What is an unpopular opinion you have in the Jeep community?

[ScottBeach]

Computers ruined the off road fun.
Old school trucks you had to work hard to go off road and Not get stuck. Now ... limited slip. Tq vectoring, abs , real locking diffs, crawl control etc. I am never going to get stuck again. My friend has an old cj7. I can get that stuck on a beach easy. No chance with the gladdy and something is lost because of it.
Don't get me wrong the new trucks are amazing and I love mine. But we all lost something between a cj and today.

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[Billkowski]

I hate the new screen in dash for 2024, they ruined an almost perfect dash setup.

 

[Zachanadandy]

Locally regearing cost me $3k and the JLUR got worse fuel mileage after. It didn't need the extra gearing for crawling. 100% waste of money in my opinion. For a few grand more I'll throw a supercharger on the JT before I bother with gears. The 8 speed doesn't need it, we have plenty of gearing. I'll take the extra power over the extra gearing.

 

[Sweetums]

I'll take the extra power over the extra gearing.

But... that's not how it works. You would get more low-end power by regearing, not less.

 

[Zachanadandy]

But... that's not how it works. You would get more low-end power by regearing, not less.

With the 4.7 1st Gear in the 8 speed, we have the equivalent gearing of a jk running 7-1 axle gears with 4.10s. I have no need for lower gearing at all. More power on the other hand never hurts.

 

[Sweetums]

Oh, I'm sure you have enough power with the 8-speed to not need regearing, but you still have less power at the wheels than you did with OE tire sizing. You absolutely didn't gain any power, going up in tire sizing with no other changes will always be like having higher gears. You might have enough gears in the transmission to not notice (or for it to not matter to you), but you are still going to be geared higher than you were before.

 

[Zachanadandy]

Oh, I'm sure you have enough power with the 8-speed to not need regearing, but you still have less power at the wheels than you did with OE tire sizing. You absolutely didn't gain any power, going up in tire sizing with no other changes will always be like having higher gears. You might have enough gears in the transmission to not notice (or for it to not matter to you), but you are still going to be geared higher than you were before.

Obviously, if you read my entire post, adding a supercharger will add far more power than a regear for a couple grand more. I'll take actual power over lower gearing. Outside of 1st gear, low gears gain you nothing. 7th gear with 4.10s is exactly the same as 8th gear with 5.13s. The engine doesn't and tires both don't care how the final drive got there, whether it's transmission gearing or axle gearing. The difference is I can roll 85mph at 2100rpm and the tabs will Firebaugh when I need more gearing/rpms. Running 5.13s you're out of shifts by 45mph and running extra rpms even under low loads like down hill. Had our jlur on 38s regeared to 5.38s and hated it. I felt like the 4.56s in our 2nd jlur were too low with the stock 35s. I'm not saying 4.10s are optimal for 37s, but I wouldn't spend the money to regearas there's very little gain.

 

[Sweetums]

It's weird saying this as a turbo diesel owner, but I'm much more of an NA guy. Lower compression in the cylinders tends to mean a more reliable engine that lasts longer. I knew people who put turbos and superchargers on their VQ40 engines, as stout as that thing is, it still caused issues within 40,000-60,000 miles when engines left NA would put down 300,000+ without missing a beat.

Even Toyota, with their legendary durability struggled with their NA Land Cruiser engines; some of those would last only 20,000 km once you add force induction.

Maybe I'm just too conservative with my vision, my personal preference is to have an engine that isn't high-strung with a big safety margin and run lower gearing. It's not the "right" way (because there isn't really a "right" way), but it is my preference.

 

[Zachanadandy]

It's weird saying this as a turbo diesel owner, but I'm much more of an NA guy. Lower compression in the cylinders tends to mean a more reliable engine that lasts longer. I knew people who put turbos and superchargers on their VQ40 engines, as stout as that thing is, it still caused issues within 40,000-60,000 miles when engines left NA would put down 300,000+ without missing a beat.

Even Toyota, with their legendary durability struggled with their NA Land Cruiser engines; some of those would last only 20,000 km once you add force induction.

Maybe I'm just too conservative with my vision, my personal preference is to have an engine that isn't high-strung with a big safety margin and run lower gearing. It's not the "right" way (because there isn't really a "right" way), but it is my preference.

I tend to drive 5k+lb Jeeps on big tires at freeway+ speeds both on and off road so take my opinion with a grain of salt. Definitely not conservative. As I always say, you'll never know where the limit is unless you find it every now and again. If I was towing a big trailer or never drove over 75mph I might regear. For the way I use my rigs including long roadtrips I prefer gearing on the higher side. I wouldn't run lower than 4.88s with this 8spd unless it was on a 42"+ tire. 5.38s and 38s sucked on the freeway for hours at a time.

