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Jeep Wrangler trim equivalent to Black Diamond?

Lazerus

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Manual sway bar disconnects for the JL will run you about $150 and 90 min to install. Honestly, I prefer them over e-disco's anyway. Less wight and less likely to have issues. I never really understood the need to repeatedly dissconect/reconnect when wheeling anyhow. You disconnect when you hit the trail and reconnect when you hit the pavement. Takes all of a minute or two and can be done whilst airing down/up. And -at least in a jeep- makes for a more comfortable ride on a bumpy track....
 

AZHUND

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I think the LSD (which is available on Willys and Sport) works great - I have never felt that neither wheel in the back has traction (versus the open diffs on my old Tacoma). Other advantage of LSD is that it is 'always on.'
 

Mike777

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Black Diamond is worth the wait. I’ve had mine over a week now, and I am so glad I didn’t fold to the weekly temptation for over a year to cancel and get a Willys. The BD is way better looking and probably more capable. Haven’t had a chance to get off road yet, but soon.

Sahara = Outer Banks
Rubicon = Badlands
Willys = BD, I guess
Willys Sport = Big Bend?

Side note: @Underflow, at first glance, I thought your avatar was this album cover.

F2DC967F-5F3C-4861-BB0D-CA4F248236F0.jpeg
Curious since you've had your BD for awhile. Any regrets going with it or do you wish you had the BL? The 12 inch screen would have been really nice, but I decided to fully load out a BD which is 6 grand less then a fully decked out BL. Cause I had to have the squash and high package if I went that route.
 

RagnarKon

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Curious since you've had your BD for awhile. Any regrets going with it or do you wish you had the BL? The 12 inch screen would have been really nice, but I decided to fully load out a BD which is 6 grand less then a fully decked out BL. Cause I had to have the squash and high package if I went that route.
Not the person you quoted… but my local dealer had both the 12” screen (showroom model) and the 8“ screen (customer order).

In my opinion, the 8” screen is more than sufficient if you consider the fact that it’s a vehicle and you will be spending 95%+ of your time looking at the road and surrounding landscape and not the infotainment system itself. Unfortunately there is a giant plastic trip around the 8” screen where the 12” screen would be, but I can deal with some plastic trim if it saves me $6000.

I still have a Badlands on order because I wanted the front locker with a manual transmission. But if they end up doing a manual Sasquatch option for 2022 I will absolutely be switching to Black Diamond.

Also something I realized while I was at the dealer. They had various iPads setup around the dealership for customers to use with Build & Price… and it occurred to me the larger iPad Pro is a 12” screen, while the iPad Mini is an 8” screen. Makes a good reference point if you happen to have one sitting around the house, or if you want to take the trip to your local Best Buy / Apple store.
 

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Willys has 3 upgrades over the Sport S: LSD, rock rails, and the Rubicon’s shocks (not the balance of the Rubi suspension)

And not the Rubi’s transfer case

if my F150 hadn’t unexpectedly crapped out last year, I would be awaiting my nonSquatch BD. But that’s a few years down the road now…
 

Spooled

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Willys:

No rear locker
No trail one pedal
no trail turn assist
plastic bumpers
no MGV/washout interior
no standard 8" screen
3.45 axle ratio
no standard LED headlights
aux switches not standard

It's not even close IMO
 

Wanted33

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Tricky Dick

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I would agree, except it doesn't have the rear locker.
Yeah Bronco just offers more for the money (when there's no ADM) so you can't really get an apples to apples.
 

Lord Bronco

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Curious since you've had your BD for awhile. Any regrets going with it or do you wish you had the BL? The 12 inch screen would have been really nice, but I decided to fully load out a BD which is 6 grand less then a fully decked out BL. Cause I had to have the squash and high package if I went that route.
No regrets! I have the standard package.
 

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sk00pie

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FYI there are 2 versions of the Willys. The Willys Sport (base) and the Willys. I have a 21 Willys which comes with some rubi components and LEDs standard. The Willys Sport doesn't even come with air conditioning or power windows.
 

Little Foot

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It depends what you care about.

If you are talking strictly off-roading capabilities... hard to make a comparison. The Black Diamond comes with rear locking differential. The only trim in the Wrangler that offers locking differentials is the Rubicon. But the Rubicon is more similar to the Badlands than it is to Black Diamond.

Personally I'd match them up as follows. Caveat being that this is far from a perfect 1:1 match.

  • Big Bend = Sport S / Islander
  • Black Diamond = Willys
  • Outer Banks = Sahara / Freedom
  • Badlands = Rubicon
  • Wildtrak = Sahara Altitude / High Altitude
---

Edit:

Almost forgot one thing... Jeep likes to have various trims that I like to call "sub-trims". (No idea what they're actually called.) The low-end trims are called "Sport", while the high-end trims are called "Altitude".

For example... a Willys Sport is the stripped-down version of the Willys trim. Then there is the standard Willys trim. Willys Altitude doesn't exist, but if it did it would be the high-end version of the Willys trim.

Die-hard Wrangler people probably will disagree with me. But in my opinion there are only four trims: Sport, Willys, Sahara, and Rubicon. Everything else... including the odd-ball trims such as Islander, Freedom, and RHD... are just variations on the core four trims.
  • Sport - base level
  • Willys - entry-level off road
  • Sahara - all about that style
  • Rubicon - advanced off road
I believe you to be correct on your trim level equivalents. I am ordering a Willy’s Sport (manual windows, no power locks) this coming week for my Dad…..Comes with rock rails, limited slip differential, 32 inch tires, heavy duty brakes (same as Rubicon), Rubicon shocks, sport springs. Unfortunately it has only a 5inch radio system, so will have to upgrade that for my dad eventually, even though he probably won’t want to 🤣
 

goalie

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If you are looking for used, people that buy the rubicons usually dont change a lot, maybe wheels/tires but not a lot. People that are going to do a lot of upgrades usually buy a Sport and add on what they want. Mine was a Sport and I put about $15k into it, now its far better than a stock Rubi at roughly the same cost total. So it depends on what you want to start with and how much you want to change.
 

Thed

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In my mind it's always been like this:

Base = Sport
Big Bend = Sport S
Black Diamond = Willys
Outer Banks = Sahara
Badlands = Rubicon
Wildtrak = Kind of on its own. If the Wrangler had a Mojave like the Gladiator then I'd say that.

Yes, I know that the Willys doesn't have a rear locker, but it does have other off-road equipment like rock rails, Rubicon suspension, and M/T tires. It's the cheaper Rubicon, just like how the Black Diamond is the cheaper Badlands.
 

SwankyTiger

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IMO with the 8 speed the 4:1 t case in the Rubicon isn’t really necessary unless you are hardcore rock crawling.
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