New owner, with a little buyers remorse.

[AZCooWhip]

Help us define exactly what you mean by “push comes to shove”. Yours may be wholly different than mine. I went in with the mindset of “my push” is that I didn’t want to be limited in any fashion to when I am in the wild. I figured I’d hit the 98% or higher portion of obstacles I wanted To overcome.

Contrary to the ”know it all” non owners opinions out there, these things are quite capable despite their bigger size.

Don’t feel any remorse. Adjust where needed and enjoy the hell out of it.

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[AstroZombie]

i can agree with everyone that recommends tires. Get a respectable A/T. I had a 2000 Xterra is 31v 9.5 tires that i took every where My brother in law took his Chevy 1500 on 35's and a 6" lift. It will probably go every where and More than that PW went with a winch, without a winch LOL. Don't sell the Jeep short.

 

[Jaxmax]

I started out with looking at the Overland, but realized with towing I needed the 4.10 gearing, don't rock crawl, and was thinking Rubicon until the Mojave came out , I'm very happy, very capable truck, but so is the Overland with a bit larger tires, Mojave take offs with just a little bit more offset, would be a great way to go, perhaps get a Mojave or plastic Rubicon front bumpe skid plate used here, I did on my wifes stock JL Sahara. Lift kit, try it first they are pretty high up already, maybe not needed, my first extravagance was getting rear lower contol arm skids from Rustys, that is like the lowest thing on the frame by a lot. You said you are commuting a long way everyday, don't get hooked on big tires and lift kits.

Now..... not towing much but some Skid Steers and few backhoes, holy shit man!.....Jack

 

[HjStrater]

My overland with a very modest mod list just earned her first badge of honor last weekend and took on the hardest trails I could find on Drummond island, MI. Thick mud, deep water, some good size rock crawls, she kept up with a built JL Sport (35’s, lockers, etc.), a stock JLUR got stuck a few times, I didn’t), and didn’t skip a beat.

295/70r18 Falken Wildpeak AT3w
Rubicon Take off Shocks and Springs
Teraflex 1.5” leveling kit
Daystar 3/4” rear spacer
Rubicon take off rock sliders.
Factory Trac-Lok rear LSD.

it’ll go everywhere your power wagon went, and fit down some tighter trails better.

 

[foo.c]

I actually prefer the low range in the non-Rubicon. 4:1 is too low unless you have huge tires.

 

[dcmdon]

From my experience all terrain tires that are 3pmsf are really good in snow and wet conditions, dedicated snows are overkill.

If you stick to MA roads and don't have to go out during storms you may be right. Just realize that a FWD car with real snows will go better through the snow than your Jeep.

Real snows are a game changer. Until you've tried them, you won't get it.

 

[NachoRuby]

I actually prefer the low range in the non-Rubicon. 4:1 is too low unless you have huge tires.

I have a Rubicon and can attest, 4 low is (obviously) extremely low in a Rubicon. You're right, almost too low unless you're crawling. Mine is manual though, so even lower than the auto in first. It feels like it's almost best to start in third gear in 4 low! I find myself in 4 hi most of the time.

 

[Mac]

If you stick to MA roads and don't have to go out during storms you may be right. Just realize that a FWD car with real snows will go better through the snow than your Jeep.

Real snows are a game changer. Until you've tried them, you won't get it.

Lol, I live in MA and also have a house in Maine I go to during the winter, pretty familiar with snow and driving in it.

 

[shyoung1]

My advice, if you need more, is drive it stock for a while. You mention you have an hour commute and want better gas mileage.

I have had Jeep’s off and on since the 60’s. (Yeah, I’m getting up there) CJ5’s, CJ7’s, YJ’s, TJ’s. It was amazing what we did with stock CJ’s with no rear limited slip, no lift kits, and on, if I remember correctly, H78x15 tires!
You have a very capable Gladiator, enjoy it!

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Tires, tires, tires. 90% of "soft-roading" is tires. The overland is still 4 wheel drive and I believe comes with the lsd so it will pretty much get you anywhere you need to go as long as your tires can bite. I'd recommend a good 33 or 35" AT that's 3 peak mountain rated. If you want to save some money look for Rubicon take offs

Edit: I see the first post also said this while I was reading yours haha.

You bet. Mine is very different with A/T tires on it. I bought a set of Rubicon take-offs to see how things went and swapped back and forth for a while, then decided to make the change to A/Ts permanent and bought a set of General A/TX tires. What a difference! Wet roads, water standing on roads, snow, ice, totally different truck.
IMO the traction control now does a much better job with these tires. I'm no longer concerned about bad weather.

