According to my wife, it's all a waste of money anyway

 

Agreed, I'm a finance guy by profession - I had my spreadsheet all setup to track the upgrades; now I don't want to see it.

I am keeping receipts and photos for insurance reasons, but I have no idea on the total cumulative costs.

Also, I switched my credit card to one with free gas card rewards so I stopped tracking my fuel costs too.

 

I had the same battle before I bought my X. I wanted the Rubi but no dealerships in my area would budge on the price whereas I was able to talk them down to $21k for the Jeep I have now. With the 4-8 thousand dollars I saved by skipping the Rubi I can make a hell of a lot of changes on my own.

 

I am glad I went with the rubi. I took it out the same week I bought it. With lockers front and rear and the 4:1 TC the only thing limiting the rubi was ground clearance and my fear of scratching my new paint job. Now I can slowly starting adding all the mods, but still be more than capable to wheel from the get go.

I have a spreadsheet with my wishlist, my lottery winner wishlist, and my current mods...I hide it from my wife!

 

I am a non-Rubi owner. If you plan on seriously building up the offroad capabilities, the ~$3K uplift for the Rubi is well worth the up-front investment. Besides providing a better foundation for heavy offroading, it will provide a more capable offroad vehicle straight "out of the box". If you can afford it buy the Rubi.

 

I don't know where you can get a Rubicon for three thousand bucks over a Wrangler X. Around here it's more like a $10,000 price premium (or so it was when I shopped 'em). Makes the choice for the X + mods much easier to make.

 

I know when I bought my JK there were no deals on Rubi's ... they were all 30K+ ... I ended up with my X with 23S package for $19K ... $5K off MSRP ...

My opinion is if you are gonna swap out enough parts that your factory warranty becomes useless ... just buy a low mileage used X ... there are plenty of them out there ... for around $15K ... that leaves you with $15K for upgrades and you'll still be into it for less than a stock Rubicon. Heck ... I've seen sweet deals on used X's that already include nice bumpers / tires / wheels / etc ... making it even a better deal. you could afford D60's front and back with the money saved.

 

Get rubi, no need to regear with 35's no need for lockers that is about 3k right there. Add in 4:1 transfer case and swaybar electrodisconnects. You are way ahead. 3" or 4" the lift is irrelevant in the desicion as either an x or rubi you will swap parts. The money you save use toward real bumpers and a winch necessary equip if you are going to do serious 4x4 n

 

Wow, thanks for all the great info and good points. I never realy thought that I might not want to replace the lockers in a rubi. The front dana 44 is another good point.

To answer some of the questions; yes I will wheel it when ever possible but it will be mostly a DD, most of the mods wont come as soon as I like, the larger tires and the lift will go on as soon as I can buy them. I plan on keeping this jeep until it dies or I die.

I am looking for a used one and believe me if I can find a rubi around $25000 it will be mine.

My first thought was that I could get an X and mod it out for the price of a rubi. Again I hadn't thought that if I was happy with the E Lockers and gears from a rubi I would need to change them there by saving money for other things.

I am glad I am not the only one that has gone through this, its good to see the directions that others have taken.

Once again thanks for all the great responses!!

 

Personally I would be very happy with E-lockers and 4.10's and never change a thing except suspension. Find a 2009 and you get a lifetime warranty on all those drivetrain parts as long as you don't start swapping gears and axles and stuff.