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Safer with Lift, Tires, Bumper.

7K views 37 replies 25 participants last post by  TheRubicon 
#1 ·
Hey my friend is trying to get his jeep built up like mine but his parents think that his jeep will become less safe with all the mods on it. My jeep is a jk 2 door with 35s ko2 and 3.5 inch lift warn front stubby bumper and some rock hard 4x4 sliders. What do you guys think about it and could you give me some things on how safe the jeep is compared to a stock one.

Best,

FM
 
#4 ·
lol, try running 37's on 17's. if your aired low enough and you make a slightly too sharp turn on pavement, you'll be three wheeling because the outer front tire will roll under (yes, i know this from experience).
 
#7 ·
Safer on the trail; yes.
Safer on the street; no.

A all of the mods you listed are safety driven, purpose driven. But not usually for somebody that has to explain it to their mom. To their wife, yes ---- but then it usually only takes one good stuck/unstuck to justify the expenses.


If you're serious and not a troll, take mom wheeling. Let your buddy get stuck. Unstuck your buddy.
 
#11 ·
Hey my friend is trying to get his jeep built up like mine but his parents think that his jeep will become less safe with all the mods on it. My jeep is a jk 2 door with 35s ko2 and 3.5 inch lift warn front stubby bumper and some rock hard 4x4 sliders. What do you guys think about it and could you give me some things on how safe the jeep is compared to a stock one.



Best,



FM


No doubt your friend's parents know what they are talking about. A lifted Jeep will never be as safe as a stock. Laws of physics dictate that. Kids should listen their elders more. We do know a few things.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#13 ·
I'll bite. This is the Internet after all. Someone has to be the voice of reason lmao.

First, you need your friends to realize that the most critical and functional piece of safety equipment is your brain. Period. End of story. I know plenty of people with "safer" cars ruining their lives be being idiots and reliant on safety features.

Second. He doesn't need all that other crap. If he has a two door get some 18/60 4 door springs cheap. These will lift the Jeep 1.5", if he has a 4 door Teraflex and RK make 1.5" coils.

At 1.5" the roll center is marginally effected. And the factory suspension geometry is within stock spec. A benefit however will be the stiffness of the springs. These will help a little bit with brake dive, anti-squat, and body roll which we all know has a detrimental effect on handling. Coupled with a good set of shocks like OME, Fox, or Bilstein your friend can expect better suspension performance on and off road.

A 295/70r17 tire is a wonderful medium. Next to stockers and 33" you look like you're on 35s. Next to 35s you look a little small. I suggest Cooper STT Pros. The wider tire will provide more traction than the factory BFGs in ALL conditions, and possibly even the road tires. The factory tires on the Jeeps are abysmal in almost all aspects.

At 34" in diameter, weight increase will be minimum, and so will the effects on acceleration and breaking.

Bumpers are detrimental to handling. Big ol weights hanging off the front and rear of the car, extended out over the axles. No bueno. But Rockhards Aluminim bumpers are almost identical in weight to the factory plastic with infinitely more durability! It's a WIN/WIN!

Bumpers, factory and aftermarket, have nothing to do with safety. They do not play a role in the crumple zones located in the frame. So while the aluminum bumpers will not effect safety in any way, you get the added protection in low speed impacts. Less repair bills from little oopsies and backing into concrete poles or something. So there is a benefit.

Hope I played a good devils advocate.
 
#16 ·
Wow, a helpful and intelligent answer.
Much better than the useless "troll" comments.
 
#15 ·
Maybe not always...


A central Georgia couple pleaded guilty to having their 14-year-old daughter engage in sex with a man so that they would not have to make monthly payments on their secondhand minivan. Sandra Davis, 37, of Dodge County, pleaded guilty to child molestation and was sentenced to eight years in prison on Monday. Davis did not physically abuse her daughter, but she did admit to encouraging her to trade sex for the van payments.

Davis' husband, James Davis, 39, and used-car salesman Robert Bearden, 67, both pleaded guilty to molestation. They were sentenced to 10 years in prison and 10 years' probation.
 
#26 ·
I will bite, but on the other side.

If you have seen a picture of my grey pickup then you know, but if not, it has 35 inch tires, six inch lift, high steel bumpers.

Twice this has been "safer" than a standard vehicle.

First time, slammed into a deer in the middle of the night at 40 MPH (country road). Net damage result, had to have an alignment done on the front tires.

No deer smashing the hood, rolling over into the windshield, ruining radiator, none of that, just big bump, and one really wounded deer I had to shoot.

Second.

Sitting at stoplight. Drunk kid in honda civic slams into back of truck. Messed his hood/engine up something fierce, worse thing it did to my truck was push the back bumper up into the tailgate which was fixed in 10 minutes by readjusting the mounting bolts.

Lottsa ways it can be less safe, but there were two times were it was better to be up in the air in a lifted truck.
 
#27 ·
No expert with data to back it up, but all the Jeep vs. car posts I have seen on FB - The Jeep "wins". All cars are made with crumple zones to absorb impact energy. In the Jeep accidents I have seen pics of, the aftermarket steel bumpers do not give. So the car absorbs all the impact. Result is: car totaled, Jeep scratches on the bumper.
 
#29 ·
My take is bumpers do add safety in any impact, however they are designed for low speed impact thus their benefit above a certain speed is almost non existent however some energy is abosobed. What that speed is, I have no clue... might only be 10 MPH or 40 MPH.

Jeep vs car isn't really due to the jeep being superiorly made/safe or super strong bumpers, its usually the heavier vehicle and also it's using it's bumper to plow through the other vehicle. Usually this occurs where the jeeps bumper is well above the other vehicles bumper or above the crash structure in the other vehicles doors.

