Episode 730 – Jeep Shuts Down Plant!

This Week In Jeep

Jeep Shuts Down Plant, Fires 1350 Employees

So we are most definitely in unique times right now, as we enter the last weeks of 2022, we are still being hit with tragic stories surrounding the effects of the current state of the economy. You yourself listening to this have likely heard local news stories about businesses shutting down, and companies leaving other cities due to cost, overregulation, crime, or lack of customers. Well if you’ve had your ear to the rails as I have, you may have heard the rumors that Stellantis, Jeep’s parent company, is shutting down one of its plants. And indeed, we’re hearing a lot of news about the nearly 1400 employees getting laid off at the Belvedere plant in Illinois this week. So it seems the rumors are indeed true. People lost their jobs, the plant is closed, and the end. Well not quite, because in a shit show of an attempt to save face for firing so many people this close to Christmas, Stellantis is saying that the plant isn’t closed… no no… don’t you for a second believe your lying eyes. The plant is NOT closed, it is simply going to be “idle” says Stellantis. Usually, when something is “idle” it is still running, at least in my book… This plant is arguably NOT running, and the nearly 1400 people that work there aren’t working, so what are we doing here? Well, Stellantis mentioned multiple reasons for closing the plant in a recent press release, including the microchip shortage, supply chain issues, and all the standard BS we’ve been hearing from so many for the last two years. However, the automaker noted that ((QUOTE)) “the most impactful challenge is the increasing cost related to the electrification of the automotive market.” 

Oh, you mean the electrification that even the CEO of your company says the US is not ready for, and that the general consensus among the population is to stop trying to shove down our throats… THAT electrification? Electric vehicles are more expensive to produce than gas-powered cars, primarily due to the high costs of the minerals in their batteries. One would think that something like that would have been worked into the business model and cost-benefit analysis before bringing something like an electric vehicle to market, right? I guess not. In a rush to become the ((quote unquote)) “world leader in electric SUVs” as Jeep put it earlier this year, the automaker we all know and love has screwed up. The United Automotive Workers (UAW) union released a disapproving statement this week, following the Dec. 9th decision, vowing to fight back against it. Announcing the closure just a few weeks from the holidays is also a cruel disregard for the contributions of the UAW members and Stellantis should bring those people back to work immediately. The company will make every effort to place indefinitely laid-off employees in open full-time positions as they become available,” Stellantis says. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker also says his administration will help displaced workers find new positions since the plant appears as if it is unlikely to re-open. Jeep claims that the Cherokee made at this facility is an important vehicle in the lineup, and according to the statement made by Jeep spokesperson Jodi Tinson, remains committed long term to this mid-size SUV segment. Well, that’s interesting Jodi, because you just shut down the plant that makes this oh-so-important vehicle to the lineup.

To really sink the knife all the way into the back of these auto workers who make this Jeep, is that internal Stellantis company documents have been released that show the Jeep Cherokee production that used to happen here on US soil and done by US workers, is now being moved to a facility in Mexico. Way to go Jeep. 

Shooting At Jeep Plant Claims One Life

Speaking of Jeep plants, there seems to be something in the air surrounding these facilities, as we have reported this week of shots fired and at least one person killed at a Jeep parts plant making seats. A 40-year-old man was shot and killed on Wednesday after a fight between coworkers at an automotive parts supply plant close to Detroit.

