Ever seen a unibody tear?
#1
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Year: 1999
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So this happened to my buddy's cherokee the other day..
While he was attempting to pull somebody out with his hitch the unibody tore right in half. Sorry for my lack of info but I wasn't there when it happened and this pic is all I've seen of it. I would love to know how hard he pulled to do this.. I've been around XJs for awhile and never heard of anything this catastrophic happen. I'd love to hear some comments on this and maybe some other horror stories about terrible things we put our Cherokees through.
While he was attempting to pull somebody out with his hitch the unibody tore right in half. Sorry for my lack of info but I wasn't there when it happened and this pic is all I've seen of it. I would love to know how hard he pulled to do this.. I've been around XJs for awhile and never heard of anything this catastrophic happen. I'd love to hear some comments on this and maybe some other horror stories about terrible things we put our Cherokees through.
Last edited by XJlimitedx99; 09-04-2014 at 04:13 PM.
#2
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I've seen this a lot. More common up north where rust is a problem.
This is one reason I take care of mine and don't rip on other people
The unibody is not heavy duty. The Cherokee was just intended to be a light duty station wagon with some light off road capability. The grocery-getter for the ranch-style family. It wasn't until AMC/Chrysler saw its offroad potential that they started marketing it as an offroad vehicle.
For heavy duty, I would buy a diesel truck with a frame lol. That might be the only thing I would "pull" on someone with. Not something with a frame welded to the chassis.
This is one reason I take care of mine and don't rip on other people
The unibody is not heavy duty. The Cherokee was just intended to be a light duty station wagon with some light off road capability. The grocery-getter for the ranch-style family. It wasn't until AMC/Chrysler saw its offroad potential that they started marketing it as an offroad vehicle.
For heavy duty, I would buy a diesel truck with a frame lol. That might be the only thing I would "pull" on someone with. Not something with a frame welded to the chassis.
Last edited by thatXJguy; 09-03-2014 at 10:20 PM.
#3
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I've seen this a lot. More common up north where rust is a problem. This is one reason I take care of mine and don't rip on other people The unibody is not heavy duty. The Cherokee was just intended to be a light duty station wagon with some light off road capability. The grocery-getter for the ranch-style family. It wasn't until AMC/Chrysler saw its offroad potential that they started marketing it as an offroad vehicle. For heavy duty, I would buy a diesel truck with a frame lol. That might be the only thing I would "pull" on someone with. Not something with a frame welded to the chassis.
#5
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That is why I will not use my jeep to yank or ******. Pulling is another thing, the tires will lose traction before a catastrophe happens.
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I had it happen to my first XJ, I was stuck in a mud hole up to the door handles. Got slack chained but some dumb ***. Tore the unibody on both sides in the same spot you show in the pictures.
#9
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Look at this:
Last edited by cruiser54; 09-04-2014 at 06:31 PM.
#10
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Also worth noting this can happen to full-frame vehicles as well, anytime you load a structure beyond what it is designed to handle (or if it is weakened by rust) it can fail:
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