What Grand Should I Buy

[drover]

WG 2.7 CRD will give you towing capacity, heaps of grunt and bloody good economy, only downside is it sounds like a tractor. Mine gets between 9lt/100 and 11lt/100 the later being with the camper on back and full noise down the Newell.
Just do all the usual vehicle checks before buying.

PS: Cheaper rego than a V8.

[Hanna]

Drover makes some good points regarding the diesel and although they are more expensive to service they give good power, economy and have a good reputation being a Mercedes engine.

On the flipside, I have the V8 and I reckon it's a cracker of an engine. Nice and torquey, plenty of horsepower for fast acceleration and a great exhaust note too. I have only towed small trailers and a ski boat with mine so far and it found it to be great!

Get one with a SVI (sequential vapour injection) LPG conversion and you keep all of the power but have the running costs of a 4cyl petrol car. Mine gets about 14.5-15L/100km on the highway @110km/h or around 22L/100km doing just city driving, so it equates to about 370-380 kms highway driving or 240 kms city driving for just over $30. It's obviously somewhere in between that if you are doing a bit of both types of driving.

If you are going to do serious off-roading and want to install lockers, then get one with Quadra-Trac II (open diffs front and rear). If you want to do serious off-roading without lockers, go for one with Quadra-Drive (LSD's front and rear). I can't comment on the Quadra-drive system as mine isn't equipped with it, but if you do some thread searches on this forum there are plenty of guys (and girls) who will vouch for it 100%. By the sounds of it they are great.

If you are planning on lifting it then I'm not sure it will matter what model you go for as long as you are using a full lift kit. If you are going for a 2" budget lift (spring spacers), then your clearance will be affected by the standard suspension, whether it is "Up Country" equipped or not, or if it's an overland model it will be slightly lower than the normal Grand Cherokee. However, I have no idea which models came out with the "Up Country" suspension package.

Good luck with the search!

[Bastler]

Originally Posted by Hanna

Drover makes some good points regarding the diesel and although they are more expensive to service they give good power, economy and have a good reputation being a Mercedes engine.

On the flipside, I have the V8 and I reckon it's a cracker of an engine. Nice and torquey, plenty of horsepower for fast acceleration and a great exhaust note too. I have only towed small trailers and a ski boat with mine so far and it found it to be great!

Get one with a SVI (sequential vapour injection) LPG conversion and you keep all of the power but have the running costs of a 4cyl petrol car. Mine gets about 14.5-15L/100km on the highway @110km/h or around 22L/100km doing just city driving, so it equates to about 370-380 kms highway driving or 240 kms city driving for just over $30. It's obviously somewhere in between that if you are doing a bit of both types of driving.

If you are going to do serious off-roading and want to install lockers, then get one with Quadra-Trac II (open diffs front and rear). If you want to do serious off-roading without lockers, go for one with Quadra-Drive (LSD's front and rear). I can't comment on the Quadra-drive system as mine isn't equipped with it, but if you do some thread searches on this forum there are plenty of guys (and girls) who will vouch for it 100%. By the sounds of it they are great.

If you are planning on lifting it then I'm not sure it will matter what model you go for as long as you are using a full lift kit. If you are going for a 2" budget lift (spring spacers), then your clearance will be affected by the standard suspension, whether it is "Up Country" equipped or not, or if it's an overland model it will be slightly lower than the normal Grand Cherokee. However, I have no idea which models came out with the "Up Country" suspension package.

Good luck with the search!

Hey mate,

Thanks for that info really usefull.

I have been looking at the Quadra drive jeeps can you install a locker into these later on if you want to?

Yes I have been looking into the lifts a bit in the last 24 hours I will most likely be doing a complete 4" lift using a lift kit. Im not worried to much about my petrol consumption its just an added extra sort of thing. What I want to know is for offroad use is the diesel or the V8 better for offroad?

Cheers

[Hanna]

Originally Posted by Bastler

Hey mate,

Thanks for that info really usefull.

I have been looking at the Quadra drive jeeps can you install a locker into these later on if you want to?

Yes I have been looking into the lifts a bit in the last 24 hours I will most likely be doing a complete 4" lift using a lift kit. Im not worried to much about my petrol consumption its just an added extra sort of thing. What I want to know is for offroad use is the diesel or the V8 better for offroad?

