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Stock Overland Off-Roading

chrisblaze

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Just ordered an Overland North Edition. I few of my friends have Rubicon’s and they are vivid off-roaders. I’d like to join them from time-to-time without installing a bunch of mods that I would rarely use. How capable is the Overland model for off-roading?Sorry is this is a newb question, it's my first jeep.
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Mr._Bill

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Just ordered an Overland North Edition. I few of my friends have Rubicon’s and they are vivid off-roaders. I’d like to join them from time-to-time without installing a bunch of mods that I would rarely use. How capable is the Overland model for off-roading?Sorry is this is a newb question, it's my first jeep.
Define off-road for your use. Is it maintained dirt roads, trails through mountains or forests, or rock crawling in the middle of nowhere? The Overland is just as capable as the other models, but missing a few Rubicon features like lockers and sway bar disconnect. Did you order with street or all terrain tires?
 
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chrisblaze

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Define off-road for your use. Is it maintained dirt roads, trails through mountains or forests, or rock crawling in the middle of nowhere? The Overland is just as capable as the other models, but missing a few Rubicon features like lockers and sway bar disconnect. Did you order with street or all terrain tires?
semi-maintained roads and a small bit of rock crawling
 

Mark Doiron

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You need to ensure that your trail buddies understand and respect your tolerance for damage to your Gladiator. That could be anywhere from no damage to light scratching of the paint by brush that isn't trimmed back from the road, to scrapes on the undercarriage to torn off fenders and serious sheetmetal damage. Second, ensure you and your buddies have a plan to recover your Gladiator should you get stuck. As a bare minimum, tow points front and rear on your rig, and someone carrying a proper recovery strap (not a chain and not with metal hooks!) that also has proper tow points front and rear. A winch would be nice, but they should still have a tow strap to use to anchor their vehicle from moving when winching you out of a particularly tough spot. With those issues settled, go out and have fun and learn how you may want to improve your rig to make it more capable.
 

Dainbramaged

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I just got back from running mostly mid-level greens at AOAA and Rausch Creek in an Overland and it was plenty capable. Would I take it on a blue? Not without a bigger lift and/or better skills, but you would be fine on everything you described. The point made about damage is a good one, you have to accept that there are risks but if you're taking obstacles slowly and being smart, you can definitely do rocky trails in a stock Overland with minimum chance of breakage.

That said, I did like having 35's with a small lift, we did air down, and I'm adding manual quick disconnects for our sway bars for more articulation.
 

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DiabolicalDianoga

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I've got an Overland with the all seasons, been wondering something similar. All I'm planning on doing to it are some all terrains and maybe a new front bumper and winch. Also not planning on doing anything crazy, mostly forest service roads, etc.
 

Dainbramaged

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I've got an Overland with the all seasons, been wondering something similar. All I'm planning on doing to it are some all terrains and maybe a new front bumper and winch. Also not planning on doing anything crazy, mostly forest service roads, etc.
Your fully stock Overland is more than capable of handling forest service roads. You won't even need 4 wd. We did several of them before upgrading. For Colorado I can see where you'd benefit from a better snow rated AT tire.
 

DiabolicalDianoga

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Your fully stock Overland is more than capable of handling forest service roads. You won't even need 4 wd. We did several of them before upgrading. For Colorado I can see where you'd benefit from a better snow rated AT tire.
Watching some videos of guys out in the western part of NC in the National Forests, there are some sketchier roads out there.
 

ATLalien

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Completely stock Overland here with All season tires. Have owned it since July and have taken it off road 5-6 times in that period. Almost always on Forest Service roads with conditions ranging from dusty, to muddy to very light snow and mud. Never had any issue at all. Even crossed a stream twice that was maybe 18" deep or so. Traction was surprisingly good in 4X4 with the All Seasons.

This was all, still really mild stuff compared to what I've seen on You Tube, or even elsewhere on this forum, but the truck felt like it could've handled a good bit more.

Prior to this I owned a stock, 96 Bronco, and a lifted 05, F150; the Overland feels like it would easily do at least as well as both of those rigs and I've run them all on the same trails.
 

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Bobzdar

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Just ordered an Overland North Edition. I few of my friends have Rubicon’s and they are vivid off-roaders. I’d like to join them from time-to-time without installing a bunch of mods that I would rarely use. How capable is the Overland model for off-roading?Sorry is this is a newb question, it's my first jeep.
It's fine, only thing you'd want to do is put good tires on it. Otherwise with BLD and some decent driving you'll be able to do 80-90% of what a Rubicon can.
 

DiabolicalDianoga

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Completely stock Overland here with All season tires. Have owned it since July and have taken it off road 5-6 times in that period. Almost always on Forest Service roads with conditions ranging from dusty, to muddy to very light snow and mud. Never had any issue at all. Even crossed a stream twice that was maybe 18" deep or so. Traction was surprisingly good in 4X4 with the All Seasons.

This was all, still really mild stuff compared to what I've seen on You Tube, or even elsewhere on this forum, but the truck felt like it could've handled a good bit more.

Prior to this I owned a stock, 96 Bronco, and a lifted 05, F150; the Overland feels like it would easily do at least as well as both of those rigs and I've run them all on the same trails.
Thanks for the report.
 

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a stock gladiator in any trim is going to be better offroad then pretty much any other truck offroad that isnt heavily modified. If your going to be pushing it often though I would at least upsize the tires a bit and go with a more aggressive AT/Hybrid tread & maybe sway bar disconnects. Neither are really intrusive & would greatly improve things. You would have about 98% of the capability of a stock rubicon then if the tires were even stock rubicon take off's.
 

Indavis01

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Just ordered an Overland North Edition. I few of my friends have Rubicon’s and they are vivid off-roaders. I’d like to join them from time-to-time without installing a bunch of mods that I would rarely use. How capable is the Overland model for off-roading?Sorry is this is a newb question, it's my first jeep.
I have a friend who has a cabin in Tahoma about a mile from the end of the Rubicon trail. We have hit the trail numerous times in my JKU with a 4 inch lift and 35's, 4.11, full suspension, winch......., and her stock JK willys. I never left her behind, (we never hit Cadillac hill or some of the crawling spots- because crawling) the only thing that ever happened is she destroyed a set of real nerf bars. I could clear things she couldn't, but those bars saved her rig. So my advice is get some real heavy duty rock rails, especially with the mile long body on the gladiator and that horrible breakover angle. These side steps on the Overland look good, but there is not a scrap of metal in them- completely plastic.
 

Dainbramaged

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I have a friend who has a cabin in Tahoma about a mile from the end of the Rubicon trail. We have hit the trail numerous times in my JKU with a 4 inch lift and 35's, 4.11, full suspension, winch......., and her stock JK willys. I never left her behind, (we never hit Cadillac hill or some of the crawling spots- because crawling) the only thing that ever happened is she destroyed a set of real nerf bars. I could clear things she couldn't, but those bars saved her rig. So my advice is get some real heavy duty rock rails, especially with the mile long body on the gladiator and that horrible breakover angle. These side steps on the Overland look good, but there is not a scrap of metal in them- completely plastic.
Good advice, I hadn't thought about their limited value in protecting anything. My 5'2" wife needs a step up, but I assume there are good options for that with still having solid rock rails.
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