Well, I have never owned a jeep but before I got the Tracker, I had a 71 bronco with lockers, gears, disk brakes...all the good stuff. The tracker just walks over stuff that the bronco had issues with. Last time I went out wheeling, I ended up following a group of jeeps out of Miller Jeep Trail which is a challenging trail. Where most jeeps stuggled I just walked up. By the time I got to the top, people who didn't give my beat-up, dented to shit, 80hp tracker a second look were swarming to see what my little rig was equipt with. What makes these little rigs great is the weight. Although you don't have the flex of a SAS rig you also don't have the weight to push you around, so lifting a tire isn't as big a deal as if you were in a heavier rig. Also, when approaching a obsticle you can easily place your tires because it doesn't take a lot of power or force for a tire to scratch its way up a rock face, especially when equipt with the 4.24 gears. Althoguh my Bronco buddies would knock me, if I had to choose a decent rig for all around off-roading, I would go with my Tracker hands down! Good luck with the XJ delima.