The unnamed dead man and a 29-year-old suspect in the shooting (who is currently in police custody) were both employed at the Jeep seat-making facility in Highland Park, Michigan. Highland Park Police say the incident started with a fight over the use of a tool inside the plant but continued outside when both men were escorted from the building. There is no report that I can find to refute or substantiate this, or that would tell me who started the fight. What is clear is that things got physical enough to where an ambulance was called. The 29-year-old man refused hospital treatment and got into his car to drive away, but then spotted the 40-year-old victim sitting in his own car. According to Highland Park Police Deputy Chief Darrell Patterson, The 29-year-old got out of his car and proceeded to approach the 40-year-old man sitting in his own car. Words were apparently exchanged, and it was at this point that the 40-year-old man saw enough cause to shoot the younger man standing outside his vehicle. Officers were only half a block away when the shots were fired and were quickly on the scene with EMS arriving just moments later. But the victim was pronounced dead on arrival at Detroit Medical Center’s Detroit Receiving Hospital. After the initial disturbance, the plant continued to operate, although some employees chose to go home after the shooting. Ordinarily, that may be where the story would end, and if you hear this other places… that may be all you get. But it is here that we find (as they say) “the devil in the details.” Now, this may just be a coincidence, but if the CIA taught me anything it’s that there are no coincidences. Although what has been reported by the police and the witnesses, was an argument over a tool of all things, …the shooting occurred only a day after the company announced that it was laying off 268 employees at the Highland Park plant. That unto itself sucks but oddly parallels the massive layoffs at the Belvidere plant in Illinois though. The company is closing the site’s metals department that makes seat frames for some Jeeps and moving production to another site that it has declined to name. Why hide that information? Because you’re ashamed of what it points to. And now things get awkward. Why?,… because Detroit Business says it has documents that show the seat-making facility and its jobs are going to Mexico, just like the 1350 other jobs from Illinois. That’s weird. The Highland Park Police, however, don’t believe the shooting is related to the layoffs, but that sure is a strong coincidence, isn’t it?

Justin Tiberlake Is a Jeeper

Look, I’m the last person on the face of the earth to follow celebrity gossip, news, or anything related to the latest in Hollywood or its elite. But you’d have to have been living under a rock for the last two-plus decades to not know the name, Justin Timberlake. Justin Randall Timberlake is a multi-talented American singer, actor, record producer, and songwriter from Memphis, Tennessee. His music is one of the best sellers with almost 100 million records sold worldwide and he has won several awards including about 7 Grammy Awards and several others. His net worth is currently estimated to be around $250 million dollars and his car collection is worth almost $1 million.

Out of all the mundane cars and trucks he’s got, and yes, even someone as famous as J.T. has vehicles as boring as a 2002 VW Jetta and 1993 Acura Legend. But amidst other gems like a 1967 Pontiac GTO Convertible are two standouts. And they’re Jeeps of course. The first is a 2013 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8. Justin Timberlake is definitely a sucker for expensive SUVs as he owns numerous expensive SUVs such as a Lincoln Navigator, Cadillac Escalade, and Audi Q7. However, the Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8 holds the record for the fastest one among all the vehicles in Timberlake’s collection. This Jeep boasts a 6.4-liter Hemi V8  generating over 470 horsepower and has been refurbished to be all black just for it to look extra dangerous. Just like the 2008 Hummer H3 he also has in his collection, the 2013 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon is another military-derived vehicle in Justin Timberlake’s garage. Justin’s Jeep Wrangler Rubicon is actually kept in a constant state of off-road-readiness. We don’t know all the specs on JT’s Wrangler, but it clearly has aftermarket lift, wheels, tires, rock rails, and bumpers at the very least. In the year 2013, the Jeep got a minor makeover with improvements like improved windshield washer nozzles and cozy and comfortable cabin lighting. So I guess Justin Timberlake joins the entourage of celebrity Jeepers out there and he actually mods his Jeeps too. Pretty cool huh? Who knew? 

Newbie Nuggets with Wendy

Have I got a trail story for you- it’s unbelievable, but I was there.

If you have listened to my Newbie Nuggets you know that I am a huge proponent of keeping trails open and clean, not driving off the trails, etc., etc. Our local club, Bear Valley 4×4, scheduled a fence repair day for Gold Mountain a week ago. We had 6 jeeps and 9 people. We even had two Forest Service employees and we had the Hydraulic fence post driver too. The fence posts are difficult to get in the ground because of the rocky soil but the hydraulic driver really helped us tremendously. Believe it or not, the T-posts that hold the wire fence get driven over, all the time, literally. A** holes think that the fenced area doesn’t apply to them. But that’s a topic for another episode.

After we all aired down at nine in the morning, we proceeded to the first set of posts and fencing that was down. We made short work of the job with all hands on deck. We repaired 5 sections of fence and managed to pull a HUGE tree off the trail that had fallen with the 90+ MPH winds we had last month. It had snapped off about 10 feet above the ground and fallen down across the trail. The tree was blocking the road and of course, there was already a bypass. The girth of the tree was easily 3 feet in diameter. We hooked up two jeeps with winches and pulled that tree off the trail. It was poetry in motion when you have the right equipment.

