Hi! I live in SoCal and I am new to Jeep and wheeling. I have a dilemma. On March 10 I ordered a 4door 4x4 Sahara with sway bar disconnect and lockers. It just moved to BX status on 4/27 (on 4/20 it was in BX but moved back to BG on 4/23). I cant get a straight answer on whether I will make the 2007 cutoff. Another dealer is searching dealer innventories for a Sahara that has everything I want but he doesnt think he'll find one with the lockers and sway bar disconnect. Are those things I can give up considering I'll only be doing light wheeling?
I am tired of waiting. If I had a light at the end of the tunnel I could wait it out but since we are so close to 2007 cut off I am worried. If the dealer can find a Sahara I might jump on it if the price is right but I dont want to regret it.
I would appreciate all thoughts and opinions.

 

If you are only doing light wheeling I wouldn't be afraid to give them up to get a Jk now. I would try and find one with the limited slip differential and you can get aftermarket manual swaybar quick diconnects for about $100 if you find you want more articulation.

 

yup, what he said.

 

To answer your question: YES!... if you're only doing light wheeling, you shouldn't have to worry for two reasons. the first being that these jeeps have whats called brake lock differentials as part of their Electronic Stability Program. The brake lock differentials work as follows: When you have one wheel that is slipping, the ESP program detects it, and applies brakes to that wheel only, transferring the power to the opposite side wheel that has more traction. I Have see a number of videos that prove it works tremendously, and while its not quite as good as a true locker, its a lot better than open differentials with neither of the two. the second reason, is that while i have the electronic disco swaybar and love it!, there are tons of other ways to disconnect your swaybar. The aftermarket currently has plenty of sway bar dissconnect options for this new model wrangler and if you're handy and a bit clever, you can make up your own dissconnects as well. That being said, if you really want to get you're JK, don't let those two things hold you back. If you ever decide to get more involved with wheeling, or start getting more serious and decide that just the brake lock differentials aren't enough for you, you can always get aftermarket lockers as well. But in all honestly, When i had my 2000 TJ wrangler, I had 7" of lift, 33" mudders and i beat the living snot out of it!!! i took it through some serious wheeling and it only had open differentials and the only time i got it stuck was in a huge quicksand pit. At that point lockers weren't going to save me. It ended up taking two other jeeps, a bulldozer and a backhoe (which also got stuck trying to get to me) in order to get me out. My Point is, get the aftermarket disconnecting sway bar links, because keeping all four wheels on the ground is a huge start in traction, after that, you have the brake lock differentials to help you out a lot. between the two, you should have no problems for light wheeling. And if you ever do, you can upgrade to lockers then. Sorry for the book, but i hope it helped you decide. Good luck getting your jeep.

 

I appreciate your responses. The people on this forum are great! If I find a JK that has everything else I want I will snap it up in a heartbeat! The search is on!