I picked St Pauli Girl for the "headlights"

Fat Tire is some good stuff...If you ever find any Spanish Peaks (out of Montana)...pretty good stuff

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Founder of L.O.S.T.
2006 CRD Sport
Mods: GDE Hot Tune w/ 364#@2000rpm/Air Box /3" Str8 Exhaust/ASFIR Alum Skids/245-75R-16 Cooper STT PRO/OME LIFT w/Clevis & 4 Spring Isos/AirTabs/Rigid 10" S2 LED/4xGuard Ctr Matrix Bumper
Drag Strip:Reac=.1078_60ft=2.224_1/8=10.39@64.8mph_1/4+16.46@80.8mph

no bud? I guess jeep vehicles don't suck that bad, since non of them were paired to bud.... heheheheheh

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NYC L.O.S.T.# 022174 -
Check out my CarDomain

Seem to be some uninformed posters here.

The Caliber/Patriot/Compass are not 2nd generation Neons.
The Patriot was designed and the Compass/Caliber came off of that. So, the platform was originally designed for off-road capability and then reduced for the on-road only cars.

"Trail Rated" is a third party test that has ratings based on approach/depature angles and capabilities. It does mean something. It's not just a "marketing gimic". Other car companies could get it, if they felt their vehicles were up to the task. The military uses the test for vehicles it purchases.

The Patriot has continuously variable automatic transmission (CVT).
Gear ratio, yeah, it actually has better gear ratio than a Rubicon Wrangler.

It probably has more ground clearance than the Liberty due to not having things hanging down underneath it.

The Liberty is tougher than the Patriot. Size wise, the Patriot is slightly smaller than the Liberty, but has similar interior space. If you want to have 3 adults passengers in back, you need the Liberty.

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O||||||O '04 Renegade L.O.S.T. #DL050292 - Life Time
Carolina L.O.S.T. Board of Directors
*** Stuff ***
CRS-Rock Rails * Rusty's Lift * *MTR's * Husky Mats * The 'Grill' and Shelf

FRS/CB (ch 6)

I'd imagine that a Stock FDII patroit could handle just as much as a Stock Liberty could.

Both vehicles are unit-frame construction. Just because one doesn't have a transfer case - it becomes a lesser Jeep?


The Patroit is going to be a great sucess with the price of gas these days.

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02 Liberty Limited
Silver Outside & Taupe Inside
Heated Seats, Sunroof & Infinity speakers
USA Spec I-Pod adaptor, Mopar Sub, Garmin GPS
Tow Package, Select-Trac
Rock Rails, Tow Hooks

First about "Trail Rated" maybe and maybe not
But how can somthing with no skids and only 4wd be trail rated?
I saw a KJ with the good ole Traile rated badge but not skid one just about an hour ago so how can that Jeep with a plastic fuel tank and a trans that would be hit every time it bottomed out be trail rated?
What is the Standard or the base? What is the factors that say it is or is not trail rated? is it the same test from the Patriot to the JK rubi?

Now on to gearing this is done in several ways but a fancy name for a fan belt is not a good one wich is what CVT is ,in a nut shell
Gearing is a smaller cog turning a larger one wich at last check ,on a 4X4, requires a front diff a rear diff and a transfer case to make it go
so with no real front diff that I can see and admitedly no T-case how can it have lower gearing?

Look I look at these thigs from the point of some one who hits the trails at a min. monthly some time every weekend or more
I know that a patriot will NEVER be a traill ride no matter what kind of fancy names they give it it wont last
sure it is great for running dirt 2 tracks but not trails not even easy ones
The machanics of how the CVT thing works along with no hard gearing makes it only good for this
CVT I know what it means but it has a lowest point and after that it slips slipage = heat ,heat=damage
slipage is the result of to much load steep hills=heavy loads
With a T-case and a real trans you get 4lo and first gear wich = min slipage
with the TJ ,JK ,KJ ,YJ ,CJ ,XJ ,ZJ ,WJ ,WK ,CK you get good power to weight and lower gears when needed
IMO these could all be trail rated

Good stuff.
Heat is the one thing I was wondering about with the CVT.
I read somewhere that the Patriot has a torque management program that kicks in when you take off from a stop.
It can only handle so much torque without excessive slippage, so the computer limits you from 0 to 15 or something like that.
I don't gurantee that info is correct, but I read it somewhere............just don't remember where.

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2007 Jeep Liberty Sport
Not Just Red..............Inferno Red !
Automatic, 4WD
Mopar Skids, Tow Hooks

What really worries me with the direction of all new Jeeps (sans the JK) is that Jeep is not making them easy to upgrade. How can you lift a Patriot/Compass? You can barely lift a Liberty or a Commander. The fact that Jeep does not seem to consider this to be a basic part of "trail rated" is very telling. To them the jk/tj is for offroading and everything else is for getting groceries, hauling kiddies and going camping once or twice a year.

It should not take much at the beginning of a new vehicle design to build in things that will make the vehicle easier to lift or modify later. Things like deeper wheel wells, points to attach body lifts for IFS vehicles, sane brake line routing, thoughts about SFA swaps on IFS vehicles, etc. Even if the real trail rated powertrain parts are only upgrades (ala Renegade or Rubicon) at least make some of them available so that people have the upgrade path they need.

