By accessing this website, you acknowledge that Edmunds and its third party business partners may use cookies, pixels, and similar technologies to collect information about you and your interactions with the website as described in our
Privacy Statement, and you agree that your use of the website is subject to our
Visitor Agreement.
Comments
-twylie
Tom
Have you hugged your Jeep today?
There is one thing that happened this morning. We haven't had a chance to really figure out what was going on (do that this evening perhaps). Since the roads looked icy as well as snowy, we were in 4hi. It seemed like there was adequate slipping (no feel of binding on a couple of curves). All of a sudden we smelled something burning - like rubber or plastic or something like that - not wood. We turned off the heater, put it in 2WD and cracked a window. The smell went away. I later put on the heater without the smell returning. We didn't put it back into 4hi because we were almost out of the icy road area, so I don't know if it was that or something outside at that spot. Any ideas anyone?
I am going to search for a Jeep or off-road club here so that I can team up with people who are more experienced than I am. Besides I do not want to go out alone.
My wife wanted to take off the hard top this past weekend so we did. Putting it on was a....well tough shall we say!! I think I am going to look for a hoist!! Probably get a winch (multi mount hopefully) and a cb. I should not need much else. Hmmmm...except a winch kit, bug deflector, rock guard set for the lights, a hi-lift jack, some jerry cans, maybe a small trailer for camping...hey honey come here please!! Ha ha ha!!
Take care all!!
-twylie
Tell us all about your Rubicon. I'd love to hear about it (I drool whenever I think about one, but haven't actually seen one since the auto show last year).
BTW, we did get some snow this week. Not a huge amount, but I did get to play in it with my Sport. Hope that this is a hint of more to come!
My wife, the dog, and I might head up to Flag if it rains a lot down here this weekend. I have not had any experience in the mud and do not want to try it out yet. I do not think the standard Rubicon tires would do to good in the mud. Depends on how much there is I suppose.
I will definitely check out the link to the AZ virtual Jeep club. Thanks for the tip!!
Keep posting, because we all love to hear about new Jeepers enjoying their Jeeps.
Tom
Have you hugged your Jeep today?
sienna2003 - Your new X sounds nice too. I don't know anyone who did a keyless entry conversion. I don't think that the full doors are any thinner than other cars, so I don't see why that would cause any problems. There may be other reasons - I really don't know.
Tom - I'll let you know how things go tomorrow. I'll let you know if the problem the other day comes back - we will most likely have to use 4x4 to get out of here. If we get all of the snow they are talking about, we might not be going anyplace!
sienna2003 - Your X does sound nice. What color did you get?? The Jeep doors might be a little thinner than normal but not much. There is a sticker on the inside front of my hardtop (above the windshield) that states the top and doors are for protection from the elements only and should not be counted on to protect occupants in an accident. How comforting.
Take care all!!
Take care all!!
tsjay - We used 4Low to get over the snow bank left by the snow plow, then 4 hi to get out of the subdivision (still several inches on the road). Once we hit the main road we used 2WD - it had been recently plowed and was only slushy, not icy. We didn't have any problems, but didn't have it in 4hi long enough probably to re-create the previous situation. Maybe I'll play around out on the trails (if any are open) tomorrow.
My Sport has arrived and I picked it up yesterday. Again, thanks for all of your assistance and your willingness to share your knowledge while I was trying to figure out the options to order. Merry Christmas. Susan
Larry
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year too all!
Tom
Have you hugged your Jeep today?
My first car was a 1969 CJ-5 that I bought for $500. My father and I painted it and put some big tires on it and had all kinds of fun. When I went to college my sister drove it and forgot to put the requisite 1 quart of oil every 2 weeks, and she blew the engine.
I am 27 years old, and I have been looking for a new car. I came across the Wrangler as an option, so I went to the dealer and drove a Sport 5 speed. What a difference since the CJ-5! My major complaint was that there was no place to put my left arm. (it had the full hard doors) I sat in a model with the half doors, and found that comfortable resting place. I am a big person (6'2" 235lbs.) and the Wrangler was comfortable for me! (A very rare find)
The questions I still have are:
Is there enough room for my dog(80lb lab), his crate(it folds up), and a weekend of stuff? (I do like the after market safari racks, so that is an option.)
How are they on longer trips? (3+ hours?) Wind noise get irritating?
Are the half doors a lot louder than the full doors?
Disc brakes worth getting? ABS instead? I plan on mild off-roading, but ABS has saved me several times already.
Will it be ok as my only form of transportation?
