Picked up my Rubicon Xtreme Recon - pics and first review / impressions

[DjSker]

I’ll have some first hand experience with the XR tomorrow. picking up a sting gray rubi XR, with a 2.5 hour drive home.

Update:

Picked up the Rubicon XR this afternoon. Drove it home for about 2 1/2 hours. Half highway, half mountain/hilly back roads in north Georgia/Tennessee. Steps are going on now, yes these fender flare extensions can be easily removed. The ride on the highway was great, plenty of power, put it on cruise control on the roads that were flat to see how it reacted… All good. Averaged, according to the read out, about 17 1/2 mpg. Highway average speed between 72 mph and 80 mph, back road speed average around 45 to 60. RPMs at cruising speed…whether it was 78 mph or 60 mph stayed at around 2400.

Very Nice. During your ride, how was the noise? Tire noise?

 

[guzie]

Very Nice. During your ride, how was the noise? Tire noise?

I don’t really hear the tires in mine.

 

[Dougsdrive]

Are the brakes on the extreme recon package different than the standard Rubicon brakes?

 

[Jtphoto]

Are the brakes on the extreme recon package different than the standard Rubicon brakes?

Yes they are. They are the performance brakes from the 392.

 

[guarnibl]

Yes they are. They are the performance brakes from the 392.

Which suck by the way. They really should have upgraded brakes on the 392.

 

[Jtphoto]

Which suck by the way. They really should have upgraded brakes on the 392.

Yet these are the brakes everyone is installing after the fact. At least they are bigger then the regular models brakes.

 

[guarnibl]

Yet these are the brakes everyone is installing after the fact. At least they are bigger then the regular models brakes.

The brakes are fine if you're driving it like a normal v6 wrangler. But if you're driving it somewhat quick off the line in a town/light to light situation, they're utterly abysmal. Alcons are going on asap. Will likely run a half inch spacer.

 

[Zandcwhite]

The brakes are fine if you're driving it like a normal v6 wrangler. But if you're driving it somewhat quick off the line in a town/light to light situation, they're utterly abysmal. Alcons are going on asap. Will likely run a half inch spacer.

I think people are expecting sports car brakes just because it has sports car power. It's still a 5500+lb truck on large off road tires. The factory brakes on our 2019 jlur are more than sufficient even on 38's. I've never felt they needed upgraded wether it be running light to light or an emergency stop from 80mph on the freeway. Sure the alcons will be a huge upgrade, but I'd hardly call the factory brakes abysmal. To each his own I guess, but you might want to brake sooner like your driving an over powered off road vehicle?

 

[guarnibl]

I think people are expecting sports car brakes just because it has sports car power. It's still a 5500+lb truck on large off road tires. The factory brakes on our 2019 jlur are more than sufficient even on 38's. I've never felt they needed upgraded wether it be running light to light or an emergency stop from 80mph on the freeway. Sure the alcons will be a huge upgrade, but I'd hardly call the factory brakes abysmal. To each his own I guess, but you might want to brake sooner like your driving an over powered off road vehicle?

Yes that’s correct — they should.

It’s certainly subjective but as the acceleration increases so does the need for braking power. Pretty common to mate brakes correctly to a vehicle in the industry. I had to do the same thing to my JK when i supercharged it. Honestly would have gladly paid for a factory brake package. For the price of the vehicle though I’d have expected brakes that at least have stopping power similar to my prior SRT GC.

I’m not really upset or anything — I’m glad FCA made the vehicle either way.

 

[Dougsdrive]

I found this.

https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/392-brake-upgrade.72404/

 

[halewest]

I’ll have some first hand experience with the XR tomorrow. picking up a sting gray rubi XR, with a 2.5 hour drive home.

Update:

Picked up the Rubicon XR this afternoon. Drove it home for about 2 1/2 hours. Half highway, half mountain/hilly back roads in north Georgia/Tennessee. Steps are going on now, yes these fender flare extensions can be easily removed. The ride on the highway was great, plenty of power, put it on cruise control on the roads that were flat to see how it reacted… All good. Averaged, according to the read out, about 17 1/2 mpg. Highway average speed between 72 mph and 80 mph, back road speed average around 45 to 60. RPMs at cruising speed…whether it was 78 mph or 60 mph stayed at around 2400.

