Episode 535 – Is There Such a Thing As Too Many Jeeps?

This Week In Jeep

More Bad News For Belvedere

Jeep’s parent company Stellantis will cut about 400 more jobs at its Jeep Cherokee factory in Illinois. The plant has already slashed production and cut an entire shift at the Belvidere Assembly Plant. Thankfully workers will be able to remain employed during the holiday season, as the workforce reduction won’t take effect until January 14th at the earliest. Employees received notices of the future layoffs on Wednesday, noting that they will try to place laid-off hourly employees in open full-time positions at other company locations as they become available based on seniority. Stellantis doesn’t have another assembly plant in Illinois, so some are taking that as so much smoke blown. The plant employs 2,362 hourly workers after a second shift was cut there in July, affecting 1,641 people. In a recent statement released by the automaker, spokeswoman Jodi Tinson said ((QUOTE)) “As we continue to balance global sales with production that has undeniably been affected by the unprecedented global microchip shortage, Stellantis has determined that additional staffing actions are needed as a result of changes in the plant’s operations.” The automaker said it also notified the state of Illinois, the city of Belvidere, and the United Auto Workers of the forced layoffs.

The announcement comes after the Illinois State Legislature on Oct. 28 passed an incentive bill for electric vehicle makers and suppliers. It includes state income tax credits of 75% to 100% of payroll taxes for new employees they hire for up to 15 years. 

Among other incentives, tax credits would also be available for the hiring of construction workers and the training of new workers. The plant has lost about 122,000 vehicles produced in 2021 because of the microchip shortage, and U.S. Cherokee crossover sales are down 20% year-to-date.

Get Forza 5… Get Many Jeeps!

As first reported by Windows Central on November 9th, players of the video game Forza Horizon 5 have been able to turn a serious profit by utilizing an exploit with one of the game’s less fancy vehicles. The Willys Jeep. For a game packed to the rafters with supercars and ludicrously expensive machinery, it’s quite nice to see an old Jeep like the Willys get a breath of life… even if a cursory look at Reddit or Twitter will uncover a deep well of frustration from more competitive players. Why? …In short, players are able to acquire the jeep for just 40,000 credits, upgrade it, and then obtain the Super Wheelspin reward that follows. This Super Wheelspin reward can result in some, as you might have guessed from the name, super rewards. It’s through these Wheelspins that you can gain north of one million credits or super-cars like Aston Martins or Lamborghinis, for example. Then, once these players are done with the Super Wheelspin reward from the Willys jeep, they’ll just sell or “gift” the now-upgraded vehicle to any other player and get the skill points refunded. This player doesn’t even have to be on the person’s friends list, however, which has resulted in Forza Horizon 5 players logging back into the game, only to find their car collections bursting at the seams, full of countless Willys Jeeps. There is no way, at the time of this episode’s recording, to turn down a gift – so once you’ve got a Willys in your hands, there’s no way to get rid of it… except gifting it on, again. It’ll be interesting to see if the game’s developer Playground Games will remedy this at all by changing the Wheelspin reward from the Jeep.

Forza Horizon 5 has been nothing short of a smash-hit success for Xbox since it launched in full earlier this week.  Playground’s new racing game surpassed over 4.5 million players within 24 from launch, and Xbox boss Phil Spencer claims it’s been the single biggest day one Xbox Game Pass launch of all time. Forza Horizon 5 is out now and available on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Log in now and maybe you’ll find your very own Willys Jeep waiting in a barn!

The Return Of The Mahindra

Mahindra has introduced the 2022 Roxor, which is currently headed to dealerships.

While most companies talk about the countless changes to their “redesigned” vehicle, Mahindra said virtually nothing about the updates.   However, they eventually admitted the “vehicle underneath is unchanged,” so this is effectively a facelift. Of course, there’s a good reason for their silence as the company has been fighting a lengthy battle with Jeep over the Roxor’s looks. To briefly summarize the situation, in 2019 Administrative Law Judge Cameron Elliot determined the Roxor infringed on Jeep’s trade dress.

Mahindra then presented an updated Roxor, which ditched the slotted grille for one that recalled the Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40. Shortly thereafter, the U.S. International Trade Commission sided with Jeep and blocked sales of the Roxor in America. 

However, the ITC eventually determined the updated Roxor was different enough not to infringe on Jeep’s trade dress. That brings us to the 2022 Roxor, which sports a new and more generic-looking front end. Checking Out the pics, it features a single bar grille with a mesh insert that is flanked by circular headlights, which have been moved to the outside edges of the vehicle. Moving further back, we can see a wider hood and new front fenders that no longer look like they were lifted directly from a Jeep CJ7.

The rest of the model appears to largely carry over and it seems like the vehicle was designed specifically to address Jeep’s complaints. Putting the styling aside, the 2022 Roxor is available in open cab Base and enclosed cab All-Weather configurations. 

Both feature a 2.5-liter turbodiesel engine that develops a whopping 62 hp (46 kW / 63 PS) and 144 lb-ft (195 Nm) of torque. It’s connected to a five-speed manual transmission, which enables the four-wheeler to hit a top speed of 55 mph (88 km/h).

Pricing for the 2022 Roxor starts at $18,899 for the Base and $26,299 for the All-Weather. However, the latter seems like a tough sell as you can get a street-legal 2021 Jeep Wrangler for $30,665 including destination. Of course, the Roxor is positioned side-by-side and competes with vehicles from Polaris, Can-Am, and Honda, and never really ever stood a chance against Jeep.

