Episode 683 – The Most Important Angles You Should Know
This Week In Jeep
Jeep Driver Nearly Speared By Log
Did you guys see this one? This is some “Final Destination” movie type of stuff right here, and it involves not one Jeeper, but two. The accident happened at around 8 a.m. on Wednesday, September 21st in Angelina County, Texas. According to the reports, a semi-truck hauling log was heading north on Highway 69 at the intersection of Farm-to-Market Road 326 when it began to make a right turn. The forces involved in the turn caused the logs to shift and one of them to swing out of the trailer and enter another lane. That’s when a 2014 Jeep Cherokee drove right into it. The log came through the Jeep’s windshield on the passenger side, smashing through the Jeep and exiting out of the driver’s side rear window. The impact was so severe it caused the Jeep to spin violently, resulting in the vehicle pulling the log off the trailer. This is when a 2018 Jeep Wrangler then collided with the 2014 Jeep Cherokee. The driver of the 2014 Jeep, a 32-year-old woman, was transported to a nearby hospital for treatment, and her condition is currently unknown at the time of this recording. The driver and passenger in the 2018 Jeep were not hurt, and the 46-year-old trucker was also unhurt in the incident, which is still under investigation.
Rebelle Rally 2022 Will Be Mostly Jeeps
I truly love offroad racing, it’s the best spectator sport there is, and next to the internationally famous, world-class events like King of the Hammers and the Baja 1000, we have events like the Rebelle Rally, and it’s right around the corner. The Rebelle Rally is the first women’s only off-road navigation rally race in the United States. Blending the love of off-road driving with the ultimate challenge of precise navigation, the Rebelle Rally tests the driver’s skills over 8 days of competition. It is not a race for speed, but a unique and demanding event based on the elements of headings, hidden checkpoints, time, and distance using maps, compass, and roadbook. Jeep is sending three factory teams in Wrangler 4xes to the Rebelle Rally this year. The brand hopes to defend the victories it earned in the Overall, Electrified, and Bone Stock classes in years prior.
According to Jim Morrison, senior VP, and head of the Jeep brand for North America, the Rebelle Rally is the ultimate proving ground for Jeep’s electrified future. Jeep is supporting three teams composed of some amazing women, including last year’s first-place winners Nena Barlow and Teralin Petereit, and a Navajo team that includes Jeep employee Kaitlyn Mulkey. Impressively, all three titles won in 2021 were earned by a single team, which is returning for the 2022 event. Made up of Nena Barlow and Teralin Petereit, Team “4xEventure” has earned 10 class wins and nine podiums at the event, which first took place in 2015. The automaker will be represented in more than just its factory teams. The sold-out event will have 60 teams participating, nearly a third of which will be competing in privately-owned Jeep vehicles. Taking place from October 6 to the 15th, the 2022 running of the Rebelle Rally will start in Incline Village, Nevada, and finish in the famous Imperial Sand Dunes in Southern California after a grueling 1,500 miles (2,414 km) of off-road driving. If you’d like to learn more or are interested in participating – https://www.rebellerally.com/
Finally Some Sensible Automotive Regulation Laws
Look, I’m no fan of regulation. Sure there’s time, manner, and place for regulation, but in the world of automobile customization, I usually believe it should be hands-off. There is one trend, however, that I draw the line at. For those south of the Mason-Dixon line, you may be familiar with what is arguably the worst vehicle modification trend to hit since people started using truck nuts. Worse than eyelashes on a Wrangler, this uniquely-stupid suspension mod makes it appear like you started a lift kit install, and then quit halfway through, leaving the front of the vehicle, typically a truck or SUV, riding significantly higher than the rear. The trend is often accompanied by grossly oversized wheels with way too much backspacing and barely any tire at all, resulting in a very distinctive (albeit horrifically unattractive) look. This makes it look like you have hydraulics, and are squatting the rear-end, but in actuality, you’re just a poser making up for shortcomings with your mini-me bro dozer. It is known as “The Carolina Squat” and it is utterly ridiculous. Not a panty has been dropped because of this, and I bet 90 percent of the people doing this mod don’t know the first thing about re-aiming headlights. And now as if to prove that I am always right, the State of North Carolina just passed a bill that makes doing this mod to your vehicle illegal as all hell. Personally, I think it should be punishable by public flogging if found done to a Jeep, but that’s just my two cents.
