I didn't mean it as offensive, you just don't have the open space. Out here even in the lifted Jeep there's rarely a curve substantial enough on the freeway to need to slow down for even at 85.
Well you said it, not me. I was somewhat chastised here when I mentioned my renting a GC with the 3.6 and having some SUV's and pickups blowing by me in the Rockies when I was doing 80-85mph through the mountains.
This is a big part of the equation. Once the JT hits 60-65mph, mpgs start to dive. 2-lane highways are routinely 55mph+ where we travel. MT, WY, ID, UT. In WA, those roads would be 45mph, max. Driving to Moab, the slowest stretch of road is 50mph, and no one drives it that speed, not even truckers. Until you start approaching the "you know who they are"-controlled city limits of Moab.
Pushing desert freeway speeds my 2017 ram rebel on 35s still got 16-17mpg with the 5.7L where the Jeep gets 12. I have no issues with the power, it will still hit the 100mph limiter in the dirt. But if it's going to deliver worse fuel economy, the extra 100+hp would be much more enjoyable. Even if the fuel economy was a wash, there's still no negative to the extra power and the sound is night and day better from the hemi.This is a big part of the equation. Once the JT hits 60-65mph, mpgs start to dive. 2-lane highways are routinely 55mph+ where we travel. MT, WY, ID, UT. In WA, those roads would be 45mph, max. Driving to Moab, the slowest stretch of road is 50mph, and no one drives it that speed, not even truckers. Until you start approaching the "you know who they are"-controlled city limits of Moab.
Driving the interstate is a PITA, since the limit is 80mph and the JT is
, hitting that magical single-digit mpg. Cool story- one of our first trips with the JT we were coming back on I90 from Butte to Missoula. I had spotted a white JT ahead of me and I tried chasing it down. I did have a couple hundred pounds of camping gear and a RTT, so I was a bit encumbered. But I still could hit 80-85 on a straight stretch. I gave up about 20mi+ east of Missoula, the JT was about a mile away.
My main desire for a 5.7L or something slightly more powerful in the JT is to help mpgs when travelling in that 65-80mph zone. If the 3.6L is putting out ~100hp/150ftlb at 2500rpm, and only 150/200 at 4000rpm, versus ~150hp/350ftlbs & 300/375 for the 5.7L (unconfirmed dyno charts from image search). And when full-size trucks can get 16-24mpg out of a V8 with marginally more weight (~5500 vs. ~5050 JTR) and slightly better aerodynamics, I would think a V8 would be a rational, and likely fuel-economic choice. I just looked at "real-world" numbers on Fuelly, between a 1500 V8 and the JT... JT does have better numbers overall (16-19mpg vs. 12-17mph).
Aside - Looking at Ram's lineup, it looks like they're all 6-bangers with weights similar to the JT (except the HiPo versions). And lower towing capacities (Big Horn CC w/5.5' bed is <7000lbs) than JT.
I only had about a month of driving a stock JT. In the first few months, I put a winch on (stock bumper), giant spots on the bumper, bed rack with tonneau, and a half roof-rack. 16mpg average, iirc. And that was with WA's crappy ethanol-laden gas. E10, but I would not be surprised if E15 slipped in there. But my point is there's never been a time I didn't have some added weight or aero penalty on my JT. The only time I ever get good (17+) mpgs is in Jackson, WY, where we're driving 45-50mph on a mostly flat area, at 6200'+ elevation. Even at home here in UT, living at ~5000', my average is mid-15mpg.
With a little <2000# trailer, our cross-country jaunt in '24 netted a ~12mpg average.
The rolling hills between Missouri and southern Indiana? That's the daily commute in WA, only with a higher frequency. The flat earth of Oklahoma and Texas didn't even help. Climbing the plateau in New Mexico was a struggle between fighting crosswinds and 69mph truckers that speed up on the downhill but crawl uphill. I set cruise at 68mph to find that perfect compromise.
So yeah, a little help would be nice in the powerplant area, and it needs to work for the entire range distance (300-400mi).
Exactly.
Holy shit, you don't even speed on alligator alley? You must get run over on 95 and 75 lol. I may have exceeded the speed limit just a bit on 39s and beadlocks on alligator alley. I will say 100 in a jeep is a lot more terrifying than 125 in a cayman.
My wife was in the passenger seat telling me to go faster, id have stopped at 90 if she wasn't egging me on.How do you sit in such a narrow-bodied truck?I nope'd out at 95.
The freeway seems like nothing at 85-90mph after running washboard dirt roads in the dessert all the way up to the 100mph limiter.
I know what you mean. Ok, ok, I take it up to maybe 75mph but I'm definitely in the right "slow lane" the whole time and keeping an eye on who's coming up from behind. But I totally agree and it's somewhat ironic here in South Florida that some of our most challenging Jeep trails are not off-road but rather just driving on the highways to get off-road.
You're not running 39 km3s on beadlocks then lol. Those tires are so bad at balancing that the terrifying part is trying to stay in your lane through all the bouncing. I've done 75 on washboards and it's not scary at all because I'm not trying to stay in a lane. The best tire still took 18 ounce and the worst tire was 36 ounces dynamically balanced. Not a single damn tire was round but bfg wouldn't warranty them for me so I finally killed them 2 weeks ago after 45 thousand miles
The kanati mud hogs balanced far better and their 39s are almost $300 cheaper per tire. BFGs are soooo overpriced.
