Prepurchase Questions - Current Owner Experiences Appreciated

[Shibadog]

Friend, a STOCK JLUR with 35’s will go anyplace you’re going to want to go-do all the places you mentioned. It’s more capable off the showroom floor than a TJ with some decent mods. Drive it and see. The bigger tires/different gears you speak of will tend to take away some of the very things you say you are buying it for , esp “ride comfort” and daily driving. Keep that puppy basically stock and you will be a happy camper, esp with having a built TJ for extreme stuff.

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[Whaler27]

Hello guys… I am new to the forum but not Jeeps. My Jeep addiction started with 1989 Jeep YJ and I have been tooling around the rocks in the California desert in a highly modified and very capable 1997 TJ for the last 15 years.

I tend to keep my vehicles a very long time. I bought my newest car in 2006. With that in mind, I won’t feel bad about buying what I want and accessorizing it to my tastes. I am beginning to play around with the Jeep website to understand the options in buying a new JLUR.

I plan to hold on to my TJ for more extreme trails but want to build a very capable JLUR for day trips on milder trails, an occasional trip to Moab and maybe some overlanding. Unlike my TJ, I want a reasonable comfortable ride to and from the trails as well to work everyday.I am hoping I can tap into the community knowledge base to help me avoid any buyers remorse and would appreciate your input on a few things:

1. I am planning on going with the JLUR with the factory 35” wheel package, the V6 with eTorque and the 8 speed auto. Unless I receive some compelling feed back here to point me another direction.
   
   
2. Ultimately when the first set of tires wear out I will likely upgrade to 37’s. Any thoughts on the 4.56 vs 4.88 gear ratio?
   
   
3. I am unfamiliar with eTorque. Any opinions for current owners? In particular, will it hamper me when it comes to selection of belly armor, tummy tuck ( if that is even reasonably possible on a JL), or offroad reliability?
   
   
4. Rocktrack transfer case - it seems that the full time 4wd system is completely different than the system in my TJ. Given that the roads in Southern California are usually dry and other than overlanding trips and an occasional trip to the mountains, I rarely see snow or rain. Are there and significant advantages the the full time 4wd system?
   
5. Any thoughts on the half door packages?

I am sure I will have more questions and I think this purchase through and appreciate your thoughts.

Lots and lots of discussions on gearing choices here, including several with polling. The search engine is your friend.

If you decide on the six, and you’re going to 37” tires, the consensus heavily favors either 488s or 513s. Some folks are okay even with 410s. I drove mine with 37s and the ORM 410s for a while and it was fine — still better performance than my TJ — but I seldom saw 8th gear, and I preferred the performance before the larger tires went on. The 488s have been a significant improvement and, for me, the right choice, though I always wish for the 513s when I’m loaded, toting the rooftop tent, and trying to manage even a slight incline on the interstate. That combination will drop me into 6th gear….at least until the Edelbrock supercharger gets installed.…

 

[Eyeball]

I know my questions are all over the place and I appreciate the forums patience…

if I purchase the XR package with the 35” tires, can I expect to fully flex the suspension bump stop to bump stop, wheels turned from one steering stop to the other and have zero rubbing?

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