DewHawk
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Rob
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2021
- Threads
- 16
- Messages
- 614
- Reaction score
- 1,221
- Location
- Aurora, CO
- Website
- www.instagram.com
- Vehicle(s)
- '21 JLURD, '04 M3
- Occupation
- USAF F-16 Crew Chief
- Thread starter
- #1
Hello all!
(EDIT 12/2023: These pages are for historical reference now as both builds are no longer mine. I’ve moved on to an EcoDiesel which will get its own new build thread in time. For now though, feel free to read through and see from my perspective how these vehicles held up under my ownership and the many quirks I encountered along the way.)
Thanks for stopping in to check out my rig. I'm not exactly a total n00b in this community as I've been decently active up till now primarily in the 4xe area. I figured it was time to keep most of the content strictly related to me and my build in one place for simplicity. So here's the recap of my story so far (it's gonna be kind of a big content drop so bear with me).
On July 27th, I happened to be scrolling through Jeep's website and playing around with the configurator on the new 4xe models. At this point, I was still in my first Jeep that I had only been driving since March, a 2021 WK2 Grand Cherokee Hemi Trailhawk. It was a pretty nice ride and very comfortable coming from my previous Hellcat Charger. I threw some Airlinks leveling links on the air suspension and 32" Falken Wildpeak A/T's on for good measure.
Anyway, I pulled up the Rubicon 4xe and started playing with the colors when I noticed one in particular that caught my attention: Limited Edition Gecko Green. As soon as I clicked on it, I knew I had to get my hands on one. I looked at the local dealer lots online and saw one that was inbound to my nearest Jeep dealer. I called them up and asked when they expected it in so I could schedule a visit. I waited for about 15 minutes on the phone while the sales advisor put me on hold to do some research when he picked back up and told me it was a customer order that was already sold. I asked if they expected anymore to come in and he told me they didn't as well as the last day to order one in that color was the next day. Unsettled by this news, I immediately phoned my sales advisor from the other dealer down the street that had sold me the Grand Cherokee and asked him what he needed from me to get an order placed. After about 20 minutes of over the phone options selections and a $500 deposit, I had my spot in line filled. The wife came home about 10 minutes later to the news and simply asked "I don't know why the hell you didn't bother just ordering one sooner". Gotta love it when your spouse gives you that kind of approval.
(Jeep Configurator Photo)
Fast forward to late August and I get a ping from Cryptostickers telling me the 4xe is built and ready for transport. Shocked by this development after hearing it could be upwards of 9 weeks before I'd even seen movement, I phoned my sales advisor and asked if he had a projected shipping arrival date. He was equally as caught of guard by my question and looked up the vin to find it scheduled for delivery the 1st of September. I scheduled to come in on the 3rd to allow them time to prep. This gave me time to clean up and put the WK2 back to stock, which at this point barely had 3000 miles on the clock (silly, I know).
When I first walked up to my new 4xe, I couldn't quite believe just how incredible the color combo was. It was like a dream becoming reality.
There's really nothing quite like that feeling you get from seeing a build sticker with your name on it. This is my first ever custom build new car I've ever owned and it was an extremely emotional experience for me.
It really didn't take long for me to get acquainted with my new Jeep. Having owned several newer Mopar's up to this point, I was very familiar with how most of the systems worked. The big experiment for me was getting to grips with the hybrid system and I'd never owned anything with an electric or partially electric powertrain before. If you had asked me a year prior to this if I would even have considered a Hybrid or EV, I would've told you to get lost. The thing that really sold me on the 4xe was the power output. The all electric range and fuel economy boost was just a bonus.
Within the first month, I had already pulled the plastic front bumper off in favor of an EAG full width complimented by some blue ambull shackles.
I had seen several reviews and posts from various owners swearing up and down about the EAG rigidity and build quality so it was an easy choice (even a few photos from frontal collisions with positive eye opening results). It's funny, we're spoiled for choice when it comes to bumper designs. If I had this many options available for the cars that I came from over the years, I would have been living in dreamland constantly trying to think up new combinations of parts.
