TJ SE with minor mods

[StG58]

There has been some discussion about the SE and what it is capable of here on the forum recently. I thought that I would share my experiences for the curious.

The only mods that the TJ has are H&R springs, Bilstein 5100 shocks and 31x10.50 KO2's. The TJ weighs in at 3,300#'s ready to roll out into the woods. It's been loaded up to around 4,200#'s, but the performance is pretty much the same, though you do notice the extra weight on the freeway.

I mostly run logging roads, FS and BLM access roads, skid trails and the like. It gets run back and forth to work four days a week, but that's only a mile, so it's not significant. It is my daily driver rig. Once in awhile, it gets to eat a little sand.

The biggest thing I've noticed is that I've had to adjust when and where I shift to a lower gear. It's not as quick as when it had the 215/75's on it, but it's not horrible. I just carry about 500 more RPM and shift a little later to compensate. You get used to thinking about where your torque peak is going up hills, and selecting the gear that keeps you there before you get on the hill. For general use, this is a completely usable setup for around here. The gas mileage hasn't even suffered.

Now, about off road. I have run into exactly one time where the 2.5, 5 speed and 4.10/4.11 gears have bitten me in the butt. That was on a very tight skid trail going up hill at about a 40° angle. There's a lot of that around here. The trail surface was dry dirt with the usual imperfections. These trails have to be driven slowly to dodge the trees, brush and holes. By slowly, I mean around a walking pace. The SE just doesn't have the torque down low to do that in high range. It just stalls out. Put it into 4-Lo and it's reasonably good to go.

 

[Jerry Bransford]

I have run into exactly one time where the 2.5, 5 speed and 4.10/4.11 gears have bitten me in the butt. That was on a very tight skid trail going up hill at about a 40° angle. There's a lot of that around here. The trail surface was dry dirt with the usual imperfections. These trails have to be driven slowly to dodge the trees, brush and holes. By slowly, I mean around a walking pace. The SE just doesn't have the torque down low to do that in high range. It just stalls out. Put it into 4-Lo and it's reasonably good to go.

Keep in mind that few offroad trails that aren't easy enough to drive in 2WD can be successfully driven in 4Hi either. If it's tough enough to require 4x4, it usually requires 4Lo.

My 4Hi setting has probably been used less than a dozen times in 20 years and that was only when I was trying to fly through soft sand to avoid digging in and when driving on snow-covered streets. If I'm in 4x4, it will nearly always be 4Lo and if I have to climb up a hill it will always be in 4Lo. And that's even with my 4.0L engine.

There are only some situations where I'll use 4Hi and those are confined to where I need to keep my speed up to avoid digging down into something like soft sand or mud. Or if I was driving on a snow or ice covered road.

In a Wrangler with its part-time 4x4 system, 4Hi will rarely be the right 4x4 mode when offroad. At least in my personal experience.

 

[Chris]

Only time I ever use 4Hi is when I am going through the mountain passes on the packed snow roads. The speed is 55 mph (though I'm usually going around 45 mph) which is obviously too fast for 4Lo.

Other than that though, I use 4Lo for everything else!

 

[StG58]

That's pretty much been my experience as well in the TJ. Not so much in my various trucks over the years, but all of them have had gobs of torque down low. And really deep gears in first or an automatic transmission. It would be nice to have low range in 2wd in the TJ. There's been lots of times where I didn't need 4 wheel drive, but I would've liked the lower gearing of 4Lo for a little bit. Oh well, it works the way it is.

 

[Chris]

I agree that there are times that a 2Lo might be nice!

 

[derekmac]

I generally only use 4Hi on some of the pipeline trails, as they're pretty flat mostly, but can have long muddy sections where you need wheel speed to get through. Sometimes the 4:1 in the Rubi is just too low for general trail riding I find. I love it in the more technical spot though!

 

[Rob5589]

Dang 58, we nearly have twins and the same usage. Mine has Moog coils and RS 5000x's, 31's and 3.73's. And I use it for the same kind of stuff. Mostly to get me back as far as possible before heading out on foot.

The one downside I found was the 3.73 can be not quite low enough but 4lo is too low unless shifting to say 3rd. A 4.30 or so would be ideal with 4.56 being close enough. I have the 6 spd, with 6th being useless currently, so a 4.56 with 31's would work.

I climbed some pretty nasty stuff in Idaho couple weeks ago (scared the crap out of my buddy) and was only stopped once on a steep, rutted, muddy trail. This is with open diffs, Truetracs or better would have gotten me all the way.

I did scrape the skid couple times when the ruts were real deep leading me to find a more "tucked" replacement.

