jewishoverlander
Member
Hi guys. Newbie here. Ill try to give a lot of info and try to be concise to help you give me the best advice in the shortest amount of time. I read through some threads and saw people asking questions. Trying to give as much info without rambling.
A) For now I am excluding trucks. I want to DD as said below and I live in LA. I dont want to DD a truck. No offense to anybody but I just am not a truck guy unless its a 2nd car and I have a DD that I enjoy day to day.
B) Will likely DD whatever platform I choose for a year or two, but I dont drive a lot. I average less than 5k miles right now a year in "DD miles".
1) Rock crawling is NOT my priority
2) That being said, I do want to be very capable. I would want to do majority of trails with my JLU buddy and a trail to almost never limit my route on overlanding unless the trail is for the sake of being a rock crawling trail. But lets say I am doing a multi-day/week trek somewhere, Id like to be able to choose 99.9% of routes and if I run into something I cant go around, Ill be able to do it at last resort. I expect my car to have 33s or 34s, not in the 35+ crowed (unless I go JKU/JLU maybe ill do 35s)
3) I want to be able to keep great on-road manners . This is important for me. It doesnt need to be a 10/10 luxury ride, I have drove stiff cars most of my life. So I have pretty good tolerance but knowing I will be driving high miles on tarmac to get to other states to do specific routes or destinations. ON-road and also gravel/dirt road manners are important to me. I dont need a 10/10 but I want to be in good comfort. I also would like satisfactory gravel/dirt road speed comfort.
4) MPG is important to me, but its not the end all be all. My main concern with MPG isnt the $ that comes from it, but the literal range and the weight that might come with having enough range. You guys can help me out with what a true appropriate range is. I was thinking 400mi range including extra gas, which hopefully isnt going to ruin my payload. (for any super specific location, I could buy extra plastic jugs, driving with extra payload for a few days at a time is w/e IMO)
5) Ultimately, Id like to be able to stay in this platform and eventually use it into INTL overlanding. Id love to do LA down south america. Id love to drive from LA up to Alaska. In the further future Id even enjoy shipping the car to other countries and doing it there.
6) Id like to be as modular as possible. Meaning I can take off my RTT/awning/unpack the drawers in the back etc and be at a decent weight and have a great car to drive in everyday, go surfing, go climbing, driving to a local trailhead, even going grocery shopping. Id like to able throw in a few buddies and camping gear and hit some mild to medium locations. Id like to be able to stick on some armor, throw on my RTT, put a fridge in, etc and go on a 2 month trip. Id like to be able to go wheel all but the insanely hardcore trails. This is another reason I dont like truck + pop-up because its extremely permanent. I expect I will be doing many trips semi-local with multiple friends. Ski trips. Surfing etc Things like that where Id like to have this car available for that, not only for full-time living situations that a truck + popup provides. For now I want flexibility.
As a last note. I understand Im a newbie and dont know what im talking about. I know that theres a significant chance my priorities will change as I really START doing rather than researching this. Maybe Ill decide Im tired of tent camping and rain and Ill ditch a SUV with a RTT and go with a truck + camper. Maybe I'll tow a small trailer with a nice bed in it. Maybe i will start to love hard trails and my focus will turn into more like tackling Rubicon and other trails. So I understand all that. Im doing my best guess and trying not to mess up if I am right. Maybe ill get tired of trails and just want to do vanlife. I get its all possible.
I was mostly considering a JKU and GX470. I had basically decided on the GX470. I started doing some planning and research. This quickly lead me to MPG and payload issues if I truly wanted to be able to do serious over landing for weeks or months later down the road but having the armor/capability to do some wheeling (not rubicon type wheeling). Capability wise, size wise, comfort wise, I think it fits my bill very nicely. What I found it to struggle with my needs is payload and MPG.
JKU lacks in road manners, driver fatigue, cost, and also payload. Yes the JK rides higher and is meant for offroad, but it also loses about 150lbs of payload from the GX. (equivalent of aluminum armor on a GX front/back) so I sort of found myself in the same spot again. JKU/JLU will get significantly better MPG than the GX loaded, which is the main thing making me want to go with the JKU/JLU despite not liking the car as much and end up paying more than double all-in.
From what I can tell on all the forums and FB groups. only about 1% of users care about payload/GWVR and only another 5% actually do extended overlanding. I have no experience to know how much I can push the payload with some simple upgrades to suspension and brakes. Im not trying to be a pig. But I think if I have a buddy with me or a girl, I would likely be 200-300lbs over payload in either the GX470 or a JKU/JLU. I would be more over payload in the GX because the MPG would cause me to carry an extra 20gal compared to probably not needing more than 5 in the JLU.
