Wrangler/Rubicon Owners

[weeds]

Chasing owners or those that have actually own one.....

Looking for feedback on the diesel version of the current model.......the petrol seems to outnumber the diesel 10:1.

Cheers

[paull]

I have MY10 CRD auto 4dr Wrangler.
Mine's got the old interior and Chrysler auto, not the newer interior with the Merc auto (MY11 onwards).
The engines's are pretty much the same between them (slightly more power/torque in the newer ones).

Before the 3.6l petrol motor came out the CRD was by far the better engine of the 2 available and the percentage of diesels sold would have been far higher. The old 3.8l petrol motor is reliable but underpowered and thirsty. The new 3.6l engine performs far better though and isn't as thirsty so the percentage of diesels sold now will be far smaller.........also not helped by them increasing the price premium for the diesel over the petrol.

What sort of info are you after?

[weeds]

Tare weight, it's not in the brochure and the dealer couldn't tell me

Max Tow ball weight, again dealer didn't know.

I assume they would tow my 1500kg camper no worries.

Is the standard drive up to to normal touring duties? Was in a jeep shop today and they said Dana 44?? is not the best rear diff around. Than told me the Dana 60 is wider which causes issue with the front end. Just figured they were over complicating things.

The wife is keen and will be her daily drive.....just not sure it's going to cut it touring with a family of five.

[Steffo1]

I know a bloke who has a 5 or 6 year old Wrangler & I know he would not recommend it as a Daily Drive.
Off road, straight out of the box, up there with the best (No, not Toyota or Datsun)'
From memory towing is around 2 Tonne, tare is disappointing & cargo space not too flash either.
Steve

p.s. Weeds, I can give him a call if you wish.

[silverfox1111]

Gday Weeds
Have you checked out the "ausjeepoffroad" forum? Heaps of info there.
Though not relevant, i love my diesel 2012 grand cherokee!
Silverfox

[weeds]

I know a bloke who has a 5 or 6 year old Wrangler & I know he would not recommend it as a Daily Drive.
Off road, straight out of the box, up there with the best (No, not Toyota or Datsun)'
From memory towing is around 2 Tonne, tare is disappointing & cargo space not too flash either.
Steve

p.s. Weeds, I can give him a call if you wish.

Well considering I'm over GVM with my piece of Shit hi-lux when we go away the Jeep will be worse....in fact doubt I will get half out stuff in.

[weeds]

Gday Weeds
Have you checked out the "ausjeepoffroad" forum? Heaps of info there.
Though not relevant, i love my diesel 2012 grand cherokee!
Silverfox

Assumed there would be a jeep forum.....the forum gods would give me a pasting for asking a common question and not hitting the search button. 

Figured i would start here....although the more a search It not looking like its a good option.

[weeds]

Umm, Jeep got back to be saying Kerb a Weight is the same as GVM, I said they need to search a little harder.

They rang back saying Kerb is 2053kg, I asked is that with or without a person and how much fuel?? They didn't know so I assume no fuel and no allocation for a person.....which means approx. 500 of load capacity.

They also could not tell me max. Tow ball weight.....

[paull]

I'd say your biggest issue is going to be the "with a family of five" bit. The back seat has 3 seat belts but it's not a big place. The seat base is quite small and the seat is quite high. It's not somewhere I'd want to spend a lot of time crammed in with others. Also the load space is terrible due to the short rear overhang and the roll cage takes up a lot of space. You'll need to pack very light to get gear in there for a family of 5.

As for the other questions: the tare weight according to my rego notice is 1760kg. Couldn't tell you if that is correct or not though........I'm guessing not. I've also got an old brochure that states kerb weight of 2120kg.

Ball weight for mine is 170kg, with max tow weight of 2300kg. That's for diesel. The petrol can only tow 2000kg a 4dr. The tow weights and ball weights have changed frequently over the years though so it'd be good to get confirmation on that. Hayman Reece may be able to tell you if Jeep can't.

I tow a Cub with mine that weighs in at around 1200kg. It tows it well. It's a good stable tow vehicle. I've got airbags in my rear springs but whether you need them will depend on the springs you have. Mine a quite soft flexi springs which are great for off road work but need a little help with the weight of the camper plus family.

I don't think mine is ideally geared for towing (gears are a little tall) but it does it well enough. You just need to learn how to drive it.......ie drive to keep the torque converter locked up, not necessarily to max road speed. The newer models with the tiptronic auto box will help that a lot. Otherwise it does a good job. You'd need to put a dedicated transmission cooler in it and maybe avoid big spotties in front of the grill but otherwise you'll have no troubles.