Shortly after getting the front end put together, I packed up the dog (Enzo) and my wife and we headed off for the San Juan Mountain Range. The plan was to stay in Telluride and hit the Jeep BOH trails in the area, take in the sights of the annual leaves changing color, and head home. Living in the Denver metro area makes this easy; all you realistically need is a day to travel, a couple days to wheel, and a day to drive back. We took the whole week to really give ourselves plenty of time so we weren't rushing the experience. I've never wheeled in a Jeep up to this point but had previous experience with a Nissan Xterra, my wife had been wheeling as a spotter and passenger numerous times in the past, and Enzo...well he was 10 months old and just enjoyed riding in the car. I had done my homework on these trails prior to arriving and immediately ruled out Black Bear Pass before we even left the house. The combination of my lack of experience in the Jeep and the fact that we were alone was too much to risk given the countless horror stories and wrecks I had scene.
We pulled in to our holiday hotel, The Resort in Telluride Village, stretched Enzo's legs a bit and called it a night. He really enjoyed the ride out and was excited to be seeing something new for a change.
Day 1 of hitting the trails was really just meant to bust the rust off of my skills and see what the Jeep could do; a nice easy drive through Ophir Pass. This was also a test to see how Enzo would handle riding in the Jeep off road. Surprisingly, he didn't seem to care at all and just enjoyed being along for the ride.
I pulled off at the base to air down. Could I have done it aired up? Yeah, but it would have been pretty rough and tumble the whole time so I was glad I took the extra couple of minutes to do it. It made the climb up effortless and fairly comfortable despite the stiff rubicon shocks.
The ride down towards Silverton wasn't super eventful. Ophir hadn't been any sort of a challenge for me or the Jeep so I knew we were good to go for the remaining trails as long as Enzo kept enjoying himself. We decided to stop at the famous BBQ joint in town. If you're ever out this way, I highly recommend it. The staff treated us well and treated Enzo like a king giving him his own plate of sliced beef. He really is spoiled rotten. The drive back to the hotel was nice and scenic with the trees really starting to kick into overdrive on the color change. We timed this trip perfectly to catch everything as it was happening. Even downtown Telluride was looking like it was on fire. It was a perfect first day out in the area.
The next day we decided to hit up Imogene Pass from the Telluride side. This was a smart move because most of the traffic we encountered was flowing the same direction. A small group of modified rubicons stopped by us while I was airing down. They were genuinely curious about the 4xe and were looking it over from nose to tire carrier. After a brief chat we decided to tag along in their group and follow them up the pass. It gave them an opportunity to see what the 4xe was capable of and it gave us some backup in case we ran into a sticky situation.
We had a great time heading up with these guys but decided to continue on without them when they stopped for lunch. They had started way earlier than us and had just finished Black Bear before hitting Imogene. The top of Imogene was pretty amazing to see. A modified TRD Tacoma flagged us down while we were stopped for photos and got out asking us about the 4xe. Up to this point, I thought the 4xe was a pretty well known entry into the Jeep lineup so I was a little caught off guard at just how much attention it was generating during our time here. Even at the hotel, guests and staff would be taking photos and asking questions as soon as they noticed it was parked in the EV space hooked up to the level 2 charger next to a couple of Teslas. Anyway, the elevation out at the peak of Imogene was starting to take its toll on Enzo as he was starting to look a little like the color of the Jeep. I wrapped up with the Tacoma owner and his buddy who left me with the impression that their whole world had just been turned upside down at the thought of a Hybrid off roader. We headed down Imogene into Ouray for lunch and to discuss our next game plan.
