Yeah lockers help out if you know how to use them right... loose terrain/mud lockers offer an even power split to either side of the axle, so as soon as one tire gets traction on Terrafirma on either wheel your on your way the other will just spin freely in the muck...

whats torque going to do when you have no traction, NOTHING... thats why you want your 4 part time (locked differential in the transfercase, 48/52 front to back power split) or full time combined with the locker in the mud you'll have the best chance of getting out of something sticky...

Low is the crawl ratio, inching up rocks, pulling something/someone out and things of that nature. and of course you'd hate to have one tire up in the air spinning, while the other is firmly planted on the rocks... crawling requires maximum traction so thats where low kicks in and lockers just make it that much more easy... (im sure thats going to bite me in the *** someday lol)

If your wise on how you drive your jeep, you should be able to get thru most of the terrain you run into without the aid of the locker. If your planning on hitting up hard core trails then id definitely be looking for the Rubicon

4.10 gears come in the Rubicon, its kinda a mixed bag for gearing... i'm using an educated guess, since most of the time a 5 speed gets the better gearing... although with it being a sport, they might have you with the "fuel efficient" 3.07 gears as Mr.White since he has a sport as well.

 

Ruby is actually the way to go, but price wise it will cost you more initially, but in the long run you will probably save. The ruby wud give u what u will probably be looking for later on. I wud like to have 4.10 gearing and a rear locker and of course the dana 44 which they say is a stronger axle than the dana 30 or 35 which yu have now on the tj 03 sport. It not so much the cost now, as the availably to find one they come their gone.Wud I have bot a ruby instead, probably YES if I had found one at a reliable price, but they weren't selling for $15m,do u want to pay $20 for a ruby? NO

 

The OP is looking at 80% on road 20% off road so it sounds like a daily driver to me. IMO he needs to find a rock solid stock vehicle with no rust or mechanical issues that can be modified without having to fix all kinds of underlying problems. He also needs to take into consideration the price of a complete soft top & hardware and add that to the 11K purchase price.

To me 11K ++ still seems steep. Between Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto I bet he could do much better. If he's got 11K to spend, he could find a low mileage 98 or something for about 5-6K and have tons of cash left for upgrades and repairs.

And all this babble about Rubicons and D44's may be true, but a stock TJ will get you to pretty well most places you will ever really need to go. If it won't, you can probably walk the trail faster than driving it anyways so what's the point??

 

Hey man, you know what I do? I look on autotrader.ca and do an advance search. Type in your make, model and year, search all regions and you can get an average of what they sell for in Canada. Hope this helps!

 

OK, I'm bored so I took a look for you. If the Jeep is in good condition, the 2003 TJ sport or similar TJ models with 50K to 90K are averaging in the 13000$ mark on autotrader.ca, so your find is below average. If I was you, I'd get a 97, 98 or 99 with a straight 6. They go between 6000$-9000$

 

Would the dealer give you the name of the person (lady) they bought it from? Or could they contact her and ask her to call you. Then ask her if she still has the soft top and at what price would she be willing to let it go at. It funny they didn't leave it inside the jeep as it stays inside even with the winter top on folding behind the rear seat. minus the rear and side windows. I remove mine completely for more space.