Good-Bye Jeep Liberty! WELCOME BACK JEEP CHEROKEE!

gsxr750

Its not really a true off road vehicle, your still better off with a CJ style jeep or a short wheel base SUV or pickup for off road use.

The new cross over style 4x4's are very limited in their off road abilities, their basically limited to lightly snowed covered or mildly muddy seasonal roads.

Red__Zed

Has 4l and good approach angles. It should be perfectly capable, but then again most vehicles are far more capable than most people realize. I can take a jeep liberty on most trails without much issue (though the front and rear bumpers might develop some character.

Folks get caught up in equipment when the key is really driving style. If the center diff locks and you can get into 4l, it's amazing what you can accomplish.

This car certainly isn't a wrangler, but it's capable of handling far more than snow and mud.

gsxr750

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.

Red__Zed

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.

UNKNOWN_370

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

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Red__Zed

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.

UNKNOWN_370

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.

I'm a sports car guy by nature. lol

__________________
Favorite Quote.
"I'm not gonna kill you... I'm just gonna Bash Your Face In" Jack Nicholson-"The Shining". 1980