Episode 744 – Flying Jeep Taxi?
This Week In Jeep
Could THIS Be The Image of a New Jeep?
We don’t normally think of Jeeps and taxis being synonymous with one another, especially when those taxis can fly. But Stellantis, Jeep’s parent company is about to change all that, and in a very big way. Tony, get that Jetsons car sound effect ready because Jeep is entering the flying taxi market. Before we get too much further into this story I need to make sure you have the right mental image as we move forward. Do you remember the movie, The 5th Element? Bruce Willis plays Korbin Dallas, a flying Taxi driver with too many marks on his license. That cab? NOTHING like what we’re going to be talking about. Think less Studebaker, and more drone-like. Ok, so earlier this week, Stellantis announced it is striking a deal with Archer Aviation Inc. a San Jose, California-based firm that specializes in small, electric-powered aircraft.
Stellantis will use Jeep plants to help Archer build an electric flying taxi. The two companies said Wednesday that Stellantis would help Archer, a publicly traded air mobility company established in 2018, manufacture its Midnight model at a factory the aviation company 
plans to build in Georgia. The move is an unusual one for the auto industry, which has largely stuck with ventures that involve ground transportation and vehicles with wheels, rather than propellers. But Jeep did make the amphibious Jeep and THAT had a propeller so who’s to say they aren’t just picking up where they left off? In recent years, Stellantis has also invested in a car-sharing rental firm, similar to Zipcar, and, like other car companies, is trying to diversify its business model, particularly in urban areas where many people don’t own a car. In fact, Stellantis Chief Executive Carlos Tavares said its decision aligns with the auto maker’s broader strategy of providing other transit services to customers, outside its traditional business of selling them individual cars and trucks. The aviation company’s first model, the Midnight, is designed to carry up to four passengers, plus a pilot. The flying Jeep taxi would take short-distance trips of about 20 miles with a 10-minute charging time in between, according to Archer’s Midnight Spec sheet.
The aircraft, which uses rotating, tilt-rotor turbo-props much like the military aircraft the Osprey does, gives it the ability to take off and land vertically like a helicopter. Now if you’re saying to yourself, “SELF… this sounds much like all the other flying taxi nonsense we’ve heard about over the last couple of years that has gone absolutely nowhere.”
And you’d be right. There have been a number of flying-taxi startups that have pursued stock-market listings over the past two years through special-purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs. And they have all pretty much gone nowhere, save for this one. This appears to be solid as a rock, so much so that United Airlines has backed Archer, agreeing to last fall to pay a $10 million deposit on a 100-aircraft order. Electric-flying-taxi companies have been developing and testing vehicles but need to secure approval from regulators before they or customers that purchase the aircraft launch commercial services. In the U.S., the Federal Aviation Administration has been examining aircraft prototypes, working on pilot requirements, and looking into how to integrate planned vehicles into the airspace. So expect this to become very much a reality and commonplace in the very near future. How near you may ask? Well, the company’s CEO has said that Archer expects to gain certification by the end of 2024 and start commercial operations afterward. That would mean that we will see flying Jeeps by 2025.
Ok, well, they won’t really be Jeeps, but still…
Jeepers in Tennessee Help Stranded Motorists
Here on the Jeep Talk Show, we’ve told stories about helping stranded motorists in the winter months, as our overly capable Jeeps are generally impervious to the road conditions that come with winter weather. I myself have done snowy winter patrols in my own town, helping out the lowered Hondas and BMWs who think that front-wheel drive is enough and all too often find out the hard way, it is not. Nor are those low-profile street tires, but there is always room for education, right? Each and every winter around the nation Jeep clubs hit the streets to help pull out cars and trucks that aren’t blessed with the world’s most capable four-wheel drive system. This year is no exception and although much of the nation has already seen a fair amount of winter weather, the worst is yet to come. And as we roll into the first weeks of 2023, I have to give a big Jeep Wave and a special shout-out to the Jeepers of the Clarksville Jeep Crew of Tennessee. The Clarksville Jeep Crew got an earlier start this year to their efforts in assisting motorists who become stranded or stuck in ditches due to the inclement weather conditions.
During the Christmas weekend, Crystal Libby, with the Clarksville Jeep Crew, said they had close to 100 recoveries and had transported nearly 60 medical personnel to their jobs. Libby said the group has a transport team that will pick up healthcare workers and transport them to work and back home when the roads are safe to travel. During harsh, winter weather events, the crew has also been known to deliver meals, baby formula, and other necessities to those who could not travel because of the weather and road conditions. Truly kind Jeepers giving the sport some good recognition.
The Clarksville Jeep Crew performs these acts of kindness for a variety of reasons, according to Libby. “It is because we are a local crew that wants to give it back to our community,” she said. “The mission of Clarksville Jeep Crew is to promote a safe, family-friendly group of Jeepers for on and off-road events while giving back to the local community.” And that’s what it is all about. The familial bond that Jeepers have is unlike anything else in the automotive world and is unique to Jeep owners. The area of Clarksville Tennessee is truly lucky to have such an amazing group of Jeepers who are so ready and willing to help in such a variety of ways every single winter. From all of us here at the JTS studios, we’d like to recognize the efforts of The Clarksville Jeep Crew for their volunteering efforts to serve their community, keep up the great work, and we hope to see you on the trails someday. If you’d like to reach out to the Clarksville Jeep Crew, we’ll have a link to their Facebook page in the show notes for this episode at Jeeptalkshow.com https://www.facebook.com/groups/clarksvillejeepcrew
Tech Talk with Jeep Talk
TOPIC/QUESTION: Brake Proportioning Valves
Here on the Tech Talk segment, I try to keep the topics covered as diverse as possible. But one topic seems to be popping up more and more in the last couple of years for one reason or another. And that’s brakes. OH JEEZ, NOT MORE BRAKE TALK!
