Where do you put the winch and I'd hate to see what one would look like after trying to keep up with some real off road vehicles, and I mean real off roadiing rocks, mud, fallen trees.

Not the occasional trek down a seasonal road or some western gravel road.

For real off roading you need a high ground clearance, good undercarriage protection, and a winch on the front and rear of the vehicle.

That's why a lot of ppl have given up on off road 4x4's and went to a good ATV, as it makes more sense and you use the truck or suv as a hauler and base camp.

Ground clearance isn't bad, and there's very little undercarriage protection on any factory offroad vehicles. There's also nowhere to mount a winch on a new Wrangler. Anything you buy new requires significant aftermarket attention before taking on a real trail. It appears they are stamping it with the trail-rated badge, which does mean they traipsed the Rubicon trail in factory garb...which does say something.

My point isn't that it's super capable, but not far off from most factory vehicles. I'd not purchase one, but I there's no trail I'd take a new Wrangler one that I'd hesitate to forge with the new Cherokee (at least based on the currently available information)

I am curious why you believe you need two winches, though. That's new to me.


ATVs are fun offroad, but the capability is totally different. There's not enough wheelbase to make it through something like Moab, and they're not much of a challenge on many other trails.

IDK, a Jeep Wrangler which is RWD vehicle 99% of the time is better in rain or light snow then a FJ cruiser with a Full Time AWD system? Which means a computer is deciding how much power and where to send it at all times. Its the same AWD system used on the very capable 4Runner, and then of course you still have a low range just like a Wrangler. I love the Wrangler but the FJ seems like more bang for the buck.

Never said that, but you really don't gain much from 4wd in said conditions


Just make sure you understand the trade-offs of the all time triple Torsen arrangement.

From the looks of this video of it in motion... The 2014 Cherokee seems to be holding up in typical Texas terrain just fine. We all know it's no wrangler, but this cherokee is no slouch either. Which gives it a certain bang-for-buck value factor from a roll off the lot 4x4 perspective.


2014 Jeep Cherokee Revealed Off Road - YouTube

I don't think I will do anything as extreme as this stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=z3wOo1b50i8

Where's the extreme stuff? I didn't watch the whole thing but most of that could be done in an Impreza.


EDIT: holy balls at the moguls in the second video.

You don't gain much from all wheels being powered in the Rain or light snow or other situations where a Part Time system can not be engaged? Isn't that the whole reasoning behind Subaru's and why they are so good?

My Subaru was great in snow because I was still dogging it, but from a "get to point B" perspective, my Mustang was essentially as good--actually better in deep snow due to increased ground clearance.

The limiting factor is almost always your ability to stop and turn, and very rarely your ability to get moving.

If the snow is deep enough that you can't get going in a Wrangler, you can take half a second to switch to 4 Hi (and likely skip it and go straight to 4lo)

When I opened this thread. I didn't think the cherokee was going to be an extreme vehicle from jump. Just more capable of rock climbs than it used to be. The one thing i stressed was rock climbing capaility has improved. I never said extreme terrain. the extreme is in the second vid.

You guys, the experts took it to the next level.:tup:

I'm a sports car guy by nature. lol

So the FJ is a Subaru with great ground clearance and a Low range for the really nasty stuff. Win Win in my eyes. It just gets horrible gas mileage.

not really. The FJ has Torsen's F/R and L/R.

You should probably do your own research before buying. If you have a 55 mile commute I'd take a careful look at what you need and what conditions you expect to encounter.

For serious off roading the rear wench is essential, there are often times you can't go forwards anymore and the front mounted wench is useless, if you need to be pulled out from the rear and turn around and go back the way you came.

Here is a link on front and rear wench discussion

Front vs Rear mounting winch - Pirate4x4.Com : 4x4 and Off-Road Forum

My point is that if all you want is a vehicle that is capable of handling a up to 5-10 inches of light snow or just a drive up ice or snow covered drive way , then any AWD car or SUV should cover that.

