I am still loving my JL after about 4 months. To recap, I bought the Rubicon with the 35x12.5"s and the 4" lift kit. Mine is the 2.0 L. The only really interesting thing I can report is that I can get about 18.5 city out of it if I am gentle on the pedal, but it gets abysmal highway mileage. Whatever it is about the lift and the larger tires, I get about 12 highway. If there is a head wind, plan on about 10. I just really don't ever drive it on the highway or need to, so not a big deal but pretty surprising anyway.
After a long time waiting I just bought and installed the tuffy tailgate lock box in my JL.
I'm going to wipe it all down and give the inside of this a quick spray with some kind of a rubber coating. Just enough to keep anything from sliding around or rattling. I'm going to have some fun playing around with what all I can pack away in there.
Before I lost it in a boating accident, I easily fit my Tavor in there, with plenty of mags, even in a case. I'm sure an AR carbine would fit easily in there. Of course, my tennis racket, which just so happens to be the size of a Tavor, (what a coincidence!) is shown in the pic below.
I used Harbor Freight tool drawer liner in mine. I like your idea of rubber coating, too. I think it would do a better job than the liner of preventing rattles, but the liner does well.
Hmmmm.... okay that is good info. On my drive this morning, which is 55 miles, I played with it a little and I couldn't nurse more than about 17.6-17.7 out of it at 70mph. Any faster at all and the mpg fell considerably. Seemed like about 1mpg per mph above 70! At 60mph I was getting 17.8-17.9. I am pretty pleased with its city mileage, coming from a Tundra that got about 12 mpg, but I did expect more out of the I4 hybrid. I will have to get it in.That's a surprise. I'm running 315's (KO2's), so they are not too far off of 35x12.5's and I have gotten 21 to 21.5 between 65 and 70mph. At above 70, it drops off, but only into the 19's. I'm running the V6 and manual transmission.
I'd take have the dealer run a diagnostic. That 4 is supposed to be a little more fuel efficient than the 6. I don't think I dropped below 15 with a strong headwind most of the way to Moab. By strong, I mean really strong. In the mountains I still didn't drop below 15.
Personal opinion........ get a 3.6, or get a TJ with a 4.0L
The 3.8 in my 2010 JKU has been fine, but it really needs more power.
After watching that, I'm wondering exactly how the TJ supposedly has 50% more capability than the JK? I ain't buyin' that. I've wheeled many times in my JK with TJs and didn't see anything they could do that the JK couldn't, other than squeeze through some trees to narrow for the JK.
Cool video!
You can save 1/2 of your purchase price and get way more than half the capability of a JK.
I may have phrased what I was trying to say poorly, but please read it again:
So... Trying again: For 1/2 dollars you get much more than 1/2 a JK. A JK isn't twice as good as a TJ, but it costs a lot more. That's all I was saying.
It also wasn't intended to be controversial in any way at all. I'm partial to my TJ, and most guys are partial to what they have, but I know that JKs are an overall upgrade in capability.
I will say, perhaps controversially, that any TJ and up quite possibly is twice as good as a their older leaf spring brothers. The suspension technology took a massive leap between YJs and TJs. I look at the JK as a smaller evolution, but still an upgrade. The newest generation is probably more of the same, but they're so ugly I don't even think about them.