4" JBA Lift Upgrade versus 2009 Unlimited Wrangler Upra

E2 · **Posted:** Sat Mar 28, 2009 9:04 pm

Okay this could be it. I checked out a rubicon unlimited wrangler today. It was sweet. I have been planning to lift my 2008 liberty with the 4" JBA lift and get 235/85/r16 (32") tires a cost of $4000. Now I could go to the dealer ship and trade my liberty in for a rubicon wrangler unlimited that already has 32" tires and has a lift that would be still slightly higher than a 4" lifted liberty with 32" tires. So do i give the dealership $4000 and get a truck that will out perform the liberty? My payments would be $100 more per month. hmmmmmm

Boblemoche · **Posted:** Sat Mar 28, 2009 9:20 pm

you think you can trade your used KK for a new rubicon and be only 4k down?

why didnt you bought a jk in the first place

E2 · **Posted:** Sat Mar 28, 2009 9:52 pm

I'll put 4000 down and have bigger loan total about $100 more per month. I did not get one as I never even looked at one other than online as it stated it towed only 1500 or 2000. I have a boat about 2000#. But the unlimited tows up to 3500# with tow package. Not sure if it will be worth the extra 10k

Diggerfreek · **Posted:** Sat Mar 28, 2009 10:04 pm

well if it suits your needs and doesn't kill you money wise, go for it. The wrangler will be more capable than the KK in most places

E2 · **Posted:** Sat Mar 28, 2009 10:11 pm

Most places? What places would it not be. Tell me about your limits or if I got a 4" with 32" tires.

Diggerfreek · **Posted:** Sat Mar 28, 2009 10:26 pm

Well first of all, I would take the KK over a JK in the snow. My neighbor had a tj and even with his 33's and full chains, he couldn't move in the snow due to mot having the weight like the KK has. I didn't need chains.

Second would be towing, I would rather tow with a vehicle that can handle 5000 lbs vs 2500 lbs. It is going to be way easier on the vehicle to tow 50% of its limit vs 100% of its limit

Now I haven't gotten out and really wheeled the KK since the lift, but this is what think.

Now with the JK, tire size won't matter since you have open fenders and the after market support is unreal. Now the KK has almost no after market support and after fitting my KM2's on the KK, I don't think a 32 KM2 would fit even with a 4 inch lift

As I have said before, It is all on how you look at it. Also it comes do to which vehicle is going to best fit your needs

tjkj2002 · **Posted:** Sat Mar 28, 2009 11:27 pm

E2 wrote:

Most places? What places would it not be. Tell me about your limits or if I got a 4" with 32" tires.

Well I can't say about a KK but my KJ out did Rubicons that have been mildy built sitting on 33" tires here in Colorado,as far as the lift,wheels,tires,and lockers I have less then $4000 in that stuff.

Also you got to remember that driving offroad is about 75% driver skill and only about 25% vehicle.

Boblemoche · **Posted:** Sun Mar 29, 2009 12:01 am

E2 wrote:

Most places? What places would it not be. Tell me about your limits or if I got a 4" with 32" tires.

the jk stock is barely better than a KK. It only has more potential If you invest a lot $$ on it. Also a jk on 32 with 4'' lift will look weird at best

the biggest problem with the KK offroad is not the ifs or the lack of aftermarket support. its the fact its an 08 ( in my case). I can outwheel a jk on 35 with an old pos tracker on 31 just because I can buy an other one for every monthly payment you do on your KK/JK :wink:

are you a hardcore offroader? do you really want to pay that much just to have more offroad capabilities.

vmf · **Posted:** Sun Mar 29, 2009 12:24 pm

Boblemoche wrote:

E2 wrote:

Most places? What places would it not be. Tell me about your limits or if I got a 4" with 32" tires.

the jk stock is barely better than a KK. It only has more potential If you invest a lot $$ on it. Also a jk on 32 with 4'' lift will look weird at best

the biggest problem with the KK offroad is not the ifs or the lack of aftermarket support. its the fact its an 08 ( in my case). I can outwheel a jk on 35 with an old pos tracker on 31 just because I can buy an other one for every monthly payment you do on your KK/JK :wink:

are you a hardcore offroader? do you really want to pay that much just to have more offroad capabilities.

im not sure if you right about jk being barely better then kk.i have both 08 liberty and 09 rubicon in the family and trust me, the places i went in rubicon i would NEVER EVER try to go to while driving libby. it wold be a suicidal mission. rubicon is fully stock btw, with the exception of the floor mats lol. if you do go offroad alot, rubicon is the way to go, dont get sahara or X, lockers do help a lot, along witht he sick ratio in low gear.

i alos chose KK due to its towing capacity so i can tow my civic to race events while rubi due to its short wheelbase cant rly tow much.

