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Roxor long term reliability

txroadkill

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5spd trans.

jeeps had 44s factory on/off thru the years. Most recently the rubicon has a 44 f/r. Along with lockers.
 

thepartyhound

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Heat. has to do with oil capacity of t case and oiling system. The longer and faster you drive the more heat that builds up. heat kills parts and degrades the oil faster which in turn could cause damage. of course outside ambient temps will affect this as well. 15 miles at 70 mph will build up more heat in august in Arizona than it will in December in say North Dakota. So while you may be able to do it I wouldn’t want to run across Arizona and New Mexico straight thru in the summer heat. Do it in the winter and the temps will be running much
I can understand that to a degree, but the temp is going to stabilize at some point, not continue climbing indefinately as you drive reguardless of how long you drive. Good quality lubes will also make a drastic difference to this temp build up. Theres plenty of small rigs with Tcases of lesser capacity out there not burning up bearings.
 

Buckpasser

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Hey fellas, I've been interested in the Roxor since I first learned of them. I envision using it as more of a run-around rig than a sxs with frequent 20-30 mile trips across dirt roads, 30 mile trips across blacktop to the next town over. So, I picture using it more like a daily driver than a weekend toy. Does Roxor fit this bill? Does anyone use theirs in this capacity? How many miles and any problems along the way? Licensing should not be an issue, fwiw.

I drive mine anywhere in probably a 30 mile radius that I please, quite frequently, with no issues. I sometimes drive it to work (20 miles there) if the weather is nice and I’m in the mood.

I honestly think it would be a fine daily driver IF we can keep the parts and service coming. Looks like we haven’t been left completely stranded yet, so don’t rule it out.
 

1BB

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I can understand that to a degree, but the temp is going to stabilize at some point, not continue climbing indefinately as you drive reguardless of how long you drive. Good quality lubes will also make a drastic difference to this temp build up. Theres plenty of small rigs with Tcases of lesser capacity out there not burning up bearings.
It's not just heat, as that will level off to some degree like you said, unless you have a heavy load or towing, but at higher speeds you start to have more micro vibrations that you may not feel, but will start rattle your vehicle to pieces and you'll feel it all at once...in a very bad way. Keep in mind, these are not modern designs, they're a simple, but very rugged design for everyday use, but at speeds that are more in line of the day back in the 40's to 60's, and not at today's highway speeds....at least not for long.
 

UtahHunter

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I bought mine 3 years ago here in Utah. I have a Hard Cabs cab on mine and a heater. Mine is licensed for street use (has mirrors, a horn, and turn signals), but I also use it for hunting. I've got 5600 miles on it and use it to run into town most days. I don't drive it on the freeway.
 

1BB

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I remember back in the early 80's when I was an auto mechanic at a dealership, a man came in for some thing, I can't remember what, but while I was working on his vehicle, we got to talking. I noticed on the odometer he had over half a million miles on a slant six Chrysler. I asked him if he was the original owner, and he said he was, I then asked him what he did to the engine in that amount of time as far as rebuilding. He said nothing, I mean I've had to put a couple starters and alternators on it, and a water pump, and distributor, but that's about it.

I was shocked, and then asked him what kind of oil do you run, thinking he found some golden lube the rest of us never heard about, and his answer was even more shocking, he said I run the cheapest crap I can find on sale at Kmart or where ever.....BUT I change it every change it no later than 2,000 miles or when it looks dirty, and that can be as little as a 1,000 miles. He said heck, oil is cheaper than a rebuild, so change it.

He also said I NEVER move my vehicle until it is warmed up no matter what time of the year is it, but especially in the winter, I'll let it run for 10 or 15 minutes before moving her, and I always let her run a minute or two to cool off, before shutting it down.


I will also add in that you should limit short slow farting around trips that never gets your engine up in RPM, because you do need to get an engine out once a week or so and stretch her legs some. Take her out and run her at 40 to 60 MPH for 10 or 15 minutes at a time. This is more for the oil than the engine. Oil has to get up to operating temp and stay there for a few minutes at least, to burn off any contaminates like fuel and water that has made its way into your engine and oil as well as other gear boxes, and those two things are what cause ANY oil to lose lube properties and cause engine wear.

What happens on short trips, is you warm up the engine and oil, but the oil doesn't get hot enough, long enough, to burn off contaminates, BUT instead what you are doing is warming up and cooling off over and over, and condensation will build up in the engine and gear boxes, and cause oil to start to fail, even when the oil is brand new.

This is especially true as we get into colder months. You start your engine and get it up to operating temps, and all that air space in your engine expands and the moisture in the crankcase gets mixed with oil, and just as everything starts to get hot enough to burn off that water, you shut your engine down and it cools off, and now that hot air that has expanded in your crankcase during engine operation, is now starting to cool off and becoming more dense and creating a slight vacuum in your crankcase and drawing in new air and with it new moisture. The next day you repeat this with another short trip, and just as your engine and oil are at operating temp, you shut it down and this is how moisture build up gets inside not just your engine oil, but all oil and gear boxes.

