Violent shudder at 85mph

[ShadowsPapa]

I f my calculations are correct, when this baby hits 88 miles per hour you're going to see some serious shit.

Doc? Doc Brown? Is that you?

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[Terry]

ok, gotta say it, 90MPH and you're worried about a wobble? Hell, you're lucky the entire thing didn't fall apart. Jeeps are governed at 96MPH so you're pushing it's limit every day.

Drive as we will, it's my opinion anything over 70 in a Jeep Gladiator is too fast.

 

[Kevin_D]

Drive as we will, it's my opinion anything over 70 in a Jeep Gladiator is too fast.

May be, but I’ve had mine to the limit, and it handled quite nicely.

Kevin

 

[yolo]

Nothing is wrong. But Pennsylvania roads are really really really bad. Pa and Michigan have the worst roads in the country. You don't want to hit a Pennsylvania pothole at 85 mph. Texas roads are also largely straight. I know, as that's my original home state. Ours are curvy and mountainous, with heavy traffic (even compared to dfw). You can't tell me a gladiator takes a mountain pass like an m3. Driving here is not the same as driving in TX at all.

Semis aren't going up these steep hills at 85. They are in the far right lane lane struggling to go 55. As I said, I've owned plenty of fast cars, nimble cars. Also, if you hit a pothole at 85+ on one of these with the live axles, your front wheels leave the ground, which isn't fun while you're turning. The gladiator is great at a lot of things, but it's not nimble or fast. I'm fine with that at this point.

Nobody was talking about doing 85 up a mountain pass or jumping potholes. The op stated he was doing 85 on a turnpike going to work, and some folks blamed the speed. Implying our Gladiators are inherently incapable of going those speeds safely, which is simply not true.

Also, not all of Texas is flat. I live in an area with lots of steep hills, rough ranch roads, and lots of beautiful twisty's. And I often don't get above 35mph. But on flat sections of I-10, where some sections have 85mph speed limits, most traffic is doing 80-90mph.

And I have never once felt like the truck was anything but stable at those speeds. So if all of a sudden my truck felt like it was wobbling itself apart, I'd take it to the dealer because somethings wrong.

 

[MrKnowitall]

My money is on having lost a wheel weight, and at 85 it hits a resonance.

 

[Jeeperjamie]

Sounds more like a out of balance tire than death wobble to me. Normally with death wobble it will happen when you hit a bump or when you get to around 40mph. You normally can't recreate it by just going 80mph again,something normally triggers death wobble and it's normally a low speed under 40 or a bump or divide in the road at a certain speed.

 

[Jeeperjamie]

Drive as we will, it's my opinion anything over 70 in a Jeep Gladiator is too fast.

I feel the same way but hell if it's calibrated for 110mph like mine I would expect it to drive right at 110mph. Now 111mph and your in for some serious malfunctions!

 

[NachoRuby]

Nobody was talking about doing 85 up a mountain pass or jumping potholes. The op stated he was doing 85 on a turnpike going to work, and some folks blamed the speed. Implying our Gladiators are inherently incapable of going those speeds safely, which is simply not true.

Also, not all of Texas is flat. I live in an area with lots of steep hills, rough ranch roads, and lots of beautiful twisty's. And I often don't get above 35mph. But on flat sections of I-10, where some sections have 85mph speed limits, most traffic is doing 80-90mph.

And I have never once felt like the truck was anything but stable at those speeds. So if all of a sudden my truck felt like it was wobbling itself apart, I'd take it to the dealer because somethings wrong.

My part of Texas was pretty flat. But it's a big state (obviously). I'm from Tyler TX originally, with family in the Dallas area as well. My brother lives in Austin. I know west Texas is pretty mountainous, though. But I was making kind of a joke about the handling compared to other vehicles I've owned, and the quality of roads here in Pennsylvania and western MD. Agreed about the op. I'd just never know, because there are no roads around me where you'd get going that fast in a jeep before you hit a curve or a pothole. I live in Appalachia, so every road is a mountain pass and they are all curvy as heck. It doesn't level out until you get out to the Piedmont area. There are few times unless I travel eastward where I'm not going up, down, or around a "mountain". I put mountain in quotes because the Appalachians and Blue Ridges are nothing like the Rockies, but they are still an obstacle.

Back to OP, I wonder if the dealer will diagnose a problem, since technically those speeds are above the speed limit. It might be the norm to drive those speeds in that particular region, but it opens up the dealer to liability should something bad happen.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I don't advocate the speeds mentioned here, I'm a "life is important - even the lives of others" person.............
But - good or not, safe or not, the fact is these WILL, they CAN do it and do it without falling apart.

(and in some parts of the world, going slower than "prevailing traffic" will get you in some trouble, too)

Maybe some of you have read of my account of trying to out-run our record derecho last summer. My wife, one who keeps harping "you aren't speeding are you? We can't afford a ticket" kept hollering "faster, faster, we have to get home - look, it's gaining on us" as I crossed 70, then 75, then 80, then 85......... and I was passing everything in sight - and I mean everything there was space to get around and pass.