Boblemoche · **Posted:** Sun Mar 29, 2009 12:50 pm

Quote:

im not sure if you right about jk being barely better then kk.i have both 08 liberty and 09 rubicon in the family and trust me, the places i went in rubicon i would NEVER EVER try to go to while driving libby. it wold be a suicidal mission. rubicon is fully stock btw, with the exception of the floor mats lol. if you do go offroad alot, rubicon is the way to go, dont get sahara or X, lockers do help a lot, along witht he sick ratio in low gear.

well you may be right on that one, a completely stock KK cant do much offroad but it dosent need much to keep up with a rubicon. Just with skid plates and sliders Ive gone to place that would destroy a stock KK. add a rear aussie locker, 2'' lift and 31 mud tires and your close to ruby performance. not on par but close enough that Its not worth the 10k$ to switch to ruby and keep it stock. Unless E2 plans to run 37''+ tires soon I dont see the point of trading his KK. Also With less than 10K I can build my KK enough to surpass a stock ruby

vmf · **Posted:** Sun Mar 29, 2009 1:10 pm

SFA is much better then IFS, thats a first, and since i know both cars, trust me, i would not take libby to the places a take a rubicon for many reasons, lack os SFA first(no articulation), unibody second (KK would twist and rip after couple rock crawling sessions), gear ratios and transfer case beefiness is the 3rd, im not going to mention lockers again but they are really really handy. then there are sway bar disconnects to further improve articulation. there are many more reasons why rubicon is far more superior to any other jeep or any other car that has a transfer case and claim to be a 4x4 offroad vehicle. dont get me wrong, im not trying to diss KK, i own one myself and i loooove it. its my DD. but its mostly for on pavement driving while JK rubi is much more confident in offroad environment. having driven both in both onroad and offroad i can say that pretty much unless you are willing to invest enourmous amount of money into KK and create custom parts and custom fit dana 66 or dana 40 with lockers along with the transfer case and big booty lift KK will never be on par in offroading capability as KJ rubi. but towing capacity of KJ sux while my KK has the towing package with all the extra coolers and can easily tow either my civic or rubicon behind it. so its all about what you want from the car but kk and JK were def designed for different things. there is also KJ sahara or X. you can compare JK X to KK but even the cheapst JK the X version is it is still better then stock KK.
please do see my offroad videos in pine barrent on youtube. search for user vital4ik78:) you will see what im talking about :lol:

tommudd · **Posted:** Sun Mar 29, 2009 1:26 pm

Never heard of a KJ Sahara / KJ X :wink:

vmf · **Posted:** Sun Mar 29, 2009 1:28 pm

my bad, JK, not KJ:) those darn designations:)

Boblemoche · **Posted:** Sun Mar 29, 2009 4:44 pm

vmf wrote:

SFA is much better then IFS, thats a first, and since i know both cars, trust me, i would not take libby to the places a take a rubicon for many reasons, lack os SFA first(no articulation), unibody second (KK would twist and rip after couple rock crawling sessions), gear ratios and transfer case beefiness is the 3rd, im not going to mention lockers again but they are really really handy. then there are sway bar disconnects to further improve articulation. there are many more reasons why rubicon is far more superior to any other jeep or any other car that has a transfer case and claim to be a 4x4 offroad vehicle. dont get me wrong, im not trying to diss KK, i own one myself and i loooove it. its my DD. but its mostly for on pavement driving while JK rubi is much more confident in offroad environment. having driven both in both onroad and offroad i can say that pretty much unless you are willing to invest enourmous amount of money into KK and create custom parts and custom fit dana 66 or dana 40 with lockers along with the transfer case and big @$#% lift KK will never be on par in offroading capability as KJ rubi. but towing capacity of KJ sux while my KK has the towing package with all the extra coolers and can easily tow either my civic or rubicon behind it. so its all about what you want from the car but kk and JK were def designed for different things. there is also KJ sahara or X. you can compare JK X to KK but even the cheapst JK the X version is it is still better then stock KK.
please do see my offroad videos in pine barrent on youtube. search for user vital4ik78:) you will see what im talking about :lol:

The jk is a very nice offroad veichle and most of what you say is true but I think you underestimate your KK

the unibody is pretty stiff. I have yet to hear about a liberty that ripped the unibody while rockcrawling look at what tjkj2002 did with his kj in moab
lockers are very nice indeed. I know I have a set on my KK

gears do help too and you can go as hi as 4.88 on a KK
heavy duty tcase and axles is an advantage only if you go to much larger tires. the KK can handle 33'' witch is enough for me
sfa is actually the only thing Im jealous about the jk :lol:

yes you need to throw a lot of money on a KK to make it offroad worthy but for the price difference KK/ruby, your already halfway there

vmf · **Posted:** Sun Mar 29, 2009 5:07 pm

price of my 08 kk - 33k
price of fully loaded 09 rubi mt and mygig - 26k
thats the prices we got these jeeps at:) go figure

Boblemoche · **Posted:** Sun Mar 29, 2009 5:21 pm

vmf wrote:

price of my 08 kk - 33k
price of fully loaded 09 rubi mt and mygig - 26k
thats the prices we got these jeeps at:) go figure

lol when I bought my KK a loaded ruby was 3k to 5k more expensive. I guess the economical situation is that bad

or mabe its just the canadian ripoff

4" JBA Lift Upgrade versus 2009 Unlimited Wrangler Upra

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