Trim Level Advice

[Odyssey USA]

Another reason to go Sport over Sahara is the wheel size, the Saharas got an 18" wheel which can make tires more expensive and harder to find.

True but I was glad, even with the Sahara, to have the heavy duty, longer lasting brakes. There is more meat to the rotors for heat dispersion and that’ll help brake service life if driven the same.

Takeoff 17’s aren’t pricey. I got my Rubicon premium wheels for $300 for 5.

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[jimcoffey62]

I live in Kemah, just down the road from you.
Think really hard about your willingness to drive 5+ hours to do any decent off roading.
Closest places with hills are Hidden Falls near austin, Barnwell up near Gilmer, TX, or Hot Springs, AR.
You and I live in flatlandia.
When I do the math, it's cheaper for me to fly southwest to Denver, or Vegas, or Los Angeles ... rent a cheap car, drive to the offroad areas, and then rent an off road jeep from one of the off road rental places for 1-3 days of offroading run.
You're going to spend a lot on gas and a lot of hours driving, plus wear and tear on the jeep.

Of course, if you are retired, or wealthy, or have a work from anywhere zoom job it makes sense to drive to a place and spend a month wheeling, and working from your hotel or camper.
-----
If you get the sport with the LSD limited slip you will have the dana 44 axle.
Willy's has the dana 44

Here in Houston I STRONGLY encourage you to get the soft top. If you get the hard top you should immediately buy the bestop sunrider option. The "freedom" panels are too heavy and bulky. (take a test drive, tell the dealer you want to take the freedom panels off, see for yourself) I see LOTS of jeeps driving around galveston county. In the last 2 years I have only seen one time where people took the freedom panels out. Meanwhile I can open/shut the sunrider in 30 seconds at a stoplight. If it's not actively raining my top is open. That's why I bought a jeep. I wanted a convertible that could hold grandkids and didn't look like an old man chrysler sedan. I daily drive my jeep. Flip open the top and drive to work. 70mph, no problem. Flip it closed when I park, flip back open to drive home. Except july/august when I use the airconditioner in the afternoon. mornings it's cool enough to drive with the top open.

THe hard top does let you put a luggage rack on top so if camping is your thing a hard top makes sense.

 

[Stuckinthesand]

That’s a subtle difference for sure. But it’s there. I saw a couple that listed the LSD as an option but not sure I trust cars.com to be accurate. Would want a picture but a sport S with this might be the ticket.

https://fcagroup.my.site.com/RAM/s/equipment-listing
Put the vin in and on the build sheet it will say Dana M220 rear axle or Anti spin differential.

 

[randymac03]

https://fcagroup.my.site.com/RAM/s/equipment-listing
Put the vin in and on the build sheet it will say Dana M220 rear axle or Anti spin differential.

Very nice! Thanks!

 

[jimcoffey62]

There is a set of youtube videos showing a guy doing some pretty serious rock crawling in a stock Jl sport. I can't post the link because the owners of this forum and that forum don't like each other. His forum is full of jerks. But he makes good videos .

He named his red jeep The PIPPI Project - which should be enough to google and find it.

Also, Tommy at TFL offroad purchased a stock Willy's sport and has several videos with the pro/con + he took it on several offroad adventures.

 

[randymac03]

I live in Kemah, just down the road from you.
Think really hard about your willingness to drive 5+ hours to do any decent off roading.
Closest places with hills are Hidden Falls near austin, Barnwell up near Gilmer, TX, or Hot Springs, AR.
You and I live in flatlandia.
When I do the math, it's cheaper for me to fly southwest to Denver, or Vegas, or Los Angeles ... rent a cheap car, drive to the offroad areas, and then rent an off road jeep from one of the off road rental places for 1-3 days of offroading run.
You're going to spend a lot on gas and a lot of hours driving, plus wear and tear on the jeep.

Of course, if you are retired, or wealthy, or have a work from anywhere zoom job it makes sense to drive to a place and spend a month wheeling, and working from your hotel or camper.
-----
If you get the sport with the LSD limited slip you will have the dana 44 axle.
Willy's has the dana 44

Here in Houston I STRONGLY encourage you to get the soft top. If you get the hard top you should immediately buy the bestop sunrider option. The "freedom" panels are too heavy and bulky. (take a test drive, tell the dealer you want to take the freedom panels off, see for yourself) I see LOTS of jeeps driving around galveston county. In the last 2 years I have only seen one time where people took the freedom panels out. Meanwhile I can open/shut the sunrider in 30 seconds at a stoplight. If it's not actively raining my top is open. That's why I bought a jeep. I wanted a convertible that could hold grandkids and didn't look like an old man chrysler sedan. I daily drive my jeep. Flip open the top and drive to work. 70mph, no problem. Flip it closed when I park, flip back open to drive home. Except july/august when I use the airconditioner in the afternoon. mornings it's cool enough to drive with the top open.

THe hard top does let you put a luggage rack on top so if camping is your thing a hard top makes sense.

All good stuff. I recently did just what you said and rented in Moab. That's where the addiction started. Fortunately I do have a job that I can be away from for some time and my kids are basically homeschooled. So the hope is to get to some of the spots you mentioned within a weekend for "extra curricular" school activities.

That Bestop looks very interesting. i like the convenience of a soft top, but thought more hard top to keep the noise down. don't really plan on mounting anything up there.

 

[jimcoffey62]

Click my build thread for details on my jeep journey. I'm mainly a beach guy.
Even without a lift your jeep should be able to handle most street flooding. So you can join the Cajun Navy - motorized Marine division - and go rescue people after the next storm.
Google it, get the app, have fun helping folks.

