Social media has been buzzing with photos of a Jeep Gladiator sporting a broken chassis, bringing up bad memories of bent Nissan Navaras…only this isn’t actually a thing.
Ah, Book Face. It’s so good at causing panic. And it’s just done it again. As if running out of loo rolls in this country isn’t bad enough, images of a bent Gladiator towing a camper trailer rippled through the 4X4 community Down Under.
With the Gladiator set to arrive here in May and with the high pricing of the Gladiator Rubicon announced last week, the image of a bent Gladiator online couldn’t have been timed any better. Now, the owner of the vehicle is keeping very, very quiet about what they did that caused their Gladiator to bend there are plenty willing to speculate.
Here in Australia, travel into the outback and you’ll see plenty of vehicles with bent or cracked chassis. Most of these vehicles were overloaded and usually towing too and driving too fast for the conditions. It’s the perfect storm. Overloaded, hit a whoop at speed, bottom out and you’ve just cracked or bent your chassis. Sure, plenty blame airbag helpers being improperly installed and point loading. But it’s a fact that overloading and driving too fast will bend a chassis quick smart.
So, what physics are involved in bending the chassis and why doesn’t it happen on the road? It’s all because of the condition of outback roads. We spoke with Pat Callinan (from Pat Callinan’s 4X4 Adventures) who’s seen his fair share of bent chassis (even bent one or two himself). Here’s what he told us: “Increasing traffic on the roads that we like to drive (Anne Beadell Highway, I’m talkin’ ‘bout you), means the conditions will deteriorate. Rough and unmaintained tracks like the French Line, the Canning Stock Route and the Telegraph Track in Cape York will get rougher again. And harder touring tracks and heavy loads equals chassis meltdown.
“Your suspension will cycle from full droop to full compression in less than one second, which is fine, because that’s what it was designed to do. But that suspension on your vehicle, can, on occasion, cycle at precisely the wrong time if you are towing. For example, if your 4X4s rear suspension is just at the start of its rebound cycle, but your trailer hitch is on its compression cycle, only your chassis can solve that problem. Two, massively opposing forces are colliding, and if the chassis lacks the strength in that split second, it will bend. Something has to give. You can successfully traverse literally hundreds of sand dunes, but when the holes are in just the right (or is that wrong!) spacing apart, the opposing forces are just too great. Additional weight (in the form of heavy rear bars with multiple spares) tends to exacerbate the problem.”
So, while the images don’t suggest the bent Gladiator here was overloaded that might just be clever stage management. The rental teardrop trailer being towed looks lightweight and well within the towing limits of the Gladiator (2700kg) and there doesn’t look to be anything in the tray…so, was stuff removed? Maybe, maybe not. Could it have been that the Gladiator owner was simply frapping along off-road on the Mojave Road which runs for about 237km and didn’t lift or drive to the conditions? Probably more than likely. The Mojave Road is a well-known 4X4 track that’s noted for its history, beauty and, in some parts, difficulty, mostly it’s a compacted dirt track with some severe washes and lumps and bumps.
According to one theory which referenced the friend of a friend who knew the owner, the bent Gladiator had been modified and you can tell that from the crime-against-humanity 20s on the thing. Apparently the aftermarket shocks were too long and ended up becoming a bump stop and, thus under hard compression forced the chassis to bend. Similar instances have been noted on other vehicle owners towing on the same track… and in those cases towing at high speed was the culprit. One of the best known was the Chevy Colorado ZR2 that was towing and had its chassis bent in a very similar way to the Gladiator pictured here.
According to a post on CORE Off Road’s Facebook page: “Gladiator shocks are in front of the axle. they lean right where the bend is in the frame. Having a trailer with a standard hitch high speed off road is gonna cause damage. Going fast over whoops, with a trailer and improper shocks and bump stops, is going to put a lot of strain on the hitch. 200lbs of tongue weight can leverage to 2000lbs from the shock pivot point in the frame. Especially with a standard ball hitch. It has a limit of droop and will catch. Suddenly that 200lbs of tongue weight has the 2000lb trailer on an extended length (weighing FAR more at the hitch) pulling downward. The shock mounts on these things are huge. And a compressed shock can hold a lot of weight and will not bend. Just created the perfect pivot point. as shown in the photo posted, there is also a “kink” in the frame just behind the shock towards the back. So think of it this way, there is 72-inches from the shock bolt on the frame to hitch mount. If you have 200lbs of tongue weight, that comes out to 14400lbs of downward pressure. Now granted, it’s a boxed frame, and the springs are behind, that’s not the issue. but the issue is, you’re taking that weight, and multiplying by how much (the weight of the trailer as it bottoms out through the high-speed whoops). So yes, the issue arose from the trailer off road. The bend point was justified by the bend in the frame and just before it the shock being the pivot point. So improper usage of a weighted trailer, improper trailer, high speeds with a trailer, improper length of shock and bump stops = something is going to bend somewhere. Weakest point? The kink in the frame.”
To that end, the Gladiator Mojave which will go on-sale in the US soon has a strengthened rear frame and has been designed to be bashed through the desert. Think, the Ranger Raptor with its strengthened chassis designed to deal with being jumped etc across rough roads.
Conspiracy theorists might point to the fact the current Wrangler was recalled in the US in 2018 because of weaknesses in some welds in the frame. These were addressed in a recall and change to manufacturing processes. So, the fact the Gladiator is made in the same factory should suggest it too has a ‘fixed’ chassis. Meaning it’s unlikely there’s any inherent weakness in the Gladiator’s frame. Or maybe there is. Will the Gladiator join the ranks of the D40 Navara bending chassis pages?