Overall though, I have no real complaints on or off road with the 2.4. TT's front and rear, a low pro skid, and I will be set. Well, maybe some 4.56's too since I can

 

[Ahoragi]

There has been some discussion about the SE and what it is capable of here on the forum recently. I thought that I would share my experiences for the curious.

The only mods that the TJ has are H&R springs, Bilstein 5100 shocks and 31x10.50 KO2's. The TJ weighs in at 3,300#'s ready to roll out into the woods. It's been loaded up to around 4,200#'s, but the performance is pretty much the same, though you do notice the extra weight on the freeway.

I mostly run logging roads, FS and BLM access roads, skid trails and the like. It gets run back and forth to work four days a week, but that's only a mile, so it's not significant. It is my daily driver rig. Once in awhile, it gets to eat a little sand.

The biggest thing I've noticed is that I've had to adjust when and where I shift to a lower gear. It's not as quick as when it had the 215/75's on it, but it's not horrible. I just carry about 500 more RPM and shift a little later to compensate. You get used to thinking about where your torque peak is going up hills, and selecting the gear that keeps you there before you get on the hill. For general use, this is a completely usable setup for around here. The gas mileage hasn't even suffered.

Now, about off road. I have run into exactly one time where the 2.5, 5 speed and 4.10/4.11 gears have bitten me in the butt. That was on a very tight skid trail going up hill at about a 40° angle. There's a lot of that around here. The trail surface was dry dirt with the usual imperfections. These trails have to be driven slowly to dodge the trees, brush and holes. By slowly, I mean around a walking pace. The SE just doesn't have the torque down low to do that in high range. It just stalls out. Put it into 4-Lo and it's reasonably good to go.

Pretty much my experience to the dot. Same lift, tire size, and jeep model. I always use 4-low unless it's snowing and requires 4x4 on the road.

I haven't loaded it up past 4k lbs yet though.

 

[Stinger]

I am with Jerry. 4 hi was only for snow or sand where speed was a factor to maintain momentum.

 

[fljeeper]

Speaking of 4 low, are there limits on how fast you can run in 4 low other than redlining the motor?

 

[Stinger]

I instaled a tea flex kit in an old TC and the kit came with a warning about extended higher speed running in low. In short they said dont! That was explained by showing the speed each gear was spinning at speed. I have not seen same warning on factory tc or my Atlas but I would say the rational would transfer. I try not to scream along in low!!!!

 

[StG58]

Dang 58, we nearly have twins and the same usage. Mine has Moog coils and RS 5000x's, 31's and 3.73's. And I use it for the same kind of stuff. Mostly to get me back as far as possible before heading out on foot.

The one downside I found was the 3.73 can be not quite low enough but 4lo is too low unless shifting to say 3rd. A 4.30 or so would be ideal with 4.56 being close enough. I have the 6 spd, with 6th being useless currently, so a 4.56 with 31's would work.

I climbed some pretty nasty stuff in Idaho couple weeks ago (scared the crap out of my buddy) and was only stopped once on a steep, rutted, muddy trail. This is with open diffs, Truetracs or better would have gotten me all the way.

I dig scrape the skid couple times when the ruts were real deep leading me to find a more "tucked" replacement.

Overall though, I have no real complaints on or off road with the 2.4. TT's front and rear, a low pro skid, and I will be set. Well, maybe some 4.56's too since I can

There's a few of us around here that run the four bangers for various reasons. The SE's seem to work out pretty well using them on FS roads, skid trails and the like. I've been preaching keep the weight down, the tire size reasonable and regear to get your performance back.

I drove almost 200 miles to another State to pick mine up. It was almost exactly what I was looking for, with the exception of having air conditioning. The little SE is coming together rather nicely, and is doing just what I wanted it to. i wouldn't recommend it for everyone, but it's perfect for a few.

Pretty much my experience to the dot. Same lift, tire size, and jeep model. I always use 4-low unless it's snowing and requires 4x4 on the road.

I haven't loaded it up past 4k lbs yet though.

...another happy SE owner! These things do like a small lift and 31" tires, don't they? No issues with having "only" a Dana 30/35, the AX5 works reasonable well, once you get the quirks figured out and you're not having to constantly fix all the fiddly stuff that goes bad or breaks. That's the main reason I got my SE. They are really basic. You can't break something that isn't there. Plus it's lighter weight. No one really wants the parts, because Dana 44 & etc. You can find parts pretty cheap. There are fewer parts to the engine, fewer plugs, shorter wires, less oil, more room under the hood.

There's lots of stuff that an SE just can't do, but since I don't do those things it's a good match.