I see no such upgrade path for a Patriot/Compass.

Even if you do lift a Patriot, what are you going to do about the lack of power with bigger tires? A CVT tranny with 31's and a 4 cylinder? If the Liberty with a D30a and IFS has problems being lifted, then this thing will have so many you will have to sink twice what its worth in it to get it lifted over 2 inches. And without an upgrade path these things will not hold their value as trail rigs the way older multipurpose Jeeps have (XJ). I hope the new leadership at Jeep is more clued-in than the past leadership at DCX and that that they fix these issues fast.

And that would be hitting the nail on the head. Anything other than JK/TJ is catered more to the non-offroader.

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Brian, Blue KJ in PA
LOST#99, Mid-Atlantic LOST
Blue 2003 KJ Sport

RL Super Skinks

Absolutely. It's a t-case. Jeeps and 4wd trucks have them, cars don't.


If Jeep wants to build cars, that's fine with me, but a car with the Jeep name on it is no more of an offroader than a similar car without the Jeep name on it.

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2007 KJ Sport

Seriously, "Trail Rated" does not mean it's a pre-runner or a rock climber.

_________________
O||||||O '04 Renegade L.O.S.T. #DL050292 - Life Time
Carolina L.O.S.T. Board of Directors
*** Stuff ***
CRS-Rock Rails * Rusty's Lift * *MTR's * Husky Mats * The 'Grill' and Shelf

FRS/CB (ch 6)

Maybe it'd help if everyone would read the review that Expeditions West did on the Patriot? Click here to go to review

Sure the Patriot will never be as 'capable' as the any old Rubicon or magical Cherokee but it's still a great Jeep. The two hottest selling vehicles on the Jeep dealer lots are the Wrangler and Patriot - doesn't that even say anything to some people?

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02 Liberty Limited
Silver Outside & Taupe Inside
Heated Seats, Sunroof & Infinity speakers
USA Spec I-Pod adaptor, Mopar Sub, Garmin GPS
Tow Package, Select-Trac
Rock Rails, Tow Hooks

The badge means very little, if anything in my opinion. Purely marketing.

Edit: I did take a look at the link above, nice little write up. Again, don't get me wrong, different vehicles suit different jobs. I'm sure the Patriot is an excellent little vehicle, and I would even consider one for myself as a second vehicle. I like the looks of it alot. However, I'd be willing to bet that I could get my old Dodge Omni through 95% of that course based on the pics I see there. Does that make my Omni trail rated too? Unfortunately the problem here imo, is that Jeep has simply lowered the bar for what they deem "trail worthy".

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Steve

HA HA HA HA, nothing changes around here.

I'll take a liberty with a drive shaft and boulder bars for my accidents thankyou. Add those killer bumpers and you got a machine.

Ever wonder why Mercedes is rear wheel drive? It makes for a more survivable crash.

Crash Rated

I like it
What about Tree bump rated
both the TJ and KJ have been Tree bump tested

** sigh **
Maybe you should have read a few more post above that one.

We are just going around in circles here between what "Trail Rated" stands for and what some people's opinion of what "Trail Rated" should be.

_________________
O||||||O '04 Renegade L.O.S.T. #DL050292 - Life Time
Carolina L.O.S.T. Board of Directors
*** Stuff ***
CRS-Rock Rails * Rusty's Lift * *MTR's * Husky Mats * The 'Grill' and Shelf

FRS/CB (ch 6)

LoganSix you are probably right. I was just chimin in with my two cents worth, no harm intended. I guess I just needed to blurt out where I'm coming from on the whole thing. No harm intended!! (hey we need a beer mug "emoticon" on here...)

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Steve

Wouldn't the clearance be a little better on the Liberty since it has one solid axle instead of none like the Patriot?

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2007 Jeep Liberty Sport
Not Just Red..............Inferno Red !
Automatic, 4WD
Mopar Skids, Tow Hooks

clearance is a very vauge term

to answer you question correctly at the bell the Pat. would be better ,it has none
now over all clearance the KJ will be better ,or at least when compaired to the Pat.s I have seen
they have worse break over worse approach and depart clearances than a stock KJ unless I am missing something but the dealer had them parked side by side last weekend and the Kj is better IMO

what do you think of the feel of a CVT? that would be my main concern. having never driven one, it sounds like it would feel like you are driving a car with a burnt up clutch that magically engages at redline.

i like how mine feels when the converter is locked up at about 32mph in 3rd and 1400rpm and then give it a fair bit of gas and you get that serious growl and low end torque.

you will have never feel that in a patriot right?

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Admin note:
This account has been deactivated.

Driving a CVT is like driving a go kart. Just press on the loud pedal and off you go! Pretty entertaining once you get used to it.

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02 Liberty Limited
Silver Outside & Taupe Inside
Heated Seats, Sunroof & Infinity speakers
USA Spec I-Pod adaptor, Mopar Sub, Garmin GPS
Tow Package, Select-Trac
Rock Rails, Tow Hooks