On the recent wheeling trip, I ran the Jeep 300+ miles on the highway split by 30 miles offroad. It still kind of amazes me you can run these machines offroad, air up and immediately run it up to 70mph, straight steering and smooth. Running 80+ on the interstate is a one-handed affair. The Jeep is running better than ever in every way and I am more confident in its reliability than I have been since owning it. This confidence opens up more opportunities to take the Jeep on longer trips. As well as it’s running, its still not a great experience to run on the highway. My three main complaints: gears, soft top noise, cruise control. Two of these are simple parts adds. The other will require quite a bit of work.
Cruise can been added as soon as ebay delivers parts.
The soft top flaps hard - all three of us had headphones on for the trip to soften the brutal noise. My top is a new-ish MasterTop and was installed when I bought it. Soft tops are loud, understood, but surely there are options for improvement. My factory frame might be out of whack a bit. The nylon straps are stretched and the rivets have pulled away. I guess that could contribute. I’m looking at the Sierra Offroad Black Trilogy Acoustic Vinyl top as a possible replacement. If I found a local deal on a hard top, I would snag it for the winter months.
Gears have always been on the list, but its time to take it seriously. On reason for putting it off is indecision about tire size. 4.88s on 33s would be the right choice and in Texas, I could get by with 4.88s on 35s, but 5.13s would be more ideal. On the other hand, 5.13s on 33s? Its 150rpm at highway speeds…
NV3550/31.86"/4.88=3011rpm @ 75mph
NV3550/31.86"/5.13=3165rpm @ 75mph
NV3550/33.50"/5.13=3010rpm @ 75mph
I really like the Jeep right now on 33s but I know I will want to build toward 35s in a few years and I’m not excited about multiple regears.
The Blackstone report came back. Looks good.