Cheers

Spend a bit of time reading this thread:

http://www.ausjeepoffroad.com/forum/...ad.php?t=91919

According to Turismo07, you will need to remove the diff centre, carrier and axles and replace with those from a Quadra-Trac II to install an automatic locker (like an "Aussie Lokka" or "Lock-right") in a GC with Quadra-Drive. I am not sure whether this is the same deal for air lockers, maybe someone else can help, or try searching "air locker" etc.

As for the preferred engine off-road, I am sure both sides will have their arguments. One advantage I can think of with the diesel is that you may be able to cross deeper water with a snorkel due to no spark plugs/leads, but I am not 100%. Just remember that torque is more important than horsepower (or kw) when off-road and both engines have plenty of it, so either would be a good choice compared to most in the same class.

Cheers,
Hanna

[pmac]

Originally Posted by Hanna

As for the preferred engine off-road, I am sure both sides will have their arguments. One advantage I can think of with the diesel is that you may be able to cross deeper water with a snorkel due to no spark plugs/leads, but I am not 100%. Just remember that torque is more important than horsepower (or kw) when off-road and both engines have plenty of it, so either would be a good choice compared to most in the same class.

Cheers,
Hanna

Diesels are good offroad mainly for compression when going down STEEP hills, as they have more compression for better engine breaking. But remember, GC's are auto's so the advantage is lost substantially. This is only serious stuff I'm talking about here. Hills that you'd struggle to walk down.

Torque also good for going uphill, but the V8 doesn't struggle, so not really an issue.

Yep, diesels are good for water crossings IF you have a snorkel, but they don't make them for a WJ. They can get much more damage if they ingest water than a petrol as they WILL blow up. Compression is much higher. That doesn't mean that you can get away with sucking water into a petrol, just that sometimes you can get away without too much damage but never with a diesel.

[bikemat]

1 vote for the V8 here - I love it.
The diesel is no better than the petrol for water crossings in my opinion. Sure the old school ones were as they had very little in the way of electronics. The diesel in the Grand has just as much electronic gear as the petrol though (possibly more) and will be a hell of a lot more to replace if you destroy it in water. The V8 has/will have a snorkel available soon.
However, diesel is obviously better on fuel, but difference in purchase price might outweigh that anyway (it did when i bought).
Get Quadra-drive. It's practically as good as lockers - you'll have big issues fitting lockers to a grand
so after the sales spiel, mine's for sale in brissy too

[Turismo07]

Originally Posted by Hanna

According to Turismo07, you will need to remove the diff centre, carrier and axles and replace with those from a Quadra-Trac II to install an automatic locker (like an "Aussie Lokka" or "Lock-right") in a GC with Quadra-Drive. I am not sure whether this is the same deal for air lockers, maybe someone else can help, or try searching "air locker" etc.

Yeah whatever locker that is fitted to a WJ/WG will need to be fitted to 'open carriers' (non-Quadra-Drive and non-LSD) along with the open carriers' 'axles' (cos Quadra Drive uses different length axles). This is the same for both front and rear, and again, if an ARB Air Locker is what you want then these are only available for the front with 'auto locker' types for the rear.

In regards to engine, as other have said the V8 is silky smooth, quiet, very torquey, makes a good noise, and rather economical when compared to the Grand's competition (and non-diesels). With my current setup (tyres and lift) I get around 14-15l/100km in the city, on the open road 11lt/100km. On a recent trip back to Perth, I towed a 6x4 trailer loaded with gear (not sure how heavy, but I could definately tell that it was a serious lump behind me). The first leg of this trip was 200km in mid 20 degree temps, with mild hills, no oncoming wind, and about 10am, when we arrived at the servo, a quick calc showed that I got 11lt/100km which I was happy with. However the next 200km leg was in 38 degrees, plenty of hills, very strong oncoming wind, and about 1pm, when we arrived at the servo this time after a quick calc, I had got 22lt/100km this time... This was a surprise cos I didn't think the fuel economy would change so much. By the way the whole trip was done at 110km/ph. The other x2 vehicles I was travelling with (TJ and 3ltr diesel Surf) were all getting the same economy, the only positive out of that is that the TJ has much lighter (most of their stuff in the trailer...) and the Surf was running completly empty (was nursing a gearbox prob home so we put all their gear into the trailer)...

This was the first time I thought to myself, "that diesel donk would've been good on this trip"... So if you plan on plenty of towing and touring, I'd say get the diesel...