At the beginning of July, we took our Jeep on its maiden long voyage. Although I believe my JKU does an awesome job on the road around town as my daily driver, I was concerned about how comfortable it would be on a long, nine hour drive to Tennessee.
Every summer my daughter gets to spend time with her grandparents in Texas on their farm. This is something that she looks forward to all through the year. Sometimes it’s easy to get her there. The meet up for the drop off works out simply. This year, however, was not lining up easily. This year was a series of drop offs and pickups among family members to get her to Texas. Getting her home is easy. My wife and I take our vacation to go to Texas to see our friends and family and then fly back with our daughter. It’s a win-win!
I will say that we travelled with the top up. The top didn’t go down for the long haul. I think that was probably wise on so many levels. We ran into heavy rain several times and it would have been difficult to find a place to pull over to put the top up. And it’s a lot quieter with the top up on a long drive. The only noise that was overly prevalent during the drive was loud motorcycles or large tractor-trailers. These were very loud through the soft top. Not a deal break in any way but they were still very loud. As a word of wisdom: I always treat the windshield with RainX. You should too.
I felt there were two concerns before we left, one was the noise and the other was gas mileage. We handled the noise easily. My previous car was larger, heavier and more luxurious. The gas mileage wasn’t awesome with that car at around 20 miles to the gallon. I was concerned that my mileage would be much worse than that. Again, my jeep performed better than I had expected. We got 19 miles to the gallon each way. I was very shocked. Around town I am getting around 14 or 15 miles to the gallon. Not good but I only drive about 10 miles each way. I was very happy with the mileage on the road.
While we were in Tennessee, the top went down and everyone got to spend time riding in the jeep. My brother and his family were there and his daughters loved riding in the jeep with the top down. Hair was blowing around and the girls were having a blast. JEEP HAIR, DONT CARE! Yet another reason for owning a Jeep. Cruising through the mountains with the top down is a huge feeling of freedom. I loved sharing that with my family. We cruised to the top of the highest mountain near our family home. It was awesome!!!
The return trip back to Pennsylvania was uneventful. Uneventful on a trip is a good thing! Nine more hours in the jeep! All I need to be happy on the road is a smooth ride and great tunes! Done and done. The jeep was way more than I was expecting on the the long haul!!
Let me know about your long trips in your jeep!
Hashtag Jeep Life 