Interview with:

David is the president and founder of Northridge4x4. Established in 2001 as a decidedly modest affair. David started building bumpers for Jeep TJs out of his father, Brian Johnson’s, 1,200 square-foot garage. It wasn’t long before the business started to grow, Brian started helping out when he wasn’t working as a police officer. By 2007, the need for a much larger facility was required. They broke ground on their current location in Silverdale, Washington and moved into a 13,000 square-foot facility in October 2010. Northridge4x4 now have locations in Kentucky, Canada and Utah with 50 employees. While Northridge4x4 offers products and services for all kinds of four-wheel-drive vehicles, we still specialize in aftermarket Jeep parts and accessories, and we are still that small family-run business at heart.

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

Black Fork Tool Jeep Frame Plug Kit (P/N: FP-400) $27.99  https://www.blackforktool.com/s/shop

Keep the inside of your Jeep’s frame clean of mud, dirt, salt, sand, and off-road debris. Don’t let your Jeep frame rot from the inside out! These plugs are made from a very durable, thick, proprietary rubber material that resists cold, heat, petroleum-based fluids, and UV damage. All kits include plugs for the largest and most debris-prone holes in the frame while leaving the factory-designed drain holes located in the lowest points of the frame, open. Easily installed, no tools required.

Tech Talk with Jeep Talk

Fuel Systems

So I was looking back through our massive history of tech topics covered here on the show, and I realized something that we have barely talked about at all. And it’s the one thing our Jeeps absolutely can’t run without having a good supply of. No, it’s not air, we’ve actually talked about intakes, snorkels, and even exhaust quite a bit. And no it’s not oil or wishes or prayers even, although I’ve met several Jeeps that wouldn’t run without a heavy dose of the latter. What I’ll be talking about over the next few episodes is the fuel systems in our Jeeps. There are three different and distinct systems at play here regardless of what Jeep you drive. We’ll cover each one, and learn what makes them work, what their differences are, and in the end, we’ll talk about the things you can do to maintain, clean, and possibly even improve on. This will primarily focus on fuel injection, but we’ll cover some of the carburation as well. So, if you have a Jeep and it runs on some sort of fuel, then you’re going to want to stay tuned. 

So let’s go back to where it all started, no I’m not going clear back to the war, where it all began, but let’s skip forward a few decades, and start with the first-generation Wrangler and its transition from carburetor to injection. If you’re not familiar with a carburetor, it’s nothing really intimidating.

A carburetor, or carb, is a mechanical device that sits on top of the engine’s intake manifold. As you press down on the accelerator, multiple things happen at once. To keep it simple, the carb opens up a butterfly valve to allow the engine to draw in more air. Simultaneously, the fuel pump feeds fuel into the carb, where it is combined with the air to create the fuel mixture the engine needs. The carb is feeding the fuel into the intake manifold where it is then drawn into each cylinder as the intake valves open. As the intake valve opens the piston moves downward in the chamber that creates a vacuum. It is a mechanical system that relies on a vacuum and air pressure. But carbs do have some ailments. With a carb, there’s only so much fuel and air in the manifold, and the cylinders closest to the carb tend to eat up more of this mixture than cylinders farther away. With this setup, not all cylinders are getting the same amount of gas, which obviously means there’s room for improvement. Enter fuel injection; as air moves through the throttle body and into the intake manifold, it is drawn into each cylinder chamber. Just before it’s drawn into the chamber, a fuel injector mixes the fuel at the very last second making sure each cylinder is getting the appropriate amount of a fuel and air mixture. The spark plug ignites this fuel and air mixture as it is compressed, and the combustion forces the piston down, creating power. The next biggest advantage of a fuel injection system is that after the fuel mixture is burned off, and the exhaust is sent on its way, an O2 (oxygen) sensor then picks up a reading of the exhaust and from the contents of the exhaust it can tell if the fuel mixture is too rich or too lean. With this reading, the vehicle’s computer system can then automatically make the proper adjustments, and you can spare yourself the time needed to dial your fuel system in, as you would with a carburetor. Carbureted fuel systems are very common throughout the history of the automobile, and they still have their place in the world today—and probably will for a long time. As the 80s found its place in the history books, so did the carburetor (on modern production vehicles at least.) The YJ Wrangler was first introduced in 1987. It was available with either a 2.5 Liter inline-4 cylinder engine, or the venerable 4.0-liter inline-six, and from the years 1987 through 1990 both were provided with fuel by a carburetor. Enter the 1991 YJ. Though it is almost identical to earlier YJ Wranglers the engines were instead fed with fuel injection. Fuel injection works much the same as a carburetor. Its design is to combine fuel and air and deliver it to the engine. Though, when you pop the hood you could tell right away that there are some major differences between a carbureted engine and one that has fuel injection. Instead of a single carburetor that feeds fuel and air through one opening in the intake manifold, you will notice a throttle body in its place.  Also, you will notice fuel injectors at the base of the runners on the intake manifold directly above each cylinder. This set the stage for the next generation of fuel system delivery that would be used for nearly 15 years of Jeep production. Next week, we will look closely at the kind of system used in the 1997-2006 Jeeps, and maybe even get into the JK stuff as well. And when we’re all done, you’ll not only know these systems, but will be able to identify them, and possibly even know how to make them better.  Stay tuned.  

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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