Old timer advice

[agpr2016]

Two items that I wish I had purchased from the factory
1. better tires. . I was able to pick up a set of rubicon take offs for $300 for tires AND Rubi wheels which look cool. But now I've got a set of great Michelin street tires and black steel wheels sitting in my garage - pain in the neck to sell them, and they take up a lot of room to store them.

2. D44/M220 rear axle. If you buy the limited slip you get the better axle. It's worth it.

The willy's comes with both of these, but they no longer have the willys sport so you also must pay for electric locks and windows and other electric stuff I didn't need.

I would REALLY like to put a helical limited slip in the rear end of my sport, but I can't because nobody sells one for my D35/M200 axle.

Thank you!

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[BRuby]

I'm moving to a city in a couple months from my mountain. A stock sport really is very capable from the factory. Will have to really think about what I will get. It will probably be fine for me! Although like you said the gearing is fine with automatic with manual might be lacking...I'm still considering Willys!

If you do not plan to rock crawl or go up insane inclines requiring lockers - get a stock sport. The fundamental reason we got the Rubicon was we test drove a used one with the Dealer up a crazy steep bouldered single track incline - then bombed down a hugely rutted forestry service road with massive potholes. Rubicon floated over everything like it was nothing! Actually had to ask my wife to slow down for concerns of damage. Haha!

Then was allowed to take it home overnight. Next day went in and bought it for a unreal deal - as the Owner of the Jeep Dealership wanted it Gone! It was a trade-in with less than 5000 miles - for the new Gladiator that came on the market. So super lucky - probs very close to Dealer trade-in value. Recently another Dealership offered me more than what was paid 5 years ago!

Anyways this was a two week courtesy Jeep that the Dealer gave me for some warranty work. The stock sport did perfectly ok on FSRs and climbing up steep loose gravel inclines even with OEM all-season treads! So yes - really think about what you want and really need out of this. Many times I have posted that any JL is very capable - in the right hands of course!

 

[agpr2016]

If you do not plan to rock crawl or go up insane inclines requiring lockers - get a stock sport. The fundamental reason we got the Rubicon was we test drove a used one with the Dealer up a crazy steep bouldered single track incline - then bombed down a hugely rutted forestry service road with massive potholes. Rubicon floated over everything like it was nothing! Actually had to ask my wife to slow down for concerns of damage. Haha!

Then was allowed to take it home overnight. Next day went in and bought it for a unreal deal - as the Owner of the Jeep Dealership wanted it Gone! It was a trade-in with less than 5000 miles - for the new Gladiator that came on the market. So super lucky - probs very close to Dealer trade-in value. Recently another Dealership offered me more than what was paid 5 years ago!

Anyways this was a two week courtesy Jeep that the Dealer gave me for some warranty work. The stock sport did perfectly ok on FSRs and climbing up steep loose gravel inclines even with OEM all-season treads! So yes - really think about what you want and really need out of this. Many times I have posted that any JL is very capable - in the right hands of course!

Your rig looks gorgeous!
The yellow definitely pops ?
I think as a compromise I will settle on the Willys. With all the potholes floods that happen where I live city driving isn't easy. I still plan to offroad here and there, muddy routes but nothing crazy.

 

[roaniecowpony]

Find yourself a really nice low mileage, one owner TJ, and never look back! ?

Edit; 4.0L of course! ?

Don't say stuff like that. You meant LJ, right? ?

 

[Tncdrew]

Don't say stuff like that. You meant LJ, right? ?

Well..... Yeah! Now that you mention it... ?

 

[BRuby]

Your rig looks gorgeous!
The yellow definitely pops ?
I think as a compromise I will settle on the Willys. With all the potholes floods that happen where I live city driving isn't easy. I still plan to offroad here and there, muddy routes but nothing crazy.

Nice! Sounds like you have this fairly sorted now. If we had to do it over again - the Willys would be plenty for most all of our uses. We bought this Rubicon for one main reason. To get up and down ski resorts in any snowstorms. Deeper the better. Lockers and chains to help pull out when stuck. For that it has easily exceeded our expectations. Super easy super safe. Heated seats heated steering wheel remote start - all must haves.

Oh - the popping yellow Jeep was the Dealer courtesy Sport. We have this hard to keep clean boring black one. See a few boring pics below. Boring but love it! Haha!

 

[agpr2016]

Nice! Sounds like you have this fairly sorted now. If we had to do it over again - the Willys would be plenty for most all of our uses. We bought this Rubicon for one main reason. To get up and down ski resorts in any snowstorms. Deeper the better. Lockers and chains to help pull out when stuck. For that it has easily exceeded our expectations. Super easy super safe. Heated seats heated steering wheel remote start - all must haves.

Oh - the popping yellow Jeep was the Dealer courtesy Sport. We have this hard to keep clean boring black one. See a few boring pics below. Boring but love it! Haha!

I've driven on the highway during blizzards.
.it's a tedious affair...I never was able to go above 25mph without spinning ???

When I option out the sport the way I want it...it's only like 4k away from the Willy's...that'd why I'm leaning that way. I probably don't need a locker...but just in case! I prefer the sport grille too.

 

[Deleted User 38384]

@agpr2016 Don't order more than you need.

So me for example, when I ordered my 2021 Willys Sport EcoDiesel, It was $48,000 total with taxes and fees and packages that I threw on there. From the start I was planning on tearing up my Wrangler, to what it is today. Realistically speaking I could have ordered a Sport Unlimited EcoDiesel gotten all the same stuff I have minus the Rubicon suspension and factory MT tires, and saved about $8,000. As it is I basically stripped my Wrangler, swapped out the OEM black wheels for Icon Beadlocks pretty quick, with the intention to build it up over the first few years I own it before I do any serious off-roading.

