Episode 736 – Good Dog, Bad Dog?

This Week In Jeep

Good Dog?…. Or Bad Dog!?

I think by now you’ve likely seen some funny videos online of people doing stupid, funny, bewildering, and sometimes shocking stuff in their vehicles. I don’t think I’m at risk here of saying that I think Russia is at the top of the list for the largest amount of content created in this category but I digress. This week a story surfaced that is just too bizarre to believe if I hadn’t seen the footage to back it up. From the video, it looks like we’re seeing a Right Hand Drive Jeep Grand Cherokee rolling down a parking lot or something and then crashing right into another car. And it’s only upon the moment of impact do you realize that there’s a dog behind the wheel. The presumed owner of the Jeep, (and the dog) comes running to the rescue immediately as we see the Jeep in motion. She’s running alongside the Jeep and grabs a hold of the passenger side door and door jam like she’s going to be able to stop the momentum of this 4200-pound SUV rolling down a hill. Yeah, you go Karen! Her efforts are of course completely futile as the Jeep, the dog driving the Jeep, and super Karen all come crashing to a stop at the bottom thanks to a parked car. The dog looks over as if to say, what? Is it over already?  Freya, a border collie, is the Jeeping K9 in the driver’s seat. And in the video, the owner of the Jeep and dog, whose name is NOT Karen by the way, claims that Freya knocked the gear stick loose, putting it into drive and causing it to roll. Once the Jeep had a little momentum and crested the hill in the parking lot, it was all over. Despite driving without a license, the dog is fine and is still a “good dog.” However, she has been permanently banned from sitting up front in her owner’s Jeep.  The owner of the car that was hit, says he thinks the entire incident is hilarious. Obviously, this whole thing could have gone sideways any number of ways, and this story would have a much different feel to it. Maybe there wasn’t a car at the bottom of the hill, maybe it was a daycare or something. Maybe the woman tried to get into the Jeep and ended up getting run over by it instead? The owner of the car that was hit could have been a complete douche nozzle and started a brawl. Thankfully there were no injuries, and everyone involved had a good sense of humor about it all too. 

https://www.reddit.com/r/IdiotsInCars/comments/zq298o/do_dogs_in_cars_count/

Speaking Of Jeeps Crashing….

We report every so often horrific Jeep crashes. This isn’t because of some twisted fascination with people getting hurt in Jeeps, it’s usually to point out that although the sport of off-roading, Jeeping if you will, is relatively safe, there are all sorts of risks that need to be taken seriously. Sometimes in these stories, it’s just an unfortunate series of events, totally out of the blue. Sometimes it’s because of negligence, bad decisions, or intoxication. And too often these stories involve the loss of life. Today’s story is unfortunately one of those. On Monday, December 19th, 2022, at around 5:45, Officers and first responders with the California Highway Patrol’s Santa Rosa office and the Monte Rio Fire Protection District responded to a crash on private property at the Happy Hills Hunting Club in a part of the county northwest of the unincorporated area of Cazadero. According to the reports, one of the Jeeps was driving down a dirt road and initially overturned on an embankment and fell some 300 feet into a ravine. 

The vehicle’s driver, a 32-year-old man, and a passenger, an unidentified young boy, were both killed in the crash. A second Jeep, driven by a 49-year-old man and carrying two boys attempted to help the first, but also overturned down the embankment and into the ravine. Emergency responders attempted to extract all five people, but the steep terrain and an incoming fog bank required that they instead call in the use of ATVs to access the scene of the crashes. According to the California Highway Patrol, the driver of the second Jeep was airlifted to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital with life-threatening injuries. The two children in the second Jeep were transported by ambulance to Santa Rosa Memorial with moderate injuries that are not considered life-threatening. The identities of the man and child killed in the initial crash have yet to be released by the Sonoma County Coroner’s Office pending notification of their next of kin. What lesson we can glean from this accident is utterly and entirely secondary to the tragedy that took place. Was it poor trail conditions and there was a washout? Was there snow or ice involved? Did the two Jeepers know each other? I don’t know. There are so many questions and unfortunately not enough answers. What I can say is this. If you are not incredibly well equipped to rescue someone from a ravine, despite feeling like you’re abandoning a person in desperate need of help that you just know you can provide… it is going to be better for everyone involved if you instead go and get help. If there are multiple people in your party, then it’s logical to leave someone behind to relay communications, but trying to traverse 300 feet down the side of a ravine is only going to add to the number of people that the search and rescue teams will need to extract.

I can’t fault the man in the second Jeep for trying to provide some assistance, in fact, it’s outright heroic, but you have to know your limitations and there’s got to be a point where you take your own personal safety into consideration, especially when there are children involved. 

Say Goodbye To The V8 For This Jeep

Jeep has quietly dropped the V-8 engine option from its two-row 2023 Grand Cherokee SUV. The move, first discovered by Motor Authority on Monday and now has been confirmed by Jeep, means the most powerful two-row Grand Cherokee you can order right now is the 4xe hybrid.           …aaaand the crowd goes mild.

The 5.7-liter naturally aspirated V-8 was rated at 357 hp and 390 lb-ft of torque and offered as a $3795 option for 2022 model year two-row Grand Cherokees. Now, the only engine options available are the base Pentastar V-6 and the 375-hp hybrid powertrain which, as Motor Authority points out, is more powerful, torquier, more efficient, and almost 1 second quicker to 60 mph than the outgoing V-8 model. Well, that’s all fine and dandy on paper, but I don’t think that a hybrid power train is going to give the tingles down there (if you know what I mean) every time a light turns green. 

