In praise of the Stock JL

[brazos]

If I could get something like a Nitto 555 in 295/70/17, that would be just the ticket for the beach.
A non-aggressive 'street tread' is the hot ticket in sand.

Is your front receiver custom or off the rack?

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[Sand Flea]

Is your front receiver custom or off the rack?

Quadratec I believe.
Local Jeep shop here in town sourced it for me because my Jeep dealer told me they weren't available for the JL yet. They were wrong.
(I took delivery on July 5th of 2018)

 

[brazos]

Quadratec I believe.
Local Jeep shop here in town sourced it for me because my Jeep dealer told me they weren't available for the JL yet. They were wrong.
(I took delivery on July 5th of 2018)

Thanks.
Sure do miss the salt. Fresh is still fishing, but pale in comparison.

 

[jmcdtucson]

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.

Holy crap, that rod rack! Does your Jeep cast for you or just hold the pole? That's the coolest!

 

[timn1984]

Thanks. I think when the time comes to replace the tires way down the road I may step up to 285/70 which will take me from stock 32's to a little over 33 1/2 or 295/70 which would be 34's. Time will tell I suppose.

I’m looking to kind of do the same. At some point in the next 2 yrs I’d like to upgrade to the ruby wheels and do the same as you on tires.

 

[Sand Flea]

Holy crap, that rod rack! Does your Jeep cast for you or just hold the pole? That's the coolest!

I had this rack on my previous JK and the outboard lower legs of the rack covered the JK's inboard mounted fog lights.
A little metal trimming on the lowers, and the fogs were uncovered. Thankfully the fogs on the JL are outboard, so no longer a problem.

The other thing I did was to shorten the two inboard tubes. This rack (stock) has the 2 inboard tubes about 3" taller than the outboard tubes.
I thought that looked stupid, so I trimmed them so that all 4 tubes match.

The rack transports a pair of 10' St Croix Rods and Shimano Baitrunner 8000 reels spooled with braid.
Stout gear.

 

[brazos]

Targeting sharks?

 

[Sand Flea]

Targeting sharks?

Nope. Big Blues, Rockfish, fun stuff.
Catch and release 99% of the time.

 

[brazos]

Nope. Big Blues, Rockfish, fun stuff.
Catch and release 99% of the time.

I fish inshore, from a Hobie kayak. Baitcasters. Also a Shimano man.
Reds, specks, flounder. Topwaters mostly, but I’ll throw a plastic if I need to, to catch dinner.
I like to eat them. I love to eat them.

 

[brazos]

QFT.

IMO, the real problem is: Jeep engineers have never figured out how to properly design the layout of the chassis in relation to the drivetrain. Whenever I start a buggy project, I lay the whole drivetrain out on a flat chassis table (including the axles at full stuff)...then build the chassis around it....paying specific attention to how the drivetrain fits between the front seats instead of underneath them. Seems like Jeep engineers just haven't figured this out...and part of it is the old front shift rather than top shift tcases Jeep normally uses.

I’m sure that you must realize, if you’re sane, that we normals must wonder if you really know more about vehicle design than the engineers who designed our Jeeps.
If you have credentials, or accomplishments which would lend weight to your thoughts, I for one would be grateful to see them.
I freely admit that much of this is over my engineering head.

 

[johntuna1995]

Stock to me is better as well

 

[brazos]

The engineers that designed your Jeep (and my wife's Jeeps) did so with compromise in mind. IMO, the Rubicon package in particular should have sought to create the most capable offroad vehicle they could while making as little compromise as possible.

It can be done...other manufacturers have done so with regards to this particular aspect of frame height as it relates to drivetrain placement and overall height (with an interior height that matches the vast majority of occupants and drivers)....it's all a subset of human factors engineering WRT: interior layout.....but they compromised in that regard to overall functionality and lower CoG...and much of that was driven by component selection (as mentioned earlier in the tcase commentary).

JFYI...Most of my career has been in Aerospace/Defense Engineering. I've worked on projects from the Apache to Man Rated Space Flight....I have designed and built 3 buggy chassis and several highly modified 4x4s primarily for rockcrawling applications. I competed as a co-driver in the Warn 2001 Rockcrawling Championship in Las Cruces. I am more than an acquaintance of Shannon Campbell and have wheeled with guys like Tracy Jordan, Don Robbins, Jason Paule, etc....so I've seen some of the best competitors in the sport and the vehicles they drive up close and personal. Good chassis/drivetrain layout isn't rocket science (I should know, LOL)....it's just making it a priority that matters.

Well DAYUM!!! I asked for credentials and I got ‘em!
Nice to run across a man who can back up his stuff, and doesn’t bow up when asked to do so.
I’m still not necessarily convinced that you know more about Jeeps than the Jeep designers, but at least I know you know whereof you speak.
And that I would like you if we met.
That is some to me.
Thanks for taking the time.

 

[offset_98]

I’m looking to kind of do the same. At some point in the next 2 yrs I’d like to upgrade to the ruby wheels and do the same as you on tires.

Ruby wheels you might be able to do larger tires than than even. Those are only 17" as opposed to the Sahara's 18's.

 

[multicam]

The engineers that designed your Jeep (and my wife's Jeeps) did so with compromise in mind. IMO, the Rubicon package in particular should have sought to create the most capable offroad vehicle they could while making as little compromise as possible.

It can be done...other manufacturers have done so with regards to this particular aspect of frame height as it relates to drivetrain placement and overall height (with an interior height that matches the vast majority of occupants and drivers)....it's all a subset of human factors engineering WRT: interior layout.....but they compromised in that regard to overall functionality and lower CoG...and much of that was driven by component selection (as mentioned earlier in the tcase commentary).

JFYI...Most of my career has been in Aerospace/Defense Engineering. I've worked on projects from the Apache to Man Rated Space Flight....I have designed and built 3 buggy chassis and several highly modified 4x4s primarily for rockcrawling applications. I competed as a co-driver in the Warn 2001 Rockcrawling Championship in Las Cruces. I am more than an acquaintance of Shannon Campbell and have wheeled with guys like Tracy Jordan, Don Robbins, Jason Paule, etc....so I've seen some of the best competitors in the sport and the vehicles they drive up close and personal. Good chassis/drivetrain layout isn't rocket science (I should know, LOL)....it's just making it a priority that matters.

Sounds expensive. I think you hit the nail on the head... it’s all about compromises in the name of 1. Cost and 2. Liveability.

Do you think the design changes you have in mind would result in roughly the same price Jeep and also just as comfortable as our Jeeps are nowadays? If not, the engineers won’t go there, no matter how capable it makes the jeep.

NP. Here's a pic of my buggy in it's element:

**EDIT** And I never claimed I knew more than Jeep engineers...just that I wouldn't make (and haven't) the compromises they did in chassis design.

That thing’s awesome!

 

[SouthLeb]

Stream crossing just because its fun

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