But when your talking driving off road its a completely different beast, I grew up in western new York, where you have a lot of snow and a lot of muddy trails early in the season and have talked and experienced enough tough trails on my own, where even the winch wouldn't get you out and you had to pay a farmer with a tractor or even a contractor with a bulldozer to pull the 4 x 4 out.

What I have learned and many other friends is that if you can't get to a simple location by a normal car, then its time to get out the snowshoes, horse, atv or snowmobile. Simply leave the car at the main road and use another source of transport.

A rear winch is certainly nice to have, but far from a must-have. If you're stuck enough to need a winch from the back, you deserve to waste a few minutes moving a front winch to the rear mount.

Tackling any serious offroading alone is a terrible decision anyways. You should always have someone out there with you. I'd never tackle any of the real trails without some backup.


Got any pics of your wheeling?

:iagree:

:worthless:

Wish I could change the thread title. It's slightly off topic, but this is the actual thread I should have started... :tup: This turned out to be an awesome thread. Learning a lot here. I may slowly and eventually evolve to this level of off-roading???

I don't care what the setup is, AWD is better the RWD in the rain snow etc. The FJ is not going to be my primary commuter I still have a Versa for that but my new job requires me to be at work no matter what the weather conditions are so that's why I want a truck, my GF will use the truck most of the time until I need it. Oh and you should have stop by LI this past winter and seen how well they cleaned the roads and your comments about LI not getting a lot of snow and having cleared roads would not be happening.

Here is a link to some good examples of being stuck with the 4x4 it illustrates why you really need a beater for it,

The best way to get your truck unstuck out of mud? - Page 2 - Tacoma World Forums

Did most of my off roading during the late 70's and early 80's , we were stuck with only Kodak 110's and 35mm cameras, and on $120-$150 pay check back then you didn't waste much money on pictures, 10 pics with film and developing ran easily $20 back then. Pics were for holidays and special parties and get togethers, not like it is today.

What about the rear winch being "mandatory?"

Look at the pics of the long bed ford 4x4 stuck in the mud , it isn't going forward and read the post in the link, they will even tell you that even a winch wouldn't get the 4x4 out when its held in place by the mud suction and you have to put constant tension on the cable and let it sit for hrs. waiting for it to break it self loose.

I gave up on the off roading after a idiot friend of mine destroyed his newly restored 79 blaser K5 after driving it in a land fill and he got it barried in the mud and destroyed the engine and the tranny, due to a carpet getting wrapped around the drive shaft. He basically gave the truck away to the owner of the land fill, as he faced big legal problems with getting it out.

The idiot just lost a $10k restored custom truck, my last 4x4 was a Chevy K20 short wheel base , with a front winch , brush guards, skid plates and good mud/snow tires, 4 inch lift.

After burying my K20 once up to the axles and have to dig a trench for a oak log to bury and attach the wench cable to and 6hrs of back breaking work in 40 degree weather, I said F this crap. Stick with the ATV, dirt bike or snowmobile. If I had a rear winch I could have attached it to a tree behind me.

Also when your buried in mud up to both bumpers and your boots are getting sucked off your feet with every step, do you really think your going want to dig out the front wench and transfer it to the buried rear bumper to attach it. A moveable wench would work fine in a dry or desert situation , but not in the mud and snow or really rocky terrain .



The other issue was having to pay $13,500 financed at 13% interest for 5 yrs. for vehicles back then and you destroying it in the mud or rocks.

If your determined to go off roading in a 4x4 your really better off with a used 4x4 ranger, s10 or jeep wrangler etc. and setting it up as an off road beater.

so because a winch won't help, I should have two?

You need other vehicles, not more winches attached to your own.




No one is disputing that old and cheap is a better way to go. If you'd read the thread you would probably have seen that mentioned by me a couple of times.

A secondary winch, however, sits way down on the list of "wants." Most of the time when you're stuck in deep mud, you can't operate a winch attached to your vehicle anyways, so you're working the uphill one instead.

:iagree: Yeah.the first thing you told me is any serious off-roading I do, I'm better off with an older body-on chassis than these new Jeeps with unibodies.