I have an 07 X 2dr, auto, 410 gears that is the way it came when I bought it new and for $16,500 I could not complain. I wanted the Rubi but I was looking at 12K more. I have gone all Teraflex long arm, disco, winch, LOD bumpers wheels and tires and can add a Crawler adaptor and still not spend the 12k. BUT VERY CLOSE.

I have done all of the work and it has been a blast but that is not for everyone. If you don't have the tools, time or a place to do it get a Rubi.

 

Exactly, some on here are saying to take the Rubi since it is only a bit more of an investment over an X. Around my area it wasn't a small investment, most Rubis were in the $30-$35k range. That is a lot more than I paid for my X and even after spending a small fortune on tires, rims, and a lift I still have over $5k savings over if I were to have gone with a Rubi.

 

If you are going to wheel it and run 35s or 37s you are going to want the D44s front and rear. Instead of putting in ARB air lockers, keep the Rubi e-lockers along with the factory warranty. The Rubi 4:1 transfer case is geared nice a low for crawling. If you get the Rubi, you might find a lift, bigger tires and some recovery gear is all you need.

 

Rubicrawler would be a great addition if you have an automatic transmission. It's functionality and crawl ratio are still better with the Rubicon transfer case which will enable an over 10:1 crawl ratio. Then the cost factor of more than $1500 and it's been shipping for about all of a week.

The equation remains the same as to where you want to end up and where you started from. Then there's the part about the length of time it's going to take to get there and what you want to be driving in the interim. Then of course the cost differences of what you plan to sell off and what components you would keep. For me it would have made total sense to go the Rubicon route although that's not the decision I made at the time. For someone else I can't make that decision and I'm hard pressed to do so with so may undefined variables.

 

If I had a Rubi T-Case from someone, can I just swap it with my non rubi T-case? Is it as simple as nuts and bolts, or do I have to upgrade the computer and all that crap too?

 

The dealer can reprogram for a rubi transfer case and so can the SC Flashpaq.

 

I got an X and there wasn't even much debate when I bought mine. I think I saved about $12,000 by not getting a Rubicon. That was enough for me to make my decision. I'm slowly adding mods and getting more into wheelin' as time goes by. I've heard of people getting new Rubicon's for like $26K. If that were possible when I bought mine, then sure I would have gone with the Rubicon, no brainer.

I don't regret my decision to go with the X at all. My plan has been to slowly mod over several years to make it better than a Rubicon eventually.

In my opinion it's more fun to have money to play around with to buy things like bumpers, lifts, tires, etc.

The Rubicon has some nice things out of the box, but the problem with electronics is they will eventually break and quit working (usually right after the warranty runs out). I don't even have power locks or power windows on mine.

 

Definitely go with the X-model, save the 20 grand man (pmt+interest) seriously.. your talking the difference between a 300 a month payment and a 600 a month payment and plenty of people wheel x models like they are stolen. if your changing everything anyway, whats it matter? if i had got an x instead of a rubi i would have already been able to afford dropping in the teraflex dana 60s off what i saved in the payments alone (this past august made my one year point). everything else is trivial, yeah you want the 4.1 and the skid plates.. find a jeep in a junk yard that took a header and start grave robbing. economically its just smarter pure and simple. and this is coming from a guy who has a loaded out rubicon.. buy cheap, build hard. Base x unlimited here is around 18-20k minus whatever incentives you get, rubicons are about 35k.. dude seriously, you can damn near get the 6.1 hemi put in for the price difference. (and i bet if you talk to screaming lizard before hand and work out a deal where they get to keep / resell that zero mile drivetrain, they would cut ya a hell of a deal, but hey what do i know... im just a guy who went with the expensive one to start with instead of taking the time to run the numbers. good luck.

 

I went with a loaded X unlimited, saved about 9 grand and I have been using that "saved" money towards mods over the last 2 years.

 

Would you still want to go ARB if you got the RUBI? Seems as though the Rubi's lockers are pretty darn good from the factory.
That would be the decision point for me. If you must have ARB then I would buy a cheaper Jeep.
As for me I bought an X that I'm very happy with, but I seem to be trying to build it into an aftermarket version of a rubi by the time I am finished. I may have been cheaper and quicker just to have bought the Rubi. I would also have the 44 front and a better(I believe) transfer case.
My two cents worth. Either way you will have a great Jeep when your done. ENJOY!