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Renegade TH vs 97 TJ

3K views 8 replies 4 participants last post by  erkmadhatter 
#1 ·
So my brother and I go to Hidden Falls off road park pretty regularly and we were there again today. Found a giant mud puddle and ran the Renegade through it. Barely made it, this was the some soupy devil bat-**** mud and i really had to throttle it out and keep up the momentum. Now the story gets good! My brother tried to go through the same mud in his 1997 TJ Wrangler (factory on 30's with NO lockers) and sure enough the open diff couldn't cut it...he got stuck bad and next thing you know I was digging out my rugged ridge 30ft tow strap... We have that brotherly competition going on and I can tell you it will be a long time before he lives this one down!!
 
#2 ·
What kind of tires. I've made it through a small mud hole with a 2wd XJ while a crappy base jk with shityears 225/75/16s slide to a stop. I had Yoko ATS ?

I was gonna see if y'all were going out there tomorrow, but I'm not gonna be able to do it after all.
 
#3 ·
He has 30inch Wrangler AT... And I have the 28.5 BFG KO2's...slightly smaller but def a more aggressive tread pattern. The main thing was the brake-loc diff saved my life, I was in mud mode in 4 low and was able to paddle out. His open diff Wrangler (no lockers) was just stuck spinning one back and one front tire... I will admit it's very rare to see a 20 year old Wrangler that isn't tricked out with front and rear electronic or air lockers...so not bashing Wranglers or saying the Renegade is more capable, this was just a small personal victory!
 
#4 ·
Yea, tech makes a big difference now a days. Back in the day I had a 95 ZJ 4.0. Saw a H1 high center on a pretty large hill. I crawled up and over and he was staring in amazement. I had 31s and stock everything. I just told him, tire placement and traction makes a big deal and kept going ?

Tires are such a huge part, but the TH's tech is definitely a massive help for our small tires ?
 
#6 ·
Now i feel bad because we are having some issues with his Wrangler. Got some water/mud in the oil pan from sitting submerged. It reads 0 oil pressure now. Did a emergency oil change there at the off road park. Changed the oil pressure sensor and oil pump when we got home, seems to build pressure at start then slowly drop off. IDK what's going on, gonna try to help him fix it today.
 
#8 ·
For all those who use the 4Low setting on the TH you can also manually shift the transmission into 1st gear and you effectively have "4Low." Since the Renegade uses a brake lock differential there is no physical rear locker to engage. The 4Low setting just enables first gear in auto mode.

Awesome to hear that you out drove a wrangler! Though a seemingly small victory, it is a victory none the less!
 
#9 · (Edited)
Thanks to all for the responses! @ksminiman - common misconception is that the 4Low is just first gear. The Select-Trac system actually modifies quite a few things when you change modes (Auto, Sand, Snow, Mud, Rock) including throttle response and rev characteristics, front to rear torque bias, electronic traction control, and transmission shift points. While 4Low does allow you to access Rock mode and gives you that 20:1 ratio (actually 20.41:1)....4Low also has some added features. The main 2 things other than "1st gear" that 4Low does for you are that the electronic traction control is fully disabled in 4Low and the Brake-Loc differential is set to a more aggressive tune (both of these 4Low features seem to work in all modes, not just Rock). The main thing is that 4.71 first gear combined with a 4.33 final drive for the crawl ratio...but the other features do help (I know from experience!) Hope this helps anyone who may be confused about when to use 4Low and what all it does!
 
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