How long can I park it in the city (Baltimore) before someone slashes the windows? (I don't live in the city, but I go there frequently enough)
I was about getting an X model with half doors, a manual transmission, locking differential, A/C and adding upgrades myself as I enjoy doing that. (wheels, lights, racks, etc)
I currently drive an Acura Integra (that I bought despite not really fitting in it, I was young and blinded by the thought of owning a fast car.) and a Jeep will be a huge switch! I appreciate any comments you may have for me.
Thanks,
Jimmy
wendy
Love my Liberty !
Man, you had lots of questions, and I will give you my opinion of some of them.
We have something in common, and that is our four legged buddies. My dog goes with me wherever I go, as long as it's somewhere that I am allowed to take him. I would take him to work with me, if they would allow it.
I took the back seat out of my Jeep within just a couple weeks of getting her. It has been back in just once since I first took it out. It's almost always just me and Ross Allen (my granddog) in the Jeep, and sometimes someone in the passenger seat. So, the back seat stays out, and that is Ross Allen's area. I have old blankets piled up in the floor back there for him to lie on. Ross is a 70 lb doggie of no particular breed, so he is almost as big as your dog.
You are right about the left arm having no good resting place with the full doors. That's what I have, since I got the hard top only. I have learned to live with it.
So, it might be the X model for you, huh? That's cool, since you would be getting the 4.0 L six cylinder engine that way. One thing you can't get with the X model is a Dana 44 rear end. Now that might not be a biggie in your case, since you said you would only do mild offroading. The Dana 35 has smaller axle shafts, and they can snap if you put larger tires on the Jeep and go offroading in moderate to extreme terrain. Also, if you put a locker in a Dana 35, the odds of breaking a shaft go up.
The only "locker" you can get from the factory in anything other than the Rubicon is not really a locker, but a limited slip system called Trac Loc.
The Trac Loc is supposed to be good for ice and snow, but with Trac Loc or any other limited slip, you must have at least a little traction on each wheel. A true locker will make one tire pull even if the other tire on that axle is completely off the ground, but a limited slip will not.
Trac Loc is a clutch type limited slip, and they say that over time the clutches wear out, but how long it takes for that to happen is something I don't know. Lots of people seem to like the Trac Loc, and it may be a good choice for you.
You asked how much difference in noise level between the full and half doors, and I can't help ya there, since I have a hard top and full doors.
You also asked about ABS, and all I can tell ya there is that I have heard that if you go to larger tires, then ABS doesn't handle it very well.
Jimmy, so much about what you need for options depends on how you will use your Jeep. I read about a million posts here and on some other Jeep message boards where there is a lot more technical type info before I ordered my Jeep.
I didn't even think I would do ANY offroading, but I still made it a point to get the Dana 44 rear end. I figured whether I offroaded or not, why not get the heavier duty rear end, and maybe it would last longer. In my case, that was sure the right thing to do, since I finally went offroading 14 months after getting my Jeep. Man, I was HOOKED after one trip! Now I know I can go to bigger tires, and I have already had a full locker installed in the rear end. I shouldn't have to worry about snapping an axle shaft. For most people, though, the Dana 35 is adequate, and for all the offroading I have done so far, it would probably have been fine for me too. I just like the peace of mind knowing that I have that Dana 44 and that I can go to larger tires some day without being constantly worried about snapping and axle shaft.
I know there's a pretty big price difference in the X and the Sport, so maybe you are just as well off getting the X and doing without the Dana 44.
I'll just put it this way... getting the Dana 44 keeps some options for future mods open to you. It will also help on resale, but you will love your Jeep so much that you will never sell it anyway, so I guess we can scratch that one off the list of advantages.
I'm going to end this post, finally, but I know you have more questions than what I have responded to. Feel free to email me, Jimmy.
tjoh298765@aol.com
Welcome to the board, and good luck in getting just the right Jeep for you needs!
Tom
Have you hugged your Jeep today?
Glad you are enjoying that Libby. So, you are still thinkin' about adding a Wrangler to your stable, huh? Good move!
Tom
Have you hugged your Jeep today?
I've managed to make a couple of round trips from Seattle to So Cal with three 70#+ dogs, two people, and a limited amount of other stuff. I wouldn't recommend it but it can be done. A weekend camping trip with one dog is easy but I don't take much stuff with me.
I've had both soft and hard top YJ's. Living in Seattle (rain) I found the hard top most practical. Two things I found annoying about the soft top. I hated those side zipper windows. I also got tired of unzipping the rear window enough to let my dog jump in the back. The soft top was many times louder than the hard but that didn't bother me. I read the new soft tops are much quieter, I can't comment.
As for getting your windows slashed, I parked my soft top at a lot of trailheads which are often places of thievery. I left NOTHING in the car, glove box open, and didn't have any problems. I believe the NOTHING part was the key to my success. (Standard AM/FM radio and speakers qualifies as nothing.)
