JL Rubicon vs Renegade Trailhawk snow performance?

[News2me]

Living in Wisconsin, we get plenty of snow. The Rubicon will do fantastic in the snow. Mine came standard with the KO2's. Those are snow rated. General Grabbers are also a good AT Snow tire. You should have no issues.

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[Vinman]

I’ve owned and driven many 2wd, 4wd and AWD vehicles over the last four decades. AWD is the best hands down for on-road winter driving. My current ‘21 Rubicon with 35” KO’2’s and the AWD option is probably the beat performing Winter vehicle I’ve ever owned.
Using AWD is truly a set and forget feature, much better on slippery roads than 4wd, zero “pushing” through the corners

 

[brewski]

Snow traction around town is all about the tires. Most wranglers have MTs or ATs that have big knobs and minimal siping. If you want good snow traction around town then its all about getting a tire that is a rubber compound for cold temps and lost of siping to give flex. Airing down a few psi will help, but don't go too much for that can be very bad for tire life.

When it comes to deep snow, then its a different story and MTs work great because the snow is more like mud in its nature. With my JK I wheeled in 3ft deep snow and my Nitto Trail Grapplers were excellent. Around town where there is only 1-2in of snow and ice/hard pack snow they were horrendiously bad. Those big large knobs w/ no siping are piss poor in wet roads or light snow covered roads.
Something like a Goodyear Duratrac is a good compromise for for a wrangler. It gives decent snow traction with decent knobs for dry. The rubber compound is a bit soft so life is shorter with them and their sidewalls are a bit thinners so that gives them good comfort but weaker strength for rock cuts. Or ideally it would be good to have summer and winter tires so you can have excellent snow traction around town and then not wear those out in the summer and have good offroading traction with a summer knobby tire.

 

[dchemphill1]

2020 Rubicon 2dr with ko2 33's here. Took it out for a country road drive this past winter in a foot of heavy wet snow. Fine in 4 hi and was amazing in 4 lo. It just crawled through it and had no difficulty plowing through the road grader rows at intersections.

 

[BlackGenesis]

Set of narrower winter tires on a separate wheels will make a huge difference in winter performance compared to stock rubicon tires.

Lokers are not at all neded at any instance in the winter as vehicle has BLD (brake lock differntial)...all wranglers. Lockers are realy only neded to have better control crawling over rocks.

What will be best for winter is option of automatic AWD - option on some models (Sahara). You should not be using 4H on dry pavement, without that option, so have to be continuous of road conditions and have dedicated winter set to be able to run 2 wheel drive in most conditions.

 

[BlackGenesis]

What is your main purpose and use for the Wrangler?
If it's similar to Renegate but with more ofroad capability, then you should look into Sahara with with auto 4 wheel drive option. Sahara has brake locking differentials just like Trailwhack (so not losing anything there).

If you are set on 2 door, then it might be a challenge to get options that will fit your needs.

 

[Arterius2]

What is your main purpose and use for the Wrangler?
If it's similar to Renegate but with more ofroad capability, then you should look into Sahara with with auto 4 wheel drive option. Sahara has brake locking differentials just like Trailwhack (so not losing anything there).

If you are set on 2 door, then it might be a challenge to get options that will fit your needs.

Apparently Rubicons can be ordered with 4:1 Selec-Trac now (correction: 4:1 Rock-Trac with 4-Auto)

 

[aldo98229]

Having owned several Wranglers with lockers and limited slip differential: for rock crawling lockers are king, but a rear LSD is more effective across a wide variety of snow conditions.

Snow is a finicky thing: it can be dry or wet, deep or shallow, hard or soft, slippery or sticky. Sometimes, snow shifts through each one of those conditions within 300 feet!

Because the LSD is always working, and adjusts to changing conditions better than we can manually engage and disengage lockers, I find LSD better suited to cope with changing snow conditions.

 

[aldo98229]

PS - also, we tend to have selective memory: when we get stuck, we usually blame lack of hardware capability, but when we end up in the ditch, we tend to fault the driver.

Personally, I found LSD to be less likely to get me out of DEEP snow; lockers more likely to send me into the ditch in slippery conditions.

Question for the OP: do you rather get stuck in deep snow or in the ditch? Take your pick...

 

[jessedacri]

I have to very much disagree with that. While KO2s are at the better performing end of AT tires, I am very much not confident with any AT tire on slippery, slushy or snow covered pavement and have to rely on driving skill to compensate for the poor tire performance. You'll know exactly what I mean once you run dedicated winter-only tires. Their performance on cold pavement, snow & ice is a huge night & day improvement.

Also, while 4WD will help you move forward it also works against you in turns. In a turn 4WD forces one of your tires to slip leaving only 3 tires to keep you on the road. That may not be enough and is why you'll often see 4WD vehicles sliding off the road in turns.

