I folded the windshield down on my Samurais (bought the factory hardware) all the time. Sure made it cooler to drive in the summer months.
That being said, let not get into the discussion about “people want stuff they won’t even use”.
I hate that kind of judgement/snobbery.
ebonyandivory said:That being said, let not get into the discussion about “people want stuff they won’t even use”.
I hate that kind of judgement/snobbery.
This bears repeating.
In reply to SyntheticBlinkerFluid :
I dig the shallow bed. The bed in general really. It's a neat mid size truck.
I love this thing. Unsure how well it'd tow a 20' enclosed trailer but if I could have a diesel, crew-cab, convertible-top pickup truck that tows my racecar around... good lord yes please. Paint it lime green or bright purple or some other wacky Mopar color and gimme.
I like this way more than I should, especially after just purchasing a '18 diesel Colorado
In reply to MINIzguy :
Trade in Time
Only problem is waaay too much wheelbase, nothing with a breakover angle like that could offroad its way out of a wet paper bag.
pres589 (djronnebaum) said:Why bother with a folding windshield if there's all that other structure that's the same height?
They know their market; the kind of people that like to see hinges at the base of a windshield, but won't use the function, and they can still get their kids in the back to go shopping in the thing. Mall crawlers.
Original Jeeps (in the war) had the windshields fold down so they wouldn't create reflections for enemy artillery targeteers and/or so they could lay litters across the passenger side and over the hood to carry injured soldiers.. And perhaps to get more wind in your face on really hot days. While it's tradition (I guess), I doubt 99% of the Jeep crowd would really care if it wasn't fold-down. Just put some fake hinges there for looks and call it a day, save $100 on hardware costs....
ebonyandivory said:I folded the windshield down on my Samurais (bought the factory hardware) all the time. Sure made it cooler to drive in the summer months.
That being said, let not get into the discussion about “people want stuff they won’t even use”.
I hate that kind of judgement/snobbery.
I'd say the alternate argument could be made that by having a fixed windshield, Jeeps would 1) probably be lighter, 2) probably be safer in a rollover, and 3) probably cost a bit less just due to less hardware. It doesn't have to be an snob thing, it can simply be a matter of practicality.
In reply to irish44j :
Or, maybe, they make things just because they're awesome. And people like it. And buy it. For lots of money. I just looked up the numbers and they sell around 200k Wranglers a year. They know their audience.
GameboyRMH said:Only problem is waaay to much wheelbase, nothing with a breakover angle like that could offroad its way out of a wet paper bag.
It's only 2.3 degrees less than a JLU, which doesn't seem all that bad to me...But then again, I don't live my life one boulder at a time either.
In reply to irish44j :
I would say "it's a Jeep thing, you wouldn't understand" but I won't.
I'll just keep driving my Jeep with the top off and the windshield down.
I have never considered owning a pickup, until now. If it’s offered with a manual trans then a new car loan might be in my future. Imagine what the resale will be like!!
ptmeyer84 said:I have never considered owning a pickup, until now. If it’s offered with a manual trans then a new car loan might be in my future. Imagine what the resale will be like!!
The manual is just with the 3.6, but it's a 6spd with a manual transfer case. Which is awesome.
It's only 1.3 degrees less than a JLU.
Props for posting actual data. Plus, when it comes to improving your breakover angle, you could say the sky is the limit! And bumper height laws be damned! Fits 35s with no mods, and 40s with a 3" lift! Your passengers will love you, and so will your shoulders when you're trying to lift cargo into that bed you paid so much for!
In all seriousness, i don't really care why people buy them or what they do with them. Options are cool and Jeep as an iconic brand puts out a 'halo product' (Wrangler) at semi-affordable prices that is still legitimately great at off-roading in spite of all pressures to tone it down (even here...) for the sake of street manners. Gone are the days when you could get one new for nearly the same money as an economy fwd sedan, but it's also massively improved in many ways since then and one wonders if a barebones 2dr Wrangler would even still exist (it does, mostly) if not for the $40k+ Unlimiteds they sell by the 100k+/yr.
llysgennad said:In reply to irish44j :
I would say "it's a Jeep thing, you wouldn't understand" but I won't.
I'll just keep driving my Jeep with the top off and the windshield down.
Us XJ owners never do understand.. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
In reply to Vigo :
Well I had a brain fart and it's actually 2.3 degrees less, not 1.3. Which all thing considered, still doesn't seem particularly tragic to me. I don't think there had ever been any pretense that this would be equal to a JLU, let alone a JL, on the roughest terrain.
In reply to irish44j :
I knew that. Me too. I'll let you guess which one I think is more fun.
Back on JT topic, sign me up!
GameboyRMH said:Only problem is waaay to much wheelbase, nothing with a breakover angle like that could offroad its way out of a wet paper bag.
Tell that to my Suburbans. Of course, they are not like my fj or cj, but they still get down off-road. They’d bust right on through that paper bag of yours. 
Cooter said:gearheadmb said:I had a 90 yj with the 258 and the awful renix setup when i bought it. If anyone here is still running that let me give you my recipe
Your YJ didn't have the Renix setup. The Renix was only used on the XJ and MJ 4.0s from '87 to '90.