In order to curb the spread of this (and I’m going to say it) RETARDED trend, police are now actively measuring vehicles to check for illegal amounts of the squat. Way to go!… all you over there in the Carolinas…. your State Patrol officers now have to carry a tape measure on their hip instead of a gun. Bolstered by a series of photos shared to Facebook showing a North Carolina police officer taking a tape measure to a squatted Toyota 4Runner, this is now reaching viral status. And rightly so, you damn Toyota owners need to be taken down a notch or two, but again, I digress. Putting my opinions of this trend’s appearances aside, there is a serious concern about the safety of the Carolina squat as well. First off, with such a heavily canted vehicle, the handling is going to be borderline ruined, reducing the likelihood of successful evasive maneuvers in emergency situations. Additionally, pointing the front of the vehicle so high up significantly reduces visibility, which could lead to accidents if the driver can’t see the cars in front of them. And who drives bro dozers more than anyone? Short men. And finally, if an accident does occur, whatever the squatted vehicle hits will get wedged underneath it instead of striking it square on. God forbid the Smart Car or lowered Honda that gets rear-ended by one of these. According to North Carolina’s new bill, the front of any vehicle can be no higher than four inches above the rear. More specifically, an offense will be incurred ((QUOTE)) “if the suspension, frame, chassis, or the height of the front fender is 4 or more inches greater than the height of the rear fender.” And they’re not messing around with this new law either. Drivers found with an illegal amount of squat on their vehicle run the risk of losing their license for a year. If found violating this law more than once? I’ve heard that vehicle confiscation and revocation of driver’s licenses will be the punishment for repeat offenders. So, for those of you in North Carolina with a squatted Jeep, I warned you, now the law is coming for you too.
Tech Talk with Jeep Talk
TOPIC/QUESTION: Offroading Angles – Approach / Breakover / Departure
Here in the Tech Talk segment, I often delve into topics ranging from components on your Jeep to how to fix them and even mod them in some cases to get the most out of what you’re trying to do. Instead of a how-to, or deep dive into a particular component or system on your Jeep, I’d like to focus for a minute on the importance of angles, and how three specific angles can make or break your Jeep’s ability to perform offroad.
Now, everybody knows that the angle of the dangle is inversely proportional to the heat of the meat. But that’s not why I’m calling, nor are those the angles we’re talking about either. The angles I’m talking about, the three most important angles every Jeeper should be familiar with are Approach angle, Breakover Angle, and Departure angle. These terms may be foreign to you, and that’s ok. They don’t exactly teach this stuff in school, but they are easy to understand once you wrap your head around the principles behind them. And it’s easy to stuff, so don’t let the big words fool ya.
WHY this stuff is important is twofold. First off, having an understanding of these terms, what they mean, and how they can be applied to YOUR specific Jeep will make you a much more observant and better-informed wheeler. You’ll be able to pick lines better and will be more informed about the capabilities and limits of your own rig. Secondly, knowing what this stuff means is going to give you an upper hand in selecting aftermarket gear and the kinds of mods you want or should do to your Jeep. Ok, so I can hear your eyes glazing over, so let’s put this into a real-world example just for the sake of argument. Having a good understanding of Approach and Departure angles means that you’ll know just what that new winch bumper you’ve got your eyes on is going to do to your approach angle. Or let’s say you’re in the market for a new lift, well now you may know what a particular lift kit is going to mean for your break-over angle. Having this information will save you the embarrassment, time, and cost of selecting something like a bumper that actually diminishes your Jeep’s ability to conquer an obstacle. It can happen, trust me. So what’s this stuff mean anyway? Let’s break it down from the front of your Jeep to the back.