I know, I know, especially lately, but I saw a post on our discord server the other day that had me worried. Someone mentioned that running the braking system on a Jeep without a proportioning valve would be a good idea. Now, this was in the context of things to do during or after a rear disc brake conversion on a Jeep. It’s a common mod, and something that I myself have even been collecting parts to someday does to my own Jeep. But it’s not without its dangers, especially when there’s advice out there telling you to run your brakes with no portioning valve or to run an unsafe brake bias.
So some of you are probably wondering what the hell a proportioning valve is and if you even have one. Vehicles with front disc and rear drum brakes need a proportioning valve (or sometimes two) to achieve optimal braking performance. This would include many Jeeps out on the road and trail today. But just because your Jeep doesn’t have drum brakes doesn’t mean it still doesn’t have a proportioning valve. So what is this valve, what does it do, and why is it so important? A vehicle’s brake system proportioning valve is a safety valve that restricts flow to the rear brakes during a “panic stop.” This prevents the rear wheels from locking up before the front wheels and also provides the much-needed front bias under normal braking pressures. Brake bias is the percentage of total braking force applied to the front wheels. It can also be called “brake balance.” For most of our Jeeps out there, a 60-70% bias is common. This means the front brakes provide 60-70% of the total braking force. This is the same for most RWD street vehicles including sports cars and large diesel trucks. FWD cars can have up to 80% bias. Meaning that the front brakes on a front-wheel drive car are responsible for 80% of the stopping force. So why is this so important? The number one reason is safety and stability. When braking any vehicle for any reason under any condition, weight transfers from the rear to the front. This is just physics, and you can’t fight physics. Physicists, yes… you can fight them because they are generally squishy and can be taken down easily. I’m kidding of course. This weight transfer increases traction in the front and reduces it in the rear. So if we were to follow the advice of the person on our Discord server who suggested running an even 50/50 brake bias, and you modified your Jeep’s brakes to have a 50/50 balance, the rear wheels would lock up first as they would have the least amount of weight and traction. This could cause a dangerous situation at the very least because as soon as the rear locks up it is going to start to slide and move in one direction or another. If the slide is allowed to go on long enough this could result in a spin, loss of control, and possibly cause the Jeep to flip. Obviously, this isn’t as much of a concern when traveling one and a half miles per hour as you climb down off a rock. However, even when rock crawling brake bias is important for the sake of weight transfer and control. Now if your Jeep has ABS or an Anti-lock Braking System, the ABS controller serves the same basic function as a proportioning valve would do. The ABS controller prevents the brakes from locking up by using an algorithm that calculates the slip ratio of all four tires based on wheel speed sensors. Ok, since we now know what these valves are, what they do, and why they are so important, let’s look at what can happen as they fail. Just like any other part of your Jeep, the proportioning valve may eventually fail. There are a few different ways to tell this is happening. First, you might notice that your Jeep is taking a nose dive when you suddenly apply the brakes. Then your Jeep may not stop fast enough. If your rear wheels lock up easily, especially when you drive on wet surfaces, it is a good sign your proportioning valve is going bad. If you sense your valve is failing or not operating properly, you might be wondering how this happened. Sometimes proportioning valves simply fail after a long time of driving. Other times, YOU might have actually caused the problem yourself by making a modification that impacted your brake balance. And with that, you’re probably wondering just how much you’ve screwed things up with all the different mods you’ve done to your Jeep. The good news, it’s probably not as bad as you may think because most of the mods that would do this are things that a Jeeper wouldn’t consider as an upgrade. Some of the modifications that CAN, however, influence your front-to-rear bias would include things like changing the size of your rotors or swapping in aftermarket brake calipers that have larger diameter pistons. Even something such as swapping out pads with a different friction coefficient can alter bias, …and I’m thinking of anyone running EBC pads out there. A change in the center of gravity of your Jeep can also have an effect on the bias, so anyone with a lifted or lowered Jeep…. well you’ve changed things, but is it enough to take the next step? Here is when you may want to take the next step in dialing in your brake system. This would include the use of an adjustable proportioning valve. Adjustable proportioning valves let you adjust the rear brake pressure to account for different tires, front-to-rear weight bias, and the effectiveness of rear disc or drum brakes. Replacing your stock valve will run you less than a hundred dollars with the average price for a Jeep Wrangler proportioning valve coming in between $55 and $75. Opting for an aftermarket adjustable proportioning valve will set you back on average about twice that. These prices are a rough average and do not include things like labor or fluids. One other word of caution here, we are talking about what is arguably the most important safety system on your Jeep, so if you don’t have a good understanding of brake bias, and have at least some degree of proper training, the right tools, and devices for installing and setting up a new brake proportioning valve, then this is something that should definitely be left to the professionals. This is not as simple as swapping out one part for another and topping off the reservoir. Choosing the right slope and knee point is a tedious and detail-oriented process that takes time, education, and generally a closed course for the sake of testing and measuring under controlled conditions. Well Jeeper, I think by now, you’ve probably heard and learned just about everything there is to know about brakes just through the Jeep Talk Show’s Tech Talk segments.
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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