Nothing is going to compare to dedicated winter tires for sure - I used to run Blizzaks on my RWD BMWs back when I lived in New England and felt like I was glued to the road during snowy weather. I don't mean to imply the Wrangler on ATs would perform as well as an AWD regular car with winter tires, but only that based on my experience driving both snowy roads and trails in CA and CO in the JLR, the performance difference isn't a dealbreaker for me to want to drive something boring like a Renegade. I find the JLR to be predictable enough, combined with good winter driving skills I don't feel like it's all that bad. I was down in the east Texas / west Arkansas snowpocalypse a couple months ago with the Jeep and was one of the few vehicles in our small town that could get around easily in the mess that ensued (granted, that's a town that never gets more than a dusting of snow typically).

If you have a boatload of necessary winter commute miles, there's an argument to be made for a cheap daily with winter tires over driving the Wrangler. If you hit snow a few times a year it's a non issue.

 

[MrMischief]

i currently have a 2020 Renegade Trailhawk with bfg ko2 tires on it as my dedicated winter vehicle. I have an ordered placed for a 2021 JL Rubicon 2 door and i have recently gotten cold feet due to seeing conflicting opinions about a rubicons performance in the snow.

With the same tires in the same conditions on the street the Renegade will be better than the Wrangler until the snow/slush gets deep. AWD is just better than 4x4 for snow/ice. But if you're going through deep snow/slush the larger tires will have an advantage. Most likely place you'll see this is switching lanes on the highway and you have to cross that line of slush/snow. But the JL is not bad on snow, and the 2 door is not twitchy like people like to say. I have the factory m/ts on mine, and I've had no issues at all. Lockers don't really come into play because you won't be using them on the street. If you end up off the road in snow, either on an adventure or you slid off, the JL will be more likely to get you back onto the road. Another thing I haven't seen touched on yet is durability. The JL will handle you bumping a curb with a tire better than the Renegade. The suspension design in the Wrangler is stronger. So if you do a low speed slide into a curb or don't see one when taking a turn, you're less likely to cause damage to the Wrangler.

My current ‘21 Rubicon with 35” KO’2’s and the AWD option is probably the beat performing Winter vehicle I’ve ever owned.

The Wrangler comes with AWD now? Does that replace the 4x4 auto or is it yet another transfer case on offer?

 

[Reinen]

The Wrangler comes with AWD now? Does that replace the 4x4 auto or is it yet another transfer case on offer?

That must have been a typo. AWD has a center differential instead of a transfer case so you can't have AWD and 4WD on the same vehicle without some magical engineering going on. Pretty sure that should have been 4WD Auto, which is close to but not quite AWD.

 

[Reinen]

Nothing is going to compare to dedicated winter tires for sure - I used to run Blizzaks on my RWD BMWs back when I lived in New England and felt like I was glued to the road during snowy weather. I don't mean to imply the Wrangler on ATs would perform as well as an AWD regular car with winter tires, but only that based on my experience driving both snowy roads and trails in CA and CO in the JLR, the performance difference isn't a dealbreaker for me to want to drive something boring like a Renegade. I find the JLR to be predictable enough, combined with good winter driving skills I don't feel like it's all that bad. I was down in the east Texas / west Arkansas snowpocalypse a couple months ago with the Jeep and was one of the few vehicles in our small town that could get around easily in the mess that ensued (granted, that's a town that never gets more than a dusting of snow typically).

If you have a boatload of necessary winter commute miles, there's an argument to be made for a cheap daily with winter tires over driving the Wrangler. If you hit snow a few times a year it's a non issue.

I agree, I just don't like telling people that an AT tire is "good" in snow because I've seen many people with way too much confidence in them. A lot of people have no idea how much better winter tires are and think if that person can do it, so can I. IMO the best an AT tire can achieve in snow & ice is "not reckless", where the KO2 firmly sits (the AT, not the MT). You still need snow driving skill and be cautious. Whereas a true winter tire more closely matches people's confidence levels.

But back to OP's question, the stock 2dr Rubicon JL is not bad at all in the snow. I drive mine on a road that gets 400-750" of snow all winter. I just hesitate call it "good" because of the AT tires, even though they're 3PMSF rated and near the top of the AT tire category. Too few people put that into proper perspective.

If you take a 2dr Rubicon JL, add the 4WD Auto option and slap a good set of winter tires on, it will be an absolute beast in the snow & ice. Winter tires are available in stock 32s but narrower, as snow tires should be. The next step up is to swap the tires out for snow cat tracks, which you can do.

Maybe you remember this commercial (). I haven't had the opportunity in my JL yet, but when I had my YJ I found that you can actually do this. It's rather nerve racking because you know you're moving forward but you can't see a damn thing.
So yeah, don't worry about Jeeps in snow.

 

[FINN 2.0]

Apparently Rubicons can be ordered with 4:1 Selec-Trac now

I ordered my JLUR with 4:1 Rock-Trac HD full time 4WD system which I understand is similar to AWD. Not sure if it's the same as Selec-Trac.
By the way for those waiting on your factory order, I ordered it about 3 1/2 weeks ago and just heard it's already loaded and ready to go.

 

[Arterius2]

I ordered my JLUR with 4:1 Rock-Trac HD full time 4WD system which I understand is similar to AWD. Not sure if it's the same as Selec-Trac.
By the way for those waiting on your factory order, I ordered it about 3 1/2 weeks ago and just heard it's already loaded and ready to go.

Sorry that's what I meant. 4:1 Rock-Trac with 4Auto

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