 

[Wheelin98TJ]

I tend to drive 5k+lb Jeeps on big tires at freeway+ speeds both on and off road so take my opinion with a grain of salt. Definitely not conservative. As I always say, you'll never know where the limit is unless you find it every now and again. If I was towing a big trailer or never drove over 75mph I might regear. For the way I use my rigs including long roadtrips I prefer gearing on the higher side. I wouldn't run lower than 4.88s with this 8spd unless it was on a 42"+ tire. 5.38s and 38s sucked on the freeway for hours at a time.

Why was it so terrible?

 

[fourfa]

I’m amazed by people who drop huge money on regears after complaining they “lost 8th gear” with big tires - then regear so low their new 8th gear is where 7th used to be. I guess you didn’t really care about the RPMs you used to see in 8th, you just want to see the gear indicator say 8. Makes no sense

 

[Zachanadandy]

Why was it so terrible?

It was basically in 8th gear at any speed over 40mph. What's the purpose of an 8spd if it in top gear by 50% of your average speed? Even down the 20+ mile grade coming in to baker, CA it was pushing up near 3k rpms on the freeway for no reason. Lost about 3mpg on road trips vs 4.10s. Actually gained nothing 0-60 confirmed by multiple tests with the tazer. Granted it was the 2.0t so it wasn't as high strung as the 3.6L but I much preferred the Jeep over geared vs under. I'm not saying 4.10s are optimal for 37-38s, I'd say for me that would be 4.56s for 37s. That's not enough change to justify the cost in my opinion.

 

[Hootbro]

I’m amazed by people who drop huge money on regears after complaining they “lost 8th gear” with big tires - then regear so low their new 8th gear is where 7th used to be. I guess you didn’t really care about the RPMs you used to see in 8th, you just want to see the gear indicator say 8. Makes no sense

Just my opinion, but I think half the people that regear, really do not understand what they are getting into. They just see it talked about on boards like this and numbers on a chart and throw $3K + at it and hope for the best but find it either did not solve their problem or over complicated it.

 

[Wheelin98TJ]

It was basically in 8th gear at any speed over 40mph. What's the purpose of an 8spd if it in top gear by 50% of your average speed? Even down the 20+ mile grade coming in to baker, CA it was pushing up near 3k rpms on the freeway for no reason. Lost about 3mpg on road trips vs 4.10s. Actually gained nothing 0-60 confirmed by multiple tests with the tazer. Granted it was the 2.0t so it wasn't as high strung as the 3.6L but I much preferred the Jeep over geared vs under. I'm not saying 4.10s are optimal for 37-38s, I'd say for me that would be 4.56s for 37s. That's not enough change to justify the cost in my opinion.

Ok, I remember you talking about this before.

A turbo needs load to generate boost. You don’t want deep gears and I’m not sure why you did. Not at all comparable to a NA V6.

 

[Zachanadandy]

Ok, I remember you talking about this before.

A turbo needs load to generate boost. You don’t want deep gears and I’m not sure why you did. Not at all comparable to a NA V6.

The 8spd is still the biggest difference between the JL/JT and every other Jeep with an auto before it. Nobody was suggesting 5.13s in a late model JK in order to run 33-35's, but that's the equivalent to 4.10s with this transmission. It gets even more ridiculous if you go back to the early JKs or TJs or XJs. Did we run 7.17s in order to run 35s back then (and they had 100 less horsepower too)? Nope. That 4.7-1 1st gear makes 4.10s very good even on 37s. I'm more than happy to cruise around in 7th gear on the freeway under medium loads (the equivalent of 8th with 5.13s gearing wise and still an overdrive gear) while retaining the ability to roll 85mph at 2100rpms under light loads. Not that the 3.6L is strained or unhappy spinning 2700rpms for hours at a time but why? I don't need any lower pf a 1st gear or any more crawl ratio so what am I gaining? We've owned 15+ Jeeps over the years, almost all ending up at 35"+ tires. Clearly the Jeep won't have identical performance or torque when you go to bigger tires, but what are we calling optimal anyway? Even Jeep is all over the map. JL sport/saharas get 3.45s and 32's. If that's the optimal ratio then 4.0 gears match up to 37s. Or is it 3.73s and 32s like the JT sport? Now you're talking 4.3 gears for 37s? Maybe it's the 4.56s with 35s line the xr package? Now we are at 4.81 gears for 37s. It's easy enough to go drive them all with the v6 and decide for yourself which ratio is better for how you drive before even touching 37s. Our current JLUR is the 3.6L with 4.56s and 39s, very happy with how it drives on and off road. It felt slightly over geared stock with the 35s. My JTM feels great with 37s and 4.10s. Would 4.56s be a little better? Absolutely. But at $3k that's a hard sell on cost to benefit. Even if I was stepping up to tons to run 40-42s I wouldn't go past 5.13s personally and if I was sticking with 40s I'd probably go 4.88s even with the 3.6L.

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