2008 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon - 4x4 Torture Test Comparison - video Dailymotion

Truck Trend Editor Mark Williams takes a look at the old-school entry in our 4x4 torture test: the 2008 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon.

Transcript

00:00 [Music]

00:17 Next in our competition is a new Wrangler Rubicon.

00:20 This is the vehicle that most people think about when they think extreme trail capability.

00:26 And this vehicle is no different.

00:27 It starts off with a 3.8 liter V6, 202 horsepower, 237 foot pounds of torque,

00:34 which doesn't sound like much.

00:36 In fact, in this competition, it has the least horsepower and least torque of any vehicle here.

00:41 But what it lacks in power, it makes up for in gearing.

00:44 It has a transfer case with a super low 4 to 1 gear ratio

00:49 that allows it, in combination with the axle and the transmission,

00:53 to crawl up things like a billy goat.

00:55 And that's exactly what we saw.

00:56 This thing do on all the trails that we took it on, the sand dunes that we were on,

01:01 and a lot of the pavement drives that we were on.

01:03 We didn't use the low range for that, but even on the pavement, this vehicle did very well.

01:08 It's a short wheel base. It's nice and light.

01:10 It has a very good power to weight ratio.

01:12 However, working against it, mud terrain tires.

01:16 It has big, aggressive treads.

01:18 It allows it to wander a little bit on the roads.

01:20 This vehicle, it typically is prone to do a little bit of wander.

01:24 We've had some high winds during some of our competition,

01:26 which had this vehicle making the driver a little bit nervous in certain sections.

01:31 As far as the four-wheel drive system goes, very traditional setup.

01:35 Live axles, coil springs, front and rear locking differentials.

01:40 Just a push of a button gives you a front or a rear locking differential.

01:43 Also has a push button sway bar disconnect.

01:48 Relaxes that front sway bar, allows the front axle to bend in any direction that it needs to,

01:53 given the terrain, and allows it to crawl up basically any kind of obstacle you might have in front of you.

01:59 Against the other vehicles in the competition, this is maybe one of my favorites because it's so old school.

02:05 But we've got a lot of new school technology going on here as well too.

02:09 So we'll have to see and watch how it does against the other competitors.

02:13 [Music]