It handled fine. NO shimmy, no wobble, solid, stable, not a hint of vibration.

I had a horrible "vibration" on my little SX4 - took a very long time to figure out. It shook the WHOLE CAR, so badly that I was afraid things were going to break. It happened only at speeds about 65-75. I moved wheels around, I checked pinion angles, I had the driveshaft professionally rebuilt and balanced by a race shop, I checked wheel runout several times - all well within specs.
I had tires balanced at least 3 times and one of the big discount tire dealers said the wheels and tires were great, no runout, no issues.
Then finally getting ready for a big show I took the wheels to a shop to have them CNC machined and restored. I took the 4 from the car and one from another stack of machines aluminum Eagle wheels I had.
I went to pick up the wheels and was told one of the 4 from my car was bad - so they machined the spare - but they FIXED the bad wheel. Lateral runout was fine - but it was egg shaped as if it had hit a big pothole really really hard, or the car had been dropped from real height.
They were able to re-shape it and I'll use it as a spare. I put the restored wheels on and all vibration is gone.

I would absolutely have the wheels/tires checked for balance - but with that sort of vibration, those forces acting on the truck, I'd also want everything checked over for stress-caused wear, loose parts, etc.

These trucks absolutely WILL do 85-90+ without any wobble or vibration. Mine has been there more than once.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Drive as we will, it's my opinion anything over 70 in a Jeep Gladiator is too fast.

It's a matter of the wording -
Will they? - yes, absolutely
SHOULD they? well.........

 

[jsalbre]

Only the ones that come with mud tires are limited at 97MPH. It's to keep it within the speed rating of the tires. So Rubicons and Mojaves, if factory equipped with mud tires, and maybe Willys's too. Your Max tow came with highway tires, so you get a higher speed governor. That being said, I think I'd soil myself if I hit 97 in the gladiator, and I've owned plenty of fast cars before. But on the Gladiator, I hit 85 in it once. That was more than fast enough for the Gladiator on mud tires and Rubicon suspension. I bet your Max tow is more stable at that speed though.

My Mojave came with the A/Ts (rated to 118 MPH) and still has a 97MPH limiter. I’m not sure what as that’s almost always set due to tire requirements.

I’ve had it up to the limiter a number of times while making passes around slow traffic. The straight sections of road, and thus the passing zones, are short in the mountains and I want to get around and back into my lane as quick as possible. The Mojave has been dead steady at that speed, even after changing out to 35s (now rated to 106).

It’s no race car, but it’s also not a 1970s CJ.

 

[NachoRuby]

My Mojave came with the A/Ts (rated to 118 MPH) and still has a 97MPH limiter. I’m not sure what as that’s almost always set due to tire requirements.

I’ve had it up to the limiter a number of times while making passes around slow traffic. The straight sections of road, and thus the passing zones, are short in the mountains and I want to get around and back into my lane as quick as possible. The Mojave has been dead steady at that speed, even after changing out to 35s (now rated to 106).

It’s no race car, but it’s also not a 1970s CJ.

Makes sense. It's definitely better than a CJ and miles ahead of our old TJ. My comment was more lighthearted than I think it's being taken though. Since my most recent driving experience before the Glad was a VW GLI, and before that, a Subaru STI, it's taking a while to get that level of confidence at speed in the Glad. Plus, as mentioned, our roads suck, are narrow, are never straight for long, are rarely without divets, and everything is on a hill.

My biggest fear once I hit 80 isn't the Gladiator though, it's the police. They all drive completely unmarked explorers and F150s in PA now, so you never know. It was easy when they had crown Vics. And mine is bright orange, so I don't see them, and they definitely see me.
I do a lot of driving around the Eastern half of the US, visiting far apart family in NC, TX and IL, and the driving culture in different states and regions is interesting. For example, every one on the east coast knows never to speed in Virginia at all, or you'll go to jail. In my adopted home state of PA, go faster than 75, and you're eventually going to get pulled over. When I'm in West Virginia, it's pretty much a free for all. Do what you want. In the Gulf coast, besides TX, I rarely see a police car, the highway is miles of straight lines, and everyone goes fast. In TX, speed limits are 75 mph on the stretches of highway I ride on, and 70 on regular county roads, where it'd be 65 and 50 respectively in PA.
They probably just set all the Rubis and Mojaves' governors to the lowest common denominator on tires then.

 

[IamPro2A]

Maybe some of you have read of my account of trying to out-run our record derecho last summer.

These are so rare in New England, I actually didn't remember exactly what the word meant, and had to go look it up. Only had 3 since 1995.

 

[foo.c]

If it goes from fine to violently shaking with little in between, that's death wobble.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

These are so rare in New England, I actually didn't remember exactly what the word meant, and had to go look it up. Only had 3 since 1995.

It takes some open ground to really get them wound up with high winds.

The flattened fields could be seen from space.

You were not safe even inside your home. Pic below from the local news - went through an exterior wall and embedded in an interior wall.

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