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Comments
It may be that your tire pressure is correctly set, but if the pressures were last checked when the weather was warmer, or when the tires were warm from being driven, then your tire pressures could be too high, which would aggravate the problems you were having.
Also, ABS or not, don't hit the brakes, just feather them, and try to use engine braking whenever possible. I'm sure that this doesn't apply to you, but it's amazing that some people feel they have to drive using pressure on either the brake or throttle. So many times I see brake lights coming on before a corner, when just lifting off the throttle a little earlier would more than suffice. Ok, rant over!
Terry
Just to clarify, the relationship between the temperature and pressure of a gas is directly proportional when the volume remains constant. However, the effect is the opposite to that which I posted previously. In other words, as temperature increases so does pressure and the pressure decreases as the temperature drops.
Too late now to edit the post to save my embarassment. I can only claim senility and multitasking as a poor excuse!
However, as you say, the point remains that high pressure may still be the problem.
I also second using engine braking as much as possible - I prefer the manual Sport to the auto Unlimited in snow for that very reason.
Ya, I get b/w 20-25 mpg. Can't say why it varies so. Brand of gas? Weather? Road conditions? Even if all is relatively similar, it still varies. :confuse:
This is why I got a 4-cylinder, it cost less, and costs less to run, and I only off road every blue moon, so I don't need the off road power that much. Although I do miss the power of the bigger engine. Oh, well.
That aside, I do get decent mileage (mpg) for a brick on wheels if I don't push it. Plus, I've paid as low as 1.819 per gallon recently here in Okie-land.
My next Wrangler will more than likely be a 6. All in all, "Eugene" has done allright by me; so maybe I'll let some automotive-gifted buddies convince me to drop in a more serious powerplant and convert him from a daily driver into a special "mo-chine"!
Y.H!
Gary
I think your experience this morning was unusual. I live in the Chicago area. This morning, in my area, the snow was over a layer of ice. Treacherous as heck. I did not have to drive in it but did walk in it for a quarter or mile or so. Very difficult. Also, I can verify that you were not the only one hitting curbs.
My TJ Wrangler does very well in snow. On ice, it is a handful.
Terry
YMMV.
Yours in Jeep Coolness,
Dave
Annapolis, MD
My wife noticed as we climbed a hill at Dogleg in TB that the passenger wheels weren't spinning. She took that as my engine not having enough power to turn em. I told her mine were going nuts! It was a case of the open diff turning the wheels with least resistance. I can fix that.
On the highway, once it is warmed up, it can run 70 - 75 with little to no problem (other than crazy gas consumption). On hills though... 50-60 is the norm. No problem, it's a Jeep, not a Ferrari!
-Paul
As we flew over the SouthWest my daughter (12) and I were noticing what looked like thousands of miles of unpaved roads. When we got to LV we took one day and drove out to Red Rock Canyon. We could go back and spend a whole week hiking there! It was awesome.
Later that night we hopped on I-15 south and drove to California because my daughter had never been there and we wanted to see what the sky looks like without haze and light pollution. Oh my.... I've never seen so many stars. We could actually see the Milky Way.
On the way back to Vegas we decided to never tell the Jeep about all the off road opportunities we had seen. We're afraid it might run away from home!
Next Thanksgiving we're considering going to Arizona and doing the Phoenix/Sedona/Flagstaff/Grand Canyon tour. If only I had enough time off to drive there...
Yours in Jeep Coolness,
Dave
We've done the cross country drive, but not in a Wrangler.
Red Rock is incredible - try Moab or Bryce Canyon for some mind boggling stuff!
Monument Valley in AZ, Yosemite in CA, Yellowstone in Wyoming... the western terrain is truly awe inspiring to those who have never seen it in person. To this day, I still remember the first time I saw El Capitan at Yosemite as we drove out of a tunnel in our JEEP Grand Cherokee. We had Enya playing in our CD player (seemed to fit the mood we were in) and to this day, whenever I hear it, I think of Yosemite.
Glad you had a great trip!
-Paul
Mark
What year is yours, and do those colors match what you have?