I think most the rest of your questions are just a matter of personal opinion. A Wrangler is certainly not an ideal long distance cruiser but it sure zips around town. Mine works OK for me as an only car but it's just fido and me, I can't see a Wrangler as an only family car.
I really don't get excited about cars but I sure do like my Wrangler. ('91 YJ)
So, here's a few short facts, easily checked by a few minutes work with a search engine.
1: ABS will NOT help you stop any quicker.
2: ABS will allow you to STEER while applying maximum braking effort.
3: A locked wheel or wheels contribute very little to braking or steering.
4: A tire that is just about to lock up is at its point of providing maximum friction with the road.
5: By quickly releasing the brake and reapplying it (many times a second), ABS can keep the wheel at the point of maximum braking efficiency and allow it to steer at the same time.
6: There ARE times, usually off road, when ABS is not desirable. Usually it's when a build up of material under a locked wheel will be a more efficient means of braking (but not steering). This can be in fine sand, gravel, dust etc. Also on clay, or when you need to break through a surface crust of thin ice.
7: The ABS system on a Jeep Wrangler has no idea what size tires you have fitted. It's only interested in the COMPARATIVE wheel speeds. The only time tire size makes a difference is if you have different tire sizes on the same vehicle, causing different wheels to rotate at different speeds.
Now for an (my) opinion. If you don't NEED a Dana 44, go for the ABS option. However much most of us wish it could be different, most people do most of their mileage on the highway. With ABS fitted you have the benefit of it on road, and the option to disconnect it off road (just pull the relays). Seemingly, the best of both worlds.
I'm sure someone will disagree.... :-)
I get my info on that second hand, but from someone whom I trust, and that person DID have personal experience with the combination of oversize tires and ABS.
It is worth some investigation, I guess, if someone is considering ABS and thinks they may want to go to bigger tires sometime.
Tom
Have you hugged your Jeep today?
Mac, just thought of something... bigger tires won't stop as fast whether you have ABS or not, right? Maybe that's what was going on with my buddy who thought the problem had something to do with ABS???
Jimmy - A few notes of my own to add to what has already been said. My Wrangler hauls my hiking buddy to all the trailheads, and he is a 70+ Golden Retriever. Like Tom, I removed the back seat. You don't have to remove the seat to get room for the dog - the back seat tumbles forward and does allow for lots more room, if you also want to haul people more often than I do. We have taken weekend trips with the dog and had no problems, except that there isn't room for luggage, the dog and our laundry (so the dog goes and the laundry gets done a load at a time during the week). If you need extra room occasionally there are a number of racks you can get, or even a small utility trailer.
Two years ago (has it been THAT long ago????) we decided to take the Wrangler on a trip from SoCal to a small community in northern British Columbia. The reason? The seats are a whole lot more comfortable than the seats in our 2000 Tacoma. We have a hard top and full doors, and while it is much noisier than the Taco, it isn't that big of a deal. My comfort comes first on a long trip like that! We have done a number of other shorter trips and almost always take the Wrangler. Besides, it is far more fun to drive!
The Taco gets much better gas mileage and handles better in the wind, but is only 2WD. This means that the Wrangler is our daily driver when the roads are bad. Right now I'm looking out second floor window on a sunny, snowy, pine covered ridge and feeling happy that we have so much snow, because I really do prefer the Wrangler over the Taco.
I'm short (5') and also find no place to rest my elbow. I've found that lowering the steering wheel helps - I'm not reaching up and wanting to support my arm as much. I thought about getting half doors for the elbow support, but don't want the hastle of the zipped windows. You can get sliding windows for the half doors, but decided it wasn't worth it, especially since I found a more comfortable position for the steering wheel.
I would get the ABS - I locked up the brakes in the Tacoma once on the freeway and could definitely see where they would come in handy. Especially if the Wrangler will be your daily driver (and most of the miles on it would be road miles). The advantages you gain off-roading aren't enough to compensate for doing without their added safety on the road.
I have the LSD, which didn't help me at all the one time I got stuck. I got high centered when trying to drive through 30" of snow (one night's dump in the SoCal mountains). It packed up under the frame and lifted too many tires off the road. As soon as I dug out the snow from the frame I could back up into my driveway.
Wendy - I've been thinking about a Liberty as a replacement for the Taco. I think a Wrangler and a Liberty would be a good combination!
You are quite correct in that larger tires will make for less effecient braking. There is simply more leverage against the brakes. However, it won't make any difference to the ABS except if you were to go to extreme 'Bigfoot' size tires. Those size of tires would reduce the rotational speed of the wheels to a point that the ABS would 'think' that the wheel was about to lock up when it was actually at an acceptable level. However, you are then looking at sizes that are way above the sensible limit for a D35 axle.
