identical to yours but may wait for the sky one-touch

Great question, yes it has the Anti-Spin Diff, but no it doesn't have the upgraded tires or wheels. Slightly disappointed about that but this isn't the first time I've seen this happen on US vs Canada car configurations.

It has the H/T tires which are optimistically rated as M&S. The dealer didn't know why it wasn't fitted with the A/T tires and the nicer rims. Might be a Canadian thing.

Did quite a long drive today on the Pacific Highway (for those that don't know the area read that as partially paved mountain logging road) and I can honestly say I detest the tires and I am in the process of choosing replacements. Not a big deal since I was planning on doing that anyways but still they could have put something decent on. They are noisy and I learned today, crap on gravel, snow and ice.

Thinking about putting 33" Nitto Ridge Grapplers on it with 17" rims.

The Sahara did amazing though. I was pretty worried I wouldn't be able to handle the ride but it handles these roads almost as well as my LR4 did.

Only time I really noticed a difference between the Sahara and my LR4 was climbing up a goat trail with loose gravel and I started getting bounced around because the crappy tires were slipping. Have to admit I was missing the air suspension in the LR4 at that point.

I hear you on wanting the sky touch, that and the new turbo 4 and the pumpkin paint were on my list, but I just could't wait. Waiting is not in my DNA

Picture of the Sahara on the trail behind Lizard is attached.

 

[jlroman2]

I just drove my new sahara home similar to your build but in granite. I love the interior but man I sure need to get used to the handling. Definitely not as responsive/smooth as my old Cherokee. Today it was quite windy here in Chicago so the wind hitting against the Jeep in the highway was rsidcoulsy loud. Probably not ideal to be driving a box in the Windy City but I guess the alpine speakers make up for that unwanted noise. I hope I can get used to this.

 

[ThirtyOne]

I just drove my new sahara home similar to your build but in granite. I love the interior but man I sure need to get used to the handling. Definitely not as responsive/smooth as my old Cherokee. Today it was quite windy here in Chicago so the wind hitting against the Jeep in the highway was rsidcoulsy loud. Probably not ideal to be driving a box in the Windy City but I guess the alpine speakers make up for that unwanted noise. I hope I can get used to this.

It's nice. But it's still a Wrangler.

 

[MacBigButt]

It's nice. But it's still a Wrangler.

I just drove my new sahara home similar to your build but in granite. I love the interior but man I sure need to get used to the handling. Definitely not as responsive/smooth as my old Cherokee. Today it was quite windy here in Chicago so the wind hitting against the Jeep in the highway was rsidcoulsy loud. Probably not ideal to be driving a box in the Windy City but I guess the alpine speakers make up for that unwanted noise. I hope I can get used to this.

Yup, it's definitely not as quiet, as comfortable, or as powerful as my Land Rover LR4 was but when I got two nice body trail rashes in the beautiful black paint on my LR4, one on each side, I was very, very upset. Picture of LR4 attached.

I've already got some trail rash on my Wrangler and I'm actually kinda proud of it.

After the long drive yesterday I started getting use to the extra wind noise but I do plan on upgrading the shocks.

You might consider shocks and tires as well. Better shocks and tires can help alot with cross winds.

Good luck!

 

[Dynomite1371]

I just drove my new sahara home similar to your build but in granite. I love the interior but man I sure need to get used to the handling. Definitely not as responsive/smooth as my old Cherokee. Today it was quite windy here in Chicago so the wind hitting against the Jeep in the highway was rsidcoulsy loud. Probably not ideal to be driving a box in the Windy City but I guess the alpine speakers make up for that unwanted noise. I hope I can get used to this.

Check your tire pressure, every time I took JK for service they pumped my ko'2s way up! My new Rubicon, they were also too high. Cold pressure on tires is 37 (Per the door jam,) Mine were up at 42 cold, took some air off and it's better!

 

[Kysport]

My Sahara on order has the Select-Trac and the Anti-Slip Diff. My dealer told me that it will have the standard wheels but the upgraded tires. I hope he is correct as I do not like the upgraded wheels.

 

[Covfefe]

My Sahara on order has the Select-Trac and the Anti-Slip Diff. My dealer told me that it will have the standard wheels but the upgraded tires. I hope he is correct as I do not like the upgraded wheels.

Which tires?

 

[RikFlairWoo]

Cool write up. Thanks for sharing

 

[Kysport]

The standard Sahara tires are Bridgestone Dueller H/L M/S. The upgraded tires with Anti-Spin are Bridgestone Dueller A/T RH-S. You also have another option of Goodyear Adventure with Kevlar but I'm sure there is a big upcharge for them.

Which tires?

 

[wahlsaint]

Yup, it's definitely not as quiet, as comfortable, or as powerful as my Land Rover LR4 was but when I got two nice body trail rashes in the beautiful black paint on my LR4, one on each side, I was very, very upset. Picture of LR4 attached.

I've already got some trail rash on my Wrangler and I'm actually kinda proud of it.

After the long drive yesterday I started getting use to the extra wind noise but I do plan on upgrading the shocks.

You might consider shocks and tires as well. Better shocks and tires can help alot with cross winds.

Good luck!

Ha yeah, pin-striped my dark blue LR3 first weekend after purchase. Door damage from contact with trees a few months later was the real test of whether we thought we could off road with an expensive, purdy vehicle. Looks like we'll be testing that again with a new JLUR !

 

[wired]

Check your tire pressure, every time I took JK for service they pumped my ko'2s way up! My new Rubicon, they were also too high. Cold pressure on tires is 37 (Per the door jam,) Mine were up at 42 cold, took some air off and it's better!

Mine were also 42 cold when my JL was delivered. Going down to 37-38 improves the ride.

 

[wanderer]

Well I finally got to test drive a pretty loaded jlu Rubi. Silver with black interior leather 8.4 radioauto. Hardtop. Man oh man after driving in my 08 Rubi with a 3.5 inch OME lift stock 410 gears bilstiens and 315 70 17 tires the jl felt like a jeep space ship designed by friendly aliens. It was like back to the future jeep style. The sales guy let me punch it and it takes off fast. I almost started that crazy hey this really fun insane laugh did I mention that mine is an 08 with170000 miles on it?

The steering from my perspective felt very tight and quick reacting. It was so smooth and so quiet on the freeway. Played with the radio and gauges that has some pretty impressive features that at first for an old guy like me seemed complicated but I quickly got the hang of it. I loved the pitch and roll mph. The start stop is pretty seamless. From what the sales guy said it monitors the engine temp and will start up on its own if the engine rises so sometimes while at a light it would stop the motor would get warmer and then it would start to bring things temp wise back down . I didn’t think to see what the actual temp was. It was fairly hot today probably in the 80s.


Put it in 4 low and crawled a few yards but when ants started to pass me I hit the maual plus minus shift and started to go through the gears ( while in 4 lo). The first gear is so low it’s hard to describe you almost can’t feel that your are moving. It wasn’t until I was in 4th that I felt like we were even over 10 mph. The shift to four low felt pretty solid maybe even stiff. Both shifters feel nice and beefy strong. The jeep had only 62 miles on it.


The key fob is fine

On the return to the dealership I tried to hook up my iPhone to se if I could get full sync. Got the phone up but couldn’t get google maps or Apple maps to come up. And couldn’t get topo usa on the screen either. But I also ran out of time.. in summary this thing rocks. I really really liked the transmission. So now I am questioning my decision to go manual. But I haven’t driven a manual YET

To say I have jeeep fever well that’s sorta like saying the Pacific is a nice little lake.

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