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TrailRecon drops the Diesel

troubledog

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Coming back to the reason TrailRecon let go of the diesel, having read most of the pages on this thread (confessing that I'm no expert or mechanic by any means). I do have a '21 JLURD that I've lifted with a Metalcloak GC and riding 37" KO2's. I'm towing a small camp trailer, not too dissimilar from Brad's Patriot, but perhaps not as heavy (AT Horizon). By my calculations, I'm already a bit over GCWR even with my lightweight setup.

Given that Brad said he encountered the overheating issues in the thin air of the Rocky mtns and going uphill, I'm wondering if a contributing issue was him being way over the GCWR. He did release one video lamenting the fact that he had very little payload room to work with after all his mods (can relate to that). But then adding the tongue weight plus pulling a loaded down Patriot trailer ....

I have had zero issues with overheating in my setup, but admittedly I have not gone over the Rockies... but eventually will.
 

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Coming back to the reason TrailRecon let go of the diesel, having read most of the pages on this thread (confessing that I'm no expert or mechanic by any means). I do have a '21 JLURD that I've lifted with a Metalcloak GC and riding 37" KO2's. I'm towing a small camp trailer, not too dissimilar from Brad's Patriot, but perhaps not as heavy (AT Horizon). By my calculations, I'm already a bit over GCWR even with my lightweight setup.

Given that Brad said he encountered the overheating issues in the thin air of the Rocky mtns and going uphill, I'm wondering if a contributing issue was him being way over the GCWR. He did release one video lamenting the fact that he had very little payload room to work with after all his mods (can relate to that). But then adding the tongue weight plus pulling a loaded down Patriot trailer ....

I have had zero issues with overheating in my setup, but admittedly I have not gone over the Rockies... but eventually will.
I wonder how much a stock JLU diesel weighs, especially after you start adding steel bumpers, XR packages, etc...all stock.

Mine will come with 37s, steel bumpers, a 10k Warn winch, lights, etc.. I have a roof rack and rock sliders waiting in the garage. Aluminum skid plates are inbound.

I'm fairly sure that we'll be quite a bit over limits when pulling a 900 pound (empty) trailer with a RTT on top when going camping. There's a good chance that we'll be over limits when carrying nothing but four adults.

And yes, we back up to the Rockies. That's our primary target for camping.

Here's the GVWRs. I don't have any realistic min/max starting point weights for these. These numbers came directly from 2022 build sheets.

Sport
5,800​
Sahara
5,900​
Rubicon
6,100​
 

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Ratbert

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Jeep Wrangler JL TrailRecon drops the Diesel 5EA0CCC1-0679-47A0-898E-05810C315358

I weighed 5200. JLURD soft top. 100% stock with me at 200 lb in the front seat.
900 lb to work with is better than I was thinking. Thanks for posting that detail.

Plastic bumpers and soft top would be a best-case scenario. XR w/hard top or SOT would have less wiggle room.
 

ChuckQue

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I really enjoy watching his videos and I have a bit of respect for Bradā€™s opinions, however, I do think he missed the mark on the diesel.

Iā€™m fairly certain he never regeared, yes? Based on all the reading Iā€™ve done here and other forums, it seems the folks on 37+ tires who regeared their diesels havenā€™t had issues with overheating. Perhaps if heā€™d been at, say, 4.10ā€™s or even 4.56ā€™s there wouldnā€™t have been an issue. I also think going WOT under load with a steep grade at altitude isnā€™t the greatest idea. We pull a fairly heavy TT with our F-350 6.0 diesel and Iā€™ve always taken it easy up grades by running it at a higher RPM. Even over max weight when moving my wife out here from New Mexico, going up the mountains into Vegas in 110* heat.

I dunno. I realize itā€™s apples to oranges. Iā€™ll be running 35ā€™s on mine most likely, with a high probability of picking up a Patriot camper as well. Guess Iā€™ll see if I have similar issues.
 

Ratbert

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I really enjoy watching his videos and I have a bit of respect for Bradā€™s opinions, however, I do think he missed the mark on the diesel.

Iā€™m fairly certain he never regeared, yes? Based on all the reading Iā€™ve done here and other forums, it seems the folks on 37+ tires who regeared their diesels havenā€™t had issues with overheating. Perhaps if heā€™d been at, say, 4.10ā€™s or even 4.56ā€™s there wouldnā€™t have been an issue. I also think going WOT under load with a steep grade at altitude isnā€™t the greatest idea. We pull a fairly heavy TT with our F-350 6.0 diesel and Iā€™ve always taken it easy up grades by running it at a higher RPM. Even over max weight when moving my wife out here from New Mexico, going up the mountains into Vegas in 110* heat.

I dunno. I realize itā€™s apples to oranges. Iā€™ll be running 35ā€™s on mine most likely, with a high probability of picking up a Patriot camper as well. Guess Iā€™ll see if I have similar issues.
Excellent points about regearing. I don't think that I ever heard him mention doing that.

