Two weeks in a Jeep JLU.

[Silver-Bolt]

Just back from 2 weeks in Maui where I had a Jeep JLU as my rental. Not my first Jeep rental but it is my first JL rental. Have to say that I am not impressed. #1 complaint is the steering. This sure felt worse than the JK's I have rented in the past. This was the JLU Sport 4WD so a pretty base model. It wandered the road like a lost hobo. You had to stay up on the wheel and steer it to stay in your lane. No death wobble but she is a wanderer for sure. Power was from the V6 with the 8-speed auto. Power was adequate but the fuel mapping and trans programming sucked bad. At low speed below 10 mph it surged and bucked like crazy. Barely touch the accelerator and it would jump forward. The trans down shifted very aggressively and was reluctant to upshift. We put on right at 1000 miles and averaged 18 mpg. That was a mix of in town (mostly) and some highway. Ours had the hardtop without any sound deadener. No rattles but it did have some echo inside. This rig has 245 all season tires (street tires) and the road noise was noticeable. At times we had 3 adults and two kids (10-12 years old) and it wasn't uncomfortable. Had this been a 2-door we would not have fit. Size wise it is very close to what the Bronco is so it was a good measure of interior space. The rig had 6000 miles on it when we picked it up. The ride quality was what I would expect from solid axles. Not great but tolerable. Would I buy one? Nope. The steering alone would keep me away from ownership. When we got home and I hopped in my Raptor I found myself steering it like the Jeep and I was all over the road. I had to relearn driving a vehicle that didn't require steering input to stay in it's lane. If Ford gets the driving dynamics correct I have a feeling there will be a lot of Jeeps for sale.

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[MaverickMan]

Did you stop by Twin Falls? If you did it was probably closed sorry, we have had massive flooding and damage from it on this side as well as 4 tourists dying in floods and strong ocean currents on this side of the island. Its been really high stress on top of covid concerns with tourism ramping up. So if we yelled at you for doing something every other tourist was doing, sorry.

I see alot of those JLs in our lot and while that 6000 miles is low I would say it should be treated more like 12,000 miles. But still shouldn't be all over the road. However solid axles are solid axles. Any chance you happened to have driven a f350 late model? Curious how it would compare to your raptor, wander wise. 2 years ago my sister rented a JL, a little bit higher model with 33s on it. She loved it so much she traded in her IFS grand cherokee and bought one. But then again hard to say if your rental had been pounded down to Jaws or something. A whole lot of hard hits to take down there. Its one of my favorite wheeling spots. Another thing is all the rental jeeps here sat in a cane field for almost all of last year not that it would affect steering or ride but maybe interior smells and funny electronics.

I hope you had a good trip here and sorry if it was dampened by our weather. Its been wet and wild lately. Aloha!

 

[Silver-Bolt]

Did you stop by Twin Falls? If you did it was probably closed sorry, we have had massive flooding and damage from it on this side as well as 4 tourists dying in floods and strong ocean currents on this side of the island. Its been really high stress on top of covid concerns with tourism ramping up. So if we yelled at you for doing something every other tourist was doing, sorry.

I see alot of those JLs in our lot and while that 6000 miles is low I would say it should be treated more like 12,000 miles. But still shouldn't be all over the road. However solid axles are solid axles. Any chance you happened to have driven a f350 late model? Curious how it would compare to your raptor, wander wise. 2 years ago my sister rented a JL, a little bit higher model with 33s on it. She loved it so much she traded in her IFS grand cherokee and bought one. But then again hard to say if your rental had been pounded down to Jaws or something. A whole lot of hard hits to take down there. Its one of my favorite wheeling spots. Another thing is all the rental jeeps here sat in a cane field for almost all of last year not that it would affect steering or ride but maybe interior smells and funny electronics.

I hope you had a good trip here and sorry if it was dampened by our weather. Its been wet and wild lately. Aloha!

We stayed in Kihei. Didn't go past Paia as we new everything From Paia to Haiku was a mess. The amount of rain that came down Friday night was crazy. Happy to say that our dive trip Saturday was cancelled. The brown water was the worst we have seen. We did venture down to La Parouse and the flood damage was not good. Decent surf at Baldwin on Monday. We typically do 2 trips to Maui a year. We consider ourselves as visitors rather than tourists. We have great respect for the people and the land. No sense of entitlement or demands on the locals. This trip, the tourists were complete A-Holes. Worst we have seen. No respect for the people of land. No understanding of what covid has done to the islands. The Aloha vibe was missing. Hopefully as the covid restrictions lift things will return to normal.

 

[@BadBlueBronco]

my first thought after driving my jeep rental "I am driving my truck in reverse." the way the front axle hops over uneven roads are dangerous and I also feel the car likes to wonder on the road.

 

[MaverickMan]

We stayed in Kihei. Didn't go past Paia as we new everything From Paia to Haiku was a mess. The amount of rain that came down Friday night was crazy. Happy to say that our dive trip Saturday was cancelled. The brown water was the worst we have seen. We did venture down to La Parouse and the flood damage was not good. Decent surf at Baldwin on Monday. We typically do 2 trips to Maui a year. We consider ourselves as visitors rather than tourists. We have great respect for the people and the land. No sense of entitlement or demands on the locals. This trip, the tourists were complete A-Holes. Worst we have seen. No respect for the people of land. No understanding of what covid has done to the islands. The Aloha vibe was missing. Hopefully as the covid restrictions lift things will return to normal.

Yeah for sure depending on the days you were here it was rough. Alot of locals got a taste of life 40 years ago last summer with the amount of people on the island. Now as tourists(or potential plague carriers in alot of minds) show up things were already tense. Of course we need the tourist money also (gotta buy them Broncos somehow). So its damned if ya do, damned if ya don't. The daily attitude shifts with the weather. With the floods and deaths this months and all the tourists covid decompressing. Its crazy. I have drunken tourists hiking up riverbeds in the rain all the time in big groups without masks. I'm just lucky I haven't had to rope anyone across the stream this year.

Hope you have a better trip next time and get to see many turtles and dolphins! Aloha!

 

[Sgt Beavis]

Yea, steering on the 2018-2020 Wranglers is just horrible. There is a TSB out to replace the aluminum steering box with a more heavy duty steel one. They added that new steering box to the 2021 and it is a huge improvement. However compared to my Raptor it is still a bit sloppy. IMO it’s because Jeep uses lower quality bushings in may parts of the steering system. Also, of course, there is the fact that it uses a SFA. That contributes to the slop.

The aftermarket is finding some good business from Jeep owners buying much improved steering components. Heck you can buy an entire hydraulic steering setup if you want.

 

[Ryuk]

Back in 2004 I upgraded my Entire Steering system on my Jeep to a 1 Ton Setup with a separated Drag Link and Tierod and then added a PSC hydraulic assist for competition. These Pics are dirty but show the components and were taken when I added the Hydrolic assist.

If I bought a new jeep, I would fix any sloppiness myself with the exact same system

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