West Texas XK

[Epcommander]

Howdy fellers, my name is Bob and I live in the annexed town of El Paso. I drive a 2010 Commander Sport 4x4 that is currently bone stock. I love the truck and am rather pleasantly surprised about my XK's abilities modification free. My jeep is not a mall crawler, I use her for everything, and not let downs yet, just need to pull the fuse for the traction control so I can get my wheel speed up in sand. Looking forward to the interaction here, thanks for having me.

Bob

[Matt]

Welcome aboard!

Just an FYI, if you hold down the ESP Off button for ~10 seconds it'll disable the traction control and work 100x better in sand. Don't have to worry about pulling the fuse out.

Pressing the button isn't enough, you have to hold it in until the message "ESP DISABLED" comes up on the dash.

[Epcommander]

Good to know, I live in a largely sandy area, even with the icon saying it is off, it was still activating, weirdly though, it spins freely in mud. This is my first Jeep and my first auto 4x4, so I am still a tiny bit skeptical.

[Matt]

Yeah there's 2 stages. The first stage (pressing button once) only turns off a few controls and is no good for sand. The second stage (pressing and holding the button until the message comes up) turns off the remaining traction control and is much better for off-road / sand use.

The owners manual actually describes both settings pretty well.
Last week at OBX I was testing out all of the settings in the deepest sand I could find. Its night/day difference when you go to stage 2.

[Sal-XK]

Welcome! On the ESP you'll also here a chime when you hold it long enough.

[06JeepXKHEMI]

Welcome! while on the subject of the ESP what do you guys suggest for snow? Im used to the ZJs in the snow do you suggest having that on, party off or completely off?

[Sal-XK]

Welcome! while on the subject of the ESP what do you guys suggest for snow? Im used to the ZJs in the snow do you suggest having that on, party off or completely off?

Every situation is different when the computer is holding you back just start shutting it off in stages.

[Matt]

For on-street snow driving I leave it all on. It does a good job of keeping the vehicle in your own lane.

For offroading I only press the button, not fully off. With snow/ice, I've found that cutting the engine power slightly helps more than hurts in most cases. Except for some climbs where you can still dig down with wheel speed.

[06JeepXKHEMI]

Thanks for the help on that!!

[07JeepXK]

Welcome! while on the subject of the ESP what do you guys suggest for snow? Im used to the ZJs in the snow do you suggest having that on, party off or completely off?

Andrew...around our area in the snow I just push the traction control button once until you see the vehicle with the squiggly lines on the dash. Nothing else is needed.

[Epcommander]

You know I've read the manual and apparently I skimmed the wrong parts. I am an adventure/expedition type offroad guy, I think this truck outfitted properly will go anywhere I would like, for the hardcore stuff I have a 78 K5, and for single track I have a KTM 525 EXC. But the comfort of the jeep surpasses all.

[Matt]

Depending on your idea of "hardcore", you may be surprised how well these things do. 4" lift and tires is taking some members through very challenging trails out west!

[06JeepXKHEMI]

Cool thanks man

[stites-xk]

Welcome!

[Epcommander]

Hardcore around here is the rock crawling stuff, lockers front and rear, 37" minimum tire, stuff like that, anywhere else the jeep will go. I need to search the forum and find the hot 4" setup, already asked a guy about his used 2" lift, all I want is decent travel and ground clearance. I lust after the JBA 6" coil overs but too rich for my blood. OME makes some great stuff but so does RR. I just want to copy an established formula. And thanks for the welcome gentleman.

[06JeepXKHEMI]

You have came to the right place, these guys know their stuff and many of them have different set ups based off their off roading needs. Again welcome to the forum, hope you find it as helpful yet entertaining as I do!!!

[Matt]

Do you know what 4x4 system you have? Quadra-Drive II has lockers front/rear.

4" superlift is the way to go IMO (Fyi that's what JBA uses as the base for their 6").

Trialbyfire has some great video and pictures from conquering devils crack at MOAB.

[Matt]

Check this out! :)

http://www.theultimatejeep.com/showthread.php/833-Moab-Fun

[Epcommander]

Very nice setup, lookup chili challenge in Las Cruces New Mexico for some of the stuff I am talking about, looks like I need to go to the gatherings you guys host.

[Matt]

Yeah we don't have anything that cool on the east coast. :(

[Sal-XK]

Most of us do rock crawling. If the SL is to expensive IMO the OME is probably the next best setup. If your willing to do some serious trimming to your XK you can fit 33" tires on just a 2" lift which is usually reserved for the 4" lifts. I hope your considering the cost of armor even if you have the stock armor you'll need plenty more like the SA sliders and more.

[Epcommander]

I plan on buying as much of Knappsters gear as the wallet can bear, and I want 4" aesthetically as well as functionality, though I don't mind trimming at all, I fear my limitations will be the power train, I have the 3.7L while fine for the street, not so much loaded down with gear and larger tires, the only way to know is to do it right?

[Matt]

May want to consider regearing too.

[pjmjr508]

Welcome to the group

[xk2006]

welcome to the forum. i just recently joined and these are good guys who know their sh!t.

[LWM]

Welcome to the Forum!

[Core XK]

Welcome to the forum :cool:

[superacerc]

Welcome, I'm in houston. We headed out your way last november to bigbend nat'l park. We did about 150 miles of off road driving around the park. It's nothing super tough but the scenery is unbelievable. Stayed out there 4 nights camping and 5 days total.

hope you enjoy the forum.

[AJeepZJ]

Welcome to TUJ.