This is also true for automatic transmissions. Many people think that the lines running from the trans to the radiator are cooling lines, but in fact, they actually there to take heat from the radiator and warm up the trans fluid as quickly as possible, because in colder months, that trans fluid may never fully reach operation temps to burn off the moisture and for an automatic transmission, that will be costly sooner than later.

So, this is why you take it out once a week and stretch her legs, to break up this heating up and cooling off cycle that's happening. This also helps with fully recharging your battery, but I doubt that's an issue here with most Roxor owners. That's more of an issue with soccer moms running to a dozen different stores and coffee shops every day that are within a half mile of each other and after each start, they never really fully top off the battery and over time, it slowly loses capacity, and now add in the cold, and it just compounds the problem.

I'm sorry for the long post, but some times to understand some of these principles, a lengthy explanation is needed to truly understand the "WHY" of the matter, so we can make adjustments and extend the life of our vehicles.
 

CJ2Rox

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That was a long one but get your point. Oil has come a long way since then. Far more base stocks that benefit a motor. I for one am a Amsoil dealer and would never put cheap oil in any of my vehicles.
 

1BB

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Well as a dealer I would expect you to use your product.

The story above was just to point out that maintenance and basic operating standards are the biggest factors to longer engine life.

Amsoil is a good oil, no doubt, but never the less, it's still an oil and subject to the same laws of lubrication as other oils and that means WATER still does the same thing to Amsoil as any other oil, it reduces the oils ability to lubricate. There is no magic additive, "THAT I KNOW OF", in any oil to some how absorb water and fuel so they're no longer a factor in the oils ability to lubricate. If there was some sort of additive, I would think they'd adapt it to be used in oil spill clean ups.

The only way to get it out, is to change the oil, or burn it off. Once that water and fuel are gone, then yes, Amsoil might come out on top as a better oil to reduce friction and increase MPG and lower wear. How much better....well all oils have to meet certain SAE specs, but some oils are going above and beyond that, and each person has to decide if that added cost is worth it at the end of the day.

I mean if you're spending $50 on oil to increase MPG that averages out to 5 gallons of fuel saved for the duration of that $50 oil change....is the juice worth the squeeze??? But if we can some how factor in the added life of an engine due to less wear, it might be worth it, but that sort of crystal ball speculation is just that, crystal ball speculation.

I'm always willing to learn and if Amsoil has some additive that does some thing that other oils don't, I want to learn what it is and how it works, but LEARN is the key word here, and explained how and why that additive does what it does. I just do not get into the whole secret recipe thing...unless it's KFC...lol

Geesh, I gotta work on my post lengths here...lol
 

CJ2Rox

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Lol, ya you like them long but sometimes needed to get point across.
 

thepartyhound

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Amsoil is a great product for sure, but I'm a pretty staunch supporter of Lubrication Engineers. They make a great product with some amazing additive packages. Their typical customers are large mining operations, logging outfits, over-the-road companies, etc. You will not find their products on any store shelves, but you will find plenty of their 55 gallon drums in large maintenance shops across the country. They have a diesel engine oil that will last for 100k miles in an OTR truck, provided the filter is changed at required intervals and the oil is analyzed at prescribed times.
 

CJ2Rox

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I have three OTR trucks on the road that use Amsoil they also run the Dual oil bypass filters. One 20 mircon filter and one 2 micron filter. All three haven't changed oil in over 100k because they do the analysis when it calls for it. Just the oil without analysis last 60k but can push with samples. Probably most oils can be these days with testing. Testing is also great for finding problems before they become serious. My 2010 T660 Cummins developed a coolant leak into the motor before it showed signs of the issue and was able to resolve the problem before a new engine was needed.
 

Fallacy

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I took my 2018 Roxor to New Mexico and back from Iowa last June pulling my camper. It was a touch over 3000 miles in 10 days. Only issue I had was crossing the Rocky Mountains, in a couple places I had to drop to 4th and slow down a bit to keep my engine temps reasonable. Primarily back roads and ran 55-70mph.
We take it out nearly every Sunday for random wandering and a picnic, we usually cover a couple hundred miles on those picnics.
24,000 miles on it so far and problem free.
Its stage 2, aluminum radiator and electric fan, added a intercooler to it after the New Mexico trip.

FF0785CB-47A7-4EEC-AB0F-1EE4BB7C64BC.jpeg
 

CJ2Rox

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I read the email version before I saw your pic and was wondering how big of a camper and was glad to see what you had behind the Rox. I assume you have a full size plate? Here in UT they are a SXS so no freeway for us. Good to see the Rox holding up great post on its durability
 

thepartyhound

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That's a fair bit of summer driving without A/C! Glad to hear that it held up well despite the section through the rockies where it was wanting to heat up.
 

Fallacy

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That's a fair bit of summer driving without A/C! Glad to hear that it held up well despite the section through the rockies where it was wanting to heat up.

