Jeep Wrangler Rubicon is one of the most capable 4x4s ever: we get it stuck

Tuesday, 3 December 2019

The Jeep Wrangler Rubicon is extremely capable in the rough stuff. So, of course, we got it stuck...

**JEEP WRANGLER UNLIMITED RUBICON

Base price:** $92,990.

Powertrain and performance: 3.6-litre petrol V6, 209kW/347Nm, 8-speed automatic, part-time 4WD with low-range transfer, fuel economy 10.3 litres per 100km, 239g/km (source: Jeep).

The Jeep Wrangler Rubicon is one of the most effortlessly capable 4x4s straight off the showroom floor.

Vital statistics: 4882mm long, 1848mm high, 3008mm wheelbase, 17-inch alloy wheels with 255/75 tyres.

We like: Incredibly capable off road, genuinely nice interior now, loads of new tech and a truly thumping stereo.

The 'before' pic: a pristine and shiny Wrangler looking ready for the school run.

We don't like: The massive price tag, single star safety rating, apparently it's not idiot-proof…

Jeep has long pushed the Wrangler Rubicon as one of the most capable off roaders you can buy new, drive straight off the showroom floor and dominate the landscape without any aftermarket mods.

Jeep and mud, two things that go well together. Well, usually.

After all, its name is testament to the fact that it literally can be driven straight off the showroom floor and through one of the toughest and most demanding off road tracks in the world - the legendary Rubicon Trail. And that isn't just marketing spin either: I have done it. I may have mentioned that before.

Actually, I mention it all the time, and with good reason - it is simply one of the greatest, most exhilarating things I have done behind the wheel of a motor vehicle.

Yep. That's stuck. The author surveys what he has done...

That might affect the wheel balance a wee bit. Still, its an interesting way to take a souvenir.

* Enter the Gladiator: Jeep is back in the Ute game

* Rubicon meets Mount Aspiring as Jeep Jamboree tackles Kiwi terrain

Filthy, but undamaged. That equates to a good day off roading, despite getting stuck.

* History repeats at Jeep 75th anniversary Kiwi bush-bash**

The ultra-low speed crawl of the Rubicon Trail stands head and shoulders above all the high-speed stuff I have been lucky enough to do in terms of sheer automotive pleasure and thrills, and conquering the utterly intimidating Cadillac Hill - with its multiple switchbacks, car-sized boulders and sections barely wider than the Wrangler with an unyielding rock wall on one side and a truly terrifying drop on the other - is as close as you can get in a motor vehicle to the weird terror/exhilaration mix you get with something like bungy jumping.

Anyway, the upshot of that is that I have the utmost confidence in the Wrangler Rubicon's off road abilities. Which could actually be part of the reason why I managed to get the new one completely and utterly stuck right here in New Zealand.

Let's just backtrack a moment here and explain what led to me sitting in the shade of a tree in the Auckland Off Road Adventure park at Woodhill Forest with my Stuff Motoring colleague David Linklater, staring forlornly at a shiny new Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon sunk axle deep in mud. Well, I was staring forlornly; Linklater was laughing.

Jeep launched the Wrangler in New Zealand a little different to the usual course of things: instead of gathering local media at a single event, they instead gave us a choice of two different 'experiences' - a weekend away in the Wrangler Overland to experience its on road abilities or a day out at Woodhill in the Rubicon with Auckland Off Road Adventure's vastly experienced owner Roger Winslade to test its off road abilities. Clearly, I chose the latter.

As mentioned earlier, the Rubicon is the all-singing, all-dancing, fully-weaponised star of the Wrangler line up, with its standard off road arsenal packing extras over and above other Wranglers, including front and rear locking diffs, a disconnecting front stabiliser bar, heavier duty front and rear axles, heavy duty rock sliders and 17-inch wheels fitted with 32-inch BFGoodrich off road tyres.

Now only available in four-door Unlimited guise, the Rubicon is also an eye-watering $92,990 range topper of the Wrangler family here in New Zealand, which is quite a lot to swallow when the same model in Australia is a fraction over AU$70,000 or NZ$74,000…

Anyway, things had started off well enough, with beautiful weather and some stark examples of the Rubicon's remarkable off road abilities as it relentlessly clawed its way across terrain that no sane person would reasonably expect an unmodified brand new vehicle to get over with such a dismissive lack of effort. Even in 2WD it gets over stuff lesser vehicles couldn't even contemplate, while 4WD high is enough for all but the most extreme stuff.

But when you do drop it into low, it is truly remarkable what it can drag itself through or over. All while trying your best to not think of its $92,990 price tag as things thump and scrape along the underside…

As is always the way with these things, when it goes wrong, it will invariably go wrong at the furthest point away from salvation. In this case, Roger's Nissan Patrol.

Now, I could make any number of excuses as to why I actually got stuck - I didn't hear Roger tell me to keep right (or the more self-serving 'he didn't tell me' version), I thought I was far enough right, the surface of the mud had dried giving the impression of solidity, I couldn't actually see over the Wrangler's blunt, bluff nose… but none of those things were true: it was simply operator error. I screwed up and sunk it axle deep in mud.

'Yep, you're stuck…' came Roger's laconic assessment of the situation from the passenger's seat as my stomach and ego both plummeted faster and further than the Jeep's right side wheels had. 'Should've been over further.'

The Wrangler Rubicon may well be a deeply impressive off road beast, but all of that rugged ability, two locking diffs and heavy duty axles aren't much help when the aggressive tread of the off road tyres are clogged with mud, you've sunk it to the sills and there is literally no traction available…

While the Rubicon comes with a 'winch ready' bumper, it doesn't actually have a winch. so the only option was for Roger to walk 4km back to where he had left his Patrol and drag us out with it. He had the resigned air of a man who has done it all before, so I didn't argue with him and suggest I go myself.

After all, I reasoned, he wouldn't really want the idiot who sunk a Rubicon driving his personal vehicle anyway. So just apologised again and slunk away to a shady spot.

Around 45 minutes or so later Roger roared up the hill to pull us out and we headed back down (keep VERY right this time) to the 'proving ground' style area that, while still not completed, is a fantastic place to test a vehicle's capabilities.

From the long sand loop for high-speed sand driving (and lots of drifty fun) to the coarse concrete slabs that can get you up to a 25 degree angle (which from the driver's seat is truly unsettling…), the Wrangler proved itself to be effortlessly capable across it all.

It's just a shame that it had that one faulty component sitting behind the wheel that got it stuck…