Daily Driver and Rock Crawling
 

Hey all, I have had my JK 4-door since January. In that time I have put 14k miles on it and love it more than any other vehicle I have owned. My brother talked me into go down to Terra Del Sol and introduced me to what a jeep is really meant for :) So now to get it ready to go to Rubicon I need some gear (have 4.10) and some tire. I do not want to hurt my Highway ability too much and was thinking a good way to go is to get the Atlas II transfercase with the 10:1 ration. My thinking is that it would give me the gear I need for Rubicon and I would still have a good ratio in the axles for the 100+ miles a day I drive. Am I stupid or does this sound ok?

=Wipeout

Why don't you get me one too.

The only thing, going with the atlas is good for offroad but it won't help you on road. If you get bigger tires and don't regear you will still get crappy highway milage.

The atlas will be awesome offroad. I guess I just don't see how the atlas will help you onroad with bigger tires?

Bryan

So I understand...
 

So if I understand what you guys are saying then it would work to go with an atlas for the low gears to aid in the trails and since it is 1:1 on the highway it would behave just like my stock transfer case does when I am driving to work? =Wipeout

The 4-speed Atlas cases are really cool, but very pricey. You could do a whole lot of other stuff to your Jeep with that money that would benefit the off road ability more than a T-case. If you have the $$$ for all of that, have fun.

Ahh, where I am going with this is trying to make it a better on the trail without changing it too much on the road. My Brother suggested I put 5.13 gears in the axles and 35 or 37" tires. I think if I do that then the highway driving will suffer a lot. Since I drive 100+ miles a day roundtrip to work I thought maybe I could put a transfer case in that has the lower gears needed for trail and still have good freeway gearing for the work week. I am not opposed to running smaller tires during the week and changing to bigger ones for weekend. Maybe this is not a good idea, that is why I threw it out to those of you that know. The cost of the transfercase doesn't seem that much more than swapping gears in both axles. =Wipeout

A 4-speed atlas costs @ $2800. Offroad Evolution was running a special on gears installed front and rear for @ $1000.

your stock rubi will walk on most of the Rubicon Trail. Run it as is untill your skill level dictates need to modify.
if you want to start throwing cash at your jeep I would in order:
winch
full cage or front cage conversion
harnesses and attachments
beadlocks
bigger tires and gears
body armor
new axles
new t-case

A good trail rig and a good daily driver do not go hand in hand :D Mainly because I have never rolled my daily driver

Thanks everyone for the advice. I will take another look at what I really need. =Wipeout

No matter what you do, if you put bigger tires on it, your highway use will suffer some.
The reason most people do axle gears with bigger tires, is not because its needed for off-road, but its to help everyday driving more then anything.
Going with bigger tires and not chaning gears, your engine/trans will be constantly shifting in and out of overdrive to maintain speed on the highway with the slightest incline in the road, and therefore hurting your highway use.
So with a gear change, it brings the overall ratio back to around stock, which helps the underpowered engine spin the tires around easier :)

Daily Driver
 

I drive my samurai every day and it has about a 7in lift some big 235/75/15 buckshot mudders haha. The thing will go just about anywhere i take it and it is not locked!!!! Gas is not that bad it gets about 20miles to gal your also talking about a HUGE 1.3 motor