Jeep Wrangler 392 vs. Wrangler 4xe Plug-in Hybrid: Which Is the Better Off-Roader?
What’s better for off-roading, a V8 or a four cylinder hybrid? Well, Jeep sent me out to the Rubicon Trail to find out. And buckle up, off-road nerds, because answering this question takes way more than just counting those cylinders. We’re Edmonds, and we test hundreds of cars each year on the road and at our private track, so you get the most trusted reviews. If you want to know which car, truck, or SUV is the best, then stick with us. Okay, so what makes a Rubicon a Rubicon? Well, there are a couple of different things that make sure that you can take a stock vehicle out of the showroom and come out here to the Rubicon and be pretty successful. And the first thing you’re going to want is tires. Oh my gosh, tires are so important. Now, this 392 comes on 35s. Have I done the Rubicon on 33s? I have. Was it difficult? Yes. Try 35s. If you can shove some 37s underneath there, it’s going to be even better and even easier. You may or may not want a winch. However, I will say that you should find out how to use these because if you don’t have any training on them, they can be kind of dangerous, but they’re great to have in a pinch. Underneath here is where all of that goodness happens, right? This is where you’re going to have your solid front axle sway bar disconnect as well as a standard front locker on this Rubicon. Now, this 392, because I’ve got all of this power, this actually has a select track uh four-wheel drive system, which means that when you’re on the pavement, it’s all-wheel drive all the time. You can’t put this vehicle into two wheel drive. I mean, I’m okay with that. But, you know, some of you who might want to do some rear wheel burnouts might not be your jam. But, I will tell you on the pavement, you’ll trip the tires in third gear. But, I want to show you something about this vehicle that I don’t like. And this is true of all Rubicon. I would just like to show you how little storage there is in this vehicle. First of all, I can put stuff in the nets, but then when I’m sitting, I can’t reach into the nets. That is annoying. There’s really no place for your cell phone. The glove compartment is really tiny. I mean, look, we’ve been in here for a day and look at how messy it is. That’s one thing that I wish Jeep would solve, but on the whole, you guys, I got to admit it, I’m a Jeep gal. Now, the Rubicon Trail is about 17 miles of the slowest driving you will ever do. We’re not even doing the whole thing. We’re doing about 12 miles of it, and it’s going to take us 2 days. But I will tell you this, there are three things that you need to do the RoomCon Trail. That’s tenacity, tires, and torque. Now, I’m starting off this trip in the stunning 392 Wrangler V8. That is 6.4 L of pure naturally aspirated V8 goodness. And with this, I’ve got 470 horsepower and 470 lb feet of torque. But that doesn’t tell the whole story. So, what you really need to look at with these vehicles, especially on the Rubicon Trail, is your crawl ratio. And the way you get that is by multiplying three numbers. But what’s interesting is when I get on uh an area where maybe I don’t have as many obstacles, I can keep my foot off the gas. The vehicle still moves, but it is like it’s a tiny tiny little bit lurchy. It’s not bad. And I’m able to kind of just roll onto the throttle and get just a little bit of acceleration. It feels really smooth and it feels really good. Honestly, I thought that getting into this V8 it was going to be difficult to drive because of having all of the horsepower, but putting it in low gear really helps. I’ I’ve I feel great. 35 in tires, plenty of ground clearance, plenty of geometry. Like, yeah, man. Let’s hit it. And you guys will probably see me put these on. I’ll swap out glasses. That’s because these are those Ray-B band point of view glasses. So, it’s not that I’m trying to be like Clark Ken. I’m trying to give you a different POV. All right, that’s what these are for. All right, so we are coming down into an obstacle right now. You can see my Jeep Jamberee guy there telling me where to go and what to do because the Rubicon is all about line choice. And frankly, I know that some people will do this without spotters. I can’t imagine doing this without a spotter. I really, even with the forward- facing camera, I really want this guy to tell me where to go. Oh, I’m so sideways. Oh, look at that. He makes it so easy for us. But you guys, torque does not tell the whole story. It’s all about crawl ratio, which is how many times that torque is multiplied before it actually hits the wheel. And you get that by multiplying three numbers. So the low range in the 392, even though this is a Rubicon, it doesn’t have that same 4:1 low ratio. This is like 2.72. Your axle ratio, which here is 4.56, and then first gear, which is 4.71. So, you put all that together and you’re looking at about 58 to1. Oo, you hear that? For that crawl ratio. All right, so 58.1 crawl ratio. That’s pretty awesome. So, now I need to multiply that by 470 to get my wheel torque. And that puts it at right around 27,000. You guys, that is a lot of torque. So, even though this vehicle does not have the same low ratio as the other Rubicons that are out here, like the 4xe or the 3.6, you’re still getting a really good amount of wheel torque. Now, as with every Rubicon, I’ve got all of the bells and whistles, right? Front