Quit—50%. Need advice on Wrangler

[Militarymetal]

I sold my 71, but still have the 67! I’m interested in a Wrangler and don’t know these vehicles. I’m trying to decide on a sport or willys trim. The main difference is a rear locker in the willys, 4.11 gears, and off road larger tires. I’m looking at new vehicles. My main use would be a daily driver, but I’d like to be able to use it off road on occasion. The difference in price is about $10,000. Is it worth this extra money for the locker and better gear set? The gears in the Sport version are 3.45:1. Finally, are wranglers reliable vehicles?

 

[Jw60]

Willys should have a little lift and sliders. Gladiators and wrangler have slightly different "willys" packages so 2 door /4 door / gladiator makes a difference on little things like power windows and locks last i checked.

 

[Militarymetal]

Willys should have a little lift and sliders. Gladiators and wrangler have slightly different "willys" packages so 2 door /4 door / gladiator makes a difference on little things like power windows and locks last i checked.

I’m looking at a 2-door Willys Wrangler.

 

[Beach66Bum]

Just me, but for sure I’d take the Willys trim package.

 

[aallison]

Depends on the year of the Wrangler. Mine is a 94 and it is dead nuts reliable. Right at 200K miles. But it is basically a CJ7 with a few changes. And I drive it like an old man and don't wheel it too hard. I understand when they went to the v6 instead if the old 4.0 the reliability decreased but I don't have first hand knowledge.

 

[iharding]

I have heard they are terrible cars but great Jeeps. People go in expecting them to be cars and they are not. My neighbor had one of those new Gladiators and it was noisy, rough, and wandered all over the road, so a real Jeep. It didn't leak oil though.

 

[ITLKSEZ]

If you get the “Willys” version, just make sure to respect the heritage and scrape that disrespectful decal off the hood.

 

[cj2atruck]

New Jeeps we’ve owned all purchased new:

- 2009 four door sport Wrangler: my wife put 120,000 miles and the only maintenance items were tires and oil. Never even changed the brakes.
- 2014 four door Rubicon Wrangler: This was my jeep, and I put 150,000 miles on it with only maintenance items being tires, oil, brakes and a rear locker that was replaced under warranty. It was still going strong when it went to a new owner. This jeep had a Rock Krawler lift, new bumpers and all the other normal stuff needed to crawl around Moab and the Rubicon on 37” tires.
- 2023 two door Rubicon Wrangler: This is my wife’s Jeep. Since she takes it to a shop for oil changes, I’ve never even lifted the hood.
- 2024 Gladiator Rubicon: This one is mine and is lifted, 37” tires and the other normal stuff to play in Moab. Except for installing the modification, I’ve not done anything else.

Both of my sons have Jeep Gladiators that are a little older than mine, and neither have had any issues.

IMHO, the JK/JL/JT are rock solid, which is why we keep buying them. They are great in the rocks, mountains, desert, snow, highway…essentially, every place we have taken them they perform. We also drive our rigs to Moab/Rubicon, wheel them hard and then drive home, so we’ve spent lots of highway miles in our Jeeps as well. Our property is also in the mountains, and if we are here part of the winter, a Jeep is about the only thing that can get to our place after a big winter snow, so I’ve pulled a lot of rigs out of the ditch that were not up to the task. If I only got one rig for a daily driver and play time, it would be a Jeep.

It should be noted that Jeeps are not the same as a full size truck when it comes to towing, so if you need to tow a big RV, pick a different truck or plan on going slow up hills.

Except for my 47, my only other Jeep is a red corvette, as it identifies as a Jeep to be accepted by the other members of the family.

 

[Militarymetal]

If you get the “Willys” version, just make sure to respect the heritage and scrape that disrespectful decal off the hood.

gotta agree with you there

 

[Militarymetal]

New Jeeps we’ve owned all purchased new:

- 2009 four door sport Wrangler: my wife put 120,000 miles and the only maintenance items were tires and oil. Never even changed the brakes.
- 2014 four door Rubicon Wrangler: This was my jeep, and I put 150,000 miles on it with only maintenance items being tires, oil, brakes and a rear locker that was replaced under warranty. It was still going strong when it went to a new owner. This jeep had a Rock Krawler lift, new bumpers and all the other normal stuff needed to crawl around Moab and the Rubicon on 37” tires.
- 2023 two door Rubicon Wrangler: This is my wife’s Jeep. Since she takes it to a shop for oil changes, I’ve never even lifted the hood.
- 2024 Gladiator Rubicon: This one is mine and is lifted, 37” tires and the other normal stuff to play in Moab. Except for installing the modification, I’ve not done anything else.

Both of my sons have Jeep Gladiators that are a little older than mine, and neither have had any issues.

IMHO, the JK/JL/JT are rock solid, which is why we keep buying them. They are great in the rocks, mountains, desert, snow, highway…essentially, every place we have taken them they perform. We also drive our rigs to Moab/Rubicon, wheel them hard and then drive home, so we’ve spent lots of highway miles in our Jeeps as well. Our property is also in the mountains, and if we are here part of the winter, a Jeep is about the only thing that can get to our place after a big winter snow, so I’ve pulled a lot of rigs out of the ditch that were not up to the task. If I only got one rig for a daily driver and play time, it would be a Jeep.

It should be noted that Jeeps are not the same as a full size truck when it comes to towing, so if you need to tow a big RV, pick a different truck or plan on going slow up hills.