The 258 never had fuel injection, and the YJ only had the "H.O." 4.0 with Chrysler FI starting in '91 as a 6 cylinder option. They had a carburated 258 as the 6 cylinder up until then.
As for the bashing of the Renix in general, it really isn't a bad system, and was leaps and bounds ahead of the carbed 258s, but certainly didn't make the power that the H.O. did.
Correct, it did not have fuel injection, it had a feedback carb and an electronic ignition, neither of which were worked very well. I was thinking renix was the manufacturer of the ignition parts and carb controller, (thinking back it may have been somebody else) so i assumed this was what we were talking about when the renix system was mentioned above.
As to the fold down windshield, you are absolutely correct. Folding down the windshield when creeping through the woods at 2 mph is like having air conditioning. It makes a suprising difference. But i recommend adding an A-hoop to the roll bar if you do this for safetys sake. I also agree with the sentiment that 99% percent of these will never actually have the windshield folded down and the hinges will seized up the jeeps 10th birthday, but whatever.
mazdeuce - Seth said:In reply to SyntheticBlinkerFluid :
I dig the shallow bed. The bed in general really. It's a neat mid size truck.
I like it too. It’s just well out of my price range.
I'm really surprised at the new frame and the tow rating. Much more truck than I thought it would be, with trying not to cannibalize the Ram line and all. It's not my ideal but it's 80%.
mazdeuce - Seth said:In reply to irish44j :
Or, maybe, they make things just because they're awesome. And people like it. And buy it. For lots of money. I just looked up the numbers and they sell around 200k Wranglers a year. They know their audience.
I mean, sure.....that's the standard internet argument for "I disagree with you but don't want to argue about it because this is just the internet." lol. Anyhow, by that logic, none of us should ever suggest that anything on any car in the world could be improved upon, because all of the manufacturers "know their audience." Jeep has done plenty of things in the last couple decades that suggest that they don't ALWAYS know their audience, lol....
Jeep got to 200k per year (from about100k 10 years ago) by making Wranglers LESS off-roady, LESS "raw," more mall-friendly and kid-friendly, and packing them full of tech and comfort features. Jeep is not catering to the hardcore off-roaders any more than Toyota is catering to all the Taliban dudes driving around in old Hiluxes. The hardcore off-roaders aren't the one buying brand-new $50k 4-door jeeps, for the most part. The suburban soccer mom doesn't know the difference between IFS and a solid axle, or leaf springs and coil springs. These are the people buying most of the 200k Jeeps, not gearheads and hardcore wheelers.
I don't think it's a stretch to admit that Jeep is counting on the "Jeep Look" to sell vehicles, not "Jeep suspension" or whatever is under the skin. Most Jeep buyers (like most buyers of almost any vehicle) care more about how many USB ports it has and how good the touch-screen interface is than what kind of suspension it uses.
I think the Gladiator is cool as hell (I would love a 4-door off-road vehicle with a pickup bed and removable roof!) and if I was going to buy any Jeep, this would be it (and unlike many on this forum, I actually DO buy new cars and trucks reasonably often, and do (in theory) have the income level and life activities that Jeep is directly marketing to. But that doesn't mean I can't wish some things about it were different, which would make me more likely to buy it over a Tundra or F150 or 4Runner or whatever. I don't really care about "the Jeep Look," but if I was in the pickup market, I'd certainly buy a Gladiator if it is a BETTER VEHICLE than the competition, regardless of looks. And I just don't need a folding windshield to drive it around suburbia like you guys do ;)
Please continue with your scheduled programming now ;)
llysgennad said:In reply to irish44j :
I knew that. Me too. I'll let you guess which one I think is more fun.
Back on JT topic, sign me up!
I will tell you that my XJ fell haflway between my 4Runner (way more fun) and my Sequoia (not fun at all) in the driving category. I never thought the XJ was fun, but it was a great utility vehicle.
irish44j said:mazdeuce - Seth said:In reply to irish44j :
Or, maybe, they make things just because they're awesome. And people like it. And buy it. For lots of money. I just looked up the numbers and they sell around 200k Wranglers a year. They know their audience.
I mean, sure.....that's the standard internet argument for "I disagree with you but don't want to argue about it because this is just the internet." lol. Anyhow, by that logic, none of us should ever suggest that anything on any car in the world could be improved upon, because all of the manufacturers "know their audience."\
As long as there are used Z06s for $20k, all other vehicle manufacturers should just stop making new cars. 
The manufacturers are better at judging the market than enthusiast forums, sometimes. See "2003 Club Sport Miata".
And if Jeep was really paying attention to what the market has told them, they probably wouldn't try yet another pickup truck. The Scrambler averaged about 5500 sales per year. The Comanche did much better, with about 24,000 per year. Still, that's only about 3% of Jeep's yearly sales right now, or 12.5% of Wrangler sales. So maybe they know their audience.
Interestingly, it looks like roughly 60% of Comanches were 2WD, which would imply that they were simply small pickups and not bought as offroaders.
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