and rear lockers. I got a disconnecting sway bar. This thing, because it’s a 392, has like a sport exhaust, which makes it really loud, but I I can’t do that to the nature. I mean, I’m in like the beautiful California forest. I can’t do it. Can’t do it. So, the throttle here is really easy to modulate. I thought that it would want to get away from me because it does have so much horsepower, but that low range really keeps it under control. Very easy. like super easy on the throttle and just like a little bit goes a long way. The brakes feel good. I mean, I thought I was going to hate the 392, you guys, but I really like it. And I think the thing that’s so crazy about this is like I don’t I don’t even have the rear locked. Like I’ve got the sway bar disconnected, so I’ve got more articulation, but going up and over these rocks, like like I said, man, tenacity tires and torque, that’s all you need. All right. All right. Now, one thing I have noticed with this V8 is that when you’re riding the edge of that line, just to get that just amount of right clearance in the rear for your fenders or your tires or whatever, it is easy to slip off. The nose weighs a lot, so you really need to take that into consideration when you’re picking your line. Now, of course, part of the question here is, will you still be able to get this 392? Well, Jeep had a final edition, right? That’s what this one is. Then they extended it for a year, so call that the final final edition. Now, they’re not saying about what’s going to happen in the future, but Ram’s bringing back their V8s, I wouldn’t be surprised if this thing sticks around for a little bit longer. All right. Now, if the 392 takes a brute strength approach, well, the 4×8 does things just a little bit differently. So, under the hood, I’ve got a 270 horsepower engine and 295 lb feet of torque. But when you combine that with the 17.3 kWh battery, 375 horsepower and oh, listen to this, 470 lb feet of torque. Oh, does that sound familiar? Cuz it sounds familiar to me. All right, we’re stopped a little bit in traffic here. So, let me tell you a little bit about this hybrid. So, there’s three different drive modes. I can put it in regular hybrid. I can put it in eave, which will prioritize saving that battery, or I can put it in electric only mode. But here’s what’s interesting. I’m in hybrid mode right now and just on the short amount of trails that we’ve been doing, it’s only been doing it in electric. So, here’s what I think. When we’re going super slow, it’s going to want to go into EV and then maybe if I like, I don’t know, got to a flat area where I could give it a little bit of beans and maybe go above 2 mph, then that gas motor would kick in. So, my question is, how much torque am I actually getting? I’m not getting the whole 470, but I feel like I’m getting a lot. So, that is something we’re going to find out later today. Now, the uh now the 4xe has a lower low range than the 392, but it doesn’t have as low of an axle ratio, but the first gear is right about the same. So, when you do all of the math, my crawl ratio is 77.2:1, right? So, when you’re talking about wheel torque, when you start doing all of that math, we’re looking at like 36,000 lbs of wheel torque, but that’s only when you have all of that uh electric and gas power. So, what’s been interesting is driving driven like I don’t know maybe a half a mile, it’s taken us 100 years, uh is how sensitive this throttle actually is because it has been prioritizing EV mode. I have the torque there instantly. There’s no waiting around for it at all, which means I really have to be careful about keeping it smooth and keeping my input smooth. It’s actually been kind of a learning curve. I think I’m getting better. The Jeep Jamberee guys say I’m doing really good, but they always say that you’re doing good, and I never believe them. Yeah, I I love how quiet this is because a I can hear my spotters really well, and b I can hear like the crunch of the tires, and I can hear the birds chirping and all that stuff. It’s really really kind of cool. All right, look at this sea of rocks in front of us. This is going to be a good test of my throttle control. I know my hat looks really weird because the way this glass is recorded will record the brim of my hat. So again, I just And honestly guys, most of the time I’m not even on the throttle at all because this low range is so low and this torque is so low. It’s just giving me what I want. So very, very, very little throttle inputs. I think what I need to do to get better is to be more gentle on the brakes cuz I don’t need a lot. I mean, you guys, I’m going 1 mile per hour. Yeah. So, what’s crazy, you guys, is that how much how sensitive this throttle is in the 4×8. It really takes a lot of practice. And I’m loving the fact that I’m getting to learn something and practice here in a vehicle that’s not mine. Now, Jeep has put 35 in tires on this thing. Uh, normally the 4×8 comes with 33s. Yep. But what that does is it gives us a little bit of a lift and it gives us better geometry than before. I mean, I never complained about the 4×8 Rubicon’s geometry, but with the larger tires and this Recon package, it’s pretty good. Now, have I hit the bottom? Yes, I have. You’ve heard it. But that’s what the Rubicon is about. It’s all about using this vehicle. You got rock rails, you might as well use them, right? Okay, so since I’ve lost