Are Jeep Wranglers Safe?

 

This is what we imagine when we dream of our Jeep build. Climbing and crawling anything and everything.

But are Jeeps really safe?

Tough question but one that a lot of newbys do not take into consideration. They see someone fly up a hill and figure the Jeep can do it...but can they?

I started with a lot of respect toward Jeeps because I was raise on a ranch where four wheeling wasn't a sport but a necessity. Our neighbor and friend on a ranch nearby had a Wrangler, rolled it and killed himself. So that never left my mind. We should never forget every time we go out that we may be dragging the Jeep back like this.

Take a few moments to take a look at a couple of videos and learn what to look out for.

Jeep Video

Two things to really realize from these videos is that most often the rolls happened on pretty tame surfaces and number two, the more lift and spring in the tires and suspension the more it works against you.

It really is worth going through Youtube videos and analyzing what went wrong. So often it is trying to overpower the situation instead of using the elements that make the original Willys so good in the war and that is lightness, slowly crawling through and letting the Jeep find the way instead of forcing it. Mark Smith's book is really a lesson in that he took what we would call stock CJ's now and went from Tierra Del Fuego to Alaska in some of the roughest terrain on earth and didn't loose a single Jeep or kill a single person whereas the U.S. Marines tried the same path and killed eight and lost several vehicles. Wranglers are slow and steady, not hot rods, when you really want to get back in one piece.

Seat belts, arms and hands inside and good roll bar systems usually are enough to protect us because Jeeps usually are not moving at a high rate of speed. But the damage to the Jeep and to your families faith in Jeeps being fun can be the biggest loss to not respecting the sport.