Jeep Wrangler help

[samwichse]

Originally Posted by Sean.Heihn

The best way to save on gas would be to get a small car for commuting and save the 4x4 for off-roading/mudding/rock crawling. My brother has two wranglers, a 91 or 92 (I know it has a carb) and a 95 or 96, with EFI. He bought the newer one because he couldn't get the older one to run reliably with the carb. What he should have done was buy a car, since he commutes to work/school, and worked on his first Jeep to use for off-roading, which he only gets to do occasionally.

Best thing to do though is slow down, it's an all terrain vehicle not a sports car.

This right here.

[mallrat]

A big ol' airdam under the front bumper can be fabbed up pretty cheap. I built mine out of angle iron and a couple layers of plastic semitruck mudflaps. Make sure it reaches to the bottom of the front axle and spans to at least the midpoint of the front tires, that'll keep most of the air from going under the jeep to begin with. Helped quite a bit on my Dodge anyway.

[mallrat]

In the end I went with getting an economy car for commuting and relegated the truck to playing in the mud and hauling stuff, but understand that's not always practical. Extra parking space, insurance policy, license plate, etc., etc.

[Fazer600]

This is an interesting discussion for me. What have you chosen to do? I would think an extra set of "road tires" would be worth the investment. Much improved fuel mileage, and keep the aggressive ones for use on an adventure. I found a link to an exercise FourWheeler magazine did on lightening a jeep. They shaved over 1,000 pounds. That has to help!

Jeff

[Goldenstate]

A friend of mine recently installed a Magnaflow exhaust system on his 1999 Jeep with 6 cylinder engine. He also went from 10 inch tires to 7 inch wide tires. Next came synthetic oil in the engine, transfer case and both differentials. I believe he used Royal Purple lubricants. He was hoping for 3 MPG and was able to gain 5-6 miles per gallon. Not sure what he is going to do next.

[Fazer600]

Originally Posted by Goldenstate

A friend of mine recently installed a Magnaflow exhaust system on his 1999 Jeep with 6 cylinder engine. He also went from 10 inch tires to 7 inch wide tires. Next came synthetic oil in the engine, transfer case and both differentials. I believe he used Royal Purple lubricants. He was hoping for 3 MPG and was able to gain 5-6 miles per gallon. Not sure what he is going to do next.

Good news! Those are easy mods to do, and make sense. I am interested in a Jeep, but also get obsessed with fuel mileage. These are mods that one would do anyway. Thanks for the tips.

[Ecky]

Remember that 1mpg in a vehicle that's currently getting 12mpg is worth a whole lot more than in a vehicle getting 30+.

Most jeep drivers with offroad tires are probably not driving as much as the average American, but a 6mpg gain from 12 would be worth over $1500 per year in gas, which is close to twice my total gas costs. I'd actually need to be paid twice for every gallon I burn to have as much return in my car as a Jeep saving 6mpg saves.

[adam728]

Originally Posted by Goldenstate

A friend of mine recently installed a Magnaflow exhaust system on his 1999 Jeep with 6 cylinder engine. He also went from 10 inch tires to 7 inch wide tires. Next came synthetic oil in the engine, transfer case and both differentials. I believe he used Royal Purple lubricants. He was hoping for 3 MPG and was able to gain 5-6 miles per gallon. Not sure what he is going to do next.

Did he go with significantly shorter tires as well and not recalculate the speedometer/odometer/trip changes?

I had a 2001 Wrangler with the 4.0 straight six. I can say adding an intake did about 0.3 mpg better, but at the same time we were going from winter to summer gas, so a gain was expected. I later added a Magnaflow cat-back, and switched diffs and engine to Mobile1, neither which netted a gain (and for a while I was driving 204 miles every day round trip for work). Transfercase and transmission were already synthetic from the factory, and replaced with the same quite often as a preventative maintenance (lots of towing, lots of off roading, occasional questionable water depth).