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.

 

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.

 

I think his jeep just didn't like him. He's always been a vw person and this was his first jeep. The first wheelin trip he blew 1 headlight before he got to the trail then blew the fuse for his lightbar in the woods (at night) and about 15 minutes later his slave cylinder went. Then this was the next wheelin excursion. The jeep must have seen his vw shirt..

 

A lot of them rust around that spot on the frame,So it might have been weaken with rust and his pull it gave in and ripped.

 

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.

 

Saw this happening on a timed course competition, guess he wanted to be the fastest.

 

the worlds fastest backhalf and comp cut. why can't my jeep do that

 

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.

 

Look at this:

 

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:

 

Hey, thanks for that.

 

It has a one way ticket to the bone yard for sure, looks like a ****** and pull to have tore that far apart.

 

Those are cool

 

Exactly why I'm building a frame for my new XJ.

 

I'd rather this happen to a frame that can be replaced than my unibody