upgrading from 2011 WK2 5.7 to JK 3.6

[Dean Austin]

I'm in the process of trading in my WK2 for a JK 4 door, the dilemma is which one.
I have been told to go the sport and do your own mods. Not to buy a rubi because the after market mods done to a sport are of better quality. My wife wants a overland because the interior is similar to my WK2, and there seems to be a dislike of the overland, why I don't know. I'm also not willing to wait months for a new JK.
It will be my daily driver but I intend to be heading bush at least once a month.
Any feed back would be much appreciated.

[Fruju]

It all depends on what type of driving you intend to do. If it is similar to what you did in the WK2 then an Overland will be fine.

The reason for the dislike would mainly come from those who have bought the JK for what it was built for. Most would see it mainly as a dressed up Sport with one of it's offroad balls removed. Because, seriously, why would you want to take all that extra paint work offroad to risk it getting scratched and damaged?

As a vehicle they actually look pretty good but would be looked at more as a show pony than one that is likely to be driven offroad.

But hey if the wife wants an Overland then the wife gets an Overland.

[Harley]

Hi Dean, there are a fair few threads on here discussing the relative benefits of the Sport vs the Rubicon. I guess it depends on the type of wheeling you intend on doing and the sorts of mods you have in mind. For my mind, the single biggest benefit of the Rubi is the D44 in front, transfer case (for crawling) and the selectable e-Lockers. I don't know that the electronic sway bar disconnect is that big a deal breaker. Like most, I pull the pin on manual disconnects while airing down and they are often the first mod a lot of people do for $150 or thereabouts.

So if you work out costs of a D44 housing, axles, 2 x lockers etc I suspect the Rubicon would represent good value if you can afford go there straight away - and can wait (quite a while) in some cases. The Sport route would allow you to delay say swapping out the front diff for example once out of warranty, and doing other mods. But you may not be planning on that sort of path.

[wranglertj]

Yeah all depends how serious you want to go. I still feel the rubi is a far better platform to work off and are a weapon off road and to build a sport into a rubi will cost you a lot more

[NTRubicon]

the body coloured parts of the overland take a bit of getting used to.. It's almost like they tried to make a Jeep for suburbanites that want all the flash of being able to go off road, but not get the cheaper, more disposable looking plastics of the standard wheel arches.

with the leather interior, I would prefer the heated seat options and leather in a cold environment like Melbourne or Canberra, where you're unlikely to get the roof off for longer than a couple of hours before the rain gets you.

I don't see the leather standing up to long periods in the sun.

When the US brethren build their Jeeps, they buy the sport or the rubicon, and they (mostly) leave the Sahara (US Overland) for the women and the folks who don't go bush.

Having said all this, As a rubicon owner, I would buy an overland for the wife's daily driving pleasure, but there are a lot of other options that are cheaper to buy and run in the class.