In terms of driveline the dealer is talking sh1t. All CRD's (in fact all JK's other than the Rubicon) come with Dana 30 front axle and Dana 44 rear. The Rubi's get Dana 44 front as well as Dana 44 rear (Rubi's are petrol only, get lower diff ratios, lower low range ratio, lockers front & rear & sway bar disconnect). The Dana 30 is not a weak diff as such. It has a bad reputation purely because JK's are modified so much and the Dana 30 might not last long pushing 35's or 37's (or more) as a lot go guys do, especially in the US. The Dana 30 will be fine with stock 32's or 33's. The Dana 44 rear will be perfectly OK as long as you're running less that 35's. It will hold up to bigger tyres but if you want to get it engineered with bigger tyres then you'll need to upgrade. You'll also need to upgrade the front as well. They Dana 60's (or any of the other options) will be wider but you'll need the extra width as well the extra strength to get it engineered. As a DD/tow truck I'd say stick with 265/70/17's. They're the same rolling diameter as the stock 245/75/17's but just a little wider and thy'll be fine on stock wheels. Start going to bigger rubber and it'll struggle that bit more when towing. You'll need a 2" lift if you're doing any offload work, partly as the stock suspension is woeful (bad ride, bad handling and sags in weeks, especially with the diesel) and partly as the long wheelbase kills the rampover angle.

I've had mine since new and it's been my DD all that time and I have no regrets. 130,000km and counting and no issues. I think they are a great truck but if I'm honest, for the wife's DD and a family tow truck I think I'd be looking for something else. The JK's are an off road biased 4WD. That's is what they are good at. Everything else is compromised because they are good off road. Sure they can do DD duties and they can tow but that is not what they're best at.

[loanrangie]

Weeds, just get a puma Defender

[weeds]

Thanks for the feedback Paul.....

It wasn't the dealer who mention the diffs, hell they couldn't tell me the Kerb weight. I dropped into an aftermarket jeep workshop mainly to look at the ute conversion they have started and they went on about diffs.

I think i will look at other options.

[weeds]

Weeds, just get a puma Defender

I should have but the bullet and purchased a new one.....now the rivet counter think they are gold plated.

[paull]

It wasn't the dealer who mention the diffs, hell they couldn't tell me the Kerb weight.

I think i will look at other options.

It never ceases to amaze me how much dealers don't know. Fair's fair, they can't be expected to know everything about aftermarket mods and options etc but as you've found, they often can't even tell you the basic specifications about the cars they're selling.

Something like the Ford Everest might be a good option. Space for 7. Will tow the camper with ease. For the same money as an Everest ($65k ish) you can get yourself a Y62 Patrol. That'll swallow the whole family and won't even notice the camper behind it. By all accounts fuel consumption shouldn't be too bad given the weight of your camper. It really is a shame they don't do a diesel though as the specs on the Y62 are great. 33" tyres as standard and the same ground clearance as most 2" lifted 4WD's straight off the showroom floor.

[silverfox1111]

Gday weeds
I wasn't bagging you when i suggested the jeep forum. It was just for your info.
Its a good site.
Silverfox

[weeds]

Gday weeds
I wasn't bagging you when i suggested the jeep forum. It was just for your info.
Its a good site.
Silverfox

Nah all good.......over there they would have convinced me to buy....my own research and feedback from he is plenty enough.

[tk421]

This video covers some of the points mentioned. It's a defender / rubicon comparison skip to about 5:30 for the Rubicon bits or start at about 5:00 for the defender

The off-road comparo is a bit of an eye opener, but no one is going to argue the Rubicon is a weapon off road straight off the factory floor

http://youtu.be/TsY5umMfUxg
	Small | Large

[Tinbutt]

Weeds, I currently own a 2013 Diesel 4dr have so for the last 2 years, before that I had a 2012 Grand Cherokee Laredo diesel and before that a 2009 Diesel 4dr Wrangler.

I tow a conqueror 330 with mine no problems at all, in fact you forget that it's even behind you quite easily.

Paul is correct though, I run slightly larger tyres on mine that standard, 285/70r17's,  when you get into hilly area's I find it easier to bump the gear lever over into manual and chose the gear I want to be sitting in.

For a family of 5 you would be learning how to pack lightly as Paull said, the space in them is at a premium due to the design.

I'm a self confessed jeep nut  and I love my wrangler to death.  If you have any other questions please feel free to ask and I'll help where I can.

This is the link you are chasing for most of the technical data for the unlimited

http://www.jeep.com.au/brochures/model-specs-wrangler-unlimited.pdf

Taken from there the tow weight for the 4dr diesel is 2300kg and Gross Vehicle Weight is 2585kg

One last thing I'll say about wranglers, actually Jeeps in general,  there tend to be two types of people that buy jeeps, the first are the people that love them to death, they put up with all of the little quirks that come with owning a jeep and fall in love with their jeep.  Paull, I would say, falls into this category from his comments above.

The other sort, buy a jeep and they hate it from day one.  and they also tend to get out of it as quickly as they can.  My wife when I first met her thought I was a total nutcase when I told her this.  She now owns her second 2dr wrangler and I would say she is more of a fanatic than I am.