I thought it was interesting the NHTSA offset frontal crash the JK/JKU performed pretty well, better then its competitors if I recall. However it did look like it went up on two wheels. Adding another few inches of lift who knows the jeep could of rolled.
 
#30 ·
Since we're using anecdotes to present empirical evidence...

I'm a collision analyst... and the term 'safer' can be relative and absolute. People have shared examples where they think being 'higher' saved them from further damage and harm. And, maybe they did in THAT particular collision. But, maybe instead of hitting that animal on the road, they attempted to swerve and the vehicle became uncontrollable because of modifications. There's no way to know all the variables and how they will come into play in YOUR particular collision.

The idea of 'The Jeep Wins' because it has less damage. So... where does all that collision energy go then? If the Jeep frame and bumpers isn't deforming, then all that energy is going to make it to the occupants. Sure, that Kia Rio is crumpled up like a can, but it's done it's job absorbing energy. You can't declare the Jeep absolutely 'safer' than the Rio...

The true test is vehicles of a similar size colliding. How does a Wrangler fair when compared to say... a Ford Explorer? Since we can't crash every type of vehicle together... we crash them into walls and off-set barriers, or smash things into them.

The best, the very best, a Jeep Wrangler has ever tested is 3 out of 5 stars on ANY front, side, or rollover collision. The best the new Ford Explorer has tested... 5 out of 5.

The Wrangler is not a particularly 'safe' vehicle by design. Lots of new vehicles can take big hits... the Wrangler is no different... but it is very, very weak in side impact protection.

So to say that any modifications are going to make it 'safer' is not fair... unless you are talking about structural reinforcements like race-rated roll cages, fuel cells, 5 point harnesses... which all require things like helmets and neck support to be 'safest'. Think NASCAR and that's how you make something 'safer'. Big tires? Not so much.

Now... back to the anecdotes... People here see a crash or two, or are involved in a collision and have a great story about their Jeep. I see 100's of crashes, and I can tell you that at highway speed, you're pretty much at the mercy of a whole lot of physics, and most likely you are going to die if you hit either another car, or an immovable object, at 70mph. It's just too much. Now, some people make it... but those are often not 70-0mph collisions... they bounce around and smash into lots of things. Imagine Jeep vs. Semi...

At city-speed though... most new cars you are going to walk way from a 30mph collision... again... some bad luck and maybe a bumper from an F350 hits you in the face when it broadsides your Ford Fiesta... but most of these collisions people survive.

The safest vehicles in my experience? Full-size SUV's like the Toyota Sequoia, BMW X5... these things have immense structure, dozens of airbags, huge dimensions for crumple zones to do their jobs... a Wrangler has none of these things.

So... since you can't really control other drivers, or what they are driving... you are left to decide if your vehicle is 'safe enough'. I live in a mountain area, winter 6 months solid, very few divided highways. My highway trip vehicle is a Sequoia. But... I weigh the risks, even after all the dead people I've seen... and have a Wrangler.

I would never tell someone a Wrangler is particularly 'safe' by design. It's really not. It will be interesting if the JL makes any advances in this area...
 
#31 ·
I guess I am on the other side, depending on how you mod the vehicle you can make it safer.

Lift kits, there are quality well designed lift kits and then there is everything else. I can speak to my kit and overall handling is improved. Stiffer springs with shocks matched to the springs and better controls arms lead to less body roll and more predictable suspension movement. I autocrossed for many years and while this is not a Corvette I do look forward to twisty roads. You would be amazed at just how nimble this Jeep is.

Tires. Going larger is going to put more strain and wear and tear on the components. But at the same time you are going to widen the track unless you run pizza cutters. The widened track provides additional stability with a loss of braking.

Bumpers. I don't think bumpers enhance safety at all but most of us are putting these bumpers on to provide additional capabilities, winches, light etc.


In the end it all comes down to how well thought out mods are. My Jeep is heavy, fully armored with a cage and a big brake kit. I would put this up against any stock Jeep when it comes to handling or braking. But this did not come cheap and when doing mods there is always a trade off between acceptable risk vs doing it right.
 
#34 ·
My wife and I owned a mini-van for a couple of years.

We don't have kids, but we have dogs and do a lot of outdoorsy stuff, and I'm also a musician that often has to haul a guitar rig, bass rig, and PA system to play a gig that barely pays for the gas.

We bought a 1999 Pontiac Montana. It was my wife's daily driver. It was also a huge piece of crap. The transmission was replaced twice in the couple of years that we owned it, and on a quiet night, if you listened really hard, you could actually hear it rusting.

The brakes were terrible, the handling was terrible, and it looked terrible. The sway bar was actually a hollow tube, and the bar itself broke off (not the sway bar link, the sway bar itself).

All that said, it was the ultimate 'convenience' vehicle. It had 3 rows of seats that were completely removable, giving you damn near 8' of flat cargo space behind the front seats. All of the rear seats could be removed individually, so if you needed just a little extra room, you could take one seat out. You could drive it to a party, take a seat out, and use it as a lawn chair. It would hold twice as much cargo as my wife's JKU.

Despite all of that, one of the happiest days of my life was the day we got rid of it!
 
#35 ·
I had a Ford Aerostar as a company car for a year.
I never said it in public but I loved it.
Really stupid looking car. I mean hideous. But decent stereo with lots of speakers and room for the entire crew when it was my turn to be the designated driver.

And yes. I was single. And it had acres of interior space.

But it sucked my testosterone. I was lucky that I only put 60,000 miles on it and never started to lactate.
 
#36 ·
I don't own a minivan and hope to never own one. With that said, they are extremely amazing at what they are built for. They also do sick front wheel drive burnouts, especially the Toyota Siennas. I worked at Enterprise Rent-A_Car for awhile and may or may not have caused some tire loss.
 
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