Do Jeep wranglers flip over easily | How to reduce the risk of Jeep flipping?
When buying a car, the safety rating is one of the major factors you consider, and you want to know what safety hazard the car has. Most cars, including jeep wranglers, have a minor safety hazard associated with the car and can make a person change the decision to own the car.
But as stated, most safety hazards are minor and very avoidable depending on the owner’s driving habits. The car wouldn’t have made it out of production if they were significant. The issue here is jeep wranglers flip sometimes depending on how you ride it.
For jeep wranglers, there is the fear of flipping over compared to other SUVs in its class. It is known for its offroad and on-road prowess making it one of the most preferred daily driven SUVs. You can use it for mall runs and then hit an off-road trail immediately without any mods on the car.
Flipping over might happen during a side collision with another car, cornering at high speeds, or when driving your wrangler over rocks offroad. Regardless of the reason for flipping, jeep wranglers have a higher probability, 27.9%, than other SUVs, which makes it unsafe for the occupants and the wrangler.
Why do jeep wranglers have a higher probability of flipping?
- High center of gravity
The center of gravity of a car pulls it to the road when driving and when stationary. The pulling force is very low when the center of gravity is high, and any instability makes the car flip over. The jeep wrangler has a high center of gravity for two main reasons: body height from the frame to the roof and ground clearance from the ground to the frame.
A base model jeep wrangler has a total height of 1838mm and a ground clearance of 214mm, making the body height from the frame to the roof approximately 1624mm. All these heights are more than most USV, and they affect the center of gravity.
The center of gravity is raised even more if you add larger aftermarket wheels, tires, and a lift kit. Most wrangler owners do this to increase the off-roading ability of the wrangler but forget that it destabilizes the wrangler. Lift kits also make braking and cornering harder as they increase the body roll.
If you add a roof rack and use it to carry a lot of stuff on it, it also raises the center. Any modifications or equipment you add to your wrangler that you add to your wrangler will increase the height of the center of gravity, thus destabilizing your wrangler.
- Boxed body structure
Cars such as the Jeep wrangler with a boxed body structure have poor road visibility than cars with other body types. The probability of crashing into another vehicle from the front and the rear is high due to poor visibility. It is likely to flip over, given the high center of gravity that a jeep wrangler has.
This poor visibility also affects cornering and maneuverability, especially when off-roading. You might fail to spot a rock near the tires, and when the tires climb over the rocks, the wrangler immediately loses stability and flips over.
When heavy winds hit either side of a jeep wrangler, it destabilizes the wrangler, and if the winds are blowing at high speeds, they might cause the wrangler to flip over. Any boxed structure is not streamlined enough for the winds to blow over and under the body.
- Short and narrow wheelbase
This is one of the reasons that some owners buy jeep wranglers as an all-purpose vehicle. Since the wrangler has a short wheelbase, it is easy to maneuver in traffic and to park, thus, you can use it as a daily driven car. The short and narrow wheelbase is also suitable for axle articulation, making the wrangler a favorable offroad vehicle.
The main disadvantage of a short and narrow wheelbase is that the body extends wider on the frame on both sides than cars with a wider and longer wheelbase.
When cornering at high speeds or when tackling an off-road course, the weight of the wrangler tends to shift on the side you are steering to or the side that is higher than the other, which might cause it to flip over. The risk of flipping over is even higher when you have the roof rack fully loaded.
Traction is also imbalanced at the slightest impact in jeep wranglers, unlike long and wide wheelbase vehicles. This causes the wrangler to lean towards either side, right or left, depending on wheels have more traction.
Are two-door wranglers more likely to flip over than four-door wranglers?
Two-door wranglers are more likely to flip over for two main reasons, they have an even shorter wheelbase, and they weigh less than four-door wranglers. The shorter the wheelbase, the higher the center of gravity is but a two-door wrangler has better maneuverability because of the same reason.
Four-door Jeep wranglers weigh more than two-door Jeep wranglers, and heavier cars have lesser body roll than lighter cars as weight does not shift around quickly.
The lesser weight of two-door wranglers makes the body weight shift around, especially when cornering at high speeds, and the short wheelbase cannot sustain such body roll; thus, it flips over. These also contribute to two-door wranglers flipping upon impact from either side.
How to reduce the risk of your wrangler flipping over?