Sway bar - get manual disconnects. That will help a bunch.
There's been a ton of debate on the lockers, no consensus at all. Those who have lockers swear they are an absolute must period and everyone else is wrong, those that don't have them more or less say meh, so what, don't need 'em.
But that's how it goes - whatever the responder has is always the right thing to have as to say otherwise is to admit their choice wasn't the very best and wasn't perfect. So if they have lockers, they are more likely to tell you they are an absolute must - or they'd be admitting the "lower trucks" will do well. You never admit the other choice was as good.

 

[PunknJLBlackJT]

One thing that I don't think I've seen mentioned here is a winch. I put one on mine more for looks honestly but the very first time I took mine off-road I got high centered and needed it to get unstuck. I would maybe look at that before lockers if your going off road especially in solo situations. I have front and rear lockers on mine and they couldn't help me out of this situation.

 

[Sarge502]

I actually bought my JT wanting an Overland. I don’t think it is superficial by any means. Actually in most cases the Overland is the best trim. It’s definitely the trim with the best wheels stock. Not that, that is my reasoning for saying that, but simply put in my opinion.

I’m not a cheap person by any means. That’s with really anything. So with that said I can’t/won’t buy base model anything. However, with that said I still can’t justify the extra 10k for a Rubicon when my Overland will do (for me) what I need it to do. And what it can’t, I can make it do eventually by making it my own. As a matter of fact,(not offense to the Rubi owners out there) but in my opinion I personally can’t stand seeing Rubicons which are claimed to be the top trim, without leather seats, non body matched fenders. Obviously I know you can get those options on a Rubi but If I’m going to have the top trim in my opinion I’m going to have the luxury features as well.

but generally speaking I’d much rather have my luxury features on my Overland and do whatever else performance wise on my own. At my own pace. But even stock it isn’t bad. Don’t discredit the Overland. For the value in my opinion it’s the best trims. Just my two cents.

In any case, tires and a basis spacer lift would do wonders

 

[Bacstar]

I ended up with the Overland trim just because i needed a replacement vehicle, and the dealers didn't have any rubicons. I drove it for the first year by changing the wheels and tires, 17" wheels 33" tires which was fine for what i did at first. 2nd year I started wheeling with the local Jeep crowd and swapped out to 35" tires MT's and regeared to 4.88's. I tow a rpod camper as well, so it helped. I could have lived with 3.73's otherwise. 8th gear on the highway was rare and needed to be flat with a tailwind.

Adding a winch was a must have; a couple situations, I got stuck while others with full-lockers were able to climb out of trouble. Also, I'm saving up for 3.5" suspension lift, over the 2.5" leveling lift i bought last year. I need the extra clearance on a couple trails i've done this summer. Eventually, i may add lockers when more options are available. I do not want to get air-lockers.

 

[Trippin01]

Attempting to make any one vehicle be your "Dream Vehicle" for all scenarios is arguably a frustrating road to mediocrity. I hope you get it all sorted out and end up extremely happy with your upgrade choices. You have ended up with some very credible answers on this, your thread, so far. My example, I needed a part time driver only to pull my 4k lb Off road RV trailer, but I wanted to do jeeping, so I ended up with a MAX tow, but once again, it pulls my RV trailer to remote locations mountain, and I have 12 BOH trails under my belt with 5 more on the way by the end of OCT, so its also my RV/SxS/ Jeep, off road vehicle. I hate it as a commuter, don't get me wrong, I love to show it off & drive it to work once in a great while, but gas is $4 a gallon here, and tires are $420 ea. now ( I paid $340ea x5) and driving to my job, 38 miles round trip, gets unnecessarily expensive, fast. 10-11 MPG when I pull the trailer isn't great either, but 17-18 mpg with no trailer and headed to Jeep trails is manageable. So what I'm saying is, be flexible and build it how you need to use it, then have fun. I'm most proud of my vehicle when it is off road, in its element. Gas is projected to hit $5 a gallon here in the near future, so a 40ish MPG econo car goes a long way toward saving $'s toward JT upgrades and prolonged life with less upkeep. Just my
$0.02

 

[NachoRuby]

I’m not a cheap person by any means. That’s with really anything. So with that said I can’t/won’t buy base model anything. However, with that said I still can’t justify the extra 10k for a Rubicon when my Overland will do (for me) what I need it to do.

How much do you think Rubicons cost? Comparing base to base, they are only 3800 more than an Overland. We all know that dealers rarely stock base Rubicons, but they don't often stock base Overlands either. My Rubicon was well under $50k, and I know Overlands can easily hit the same price. To me, it was just matter of what was in stock, and had the options I wanted, but there were definitely overlands that were more than Rubicons on the lot, because they tended to be much more optioned out than the Rubicons in terms of features (like leather and the larger screen). Overlands are super nice! But the cost between them and Rubicons overlaps majorly.

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