It was brutal for a couple days, we saw a high of 113 the first day while in the middle of Nebraska, the second day in eastern Colorado was 105~.
 

Uncle Chuck

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I remember back in the early 80's when I was an auto mechanic at a dealership, a man came in for some thing, I can't remember what, but while I was working on his vehicle, we got to talking. I noticed on the odometer he had over half a million miles on a slant six Chrysler. I asked him if he was the original owner, and he said he was, I then asked him what he did to the engine in that amount of time as far as rebuilding. He said nothing, I mean I've had to put a couple starters and alternators on it, and a water pump, and distributor, but that's about it.

I was shocked, and then asked him what kind of oil do you run, thinking he found some golden lube the rest of us never heard about, and his answer was even more shocking, he said I run the cheapest crap I can find on sale at Kmart or where ever.....BUT I change it every change it no later than 2,000 miles or when it looks dirty, and that can be as little as a 1,000 miles. He said heck, oil is cheaper than a rebuild, so change it.

He also said I NEVER move my vehicle until it is warmed up no matter what time of the year is it, but especially in the winter, I'll let it run for 10 or 15 minutes before moving her, and I always let her run a minute or two to cool off, before shutting it down.


I will also add in that you should limit short slow farting around trips that never gets your engine up in RPM, because you do need to get an engine out once a week or so and stretch her legs some. Take her out and run her at 40 to 60 MPH for 10 or 15 minutes at a time. This is more for the oil than the engine. Oil has to get up to operating temp and stay there for a few minutes at least, to burn off any contaminates like fuel and water that has made its way into your engine and oil as well as other gear boxes, and those two things are what cause ANY oil to lose lube properties and cause engine wear.

What happens on short trips, is you warm up the engine and oil, but the oil doesn't get hot enough, long enough, to burn off contaminates, BUT instead what you are doing is warming up and cooling off over and over, and condensation will build up in the engine and gear boxes, and cause oil to start to fail, even when the oil is brand new.

This is especially true as we get into colder months. You start your engine and get it up to operating temps, and all that air space in your engine expands and the moisture in the crankcase gets mixed with oil, and just as everything starts to get hot enough to burn off that water, you shut your engine down and it cools off, and now that hot air that has expanded in your crankcase during engine operation, is now starting to cool off and becoming more dense and creating a slight vacuum in your crankcase and drawing in new air and with it new moisture. The next day you repeat this with another short trip, and just as your engine and oil are at operating temp, you shut it down and this is how moisture build up gets inside not just your engine oil, but all oil and gear boxes.

This is also true for automatic transmissions. Many people think that the lines running from the trans to the radiator are cooling lines, but in fact, they actually there to take heat from the radiator and warm up the trans fluid as quickly as possible, because in colder months, that trans fluid may never fully reach operation temps to burn off the moisture and for an automatic transmission, that will be costly sooner than later.

So, this is why you take it out once a week and stretch her legs, to break up this heating up and cooling off cycle that's happening. This also helps with fully recharging your battery, but I doubt that's an issue here with most Roxor owners. That's more of an issue with soccer moms running to a dozen different stores and coffee shops every day that are within a half mile of each other and after each start, they never really fully top off the battery and over time, it slowly loses capacity, and now add in the cold, and it just compounds the problem.

I'm sorry for the long post, but some times to understand some of these principles, a lengthy explanation is needed to truly understand the "WHY" of the matter, so we can make adjustments and extend the life of our vehicles.
I for one don’t mind the lengthy dissertation! You’re absolutely right about that hot/cold/condensation issue. Everybody wants to live close to their workplace because it’s convenient, but short trips are really hard on vehicles. Maybe a bicycle would be a better option?
 

billyg

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I have three OTR trucks on the road that use Amsoil they also run the Dual oil bypass filters. One 20 mircon filter and one 2 micron filter. All three haven't changed oil in over 100k because they do the analysis when it calls for it. Just the oil without analysis last 60k but can push with samples. Probably most oils can be these days with testing. Testing is also great for finding problems before they become serious. My 2010 T660 Cummins developed a coolant leak into the motor before it showed signs of the issue and was able to resolve the problem before a new engine was needed.
Hi does Amsoil GL4 sae 80w90 gear lube have the items in it that will harm the yellow metals in the trans / transfer case? Thanks
 

Daddyflea

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From what I have been reading it sounds like a leaf spring and shock absorber upgrade is popular. I'd bet that getting a longer spring under the front end with improved dampening would soften up the ride quality quite a bit.
Thanks for the info, I was under the impression these had D30s under the front end. Sounds like they built these with upgrading in mind by putting a 44 under there from the factory! I'm not a jeep guy, but I'm not sure if any jeeps in the past came with a 44 front from the factory? It seems all my jeep-wheeling buddies were either putting a 44 under the front, or putting Yota axles front and rear.
Are these mahindra trannys a 4 speed or a 3 speed?
Roxor is a 5 Speed
 
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