Approach Angle is defined as the maximum angle of a ramp or obstacle, onto which a vehicle can climb, from a horizontal plane, without interference. It is defined as the angle between the ground and the line drawn between the front tire and the lowest-hanging part of the vehicle at the front overhang. So imagine drawing a line from the bottom of your front tire to the lowest part of your front bumper.
Measuring that angle in relation to the ground is what we’re talking about here.
Ok, now for a visual exercise… imagine driving your Jeep towards a ramp. If the ramp is too steep, the front bumper will hit the ramp, like a wall, before the tires are able to reach it. So what are some of the things that affect approach angle the most? Well, your lift height and tire size will certainly play a big role here. But the position of your tire also makes a huge difference, as well as what that front bumper looks like. We’ve seen those videos of a buggy that can literally climb a wall, but that’s only because the front of the tires stick out further than the front of the vehicle, or its bumper. If you have a stubby front bumper, that is small, doesn’t stick out the sides too far, and has a low profile cross-section, then your approach angle is likely going to be better than it was when the rig was stock. But if you have a large front bumper with a quarter panel or fender protection and a built-in steering box guard, well there’s a good chance your angle is going to be a little worse off than it was when the Jeep was in its stock form. Let’s say that the lift kit you’re looking at doesn’t give you the ability to adjust the front wheel position after installation. Lifting the Jeep away from the axle actually moves the axle backward, diminishing the approach angle. If that lift kit doesn’t have the proper adjustability, then you can actually be hurting your Jeep’s performance off-road.
Breakover Angle moves our attention from the front of the Jeep to its belly.
Breakover angle is the maximum possible supplementary angle (usually expressed in degrees) that a vehicle can drive over without the apex of that angle touching any point of the vehicle other than the wheels. Ok what THIS means is pretty simple, how steep or shallow of a triangular-shaped wedge could you drive over before the top point of that wedge would come in contact with the underside of the Jeep or cause you to the high center? If that doesn’t make sense, 
then it just means that the bigger the angle, the more extreme objects that you can drive over. The bigger the break-over angle, the better. And basically, it comes down to a measurement of the height of the vehicle in relation to its wheelbase. For instance, if two Jeeps of identical lifts and tire sizes with the only difference being wheelbase, the shorter Jeep will have a better break-over angle. But don’t confuse this with ground clearance. Breakover is different from ground clearance in that ground clearance is the shortest distance between the ground and the lowest point on the vehicle. For instance, the ground clearance of a dana 35 is completely different from that of a dana 44 but neither has any effect on the break-over angle. Ok, let’s finish up in the rear, (there’s a “that’s what she said” joke in there somewhere.)
Departure Angle is the counterpart to the Approach angle and occurs at the rear of the vehicle.
Departure angle is defined as the maximum ramp angle from which the vehicle can descend without damage. Think of it just like the front bumper visual exercise we did, except imagine driving your Jeep down off of something instead of coming up to it. If your Jeep has a trailer hitch below the bumper, then likely THAT is what is going to be the last thing that contacts the ledge you come down off of, because it is the lowest, rear-most point on the Jeep. The lower that receiver is, or the more your rear bumper protrudes from the back of the vehicle, the worse your departure angle will be. Think of it like this… the departure angle of a Wrangler is far better than the departure angle of a Gladiator, strictly because of how much of the Jeep protrudes past the rear of the rear tire. Things that affect your departure angle the most will be of course wheelbase, and how far the back of the rear tire is in relation to the rear bumper. And of course, that bumper and trailer hitch is going to be big factors as well, and so is the rear tire carrier. This may not come into play too much for your average weekend wheeler, or the Jeeper out on the sand or up in the hills catching a view… but if you plan to go to places like MOAB or The Rubicon, or you plan on wheeling on trail systems or in parks with lots of rocks, and ledges, you’ll want to pay attention to this stuff as it could make the difference between carnage and making it through the trail unscathed. These terms among literally hundreds of others can be found in the Jeep Talk Show Glossary of Off-Road Terminology as well. It is by far, the world’s most comprehensive list of off-road terminology, and it can only be found on the Jeep Talk Show Website.
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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