As promised, more pics now that its daylight, and steps installed…

I have the same exact Jeep just in a Charcoal gray. One thing I noticed right off the bat is the Rock Trac AWD system rides much better than without it. However, I opted for the one without it and I hope I didn't make a mistake. I would not say these things ride fine on the road. However, I just ordered some Fox Performance Elite 2.5 DSC shocks hoping to improve on that significantly and get the same AWD road connected feeling. I will drop back in and let everyone know what it does for the overall ride but right now the XR is not really a decent road vehicle let along a good road vehicle. Of course I bought it to do a bunch of off-roading but would still like to improve on the ride and cabin noise during work calls.

 

[guarnibl]

I have the same exact Jeep just in a Charcoal gray. One thing I noticed right off the bat is the Rock Trac AWD system rides much better than without it. However, I opted for the one without it and I hope I didn't make a mistake. I would not say these things ride fine on the road. However, I just ordered some Fox Performance Elite 2.5 DSC shocks hoping to improve on that significantly and get the same AWD road connected feeling. I will drop back in and let everyone know what it does for the overall ride but right now the XR is not really a decent road vehicle let along a good road vehicle. Of course I bought it to do a bunch of off-roading but would still like to improve on the ride and cabin noise during work calls.

More sound deadening material will help with cabin noise (i.e., what they do for installing stereos). But yeah, 2.5 DSC shocks may not improve the on road quality so to speak. I'd hope that it would retain it, and then improve off road.

 

[Zandcwhite]

I have the same exact Jeep just in a Charcoal gray. One thing I noticed right off the bat is the Rock Trac AWD system rides much better than without it. However, I opted for the one without it and I hope I didn't make a mistake. I would not say these things ride fine on the road. However, I just ordered some Fox Performance Elite 2.5 DSC shocks hoping to improve on that significantly and get the same AWD road connected feeling. I will drop back in and let everyone know what it does for the overall ride but right now the XR is not really a decent road vehicle let along a good road vehicle. Of course I bought it to do a bunch of off-roading but would still like to improve on the ride and cabin noise during work calls.

Setting the shocks to their softest setting will "smooth out" the ride on road. Airing down the tires close to 30psi vs 40 where my dealer wants to put them every time they touch my jeep makes a huge difference too. Unfortunately the XR’S have very limited up travel and hitting the bumpstops is going to make for a very harsh ride. If you want to keep it on the lower side I'd buy a set of 1" spacers to gain the uptravel at a minimum. Of course if I was spending the money on those shocks I would go full 2.5-3.5" lift kit right out the gate to avoid running shocks that are too short when I decided to go to 37's but that's just me.

 

[Jtphoto]

Setting the shocks to their softest setting will "smooth out" the ride on road. Airing down the tires close to 30psi vs 40 where my dealer wants to put them every time they touch my jeep makes a huge difference too. Unfortunately the XR’S have very limited up travel and hitting the bumpstops is going to make for a very harsh ride. If you want to keep it on the lower side I'd buy a set of 1" spacers to gain the uptravel at a minimum. Of course if I was spending the money on those shocks I would go full 2.5-3.5" lift kit right out the gate to avoid running shocks that are too short when I decided to go to 37's but that's just me.

Personally I prefer the MC RockSport shocks they are a regressive shock rather the progressive. I already have the shocks and RK triple rate 2.5” once the XR is here.

 

[Zandcwhite]

Personally I prefer the MC RockSport shocks they are a regressive shock rather the progressive. I already have the shocks and RK triple rate 2.5” once the XR is here.

I wouldn’t even pretend that the rock sports are in the same league as the fox 2.5” dsc’s, but they are a great budget friendly option. They allow a massive increase in wheel travel over the stock shocks for sure.

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