(You can see the sand colored Taco in the background)
We stopped in to the Ouray Brewery as a kind of throwback to where it all began for me and my wife. 4 years prior to this, I met her on a BMW driving event in this area and asked her on our first date at this very brewery. It was nice to come back to where it all started and just see how much had changed since then. I looked at the time and gauged my wife and Enzo on how they were doing after lunch. At this point I figured we could nail at least 1 more trail before packing it in and heading for the hotel. Fortunately, Ouray is perfectly placed to reach all of the badge of honor trails in the area so it was just a matter of picking which one. I rolled the dice and decided to head for Poughkeepsie Gulch. The easiest way to get there though wasn't exactly what I would call an easy trail. Mineral Creek is very scenic, very rocky, and very dangerous for the inexperienced wheeler. Had there been any nasty weather inbound, I probably wouldn't have even entertained going up. Weather was being super cooperative and amazing throughout the day however and only made the trip that much more enjoyable. The shelf road section was very narrow and had a fair amount of off camber areas. We didn't manage to record any of it but a short google search will give you and idea of what it's like. Apart from a small handful of jeeps coming down off of Engineer, we didn't see anyone for miles...apart from some Deer that Enzo was curious about.
The climb up was pretty uneventful but the rock obstacles were definitely more challenging than Imogene. One particular rock garden scraped the underside of my diff pretty good. Fortunately, these newer axles don't have the bottom mounted drain plug so it wasn't a big concern. The view off of California Pass overlooking Lake Como and the wall is pretty epic. You can tell from our position and the lighting we were definitely starting to burn the daylight. Seeing as we were just a few short miles from Engineer, we decided to head towards it. By the time we reached the top, we were in pure darkness. Not good. I took my time and came back down through the Animas Forks into Silverton. Enzo was a real trooper throughout and didn't complain once. In fact, I'm pretty sure he slept through half of the Animas Forks drive. I don't know how anyone could sleep through that section as it's pretty rocky. By the time we reached the hotel we were all beat and it was 10:30pm. We ordered some room service and turned in after I managed to update my BOH app. The next day was our drive back home. We left knowing we did what we set out to do and knocked 4 BOH trails off the list. I still want to go back and complete Black Bear but it's gonna have to wait until I can manage to drag one of my other jeep buddies out with me.
After 1044 miles of driving there and back, the 4xe reported these statistics for the entire trip. Keep in mind several of these miles were done in 4L and most had been done in different variations of Hybrid, E-Save, and E-Charge as kind of an experiment to see how the Jeep would perform. I was blown away at the final numbers. My Grand Cherokee struggled to maintain 20mpg on a road trip through I-70 without adding any off road to the mix.
CONTINUED IN NEXT POST
(EDIT 12/2023: These pages are for historical reference now as both builds are no longer mine. I’ve moved on to an EcoDiesel which will get its own new build thread in time. For now though, feel free to read through and see from my perspective how these vehicles held up under my ownership and the many quirks I encountered along the way.)
Thanks for stopping in to check out my rig. I'm not exactly a total n00b in this community as I've been decently active up till now primarily in the 4xe area. I figured it was time to keep most of the content strictly related to me and my build in one place for simplicity. So here's the recap of my story so far (it's gonna be kind of a big content drop so bear with me).
On July 27th, I happened to be scrolling through Jeep's website and playing around with the configurator on the new 4xe models. At this point, I was still in my first Jeep that I had only been driving since March, a 2021 WK2 Grand Cherokee Hemi Trailhawk. It was a pretty nice ride and very comfortable coming from my previous Hellcat Charger. I threw some Airlinks leveling links on the air suspension and 32" Falken Wildpeak A/T's on for good measure.
Anyway, I pulled up the Rubicon 4xe and started playing with the colors when I noticed one in particular that caught my attention: Limited Edition Gecko Green. As soon as I clicked on it, I knew I had to get my hands on one. I looked at the local dealer lots online and saw one that was inbound to my nearest Jeep dealer. I called them up and asked when they expected it in so I could schedule a visit. I waited for about 15 minutes on the phone while the sales advisor put me on hold to do some research when he picked back up and told me it was a customer order that was already sold. I asked if they expected anymore to come in and he told me they didn't as well as the last day to order one in that color was the next day. Unsettled by this news, I immediately phoned my sales advisor from the other dealer down the street that had sold me the Grand Cherokee and asked him what he needed from me to get an order placed. After about 20 minutes of over the phone options selections and a $500 deposit, I had my spot in line filled. The wife came home about 10 minutes later to the news and simply asked "I don't know why the hell you didn't bother just ordering one sooner". Gotta love it when your spouse gives you that kind of approval.
