So my buddy up and decided he is buying a 2013 Rubicon. I say this because he is not a car guy nor has he ever off roaded. I think he may have caught the bug from me having the disco. My question is how will my disco with CDL, TC, HDC, 2" lift (in the mail), and TW guard dogs 265/75/16 hold up against a shiny new 2 door rubi? He is constantly joking on the rover because, well it's a Rover (always something), but I just bought it and am working out the kinks (as we all do). The kinks are all nearly worked out, and should be by next weekend. So can my total investment of $6500 keep up with a $35k rubi? I'm guessing his lack of off road driving experience alone will put him at a disadvantage.

 

Haha.. HDC is not going to help you... Hate to say it but that '13 rubicon is proabably going to eat your truck for lunch. Don't know much about the 13s, but the rubicons for the past decade or so have been coming with air locking diffs and a better approach/departure angle than the DII. You'll see though.

 

Traction wise, with lockers, his Jeep will do better. Nobody will argue that lockers will climb better than reactionary brake control traction. That's why they make ARBs for the Disco axles. A 2" spacer lift and the JKs will fit 35" tires.

Now... Let's talk reality. Put $10k into your discovery. For that money, you can buy lockers, lift, tires/rims, regear and armor. You'll be about HALF of his pricetag.

ARBs are better than any factory Jeep locker. The factory airlockers won't hold up once they've been abused with larger tires. Great for a weekender, and light wheeling, but in the end, they'll be replacing theirs as well.

And then, there's the reason I'm on this forum. No matter what I did to my Jeep - It was still, just... another Jeep. I've never been a big fan of the "me too" club. I will never argue that they're a fully capable platform, but when you're on a trail with a club run, and when there's 10 other jeeps that have signed up... It's a little less exciting to be the 11th jeep.

Dave

 

Agreed, I really dislike Jeeps. My cousin is a huge Heep lover. I posted a photo of my broken diff on Facebook and he comments, "time to get a Jeep!".

I'd rather push a Rover than drive a Jeep.

 

2013 Jeeps are having cylinder head problems with new penstar engines. Some new owners are having there Jeeps sitting at the dealerships for weeks waiting for parts. Almost sound like rover engines.

 

As mentioned the Rubi will smoke you. But its nothing to get upset about.
Let's see, a '04 DII is about $6000 used. Drop another $10,000 into it and you'll just as capable as his Rubi, but you'll still have leather interior, heated, seats, and a LOT of cargo area. So now you're at ~$16,000. A new Rubi has got to be about $40,000. Ask him what he plans to do with HIS extra $24,000.....oh wait.

 

Jeeps are terrible. When I go to the auctions to drive and evaluate potential purchases, Jeeps ALWAYS have issues, and its not simple things. The usual thing is, engine knock, the front end feels like its going to fall off, differential noise, auto diff locker stuck and cannot turn the rig, transmission slips, engine blowing white or blue smoke. I went driving this 04 cherokee not long ago and when I came back to park it, my business partner thought the thing had caught on fire because it was blowing so much smoke. Land Rovers, seem no worse than most of the other cars there... A few dash lights, but they otherwise run and drive fine. I always thought Jeeps were more reliable than LRs, but yeah... nope lol.

 

these new jeeps SUCK, yes yes, they come with more standard off road equipment. So what. they are built like pieces of SH@T. As far as the true off road capacity... well My feeling is that a well built, well maintained rover will be able to handle all or more than a jeep. One thing I have always been impressed with is the raw capacity of a rover. a combination of the weight and its distribution allows these trucks to handle far greater off road terrain than a factory jeep. When driven with skill. Jeeps are light in comparison. sometimes you need the extra mechanical traction that jeeps have to offset the lighter weight. Plus as others have said. for a fraction of the cost of a new rubicon you can custom build a rover that will do things a jeep owner will need you to be there to drag their asses out of. I have done photo work at the testing facility for CHrysler and after being there photographing and listening to the engineers I WILL NEVER BUY a jeep product.

 

The key feature of the Jeep is the deep aftermarket.

Stock for stock, a Rubicon model has a couple advantages offroad like the lockers, the angles, and better flex from the four-link front-end versus the Land Rover's radius arms. Normally a Land Rover's rear-end flexes very well, but the Discovery 2 forsook the a-arm for rear radius arms and a watts link (better on-road but less flex). In stock form the key advantage of the Discovery II is far better on-road comfort provided it's in good running shape (it has the disadvantage of being 10 years old).

But when you start modifying the vehicles, a new Jeep continues to be much more expensive but the sky is the limit for bolt-ons. With the Land Rover, you can do a 2 or 3" lift, 33's, bumpers and lockers and then you're done. Anything more than that and you're going totally custom and you have to solve all the problems yourself. There's no kit. This makes a huge difference if you're going to put more than $50k into the car. Yeah you can do a lot to the Discovery for $10k but then you're stuck at the frontier. A handful of people have done extensive builds with a feature list that will match anything, but it's nothing like the Jeep where you can just check boxes out of numerous catalogs.

For a typical build-up with just lockers, lift and tires, the Jeep's big advantage is tire size. It's a lot easier to get 35's or 37's on the Jeep. A lot of people will just lift it and put them on. You really need to sleeve the front housing for 37's though.

It's true that the Jeep buyer needs far more cash up front for the purchase, but they have good resale value. Once they get tired of the Jeep as a daily-driver, they can sell it and get almost all their money back. The Discovery owner pays as they go.

 

Well I wonder if I should warn him about these Jeeps. I mean it will be under warranty for awhile, so it shouldn't be a huge issue. He won't do any mods to it, especially if it affects warranty, so stock to my slightly modified I think will do well. I also have a front bumper delete so my approach angles are better than a rubi for now.