This is a 2 part post. I have a 2008 Wrangler Unlimited that I use everyday for work. I bought it because I love jeeps, but bought a 2WD Automatic because I needed to cruise up and down the freeways all day. I have two issues, one is noise and one is suspension.

1) What is the best way to reduce the noise, i have considered lining the top with a sound dampener and lining the floorboard. Both are costly. What is the best solution, and has anyone out there done one or the other or both to help with sound?

2) How can I make my jeep ride like a towncar, not to sound wimpy, but I drive on freeways and city streets for 8 hours a day, so a nicer ride would be great.

I dont need a bunch of comments about getting a different vehicle, I love jeeps and that is why I bought it. I just want to retrofit it for MY daily use.

 

First of all, welcome to the forum.

Do you have a hardtop? If so, take a look at HotHeads Headliner. They're a site sponsor and they make a really good product and have great customer service.
http://hotheadheadliners.com/index.html

I have a set and I can tell you they're very effective. Obviously, it's never going to be a luxury sedan, but it is a big improvement.

Can't help you with the floor though...haven't done anything there, although I've seen many posts where people talk about the benefit of bedlining the tub...pretty spendy though.

One thought on your suspension/ride: the stock suspension is pretty good at providing a nice ride, so my first recommendation would be to check tire pressure. I don't remember the recommended pressure for the stock tires but it is likely to be around 32 psi...more than that and it'll ride like a chuck wagon.

 

As for the soft ride I would say look around for an airbag system.. If you want the "Towncar" ride then do what the Towncars do... put some airbags under it.

 

sounds like you need some long arms and coilovers..

or long arms is a good start., but its not cheap just to improve the ride.

What tire PSI are you running? the Sahara should ride nice stock

 

Welcome to the forum. As far as quieting down the road noise one thing you can do if you are mildly mechanically inclined and seriously motivated is remove your interior components short of the dash and install a sound deadening product such as fatmat. I bought the $129 100sf package from fatmat.com and while I did not do the interior of the doors I did do the entire tub and ended up with enough left over to do the girlfiriends TJ. I did see/hear a significant reduction in road and tire noise ( I installed a kick butt stereo system at the same time so that helps tremendously with the road noise) and I am happy with what I did but like I said it takes some dedication and a day or 2 for install to get it right.
Ya I would do it again. Great mod for $129 and some elbow grease.

 

Another very popular for sound proofing is Dynamat. It works very well but I don't know well it holds up to moisture if you plan on removing the top and doors or trudging in a lot of mud.

Regarding the ride, changing your coils and shocks will help. The only challenge is that most aftermarket coils provide a lift in addition to an improved ride.

 

X2 on fatmat. Ebay has some good deals on it. Basically the same stuff as dynomat, but considerably cheaper.

I'd love to see some pictures of your fatmat install. Did you just put it under the carpet, or did you take the carpet out and leave it out? I wonder if I could fatmat the floorboards and then linex over top it. My biggest concern with ditching the carpet and linexing is the additional noise level.

 

I have pics on my phone, I will try to figure out how to get them on here. Fat mat has a "foil" looking skin on it so I doubt linex would stick to it and the foil makes doing linex first pointless but it would stick to it no problem. It is basically a sheet of rubber/ asphalt like stuff with a foil skin. I like my carpet except after a moab trip so It's still in there.

 

So, I gathered everyone's comments and talked to every suspension shop in San Diego. I finally found a non-biased suspension expert to help me at Socal Suspension. I have ordered replacement Bilstein shocks that will be installed on Saturday which I was told should really help out. I also ordered a Damplifier Pro liner and plan to line the entire floorboard with it. The suspension guy suggested that the Damplifier Pro can also help absorb bounce in the ride, which sounds great to me. Tires and/or coil springs are the next step if I want to do more. I like the hotheads headliner and I am considering a set.

My journey to make a jeep ride like a cadillac has begun. I will follow-up in a month or so after testing things out.

 

Add a nice big ol set of swampers, it'll ride real nice then