(Jeep Configurator Photo)
Fast forward to late August and I get a ping from Cryptostickers telling me the 4xe is built and ready for transport. Shocked by this development after hearing it could be upwards of 9 weeks before I'd even seen movement, I phoned my sales advisor and asked if he had a projected shipping arrival date. He was equally as caught of guard by my question and looked up the vin to find it scheduled for delivery the 1st of September. I scheduled to come in on the 3rd to allow them time to prep. This gave me time to clean up and put the WK2 back to stock, which at this point barely had 3000 miles on the clock (silly, I know).
When I first walked up to my new 4xe, I couldn't quite believe just how incredible the color combo was. It was like a dream becoming reality.
There's really nothing quite like that feeling you get from seeing a build sticker with your name on it. This is my first ever custom build new car I've ever owned and it was an extremely emotional experience for me.
It really didn't take long for me to get acquainted with my new Jeep. Having owned several newer Mopar's up to this point, I was very familiar with how most of the systems worked. The big experiment for me was getting to grips with the hybrid system and I'd never owned anything with an electric or partially electric powertrain before. If you had asked me a year prior to this if I would even have considered a Hybrid or EV, I would've told you to get lost. The thing that really sold me on the 4xe was the power output. The all electric range and fuel economy boost was just a bonus.
Within the first month, I had already pulled the plastic front bumper off in favor of an EAG full width complimented by some blue ambull shackles.
I had seen several reviews and posts from various owners swearing up and down about the EAG rigidity and build quality so it was an easy choice (even a few photos from frontal collisions with positive eye opening results). It's funny, we're spoiled for choice when it comes to bumper designs. If I had this many options available for the cars that I came from over the years, I would have been living in dreamland constantly trying to think up new combinations of parts.
Shortly after getting the front end put together, I packed up the dog (Enzo) and my wife and we headed off for the San Juan Mountain Range. The plan was to stay in Telluride and hit the Jeep BOH trails in the area, take in the sights of the annual leaves changing color, and head home. Living in the Denver metro area makes this easy; all you realistically need is a day to travel, a couple days to wheel, and a day to drive back. We took the whole week to really give ourselves plenty of time so we weren't rushing the experience. I've never wheeled in a Jeep up to this point but had previous experience with a Nissan Xterra, my wife had been wheeling as a spotter and passenger numerous times in the past, and Enzo...well he was 10 months old and just enjoyed riding in the car. I had done my homework on these trails prior to arriving and immediately ruled out Black Bear Pass before we even left the house. The combination of my lack of experience in the Jeep and the fact that we were alone was too much to risk given the countless horror stories and wrecks I had scene.
We pulled in to our holiday hotel, The Resort in Telluride Village, stretched Enzo's legs a bit and called it a night. He really enjoyed the ride out and was excited to be seeing something new for a change.
Day 1 of hitting the trails was really just meant to bust the rust off of my skills and see what the Jeep could do; a nice easy drive through Ophir Pass. This was also a test to see how Enzo would handle riding in the Jeep off road. Surprisingly, he didn't seem to care at all and just enjoyed being along for the ride.
I pulled off at the base to air down. Could I have done it aired up? Yeah, but it would have been pretty rough and tumble the whole time so I was glad I took the extra couple of minutes to do it. It made the climb up effortless and fairly comfortable despite the stiff rubicon shocks.
The ride down towards Silverton wasn't super eventful. Ophir hadn't been any sort of a challenge for me or the Jeep so I knew we were good to go for the remaining trails as long as Enzo kept enjoying himself. We decided to stop at the famous BBQ joint in town. If you're ever out this way, I highly recommend it. The staff treated us well and treated Enzo like a king giving him his own plate of sliced beef. He really is spoiled rotten. The drive back to the hotel was nice and scenic with the trees really starting to kick into overdrive on the color change. We timed this trip perfectly to catch everything as it was happening. Even downtown Telluride was looking like it was on fire. It was a perfect first day out in the area.