I also strongly recommend the besttop fabric doors. Sun's out - doors out.
Except we get random rain storms.
And it's too blowing to drive the freeway without doors.
So the fabric doors pop on and off in about 5 minutes and they will store in the boot.
I bought mine via amazon so I could do the 30 day return thing if I didn't like them.

 

[yokramer]

The road noise in the soft top isnt that bad. I only really notice it when someone with loud tires or a semi is behind or to the side of me. But Ive also had a motorcycle or soft top car for most of my adult life.

 

[randymac03]

Click my build thread for details on my jeep journey. I'm mainly a beach guy.
Even without a lift your jeep should be able to handle most street flooding. So you can join the Cajun Navy - motorized Marine division - and go rescue people after the next storm.
Google it, get the app, have fun helping folks.

I also strongly recommend the besttop fabric doors. Sun's out - doors out.
Except we get random rain storms.
And it's too blowing to drive the freeway without doors.
So the fabric doors pop on and off in about 5 minutes and they will store in the boot.
I bought mine via amazon so I could do the 30 day return thing if I didn't like them.

gotta love the cajun navy! good folks. i'll definitely check it all out.

 

[Heimkehr]

Only thing sport doesn’t have that the wife would probably want is power windows and locks. I can just hear the griping about having to roll the window down….

Don't dismiss the potential gripes.

A bit of levity, and a true story:

My salesman offered me a fair discount on a just-off-the-truck JLU Sport that was a customer refusal. When husband and wife showed up to collect it, she discovered that the vehicle had manual windows, door locks and mirrors...things that he never mentioned. Unwilling to live with such proletarian encumbrances, Princess refused to cosign the loan app., which prevented them from purchasing the vehicle.

I declined the offer, wanting my factory order to have precisely what I wanted on my Jeep. The JLU mentioned above sold in short order to another buyer.

 

[randymac03]

The road noise in the soft top isnt that bad. I only really notice it when someone with loud tires or a semi is behind or to the side of me. But Ive also had a motorcycle or soft top car for most of my adult life.

nice to know. my daily commute is less than 10 miles on a 45 MPH road filled with red lights. so most of the time it wouldnt be an issue.

 

[randymac03]

Don't dismiss the potential gripes.

A bit of levity, and a true story:

My salesman offered me a fair discount on a just-off-the-truck JLU Sport that was a customer refusal. When husband and wife showed up to collect it, she discovered that the vehicle had manual windows, door locks and mirrors...things that he never mentioned. Unwilling to live with such proletarian encumbrances, Princess refused to cosign the loan app., which prevented them from purchasing the vehicle.

I declined the offer, wanting my factory order to have precisely what I wanted on my Jeep. The JLU mentioned above sold in short order to another buyer.

sound advice!

 

[jimcoffey62]

All good stuff. I recently did just what you said and rented in Moab. That's where the addiction started. Fortunately I do have a job that I can be away from for some time and my kids are basically homeschooled. So the hope is to get to some of the spots you mentioned within a weekend for "extra curricular" school activities.

That Bestop looks very interesting. i like the convenience of a soft top, but thought more hard top to keep the noise down. don't really plan on mounting anything up there.

Besttop sunrider for hardtop opens up the front seat to the open air.
While the softtop sunrider opens an extra 18 inches or so and the back seat people are 80% open air. So it depends on if you want the kids to get open air or not. My grandkids love driving in the neighborhood with the sunrider open, they can stand on the back seat and hold on to the rollbar, and wave at the neighbors. Kinda like a golf cart. You can't do that with the hardtop sunrider. Hard top is more secure if that's important to you.

I drove 12 hours round trip to south Padre with the soft top closed. No problem with wind noise. We listened to a book on audible. Normal radio volume. Pleasantly surprised.

Soft top closed and the temperature is fine - AC keeps it cool even in August. Heater is fantastic. Heater is so good I can drive top down in February when the temp is 35 degrees.

The softtop sunrider position gives me 90% of what I wanted in a convertible, and it is so easy. I've only taken the windows out and pulled the top all the way down twice in my 2 years of ownership.

 

[Evzo]

Good Day All

The wife has given me the go ahead to get a jeep! I have decided just for safety and creature comforts I want to get a JLU.

With a $30k budget and self imposed 60k mileage limit it seems my search list is full of Sport trims.

I was really wanting a Rubicon trim to get the increased off road features such as lockers, better axle, etc.

Question being - for a weekend warrior - will the Sport trim have enough to handle most any trail.? Plan to 2.5”-3.5” inch lift and get 35” tires pretty soon after purchase if it doesn’t have already.

Thanks for any input!

I would recommend starting in a RUBICON trim, like the ones mention or posted by fellow jeepfam; remembering my first jeep a 2016 Sahara, i gradually realized the time, work not to mention $$ for it to be a spec of my liking on trails, It "graduated" me to a JL 2018 Rubicon, it marked all the boxes, i should have started there!! Today i am content with my build to suit Rubicon X with a winch and all the other goodies that come standard with factory warranty (for what is worth). The hard part is getting approved by the MRS.. Like many others in the forum, the wife is enjoying and loving "my Jeep"
Welcome to: "It's Jeep thing"

 

[yokramer]

nice to know. my daily commute is less than 10 miles on a 45 MPH road filled with red lights. so most of the time it wouldnt be an issue.

And there is nothing better than Safari mode with the soft top

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