Hi, after a local rain storm i went down by the freeway and drove thru the creek and some of the trails and my jeep did surprisingly well for a 2wd, I would feel the brake assist kick in and off i would go thrue the ruts with little slippage, I do think better tires would help and i plan on getting a hitch mounted winch just in case. Will get pics next time i go. but here is a pic of her all cleaned up after. Any ideas on a good set of A/T tires?
There is no rule that you need a 4wd to have some fun off road. I drive off road more than 99% of the people out there because my job requires it. At work you get made fun of if you have to go into 4wd and it is a challenge to stay in 2wd. Of course my work trucks all have lockers in the rear and lost of weight in the bed which helps with traction. I would purchase a come-a-long and install the tow hooks if you plan on going off the beaten path on a regular basis because you can get stuck in the most unlikely of places. The hitch mounted winch is awesome to have but the comealong will help up front. Also
as far as AT tires go, everybody has an opinion and everybody thinks theirs is the best. I have run just about every AT and MT tire on my personel truck and work trucks and they all have done the job, just some better than others. Some of my favorites have been Nitto Terra Grappler, Cooper AT3's, and Firestone Transforce which is the best AT I have ran in a long time.
My uncle John who we visited often when I was coming up lived on, and worked the family farm never owned a 4 wheel drive. I often watched him in amazement get in, and out of situations that most would have trouble with in 4 wheel.
When I was I kid in the 80's hardly anybody I knew had a 4 wheel drive. Most had 2wd trucks and got to work and to their hunting spots just fine. The last 20 years has been the boom for 4wd vehicles because most people (including me) feel like I need one when actually a 2wd with a good locker in the back would work 99.9% of the time.
This. I was out in Colorado with my parents this summer and my dad and I did basically the entire Alpine Loop in 2WD in his 2006 LJ 6-speed (no lift, but he runs 31x10.5 BFG A/T's). It was still fairly wet from snow melt (we went in late June). We did Cinnamon Pass from Lake City to Silverton and then Engineer Pass on the way back. The only time we needed 4WD wasn't due to a traction issue, but we needed 4-LO for the gearing to get up the very steep section near the summit.
I was absolutely amazed at the off road performance of his Jeep in 2WD.
Ive always been very careful taking a 2wd vehicle off road, ive had 4wd on the last couple of jeeps i had, i didn't necessarily need it but it was there, i just couldn't justify spending an extra $2-4k for 4wd on my new 2012 WK2 when i would probably never really need 4wd where i live and of course as long as i use common sense off-road and in winter, ill be fine.
Does the 2wd's have the same brake assist for the rear axle as the QT2 in the 4wd's front and rear axles? If so then that will be a big help for the 2wd models when going into some slippery places.
Thanks for the info Schweibs. The engineers should have put the same brake assist system for the rear axle for the 4x2's but I guess they figured it wasn't neccessary.
Sounds like you had better luck than me. I got stuck in wet sand for 2 hours before someone in a legit off road jeep pulled me out. I found this the other day, it looks like it could really work, I haven't gotten it yet though...
Sounds like you had better luck than me. I got stuck in wet sand for 2 hours before someone in a legit off road jeep pulled me out. I found this the other day, it looks like it could really work, I haven't gotten it yet though...