- Don’t Overspeed
When driving at high speed, the center of gravity continuously shifts as you move. Any change in direction, such as when cornering, throws the car off balance. On open roads, you’ll see speed limit signs when approaching a corner, and you should stay well under the speed limit if you want to be safe.
If you carry anything on your wrangler, reduce your speeds even more. If you feel the body roll when driving, reduce your speed until you feel no body roll at all.
If you have any mods that can affect the center of gravity, you’d instead slow down but stay above the minimum speed limit. These modifications give you an advantage over a stock jeep wrangler, but they also destabilize your wrangler.
- Do not carry much on your roof rack
Even though whatever you will carry on the roof rack won’t surpass the wrangler’s total carrying capacity, stacking stuff too high raises the center of gravity, increasing the risk of flipping over. If you feel the cabin is too cramped up to carry more, you can opt for a short trailer.
If you have any forms of MOLLE storage on the sides of your wrangler to car water canisters or fuel canisters, ensure the weights on both sides, left and right, are balanced as the wrangler will lean to the side with the most weight in case of any slight imbalance which will cause it to flip over.
- Check your tires
Suppose tires on either side, left or right, have high pressure than the tires on the other side. In that case, the body will lean to the side, which has tires with low pressure.
Suppose there is an extra load on your wrangler. In that case, it will also lean to the same side, increasing the risk of flipping over, especially when driving.
- Beware of other drivers and stay alert
Due to the Jeep wrangler’s tendency to flip over upon impact, always stay alert on the road, use your side mirrors and if your wrangler has the lane assist feature, pay attention if it alerts you when you get out of lane or when another driver gets into your lane as these are the leading causes of side collisions.
The higher probability of jeep wranglers flipping over other SUVs does not mean it is unsafe. The jeep wrangler is equipped with safety features that make it safe for drivers and occupants.
The new latest generation Jeep wrangler was introduced in 2018 and had massive safety upgrades over the previous generation. Some of these features include.
- Due to the high risk of the Jeep wrangler flipping over, all jeep wranglers come with electronic stability control as a standard feature. Electronic stability control helps prevent loss of control by stabilizing the wrangler when body roll becomes excess when you oversteer or understeer.
- Understeering and oversteering are caused by maneuvering the wrangler at high speeds. The electronic stability control is automatically activated when you start your wrangler.
It does not prevent your wrangler from flipping over but only prevents the factors that can cause your wrangler to flip over. If the electronic stability control light comes on, reduce your speed and gently steer until it goes off.
The electronic stability system can also reduce the wrangler’s speed by reducing the throttle response if you are driving on bumpy roads. This is because such roads have bumps that lift the wrangler’s wheels up, and it might flip over if one on both wheels from either side is higher than the ones on the other side.
When you drive fast on such roads, the weight of your wrangler is continuously shifting, which might cause it to flip over. The driver and front passengers have safety belts with pre-tensioners that ensure that they remain in the seat in case of a crash.
The dash has an airbag for both the driver and passenger. However, the rear seats only have safety belts with pre-tensioners but no airbags to cover them from the front.
Jeep wranglers have side impact airbags at the front and rear, which protect the cabin occupants from crashing their heads on the doors in case of a rollover accident. They also protect the passengers from any form of a side impact.
Jeep wranglers have a bulky and strong body protecting the occupants upon impact. It is reinforced with a roll cage that ensures that the body does not crumble if the car rolls or flips over during a crash.
The Jeep wrangler’s roll cage has a “Good” safety rating, the best one for a roll cage. Overall, the Jeep Wrangler has a “marginal” safety rating which is not bad for its size car. There are other SUVs with a better safety rating.
Still, most cannot compete with the wrangler in terms of practicality, among other things. It received a marginal safety rating because of the tendency to flip on the passenger’s side in case of a rollover, driver’s side crashworthiness.
Conclusion
The jeep wrangler is the type of car you want if you are into off-roading, but you still want a daily driven car to drive to work or for a long upcountry drive. It may lack modern safety features such as airbag knee protection and automatic crash avoidance by braking or autonomous lane assist.
Still, it’s one of the best multipurpose SUVs. After reading this article, you can know what might cause your wrangler to flip over and how to avoid it since flipping over is one of the wrangler’s safety weak points.
Safety starts with the driver and their driving habits. Safety features are put in place to protect the occupants in an accident. But this does not mean that you should be a reckless driver because there are safety measures.