The next day we decided to hit up Imogene Pass from the Telluride side. This was a smart move because most of the traffic we encountered was flowing the same direction. A small group of modified rubicons stopped by us while I was airing down. They were genuinely curious about the 4xe and were looking it over from nose to tire carrier. After a brief chat we decided to tag along in their group and follow them up the pass. It gave them an opportunity to see what the 4xe was capable of and it gave us some backup in case we ran into a sticky situation.
We had a great time heading up with these guys but decided to continue on without them when they stopped for lunch. They had started way earlier than us and had just finished Black Bear before hitting Imogene. The top of Imogene was pretty amazing to see. A modified TRD Tacoma flagged us down while we were stopped for photos and got out asking us about the 4xe. Up to this point, I thought the 4xe was a pretty well known entry into the Jeep lineup so I was a little caught off guard at just how much attention it was generating during our time here. Even at the hotel, guests and staff would be taking photos and asking questions as soon as they noticed it was parked in the EV space hooked up to the level 2 charger next to a couple of Teslas. Anyway, the elevation out at the peak of Imogene was starting to take its toll on Enzo as he was starting to look a little like the color of the Jeep. I wrapped up with the Tacoma owner and his buddy who left me with the impression that their whole world had just been turned upside down at the thought of a Hybrid off roader. We headed down Imogene into Ouray for lunch and to discuss our next game plan.
(You can see the sand colored Taco in the background)
We stopped in to the Ouray Brewery as a kind of throwback to where it all began for me and my wife. 4 years prior to this, I met her on a BMW driving event in this area and asked her on our first date at this very brewery. It was nice to come back to where it all started and just see how much had changed since then. I looked at the time and gauged my wife and Enzo on how they were doing after lunch. At this point I figured we could nail at least 1 more trail before packing it in and heading for the hotel. Fortunately, Ouray is perfectly placed to reach all of the badge of honor trails in the area so it was just a matter of picking which one. I rolled the dice and decided to head for Poughkeepsie Gulch. The easiest way to get there though wasn't exactly what I would call an easy trail. Mineral Creek is very scenic, very rocky, and very dangerous for the inexperienced wheeler. Had there been any nasty weather inbound, I probably wouldn't have even entertained going up. Weather was being super cooperative and amazing throughout the day however and only made the trip that much more enjoyable. The shelf road section was very narrow and had a fair amount of off camber areas. We didn't manage to record any of it but a short google search will give you and idea of what it's like. Apart from a small handful of jeeps coming down off of Engineer, we didn't see anyone for miles...apart from some Deer that Enzo was curious about.
The climb up was pretty uneventful but the rock obstacles were definitely more challenging than Imogene. One particular rock garden scraped the underside of my diff pretty good. Fortunately, these newer axles don't have the bottom mounted drain plug so it wasn't a big concern. The view off of California Pass overlooking Lake Como and the wall is pretty epic. You can tell from our position and the lighting we were definitely starting to burn the daylight. Seeing as we were just a few short miles from Engineer, we decided to head towards it. By the time we reached the top, we were in pure darkness. Not good. I took my time and came back down through the Animas Forks into Silverton. Enzo was a real trooper throughout and didn't complain once. In fact, I'm pretty sure he slept through half of the Animas Forks drive. I don't know how anyone could sleep through that section as it's pretty rocky. By the time we reached the hotel we were all beat and it was 10:30pm. We ordered some room service and turned in after I managed to update my BOH app. The next day was our drive back home. We left knowing we did what we set out to do and knocked 4 BOH trails off the list. I still want to go back and complete Black Bear but it's gonna have to wait until I can manage to drag one of my other jeep buddies out with me.
After 1044 miles of driving there and back, the 4xe reported these statistics for the entire trip. Keep in mind several of these miles were done in 4L and most had been done in different variations of Hybrid, E-Save, and E-Charge as kind of an experiment to see how the Jeep would perform. I was blown away at the final numbers. My Grand Cherokee struggled to maintain 20mpg on a road trip through I-70 without adding any off road to the mix.
CONTINUED IN NEXT POST
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