all of my battery, uh, I’ve gone ahead and put this in eave mode, and we are going down a super steep hill, and it’s steep for a while. Right now, I’m at 14°, so I’m going to see how much we can regen here. I’m going to try to not use the physical brakes as much as possible. Uh, yeah, and I’m at 1% battery, but you can definitely hear I’ve got my regular engine rolling now. Uh, I don’t know. I’m not sure how much range you’re actually going to get back in this thing, but we’ll see. Oh, I’m a 2% range. That has not translated into an actual mile of range, but 2% state of charge. Fortunately, I am in low gear, so I get a lot of that engine braking. But again, that engine braking is coming all from the engine, not necessarily from the motors. So, I’m not sure how this is going to work. 3% state of charge. Ooh, girl. But that has not yet translated to a single mile of range. Right now, our fuel range is 40 miles and we’re at a little bit less than half a tank. We’re literally only going like 6 milesi on this trail. But it’s so funny. I was like I feel like we’ve been in this car forever and we’ve gone like a mile and a half. All right, we are at 5% state of charge and still one mile of range. Oh, and I got somebody stacking rocks for me, which must mean that this is a big ass rock. Remember y’all, these are stock vehicles. These are stock. And from what I’ve seen, everybody driving around, they’re all in like some really, really rigs on like 37s. I’m on 35s. I got a stock bumper. I got stock rock rails. I got stock suspension. Uh, so it’s really cool that these vehicles can just do this right out of the box. All right. Right now, we’re at this really, really, really sharp turn. And, uh, this is where having A two door would be a lot better. Let’s continue forward. Look, those are some big rocks. Okay. See, I’m not even looking at where I’m going. Little bit past. There you go. Driver. Excellent work. Oh, found that. One more driver. There we go. Nice driving. We’re just getting warmed up. Yeah, I know, right? Throw you right into it here shortly. Oh, you guys, now we’re at 6% state of charge, but still one mile of range. Hold that wheel just like that. Hold the wheel just like that. Okay, sir. I think what I’ve learned the most today is that at these slow speeds, you don’t actually get the 470 lb feet of torque that you get when everything’s working together because all it wants to do is go into EV mode. Now, if I were like doing a drag race up here, that’s when I’m going to see all of that power and all of that torque. But as it stands at these slow speeds, all I get is that EV torque. Now, has it been sufficient? Absolutely. But it also requires a very different driving mindset in that the brake is either on or off. There’s no like regen modes and the throttle is really, really touchy because the torque that you do have comes on right away. All right, we are up to 8% state of charge and I still only have 1 mile of range. And now that this gas motor has kicked in, honestly, it’s a little bit easier to get smooth, right? Like the brakes just feel a little bit not quite as like on, off, on, off. And the throttle I do got to like, you know, I got to get into it just a tiny little bit. So when that gas motor kicks in, then you’re just back to driving, you know, a regular Jeep. And that’s the easiest thing in the world. Well, you guys, I’m at 10%. Two miles of range. That’s what skid plates are for. Uh, so I did just get a little ding that said power steering system hot. Performance may be limited. Cool. Uh, I don’t feel anything is wrong with the power steering. Like might feel a little bit lighter. But I’m I I am not worried. I am not worried. It’s okay. There’s just a big cliff over there. It’s fine. Okay. 12% in three miles, guys. We’re going to do it. We are going to do it. Let’s see how far our altitude. We started like 6,400 altitude. I’m now at 6,100. So, all right. 300 ft. 3 miles. There you go. Okay. So, what have we learned, y’all? Well, we have learned that the spec sheets do not tell the whole story. Yes, they have the same amount of torque, but the way they put it down is so very different. Honestly, I thought I was going to be 4xe all day long because you would have that electric instant torque. But in reality, it just was a little bit jumpy. I would need a lot more time in this vehicle to be able to drive it smoothly and easily. Meanwhile, the 392, I thought I was going to be fighting it the whole time, fighting all that horsepower. I was not at all. It was smooth and easy the whole way, but it might just come down to price because this guy right here behind me, $102,000 including destination. The 4xe starts at closer to 63 grand. Now, that is a huge price discrepancy. So, at the end, of course, it depends on what’s going on in your wallet, but if money is not an object, y’all, it’s 3.92 all the way. Hey, if you like this video, be sure to like and subscribe. And of course, there is more info over on edmonds.com. We’ll see you next time.
In this video, Edmunds’ Emme Hall hits the Rubicon trail in two very different Jeep Wranglers: one with a fiery V8 under the hood and the other with a plug-in hybrid four-cylinder powertrain. Is the Wrangler 392 or the Wrangler 4xe the superior off-roader?
00:00 Intro
00:32 What Makes a Rubicon?
02:14 392 Trail Driving
06:30 4xE Trail Driving
14:54 Edmunds’ Take
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