I hope this thread wasn't too annoying. Im trying my best not to come in with a super repetitive question and trying to make it specific to me and what I'm trying to accomplish.
A) For now I am excluding trucks. I want to DD as said below and I live in LA. I dont want to DD a truck. No offense to anybody but I just am not a truck guy unless its a 2nd car and I have a DD that I enjoy day to day.
B) Will likely DD whatever platform I choose for a year or two, but I dont drive a lot. I average less than 5k miles right now a year in "DD miles".
1) Rock crawling is NOT my priority
2) That being said, I do want to be very capable. I would want to do majority of trails with my JLU buddy and a trail to almost never limit my route on overlanding unless the trail is for the sake of being a rock crawling trail. But lets say I am doing a multi-day/week trek somewhere, Id like to be able to choose 99.9% of routes and if I run into something I cant go around, Ill be able to do it at last resort. I expect my car to have 33s or 34s, not in the 35+ crowed (unless I go JKU/JLU maybe ill do 35s)
3) I want to be able to keep great on-road manners . This is important for me. It doesnt need to be a 10/10 luxury ride, I have drove stiff cars most of my life. So I have pretty good tolerance but knowing I will be driving high miles on tarmac to get to other states to do specific routes or destinations. ON-road and also gravel/dirt road manners are important to me. I dont need a 10/10 but I want to be in good comfort. I also would like satisfactory gravel/dirt road speed comfort.
4) MPG is important to me, but its not the end all be all. My main concern with MPG isnt the $ that comes from it, but the literal range and the weight that might come with having enough range. You guys can help me out with what a true appropriate range is. I was thinking 400mi range including extra gas, which hopefully isnt going to ruin my payload. (for any super specific location, I could buy extra plastic jugs, driving with extra payload for a few days at a time is w/e IMO)
5) Ultimately, Id like to be able to stay in this platform and eventually use it into INTL overlanding. Id love to do LA down south america. Id love to drive from LA up to Alaska. In the further future Id even enjoy shipping the car to other countries and doing it there.
6) Id like to be as modular as possible. Meaning I can take off my RTT/awning/unpack the drawers in the back etc and be at a decent weight and have a great car to drive in everyday, go surfing, go climbing, driving to a local trailhead, even going grocery shopping. Id like to able throw in a few buddies and camping gear and hit some mild to medium locations. Id like to be able to stick on some armor, throw on my RTT, put a fridge in, etc and go on a 2 month trip. Id like to be able to go wheel all but the insanely hardcore trails. This is another reason I dont like truck + pop-up because its extremely permanent. I expect I will be doing many trips semi-local with multiple friends. Ski trips. Surfing etc Things like that where Id like to have this car available for that, not only for full-time living situations that a truck + popup provides. For now I want flexibility.
As a last note. I understand Im a newbie and dont know what im talking about. I know that theres a significant chance my priorities will change as I really START doing rather than researching this. Maybe Ill decide Im tired of tent camping and rain and Ill ditch a SUV with a RTT and go with a truck + camper. Maybe I'll tow a small trailer with a nice bed in it. Maybe i will start to love hard trails and my focus will turn into more like tackling Rubicon and other trails. So I understand all that. Im doing my best guess and trying not to mess up if I am right. Maybe ill get tired of trails and just want to do vanlife. I get its all possible.
I was mostly considering a JKU and GX470. I had basically decided on the GX470. I started doing some planning and research. This quickly lead me to MPG and payload issues if I truly wanted to be able to do serious over landing for weeks or months later down the road but having the armor/capability to do some wheeling (not rubicon type wheeling). Capability wise, size wise, comfort wise, I think it fits my bill very nicely. What I found it to struggle with my needs is payload and MPG.
JKU lacks in road manners, driver fatigue, cost, and also payload. Yes the JK rides higher and is meant for offroad, but it also loses about 150lbs of payload from the GX. (equivalent of aluminum armor on a GX front/back) so I sort of found myself in the same spot again. JKU/JLU will get significantly better MPG than the GX loaded, which is the main thing making me want to go with the JKU/JLU despite not liking the car as much and end up paying more than double all-in.
From what I can tell on all the forums and FB groups. only about 1% of users care about payload/GWVR and only another 5% actually do extended overlanding. I have no experience to know how much I can push the payload with some simple upgrades to suspension and brakes. Im not trying to be a pig. But I think if I have a buddy with me or a girl, I would likely be 200-300lbs over payload in either the GX470 or a JKU/JLU. I would be more over payload in the GX because the MPG would cause me to carry an extra 20gal compared to probably not needing more than 5 in the JLU.
I hope this thread wasn't too annoying. Im trying my best not to come in with a super repetitive question and trying to make it specific to me and what I'm trying to accomplish.