Except for my 47, my only other Jeep is a red corvette, as it identifies as a Jeep to be accepted by the other members of the family.

Great information. Thanks for taking the time to provide your input. It helps a ton!

 

[Militarymetal]

New Jeeps we’ve owned all purchased new:

- 2009 four door sport Wrangler: my wife put 120,000 miles and the only maintenance items were tires and oil. Never even changed the brakes.
- 2014 four door Rubicon Wrangler: This was my jeep, and I put 150,000 miles on it with only maintenance items being tires, oil, brakes and a rear locker that was replaced under warranty. It was still going strong when it went to a new owner. This jeep had a Rock Krawler lift, new bumpers and all the other normal stuff needed to crawl around Moab and the Rubicon on 37” tires.
- 2023 two door Rubicon Wrangler: This is my wife’s Jeep. Since she takes it to a shop for oil changes, I’ve never even lifted the hood.
- 2024 Gladiator Rubicon: This one is mine and is lifted, 37” tires and the other normal stuff to play in Moab. Except for installing the modification, I’ve not done anything else.

Both of my sons have Jeep Gladiators that are a little older than mine, and neither have had any issues.

IMHO, the JK/JL/JT are rock solid, which is why we keep buying them. They are great in the rocks, mountains, desert, snow, highway…essentially, every place we have taken them they perform. We also drive our rigs to Moab/Rubicon, wheel them hard and then drive home, so we’ve spent lots of highway miles in our Jeeps as well. Our property is also in the mountains, and if we are here part of the winter, a Jeep is about the only thing that can get to our place after a big winter snow, so I’ve pulled a lot of rigs out of the ditch that were not up to the task. If I only got one rig for a daily driver and play time, it would be a Jeep.

It should be noted that Jeeps are not the same as a full size truck when it comes to towing, so if you need to tow a big RV, pick a different truck or plan on going slow up hills.

Except for my 47, my only other Jeep is a red corvette, as it identifies as a Jeep to be accepted by the other members of the family.

What about the gearing? Is the 4.11 necessary over the 3.45 for occasional off-road use?

 

[Bubblehead617]

Our '04 TJ Rubicon was a very reliable rig..did everything we asked of it...it went to our Fire Fighter/ParaMedic GrandDaughter only because my wife was having trouble with ingress/egress...we both miss the thing!

 

[Beach66Bum]

What about the gearing? Is the 4.11 necessary over the 3.45 for occasional off-road use?

4.11’s are nice, unless you are wanting to drive highway speeds regularly. I’ll take the low torque over speed, but I’m use to 4.88’s

 

[dnb71R2]

I would like to provide my 2 cents here as I've owned a 2 door JL Rubicon since new. However, there are so many variables everybody is throwing out that is gets confusing.
The modern Willys package was/is available on JK & JL models.
The new Wranglers have a great 8 speed transmission where both 7th & 8th gear are overdrives. All Rubicon's came with 4:10 gears from the factory.

 

[Militarymetal]

I would like to provide my 2 cents here as I've owned a 2 door JL Rubicon since new. However, there are so many variables everybody is throwing out that is gets confusing.
The modern Willys package was/is available on JK & JL models.
The new Wranglers have a great 8 speed transmission where both 7th & 8th gear are overdrives. All Rubicon's came with 4:10 gears from the factory.

I was actually looking at manual transmissions.

 

[dnb71R2]

I was actually looking at manual transmissions.

I would strongly encourage you to do your homework here.
The modern automatics have proved more robust and reliable than most of the manuals.
I almost freak out when I think of the clutch slave cylinder mounted inside the bell housing. Newer Wrangler clutches have known to burn up prematurely. YMMV.

 

[Militarymetal]

I would strongly encourage you to do your homework here.
The modern automatics have proved more robust and reliable than most of the manuals.
I almost freak out when I think of the clutch slave cylinder mounted inside the bell housing. Newer Wrangler clutches have known to burn up prematurely. YMMV.

INSIDE the bellhousing isn’t the best place to get to. Thanks for the warning.

 

[garage gnome]

Stay far far away from new jeeps. They eat camshafts like candy and are on backorder. Complete IMO. I see them ripped apart in dealerships all the time. The last good modern jeep was the TJ with the 4.0L.

 

[RATTYFLATTY]

If you get the “Willys” version, just make sure to respect the heritage and scrape that disrespectful decal off the hood.

First thing that I did when we brought it home was remove the decal.

 

[cj2atruck]

What about the gearing? Is the 4.11 necessary over the 3.45 for occasional off-road use?

I kept my 4.11 gears in my rigs, and even with 37” tires, never felt like I needed different gearing. My 2014 was a manual transmission, and the Gladiator is an automatic, and the new automatic in the Jeeps behind the v6 is awesome! You should be fine with the 3.45 gears for occasional off-road use unless you swap to 37” tires.

Curious why you are looking at the Willy’s instead of the Rubicon? I found the best price on the Gladiator I wanted at a dealer in Dallas, Texas using the vehicle search on the Jeep website (I live north of Spokane, WA, so a long way away from Texas). I made the purchase and they shipped me the Jeep for an additional $1500 and I still saved over $10k compared to local dealers. My 2024 Gladiator Rubicon loaded was only $42k plus tax and shipping. IMHO, being loyal to a specific dealer is a thing of the past, as quality dealers are few and far between as the good dealers get sold to large conglomerates who ruin the dealership.