Hopefully WOT under load up a steep grade at altitude isn't required with the torque of the diesel, but in a stock 3.6L manual JLUR you have no choice. With a ~1,500 lb trailer the engine is either screaming in pain to hold its speed at the very top of 3rd or it's unusably bogging down if you try to save it by putting it into 4th.

Slightly off topic, but your comment triggered that flashback.
 

ChuckQue

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Excellent points about regearing. I don't think that I ever heard him mention doing that.

Hopefully WOT under load up a steep grade at altitude isn't required with the torque of the diesel, but in a stock 3.6L manual JLUR you have no choice. With a ~1,500 lb trailer the engine is either screaming in pain to hold its speed at the very top of 3rd or it's unusably bogging down if you try to save it by putting it into 4th.

Slightly off topic, but your comment triggered that flashback.
Is AEV doing gears on your JLURD? I know everyone raves about the torque on these motors, saying they have no problems running 37ā€™s on the stock 3.73ā€™s. Iā€™m hesitant. Heck, Iā€™ve thought about swapping the stock 3.55ā€™s on my F-350 to 3.73ā€™s since itā€™s primarily a tow vehicle and we often go over mountain passes.
 

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Is AEV doing gears on your JLURD? I know everyone raves about the torque on these motors, saying they have no problems running 37ā€™s on the stock 3.73ā€™s. Iā€™m hesitant. Heck, Iā€™ve thought about swapping the stock 3.55ā€™s on my F-350 to 3.73ā€™s since itā€™s primarily a tow vehicle and we often go over mountain passes.
Yep, 4.56 gears are standard on their JL370 package. The turbo diesel, 37s, and 4.56 gears combination was very impressive when I test drove one in Vegas a few months ago, from both performance and handling perspectives.
 

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Yep, 4.56 gears are standard on their JL370 package. The turbo diesel, 37s, and 4.56 gears combination was very impressive when I test drove one in Vegas a few months ago, from both performance and handling perspectives.
I forget, is 4.56 the sweet spot for 37+ with the diesel?
 

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OFFRD dropped his too, mainly because the timing cover leaks take forever to get repaired and fuel/maintenance costs are a major concern these days.

As sweet as diesel power is, it'll be really interesting to see how long Stellantis keeps the 3.0 around as an option on the Jeeps, especially now that 4xe and future EV can provide more torque with none of the emissions issues. If you want an EcoD go get one now!
 

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Coming back to the reason TrailRecon let go of the diesel, having read most of the pages on this thread (confessing that I'm no expert or mechanic by any means). I do have a '21 JLURD that I've lifted with a Metalcloak GC and riding 37" KO2's. I'm towing a small camp trailer, not too dissimilar from Brad's Patriot, but perhaps not as heavy (AT Horizon). By my calculations, I'm already a bit over GCWR even with my lightweight setup.

Given that Brad said he encountered the overheating issues in the thin air of the Rocky mtns and going uphill, I'm wondering if a contributing issue was him being way over the GCWR. He did release one video lamenting the fact that he had very little payload room to work with after all his mods (can relate to that). But then adding the tongue weight plus pulling a loaded down Patriot trailer ....

I have had zero issues with overheating in my setup, but admittedly I have not gone over the Rockies... but eventually will.
My wife and I watch his videos occasionally, and this was pretty much our take on the diesel thing. He packs so much stuff that I have no doubt it was more than GCWR and taking a big grade in that situation is just going to produce the results he got. IMO, his needs are better met with an HD truck instead of a Wrangler. Wranglers simply don't have the load capacity to handle all the crap he stuffs into the Jeep and trailer, let alone all the crap plus spinning heavier wheels and tires.
 

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I forget, is 4.56 the sweet spot for 37+ with the diesel?
No mountain passes, rough trails, etc. and I really don't know what the best axle ratio would be. All I know is that it seemed like a good combo during that short test drive.
 

troubledog

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My wife and I watch his videos occasionally, and this was pretty much our take on the diesel thing. He packs so much stuff that I have no doubt it was more than GCWR and taking a big grade in that situation is just going to produce the results he got. IMO, his needs are better met with an HD truck instead of a Wrangler. Wranglers simply don't have the load capacity to handle all the crap he stuffs into the Jeep and trailer, let alone all the crap plus spinning heavier wheels and tires.
Thanks. My same suspicion. My JLURD is likely going to exceed GVWR (6100 lbs), when fully loaded for camping/overlanding and when spouse and I are onboard (Iā€™m at about 5500 lbs dry weight). Even when transferring some of the load to a camp trailer, the GCWR will be exceeded unless you can keep trailer <2500 lbs, not forgetting about tongue wt.

This is probably not an issue for most Lower 48 overlanding but for crossing the US/CN Rockies or Alaska fully laden down it might be. Then youā€™ll ā€˜be like Bradā€™. Maybe a trailer is not a good idea if you are already over GVWR with lifts, big tires, passengers and cargo. Or just avoid the mountains? ;-)
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