Have a look at the harness at both the head unit and the subwoofer. The colors should match the ones in my previous post there as well, except for the right rear + which becomes Grey/Dark Blue at the sub.
Mark
If you get a chance, bring your Jeep out here - it is so much fun! And if you want to see the Grand Canyon, there's a North Rim overlook, called Toroweap, that can only be reached by 80 miles of dirt road. Totally different type of view - you can see down to the Colorado river, almost a straight drop (at least that's what the photos look like). I haven't made it out there yet, but I hope to one of these days.
Heh-heh, I know that feeling...whenever "the Sopwith Camel" encounters an incline on the highway, the speedometer goes counter-clockwise, unless I get some good momemtum before starting to go up. If I can't get up to some decent speed, no matter how much I floor it, it just won't go. :surprise: Then I have to shift back a gear, and watch the needle jump to the red area of the dial, then it'll pick up some speed.
I feel Snoopy would drive this car, with his goggles and long scarf, flowing in the wind... with the soft top down...I can hardly wait for spring!
Hank has been wheelin' with me twice now, and he is off to a great start as a Jeep dog. He really seems to enjoy it, and he behaves himself very well.
This pic was taken yesterday at Turkey Bay just before we hit the trails.
Tom
Have you hugged your Jeep today?
I'm very, very happy for you.
By the way...the last pic you posted of the "incredible lean" was awesome. Did you get...what do y'all call 'em...."trail pinstripes"?? That is some picture.
Dedicating this post in memory of Ross Allen....
Randy
Here's a pic with even more lean. This was taken at a place where you have to go around a tree as you run the lower part of Dogleg. You have to climb the bank with your right side tires to get around that tree. This was not taken at just the right moment to capture the greatest lean, but there's still a pretty good amount in the picture.
Now here is a picture taken in Buttpucker Gulch last October. This is as crazy as I get. I have taken some damage in BP Gulch, and I have not even attempted it in a long time. I think you can see the potential for damage, huh?
As a matter of fact, I didn't make it that time. Just a little further up, the right side slipped down into the deep part of the gully, and I busted the right rear corner of the hardtop. Tub took a little damage too, but the tub corner protectors kept me from getting a lot of sheet metal damage. I had to use the winch to get out of there.
Tom
Have you hugged your Jeep today?
Tom
Have you hugged your Jeep today?
Cool pic's! I need to take a trip down there one of these days and meet you guys.
-Rob
As you can tell, I am a very new Wrangler owner... haven't even had the chance to go off roading in the Northern Virginia area.
Lots of education to come, I am sure!
Chuck
I may just have to go back to the way they were and let em wear that way no rotation...anyone have this experience?
They will start to quiet down after a while...
I have experienced both problems. keats is right about the noise settling down after a few hundred miles. I also rotate mine at about 5,000 miles to reduce the time wear patterns have to develop. If you increased you air pressure, that might also contribute to noise.
The slight shimmer in the steering turned out to be a slightly bent wheel which had been on the back and caused the problem when it was moves to the front. I convinced the dealer I had never been off road or hit anything. It was replaced under warranty.
Terry
Just as important is to include the spare in the rotation. Not only will you get more miles from your set of tires, but they will all have similar tread depth, which is important in avoiding differential wear or damage if you have to use the spare.
That's where you need to have a good spotter. You cannot see much from behind the wheel. It may not be too obvious in that picture, but you are going uphill pretty steeply while running that gully. About all you can see through the windshield is the hood of your Jeep, some sky, and some tree tops.
When you make it through Buttpucker Gulch, you thank your spotter and give him all the credit.
The trick to getting through the spot that I was in when that picture was taken is to get your left side tires as high as you can on that vertical wall, and make the right side tires take most of the weight of the Jeep. That wall on the driver's left is just too straight up and down to hold the Jeep with side bite on the tires. That's why you purposely lean the Jeep over to the right side, getting as much weight off the left side as possible.
I got through that place OK, but just beyond that place the gully gets a little wider, making it hard to straddle the deep part without one side slipping down into the deep part in the middle. You have to be on just exactly the right line to get through that part.
