Hi
I wrote this to the article
Discussion on Expedition Portal
Guilty Pleasures for the Purist
HasseH• 2 days ago
Hi from Sweden
Very intresting article and a good one.
I had a 2012 2 door Wrangler with Pentastar and now I have a 2013 Rubicon unlimited with the Pentastar. I dont have so much to compare with, I only had a Suzuki Jimny before with a 1.3 liters engine so the Wrangler have hugh and sometimes scary power and I have read that the Pentastar have about the same power as old small V8.
I keep my Wrangler light and stock and it feels like a sportcar. I only do maybe 4 days camping but I have light stuff in my Wrangler.
Maybe 6 years ago my Sisters son and me test drove a new Landrower Defender 2 door and we booth found it would not be worth to uppgrade to a Defender compared to my Suzuki Jimny with 1.3 liters engine. They were rather similar.
The Author say that the Pentastar is a slug, maybe that is thru?, but compared to what? I have driven a Defender and that is a slug, but I have not tested it in terrain. I see that the Author have a Defender with 300T di engine and it has 111 hp, and 195 lb/ft (264N/m) compared to the Pentastar with 285 HP and has about 265 lb/ft (359 N/m). But the power is at the lower band with the defender as it is a Diesel. The Toyota 70 series do not sell in US or in Europa. It is a very basic vehicle and I like it because it has a snorkel, duel tanks, and and duel batteries, and a snorkel as standard.
This guy says that the suspension is rough on the 70 series and that the engine have low power?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Anyway, I thought about a Defender first, but it lacks airbags, no automatic, to high for my garage, cost maybe 10 000 dollars more than a Rubicon here in Sweden. I dont like diesel sounds= tractor. Defender looks better than a Rubicon and hauls more. Landrover should bring us a Defender with theres 3 liters supercharged Petrol engine (that Discovery has) that has alot of more power than the pentastar and bring us airbags and NAV with detailed maps and other normal standard stuffs at low price
From the author
"Bringing up the rear for the duration of our trip was the Rubicon Unlimited powered by Chrysler's Pentastar 3.6L V6 driving the 5-speed automatic gearbox. I absolutely hate this combination. The engine is a total dog and it's only made worse by the slush box. Not only is it a dog but it's the kind of lazy dog that won't hunt and is a complete chow hound. This engine is never happy. It searches for a powerband which must be a sine wave and it's either lugging or over-revving in nearly all conditions. It produces 285 hp at 6,400 rpm. Does that sound right for off-road use? It's not. Maybe that's because this engine was designed for the Dodge Challenger, Charger, Chrysler 300, Grand Caravan and countless other street-only vehicles. The terrible performance behavior of the Pentastar 3.6 is only masked in low range by the JK's superbly geared transfer case. Fuel economy is atrocious for an engine of that size"