That being said, we don’t have to say goodbye forever to Jeep’s V8 engine. For now, at least, it will still be available in the three-row Grand Cherokee L. Though it probably won’t be for long. Stellantis’s new twin-turbo straight-six has already been added to the higher-priced Wagoneer models, and it’s expected to make its way into the Grand Cherokee lineup sooner rather than later to replace the V-8 altogether. Nothing’s been confirmed at this point, though. So a lot of this is just industry speculation, and educated guesstimates. At the time of this recording, there are still a handful of V-8-powered two-row Grand Cherokees on dealer lots, so if you want one, you can still have one. But you’ll have to act fast. Are these really the last days of a V8 Jeep?

Must-Have Stuff Pick-of-the-Week for your Jeep!

JEEP WINCH MOUNTING PLATE FOR FACTORY BUMPER 

(07-18 JK WRANGLER) $199.95

https://www.roughcountry.com/jeep-jk-winch-mounting-plate-1162c.html

If you own a 2007-2018 Jeep JK or JKU Wrangler, and it’s still mostly stock, but you want to add a winch because you’ve found yourself getting a little braver offroad and you want an option to self-recover if it comes down to it, then I have the solution for you. You’re probably like most Jeepers though, you cringe when you see the prices for a winch bumper. And don’t get me started on the prices for tire carrier bumpers. So what do you do? Don’t fear, because despite what you may have heard or been told, you CAN add a winch to a factory Jeep bumper and do it safely and with reliability. Here’s the bonus, you can do it with basic hand tools too, and it costs a fraction of what a full winch bumper will run you. I present the Rough Country 1162 Winch Mounting Plate. It is specifically designed to work with your factory JK bumper and can accommodate all standard-sized winches! Compare this to similar systems that only allow you to run a specific model or two AND will cost nearly twice as much. So for ease, flexibility, and price, this is the must-have item for adding a winch to a stock bumper of a JK.

Tech Talk with Jeep Talk

TOPIC/QUESTION: What Gas Should You Run In Your Jeep?

There has long been a debate going on about which grade of fuel is best to run in our Jeeps. There are the guys that go out of their way for the non-ethanol-added gas, and some that won’t run anything but super in the tank. I knew a guy back in the day that was running 105-octane race gas in his Jeep. And there are those of us who will throw the crappiest, dirtiest, cheapest gas we can find and if you catch us on a bad day, find a bottle of kerosene and paint thinner dumped in just to bring it up to over a half tank. For 99% of us, you’ll pull up to the pump and see the three grades of unleaded fuel that are generally allowed to be pumped to the public in the US. These include 85-87 octane regular, 89 octane mid-grade, and 91-93 octane supreme fuels which also typically have a higher level of special proprietary additives which range from lubricants to detergents. Without diving too deep into fuel chemistry and covering every additive and formula out there, the basics are this: A higher octane rating of gas basically means that the fuel is more stable. The number on the button you press for regular or premium is the octane rating of that grade of gas. Octane is the measure of how much compression a fuel can withstand before self-igniting. Ok, so you’re probably wondering “why is this important for my 25-year-old Jeep?” Fuel that is more stable is more difficult to ignite, which is good for high-compression, performance-tuned engines.

Low Octane fuel in a high-compression engine can cause detonation, which can damage the engine. Detonation is simply short for pre-detonation, meaning that the fuel ignites before the ignition fires. Now, most of our Jeeps motors wouldn’t be considered high-compression performance-based engines. Especially if they’ve been around the block a few times if you know what I mean. But a higher-octane fuel is less likely to pre-detonate during the compression stroke in any engine regardless of tune or compression. If an engine is experiencing detonation, it can usually be heard by the human ear without special equipment, so if you were wondering if you’re experiencing it now, that’s how you can tell. You’ll have to keep an ear out, though, as it will generally only happen when the engine is under load, like when climbing a steep hill or accelerating to get on the freeway. This noise is sometimes referred to as knocking or pinging. Extreme cases of detonation sound like a glass jar of marbles being shaken by a cracked-out squirrel on too much caffeine. Ultimately, the best way to avoid detonation and to ensure your engine lives a long happy life is to use the fuel grade recommended by the manufacturer. Most mass-production engines, including the 4.0L inline 6 we all know and love, to the Pentastar V-6 engines typically found in most JK Wranglers, were engineered to run best off of regular ‘ol 87 octane pump gas. Anything greater than the recommended 87 octane rating is likely going to be a waste of money for 99% of the driving you do. Interestingly enough, some modern computer-controlled engines that do require higher octane fuel are advanced enough that they can run just fine on 87-octane fuel as well. In these engines, when or if the engine knock sensors indicate there is detonation, the computer will retard the timing, which will reduce power slightly, but eliminate the detonation. Remember, knocking, pinging, detonation, or whatever you’re calling it, typically only happens under load, and not while idle, or during average street driving.

So it may be best to stick with the regular and not spring for the super. Save the higher octane fuels, and octane boost additives for when your Jeep is going to see some actual work, ….NO picking up the neighbor kid and his three friends on your way home from the grocery store doesn’t count. And I’m sure hauling your empty shells back from the range isn’t going to add up to much either. I’m talking about when on the trails, or when towing a load of gravel for the side yard. Who knows, adjusting your habits at the pump might just save you enough for some more Jeep parts.

Links Mentioned in this Episode

NEXEN Tires USA https://www.nexentireusa.com/

Trails 411- POWERING Your Adventure https://www.youtube.com/user/backcountrydriver

The 4×4 Radio Network http://4x4radionetwork.com/

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