I'm not even sure it can be done any more, unless you have full width axles. The gully has widened over time, and I don't think I am ever going to get back in there.
Tom
Have you hugged your Jeep today?
-Paul
Just use the same tire position every time (I use the right rear). Do the normal rotation, then switch the spare last of all. I also use this as an opportunity to inspect the inner sidewalls for damage, and to the clean the inside of the wheels which is hard to do normally.
:shades:
Anyway, finally had my first snow drive in my Wrangler Unlimited and I love it!! Not that I haven't been loving or hugging my Wrangler since I bought mine in May. I had a blast coming to work this morning. There was three feet of snow piled up at the base of my driveway this morning from neighbor's plowing service. I never could have made it to work this morning if I still had my Honda Civic...no way! My Wrangler shot through the snow bank without even feeling it. I was almost disappointed that it was so easy. I drove up steep, slippery hills without problems in 4-Hi. I didn't even need the 4-Hi once I got to some two-track zones of roads but it sure was nice to stick it back in 4-Hi as I approached drifts across the roads. Very, very cool. :shades:
I'm sure nothing new to truck owners but I sure like the shear height of clearance underneath the Wrangler in deep snow. It is so nice just getting in and out without sitting down into the snow to get into or out of a car. I'm so used to years of opening a car door...wait...I mean clearing a swath of snow away so I could open the door and then crouching down, holding my breath as I get into a fetal position so I can get into my car with snow going up my pant legs...I love stepping up out of the snow and down into the snow.
Have to get back to work now but just wanted to share my feelings of my Wrangler in the snow. She handled great even with the stock GSA tires. Sure, in 2-Hi, the Wrangler's rear can get loose a little bit but I've missed that in all the years of owning a front-wheel drive vehicle. I feel the road conditions can be read better with rear-wheel drive and I actually feel more secure knowing I can use the rear-swing-out turn as necessary...might just be me but I've missed rear-wheel drive. In 4-Hi, my Wrangler is such a beast compared to my years of controlled slides in all my other vehicles on snowy Michigan mornings like today.
I LOVE MY WRANGLER!!!
And dispite the weather predictions of partly or mostly cloudy skies, we had our first snow shower this morning! Bring on winter!
At the last moment, the trucks turn came up at the four-way, and he moved into the intersection. Saved by inches. I was going slow enough not to have totalled the Jeep, but I sure wish I had ice studs rather than GSA's at that moment.
However, I've done some slides in parking lots after rain because all the oil on the asphalt made it like a skating rink. Once I remembered that little tidbit of info, it was fun to spin the Jeep around.
But on the road, the AT's are pretty secure, but keep in mind, no tire will be perfect in those conditions.
Snow = brake lightly and early
I slow down as much as possible w/o using the brakes and try to minimize their use in those situations.
-Paul
I was browsing over on Quadratec, sheesh there's alot to choose from! Any suggestions?? There are prices ranging from around $70 all the way to $235 per rim! Just wondering if anyone else swapped out there rims and enjoy their new ones.
Thanks.
Looks
Material (aluminum vs steel)
To accomodate larger/wider tires
Steel wheels will be cheaper and heavier than aluminum.
Lower backspacing numbers will mean they stick out further from the body and allow wider tires.
Have fun with your search, but be sure to find wheels with 5x4.5" bolt pattern.
-Paul
I'm still such a wuss....raining here today, and had to drive through a construction area, resulting in mud on my Jeep without the fun of getting to get her off-road... :mad:
I'm going to have to find someway to get to TB to wheel with you....but we're definitely going in Thelma Jane! She's apparently used to your, um, "experiences"!
How's Hank doing?
Randy
It would be absolutely FANTASTIC if you could come wheel with me at Turkey Bay!
Don't worry, you could take your Jeep. We never put newbies into something like Buttpucker Gulch. Like I already said, I'm not going back in there any more myself.
There are bypasses for the obstacles that you would prefer not to tackle. There's no pressure on anyone to do something that they don't want to try. We are not out there to have a contest to see who is the bravest (or craziest). We go out there to have fun.
When can you make it???
Tom
Have you hugged your Jeep today?