We were pretty proud of ourselves to have accomplished so much in a relatively short amount of time. We were all done with the repairs around 2:00. 5 hours and I said to Bill, “I’m so excited we still have an afternoon to do some stuff around the house when we get back.” We proceeded off the backside of the mountain. About 30 minutes later we hear a strange noise from the jeep. This road is a series of narrow switchbacks and it sounded like our lockers were on when you tried to turn the wheel and the tires chatter. We hadn’t used our lockers at all that day. Well, we found it; the rear track bar bracket on the axle was broken almost completely off. Yep, mangled and pushed the anti-rock into the inside of the tire, thus making the “chattering” noise as we tried to drive. Bill also noticed that the axle had shifted so far to the passenger side that the driveshaft was rubbing up against the gas tank and skid plate.

Well, log this one under NEVER go out in your jeep without all the proper tools, accessories, etc. We did empty the jeep to make room for the chainsaws, fuel can, oils, t-posts, wire, and basic fence tools, but we left behind the bag of “other” tools like tie-downs, ratchet straps, etc. So we radioed ahead and asked if Don had ratchet tie-downs & he did. So he turned around and made his way back to us. Mind you this part of the road is very narrow, single lane and on the north side of the mountain so it’s colder and there is no sunshine late in the day. The day was about 45 degrees but the back side by now was easily in the low 30s. Don has the two Forest Service people with him so they got to experience true off-roading. He gets us the tie-downs & Paul and Bill proceed to jerry-rig the axle and connect the straps crisscross to make it possible for us to get off the mountain – which we only had about a ½ mile of black diamond trail and a mile or so of dirt road to go to get to pavement. 

Don uses the uphill bypass right where we were to turn around – which is about a 3-point turn. It’s straight up and back but the road is very narrow and on a hillside so it was really off-camber. We hear a large “POP” sound from his jeep, and wonder WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT? As Don gets turned around he can’t drive forward – his steering is not responding. We look under his jeep and see that he is running over one end of his tie rod. He snapped off the driver-side tie-rod end! WHAT? Now there are two of us with major issues and it all happened within 10 feet of each other. What are the odds? And we weren’t even crawling on anything except a dirt road at this point.

We discussed all the options including how are we going to get the Forest Service people off the mountain and back to their vehicles and how are we going to get off the mountain with no steering and several switchbacks and tight turns and still one obstacle to getting over. We decided that if we could get Don’s jeep backed up, Paul could use the bypass and get the forest service folks off the hill. That’s great, but he only has one seat in his 1998 TJ, and the back seat is literally a piece of plywood. Forest people say we don’t care.

We hook up our winch to Don’s jeep and try to pull him backward, while Paul is trying to “help” the driver tire not turn away. Honestly, it was a crazy thing to try but we needed Don back a bit so Paul could pass him. Well, that didn’t work. We did put it in 4-LO and disengaged the front hubs so Don could move the Jeep backward just enough to get off his own tie rod and out of Paul’s way. We did discover by moving the jeep a little bit it was possible to “wire” the tie-rod to the knuckle and give us some control to move forward. We did have heavy gauge fence wire we could use!  So repairs were made and meanwhile, we called the other jeepers who went ahead and asked if one of them could come back to get the forest people and take them off the hill. One agrees and at least THEY got off the hill at a reasonable hour. 

The temps were dropping and it was now 25 degrees most everyone did not bring heavy jackets – except me. We didn’t plan on being out past mid-afternoon and it was a nice day out. I was probably overpacked but I hate being cold and I know shit can happen Anyway it was cold, no sun on that side of the mountain so we stood using the heat from Don’s engine to heat up our hands. Hey, it does work! So Bill and Paul do a temp fix on Don’s jeep while lying on the ice and rocks. Don starts to drive. We start to drive and the straps come off so we have to re-attach our straps differently. We finally got going and caught up to Don about 100-200 feet down the trail, and sure enough, the Jerry rig on Don’s jeep broke again. We knew it wouldn’t hold, but we are just trying to get off the mountain. The ultimate plan was to get to the bottom of the trail and onto Forest Service road 3N16 which is a dirt road in and out of Holcomb Valley. I would get a ride back home, which is only 6 miles, and get the Chevy and 16’ trailer and bring it back to haul both jeeps out – one at a time of course. By this time, it’s dark, around 5:30 and we are all cold and the temp keeps dropping. Gary, one of our club members, came back to help and by this time we needed his headlights to see under Don’s jeep. 

