Better On-Road Handling for Jeep Wrangler

It's a truck for Christ's sake. It will never handle very well.

That said, lower it a few inches and put wider tires on. The center of gravity is way too high to handle good, and the track is way too narrow. You need to get thtrack wider and the center of gravity lower. Basically, you need to make it lok like a rice burner.

Good luck, and spare us any pictures.

Rick,

I am not sure you are going to get much better than what you have now.

- The wheel base is pretty short. You will never correct the quick steer and over all brut bull dog feel of it. - you might replace the shocks with something designed for a cushy car ? - you could put nice riding radial tires and smaller wheels on it ? - maybe replace the seats with something more cushy ?

They are meant to be rugged & brutish. I'm not sure even those changes will help.

I love being knocked around in my Rubi. It is the hardest riding,(I look for every pot hole) snappiest steering, most "bash you in the mouth" vehicle I have ever had...and damn I love it and the buzz of the tires on the hwy That is why I bought it over a Mustang Cobra. Why haven't I owned a Jeep all these years ?

Good luck Rick. Your Jeep just ain't ever going to be a car.

dave

=== you must first take out MYUGLYSISTER to email me privately ===

It's not a car ..it's a truck.

There's only 3 reasons to buy a Jeep:

1. Offroading
2. Convertible rugged ride
3. Towing

If you aren't offroading, then you must want the convertible. But if you don't want the rugged ride, ditch the Jeep and buy a car. So, I'm guessing it can't be for the convertible so you must need to tow? Again, you would get a way comfier ride with a big SUV or Pickup so ditch the Jeep. Maybe you want a convertible towing vehicle? Buy a powerful car, like a Nissan Altima or Maxima and cut the roof off. Or buy a Sebring or 300M convertible.

If you bought it just for looks, then the only way to get any better handling/feel is to lower it and buy nice tires/springs/seats/etc ...but then it doesn't look like a Jeep.

In a nutshell ...I'm confused? When I was driving the new '85 CJ7 home that I just bought, I was doing 80kmh on a two-lane backroad with oncoming trucks. I had to two-hand the steering wheel the entire drive and still almost (honest-to-god, I'm not even exagerrating) died a few times from oncoming collisions. I was so scared and barely kept it on the road that when I got home all I wanted to do was go and drive it again! Talk about adrenaline drive. Screw a sportscar!! It's a JEEP!!!! Drive it hard and let it drive you hard!

griffin '85 CJ7

Great work Bill. LOL

Andy

Sell it and buy a ford 4x4 they ride better but are the worst rollover vehicle on the market.

I'm not even going to ask why you bought it in the first place as it might be too depressing.

To answer your question, insert 40" into the chassis - longer wheelbases are much smoother on and off road. Or alternatively, invest in some advanced driving lessons so you can drive it faster without spending money on it. Lower the springs, get a stiffer anti-roll bar, perhaps some different shocks. Jeep like every manufacturer spends tens of millions of bucks on developing a suspension system.

A Dodge RAM SRT will do 150 - I guess that would handle pretty well if you are determined to have a fast well handling truck.

Perhaps if you are more specific about what it is about the handling you don't like you will get more concrete suggestions.

Dave Milne, Scotland '91 Grand Wagoneer, '99 TJ

Trade it for the Wrangler Unlimited, the 10 inches longer wheelbase makes a huge difference on the road handling.

If your reason for owning a Jeep is the look, (which I would understand because nothong looks better than a Jeep) it is the car for you, and who knows, if you need it for a quick trail ride, you are still in the game.

I can tell you all this because I own an Unlimited and will NEVER drive anything else again, I started having fun again driving since I own it.

Regards Eric Silver TJ Unlimited (Canadian version of the Wrangler Unlimited)

I was actually looking at those - I'll ber re-entering the jeeping world in a bit - Is your unlimited modded at all? I would love to get an owner's POV on a lifted/lock'd unlimited (i'd be waiting for the rubicon package, to see what it has to offer, before deciding.. but either way a lift would be in the plans...

thanks for any comments :)

-Steve 98 TJ

Griffin, that was the best answer to Rick's question that I saw this evening. You just have to hang in there and ride it out, if you're a first time Jeep owner. And as I read earlier, You'll soon wonder why you haven't had a Jeep all along!!!

Tom T

Mmmmmpppphhh....

Aw, man... Milk just came out of my nose!

Oh, you're serious? Sorry.

BWWAAAHHAAAHHAAA!

Uh, oh, sorry again.

Perhaps you might consider donating the Jeep to a good cause and getting something else.

John

Rick, I too wanted to see if I could make it handle a bit better on the road. I went from a 87 YJ to a 2002 TJ and the difference between those models was night and day for me. Still, I found that the tires (Wrangler RT/S - perhaps the most road amenable of the Wranglers?) were skittish in the rain and corners. Squirrelly, as Mike put it once. Since my usage is a good 98% on road with the occasional foray off road I bought Michelin X Radial LT tires from BJ's (also sold in Cosco I understand) for about US$102 each, everything included (they even balanced the tires on my other car for free, which I thought was odd...). Compared with the RT/S, the Jeep is much more nimble on the pavement, and performs very well in the rain and in the snow too. For my purposes, these tires are perfect. Tomes

Bill, what is it about your website that always locks up konqueror web browser -- some sort of midi file?

The way I see it, this is a perception issue. I have a TJ with a BB, and