With that 8,000 I could have saved, I could have purchased Rubicon EcoDiesel takeoffs, and purchased a fair amount of my long-term mods pretty early on.

Don't get me wrong, my Wrangler still would have looked pretty similar to how it does now, I just would have had a lot more of those more expensive mods quicker. Also too we were planning on putting $10,000 down regardless, so instead of owing $38,000 from the start, I would have only owed $30,000, which would have significantly taken a chunk out of my $600 a month I paid for my loan, which means even more money in pocket, for mods and family stuff.

So yeah, @agpr2016 Go on the built-in price website and play with the different trims. See what you need and what you want, and keep in mind what mods you plan on doing. If you're getting fancy wheels, and you plan on stripping them off pretty quick, save the money. If you're going to be lifting it within the first year or two or if you're not going to be going off-roading at all, you could save some money. Btw, Rubicon takeoffs are like $1,200 for the EcoDiesel, I think you can get them for the sport two-door for like 500 bucks used. Maybe even cheaper I don't know.

But yeah play around with it, and no reason to throw away money on something you don't need or aren't going to use.

 

[agpr2016]

@agpr2016 Don't order more than you need.

So me for example, when I ordered my 2021 Willys Sport EcoDiesel, It was $48,000 total with taxes and fees and packages that I threw on there. From the start I was planning on tearing up my Wrangler, to what it is today. Realistically speaking I could have ordered a Sport Unlimited EcoDiesel gotten all the same stuff I have minus the Rubicon suspension and factory MT tires, and saved about $8,000. As it is I basically stripped my Wrangler, swapped out the OEM black wheels for Icon Beadlocks pretty quick, with the intention to build it up over the first few years I own it before I do any serious off-roading.

With that 8,000 I could have saved, I could have purchased Rubicon EcoDiesel takeoffs, and purchased a fair amount of my long-term mods pretty early on.

Don't get me wrong, my Wrangler still would have looked pretty similar to how it does now, I just would have had a lot more of those more expensive mods quicker. Also too we were planning on putting $10,000 down regardless, so instead of owing $38,000 from the start, I would have only owed $30,000, which would have significantly taken a chunk out of my $600 a month I paid for my loan, which means even more money in pocket, for mods and family stuff.

So yeah, @agpr2016 Go on the built-in price website and play with the different trims. See what you need and what you want, and keep in mind what mods you plan on doing. If you're getting fancy wheels, and you plan on stripping them off pretty quick, save the money. If you're going to be lifting it within the first year or two or if you're not going to be going off-roading at all, you could save some money. Btw, Rubicon takeoffs are like $1,200 for the EcoDiesel, I think you can get them for the sport two-door for like 500 bucks used. Maybe even cheaper I don't know.

But yeah play around with it, and no reason to throw away money on something you don't need or aren't going to use.

Thank you! The only major mod I'd do the Jeep are front and rear steel Bumpers and rock rails drop steps for protection. No lift or bigger tires or changing the wheels...Some other small mods here and there but nothing big.

If I get the sport the gearing worries me with the manual, some say it is very inadequate. When I look at how much it costs to regear...I see the Willys has the 4.11 gears which are better.

 

[roaniecowpony]

For those that have had their jeeps for a while and have been a part of the forum community for a long time, what advice would you give to those looking to order their first Jeep within the next year or two?

What's something you would have done differently in your Jeep journey?

Obviously how we order our wranglers from the factory and how we MOD it depends on our end goals which are individual and differ from others, but still, what's the most important thing you have learned that would benefit new comers?

I would have started rock crawling years earlier. I can't believe how much fun I'm having. I'd recommend hooking up with someone that does this activity and going on a trip with them, before you buy. It may change what you buy, and why.

If you have no interest in that activity, there are much better vehicles to get just to drive down a 2 track dirt road occasionally, to find a camping spot. The Jeep has relatively crude creature comforts for the money, and, IMO, a poor quaity vehicle brand for the money. Unless you want to do rock crawling, I just wouldn't put myself through what I've gone through again to drive on dirt roads. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

I'm a new jeep buyer so I don't have much to offer but I can say what I'm glad I did which was 1) ask questions on this forum but more importantly, 2) go rent a jeep or at the very least test drive a lot of variations of them.

I thought I wanted a 392 based on what everyone was saying. After visiting no less than 5 dealerships, I found a place that had one that I can test drive and what I discovered was that while I thought it was cool, it was too much for me. So then I drove a rubi 4xe, Sahara 4xe, 2014 sahara stock (obv used but no notable mod), 2023 rubicon stock.

I know test drive is not the same as you're not on the trail or anything but considering that I will be using this for both adventuring and weekend errands (I commute by train), it was still good to know what it felt like to drive on the road.

Ultimately, I decided on a rubi x, not because I thought I needed that level of offroading capability but it felt like a good balance between what I can afford, how it felt on the road, what it can do (again, on me whether I fully utilize its capabilities), and not unimportantly, how much I loved the way it looked.

My wife decided a Rubicon X on 35s would be perfect for her. It will do anything and really doesn't need much added to it. I installed Teraflex/Falcon/Racelin and 37s on my 392 and now she wants the same package.

Don't buy a Jeep or at least don't by 2. It is very addicting.

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