Bill and Paul decided to add a ratchet strap, along with the wire, to try to hold everything in place. Ken, another club member, who took the people off the hill, came back and he then took me to get the Chevy and trailer.

I get home and realize that Bill’s work truck is parked in front of the trailer. No problem I go to get the Dodge keys and guess what? Bill has the keys in his pocket! (I don’t know why but he did) Are you kidding me? It took us at least 30 minutes to get home, I’m not going back up there without the truck and trailer. I search for the spare key and finally find it after 25 minutes of tearing the safe apart, LOL. I had no idea the “spare key” would be a flat – old-fashioned metal key. I was looking for a key with a fob. Oh well, lesson learned. The cell service was spotty and I did manage to reach Bill once he said he would send Gary down to give me the keys. I found them before Gary showed up with Bill’s keys so I called him and he went back up the hill to help.

Now I have hauled horses and hooked up trailers so many times I can’t count them. But when it’s dark, cold, and below freezing temps, things don’t always go as planned. I did manage to get all hooked up and got on my way. When I reached the dirt road the Chevy and trailer tires were not aired down so I took the rocky road very slowly. I was concerned I might pop a tire on the trailer and that was something we really didn’t need to deal with at this point. 

I finally made it to the end of the GM trail where it meets the Forest Service road. I could see all the headlights and knew they had made it down to the end of the trail. Bill said they had to do 4 more “trail hacks” to get the jeep to that point. Poor Bill and Paul, constantly under the jeep, in the cold, trying to “fix” what can’t be fixed without parts just to keep moving on. The normally 20-minute ½ mile trip off Gold Mountain took them about 4 hours.

Now the issue was getting this 16’ trailer turned around on the dirt road. With a narrow space to do that and a drop off if you miss the mark it was going to be a challenge. Well, Bill has been backing trailers since he was 14 so no problem. He backed it up to the hillside as much as he could. We chocked the tires, unhooked the trailer, turned the truck in the opposite direction and we hooked it up and WAH-LAH – the trailer was turned around.

Now, getting a jeep that doesn’t steer up ramps and onto a trailer, well that’s the next feat. Don could control the passenger tire but it took two grown men to literally push on the big 37” driver tire to keep it straight. OH, and one more thing. Don has PSC hydro-assist steering. The ram was still connected to the tie rod and every time he turned, it made the tie rod flop around. Just one more fun challenge! Once we got to the ramps to climb up on the trailer, it was all they could do to keep the tire on the ramp and not slip off. We got the jeep up and Bill strapped her down. Ken had gone by the local Community Market on his way back to get some “food.” He brought back burritos. I didn’t care what was in them, they were the best bean burritos I have ever eaten.

We made our way off the mountain slowly and with only one stop. The jeep shifted a bit on the rough road and one strap came off. Easy fix and away we went. Oh and our jeep? It held together for Bill to drive it home slowly. Paul behind him shining his headlights behind Bill to make sure the straps held. We were never so happy to arrive home at 8:30 that night. Shower, couch, and some decompressing time! We slept really well that night.

So when you go out for simple trail maintenance, fence repair, easy trail ride, etc. ALWAYS bring extra layers, gloves, and ALL your tools. I know we are not newbies, we know better but I had two jackets with me and I gave one to Bill (it was a black medium-size jacket) He squeezed into it & wore it proudly under his sweatshirt. It helped but a beanie and heavier gloves would have been helpful. I’m filing this one under “no good deed goes unpunished.” We love doing trail maintenance and helping keep the trails open, but we could have done without the extra 6 hours, of freezing temps and trail repairs after a hard day of mending fences and winching trees. All in all, it does make for an unbelievable story.

Jeep Talk Show Gladiator Update

In the winter snow, so bright and still,

A Jeep Gladiator roams, with tire treads to fill,

With a wreath upon its grille, and lights so bright,

It glides across the snowy terrain, a beautiful sight,

Its engine purrs, its tires grip tight,

As it journeys through the winter night,

With presents in its bed, wrapped up with care,

It spreads holiday cheer, without a single care,

A true off-road Santa, with four-wheel drive,

The Jeep Gladiator brings joy, wherever it arrives,

In the winter snow, so crisp and cold,

It roams the land, a sight to behold,

A true off-road Christmas, with the Jeep Gladiator at the helm,

Bringing joy to all, in its rugged, off-road realm.

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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