It's most likely that your friend experienced the ABS 'doing its thing' and was uncomfortable that he was unable to lock his new larger wheels and tires on a surface with limited traction. The easiest, and probably safest fix, is to disable the ABS when off road and re-enable it when you return.
And, you are exactly right... there's lots of things put forth on the Net, and you can't take it all as gospel.
I hope everyone here feels free to disagree with the old Tomster at any time. It doesn't hurt my feelings a bit, and, heck, I might even learn something.
I try to stick with things I know for a fact, and if it is something that I have only "heard" about, I try to remember to state it in such a way as to convey that it is only something that I have heard.
Merry Christmas!
Tom
Have you hugged your Jeep today?
Merry Christmas
I hope you all had a good weekend. We are going to try to go on the Lake Pleasant to Crown King run this coming Saturday but I might have to help a friend from work move. There is a technical workshop in early January on adding a hood release and a kill switch for short wheelbase Jeeps and I plan to attend that.
I am enjoying the Rubicon as my main set of wheels. My wife drives a 2002 Tacoma Pre-Runner which is quieter, but probably wouldn't be able to follow me to far.
Hopefully we can get some pictures of all of this up soon.
Take care all!!
Tom
Have you hugged your Jeep today?
P.S. Just reread your post, and you said seven YEAR old, not seven months, so Kisses ain't no pup. That's great that you are rescuing an older dog that probably wouldn't get adopted otherwise. You just went up even higher on my list! Actually, right to the top.
Look at how the available options change in regard to axle ratios, wheel and tire sizes, ABS, etc. A combination available one year may be forbidden the next.
I'm sure DC thinks you should be grateful to be allowed to buy one at all....... and ecstatic to be able to have any choice of options! :-)
I've noticed how things have been changing since I bought mine. The only reason I can think of for not offering the ABS with the Dana 44 is that they assume the Dana 44 is being bought by off-roaders who don't want ABS. I somehow was under the impression that they didn't offer the LSD with the Dana 44 back in '98 when I bought mine (I assumed that was because they thought most who bought the Dana 44 were going to put in lockers) - but I could have been wrong about that. Since the car companies are in business to make money, they will offer what sells. If something doesn't sell they cut it out. If lots of people ask for something then they will offer it (if they can make money at it).
However.....think back to February of this year. Decisions had been made that were of much more significance to the bottom line than to offer ABS on the D44. The APEX was announced! Someone obviously decided that chrome wheels, orange plastic seats, and bold black horizontal stripes on the hood would appeal to enough potential buyers to make the not insignificant production costs worthwhile. I just checked the Jeep site, and ten months (maybe less) after its introduction, it's no longer available.
Maybe the guy that used to make the option availability choices was promoted, and got to choose a whole new model. ;-)
on a 5-speed . What fluid does it take...it looks
like GM-auto stuff. Can the rear yoke of the tranny be pulled and seal replaced by a shade tree
mechanic or does the seal need to be pressed in by
a profeesional shop? Thanx for any info
2: Again, it depends. Check your handbook.
3: That would be the yoke on the back of the transfer case? Yes, easily replaced. Remember that any leakage from there will be from the transfer case and not the main transmission.
case output. I do not have a owners manual...as
its a older 91 jeep and I bought it used. Is the
fluid in the transfer case GM-auto tranny fluid?
It looks like the yoke simpy bolts on to the back of the case. Does the owners manual go this deep
into repairs...or should I buy a shop manual?
Again thanx for the info!!
Several of us that hang out here in Edmunds also go to a web site belonging to a guy named Gill down in Alabama. Gill's site is noncommercial, so there is no advertising, and Gill charges no fees for any of the features of his site. He's just a guy who loves Jeeps and likes for Jeepers come to his site and post pics, use the bulletin board, and chat in his chat room.
Go to http://itsajeep.org
You'll find a photo gallery, a chat room, and a bulletin board. Some of us go there and chat just about every night. It's often after 8 PM CST before there are people in the chat room, but sometimes we get an earlier start.
Gill allows hot links to the photos in his gallery, so if you want to post some pics in the Edmunds Jeep Owners Photo Gallery, for example, you can have your pics hosted at Gill's and then link to them for Edmunds. Cool, huh? No charge, either.
Tom
Have you hugged your Jeep today?
http://www.alldatadiy.com
for a cheaper alternative to purchasing a factory manual. The generic alternatives really aren't that good.
Dexron II or ATF+3 is recommended for the transfer case.
You may be able to get an owners manual through your dealer. The usual source for tech info is:
http://www.techauthority.daimlerchrysler.com
but they only go back ten years. The 1992 Owners Manual is the last one listed. Part number is 81-326-9250 and costs $6.00
Steve, Host
tidester, host
Kahuna