Bad Dawg's Beasty

Owners Name & City- Darrel & Phyllis / Middleton, Idaho


Make, Model & Year of Vehicle- 2008 Jeep Rubicon Unlimited


Engine- 3.8 Liter V6


Transmission- 6-speed Manual


T-Case- Rock-Trac 4:1


Axles- Dana 44 front and rear. Tru-Lok elec locking front & rear diffs


Suspension- Stock for now


Wheels and Tires- (Stock, for now) 32" BFG MT. Stock 17" wheels


Winch- Not yet


Favorite Trails- Starting a new list


Other- Just got it for Christmas. Lots of plans

 

[Meat_]

Looks a little different than your avatar

 

[BlackDog]

Avatar has gotta be wayyy more fun.

 

[Maverick]

Owners Name & City- Darrel & Phyllis / Middleton, Idaho
Make, Model & Year of Vehicle- 2008 Jeep Rubicon Unlimited
Engine- 3.8 Liter V6
Transmission- 6-speed Manual
T-Case- Rock-Trac 4:1
Axles- Dana 44 front and rear. Tru-Lok elec locking front & rear diffs
Suspension- Stock for now
Wheels and Tires- (Stock, for now) 32" BFG MT. Stock 17" wheels
Winch- Not yet
Favorite Trails- Starting a new list
Other- Just got it for Christmas. Lots of plans

Drool. I love it. The 0% has me totally tempted (killing me to wait until other junk is paid off)

What lift/tires/doodads do you have planned?

 

[Bad Dawg]

The 0% ended on Jan. 2nd. We just made it.

Right now the Full Traction Ultimate 3" lift is at the top of my list for a lift. Going with 35" tires, but not sure which brand yet. I run Cooper STT's on my dually and really like them but we aren't sure if we want to go with something more aggressive. Since we have the 4:10 gears I'm not sure if we need to change those, however my gut says we will. I'd like to get through the winter without changing anything just so we can get used to the Jeep and to break it in without breaking it. I want to make sure everything is as it should be before doing the mods.

We have two LARGE dogs, so we need something to carry stuff, like a rear gas can/cooler rack. I like one of the roof racks I've seen, but not sure yet if I want to go that route. New bumpers and a winch - still evaluating the different bumper options.

We are used to "bigger" rigs, so right now at the stock height it seems really short to us. It needs more ATTITUDE

 

[bradm]

Jealous... Nothing quite like a nice NEW rig. Bought my XJ brand new and needless to say it doesn't have that new car smell anymore! :greg: Keep us posted on the buildup.

 

[Bad Dawg]

Looks a little different than your avatar

Yup. This one's for a different kind of fun.

The "Geep thing" is new to us. We never had one before. Always had Land Cruisers. It's been around 15 to 20 years since we have been out on the trails so we have a lot to learn and re-learn. We just have to remember how to drive slow .

 

[Meat_]

...We just have to remember how to drive slow .

The down graded motor helps on that

 

[Bad Dawg]

The 3.8 certainly is different from what we are used to. So, since I'm new to the Geep thing, How does the 3.8 V6 compare to the old 4.0 straight 6? I have heard from other Geep owners that the V6 is actually better (more HP and more torque, Plus better MPG and smoother). Power seems ok and so far we are getting 18 MPG with about 400 miles on it.

 

[mbryson]

The 3.8 certainly is different from what we are used to. So, since I'm new to the Geep thing, How does the 3.8 V6 compare to the old 4.0 straight 6? I have heard from other Geep owners that the V6 is actually better (more HP and more torque, Plus better MPG and smoother). Power seems ok and so far we are getting 18 MPG with about 400 miles on it.

It looks better on paper, but I think the 4.0L will outpull it on the hills. I don't know why, but I just think it will (that's comparing our 130K mile Grand to a NEW Wrangler).

 

[Meat_]

I've never been in a new V6, but I'm going to go with.... they are both gutless.

 

[mbryson]

I've never been in a new V6, but I'm going to go with.... they are both gutless.

Good point.

 

[Bad Dawg]

I've never been in a new V6, but I'm going to go with.... they are both gutless.

On my list of "mods" is all the little things that might help the engine. Nothing by itself will do much but I'm hoping that combined they will help some. As with any engine, getting cooler/denser air in, letting it breathe easier and having a better/smoother exhaust flow (with the right amount of back pressure) will help. The jury is still out on how much a programmer will help but I'm hoping they will help a little. Gearing will help too. 2 or 3 HP here and there adds up. On our race engine, something as simple as pulling vacume off the engine with vacume hoses coming off our headers got us 15 more HP on the dyno and adding 6" to the exhaust tubes on the headers before the collector got us another 35 hp. Adding just 4" to the end of the collector got us enough back pressure to grab us another 5HP (granted, the 3.8 isn't a race engine). Point is that I'm hoping the little things will add up on the Geep too. We'll see.

 

[Bad Dawg]

It looks better on paper, but I think the 4.0L will outpull it on the hills. I don't know why, but I just think it will (that's comparing our 130K mile Grand to a NEW Wrangler).

The new X and Sahara only come stock with 3:21 gears. You can upgrade to the 3:73's and I think the 4:10's may be available as an option but out of the box only the Rubicon come with the 4:10's. Without dumping a bunch of $$$ and time into the X and Sahara they won't perform well pulling a grade. On the way home when we picked ours up I drove about 50 miles of freeway with a few good grades. It pulled the just fine in 6th gear going 65 to 70mph never down shifting. However, I know if we were pulling a trailer the old right arm would have gotten a workout.