Happy New Year and Greetings from the Palouse!

I hope you've had a great holiday season and enjoyed being with your families and loved ones. What a great time of the year – we get to spend time with those who mean the most to us in the world. The older I get, the more I understand that if we are living Plato's Good Life we are doing those things which not only make us happy, but make those loved ones happy too. That is a win/win situation and you cannot do anything better.

At least once a year, I have to discuss something that will make you angry and your loved ones happy. This item is also a win/win discussion – if you accept it. The topic is lifts and large tires. If you've read my column before, you already know what I am going to say, so you may want to quit reading and go do something useful. If you don’t know my stance on lifts and large tires, read on.

I've seen two instances involving our beloved TJ Jeeps this last week, that got me thinking about the issue of lifted Jeeps.
Near our little town is a high school, and it is only one block off the main North/South highway. Usually the traffic speeds there are between 60 and 65 mph. Traffic just flies by this intersection of the high school and highway, never slowing down. For 15 miles in each direction there is no town, nothing but wheat and hay farms. (You've got to love living in a whole lot of nothing, at least I do.)

Now here comes a stock Jeep TJ, minding its own business, going south at 60 mph. Add to this an 80-year-old school bus driver with a bus full of a sports team wanting to go home, headed north on this little highway. The driver of the school bus didn’t see the Jeep, entered the intersection and turned to go north. The bus met the TJ, not quite head-on, and crushed the passenger side from the cowl forward. In a fraction of a second the Jeep was crushed to a stop. The hood of the Jeep was under the front of the bus, so it has not come up and destroyed the windshield frame and soft top. Other than a few minor injuries, everyone involved was OK.

The Jeep in this situation held up very well. The passenger cabin did not fly apart, and the driver lived to Jeep again. What would have happened if that bus driver had pulled out a second later? That bus would have T-boned the Jeep. This could have done two things:

• Destroyed the passenger side of the Jeep.
• Rolled the Jeep over onto the driver's side.

The passenger would likely have been severely injured, if not killed. There is a crash bar in the hard door of a TJ, but this one had only a soft door, and that is little protection from a school bus.

The TJ would probably have rolled more than once to the driver's side as the energy was expended. If you've never been in a Jeep during a roll, you have missed a very terrifying few seconds. The passenger compartment is not very big, so hopefully you are held tight to the seat and the air bag is keeping you in place from front to back. But side to side, you're flopping around. This is why you always should wear a seatbelt.  It can keep you from flying right out on the road.

I saw the second instance last week, but it actually happened a few months ago in LA. I was tearing down and rebuilding the lawn tractor's engine on the dining room table. (It's cold out here on the Palouse and I don't have a garage. The Better Half understood.)  There was a show on TV about stupid car chases. One showed a bad guy doing about 80 mph through a residential area. He clipped a stock TJ in the rear driver's side panel, behind the rear wheel. The TJ spun around four times, flew backwards into a light pole about 40 feet in the opposite direction. Several of LA's Finest were chasing the bad guy, and one of them went over to check on the condition of the Jeep driver. He got out of the Jeep, badly shaken up but OK.

I was surprised this Jeep didn’t roll. Remember, I'm an ol' guy who has cut my Jeepin' Teeth on the old MB's, Seeps and CJs. YJs seem modern to me.
When I get in a TJ I feel as if I'm sitting in the captain's chair of the Starship Enterprise. The Jeep's seat and cockpit to envelop me. But, like the old MBs, there is not a lot of room in a Jeep. The engineers started to figure out how to keep a Jeep on its four tires and not easily roll in the 1980's. Now, over 25 years later, that work is paying off. The Jeep is a whole lot safer than it used to be - those little MBs would roll on a dime! The CJs, with their short wheel base were better, but not much.

If you drive a CJ or an MB, or a YJ, there is no time to drive and daydream, and those type of drivers quickly eliminate themselves from the gene pool.
We're in a whole new world now, with lot of toys that are put in a Jeep. Things like in-dash DVDs, cell phones, GPS devices and stereos take your mind off your driving and increase your risk of an accident.

Even as a good driver, if you add lifts and big tires, you’ve just made your Jeep considerably more unsafe. I warned you that this might make you mad.
Jeep has spent millions of dollars to make that Jeep stable on the road, and as safe as possible in an accident. What Jeep has not done is spend millions of dollars making sure that when you lift that Jeep with larger tires, or a lift, that it is stable on the road or in an accident. Installing a lift and tires has now screwed up almost three decades of Jeep engineering.

You did a little research and bought the biggest tires you could afford. But of course, the tires will rub if you don't lift the Jeep. So you spend about $3000 for a lift, new wheels, and big tires (to fit the wheels) and have it all installed. You have done a few things:

• Lifted the Center of Gravity.
• Not regeared the front or rear axles.
• Caused excessive front end parts wear.
• Caused excessive engine wear.
• Caused excessive transmission wear.
• Caused excessive front and rear differential wear.
• Caused excessive tire wear.
• Diven up your maintenance costs.

Your Jeep is now going to lose power and money with every mile you drive. It's also become unstable at highway speeds and will roll easier. You've just defeated those three decades of engineering, and have another $3000 to spend to restore the power

So I have a better solution.  Why not add a full roll cage and a winch instead? Those items are great for the new Jeeper.
My advice is to take at least a year to learn how to handle your Jeep. A Jeep does not handle like a car, on road or off. It is really a brick flying down the road at highway speeds. Take some time to lean its quirks and how to maneuver safely.

You will not only learn to handle the Jeep, but you will be saving money and learning what type of off-roading you like to do. There is not a one-size fits all configuration. If you want to go mudding, it’s a world of difference between that configuration and a rock crawler. If you only go on the trails once in a while, your Jeep will do mild off-roading the way it is now. That’s the beauty of owning a Jeep.

A winch is always a good tool, both on and off road. You never miss it until you need it. I once used mine to pull out a crushed front end on a Bronco II. It pulls stumps, lifts roofing material, it drags a home-made snowplow, and is just wonderful!

Then on to the roll cage.  If you pair a roll cage with four or five point seat belts you will be increasing your chance of surviving most accidents. By spending a few bucks (much less than tires and a lift) you can install a full cage that protects you and your passengers. It is much better to have the roll cage take the force of the accident than you. The better the cage, the better the chances that you will survive. If you tie that cage to the frame, and bolt the seats to the cage, so much the better. That keeps the tub and frame together, and keeps you inside a protected area.

Do it right and dump the idea of a lift and big tires. Install that winch and full roll cage. Live to enjoy that Jeep and those loved ones you just spent the holidays with this last Christmas.

Next month it's on to answering and publishing your questions, so keep them rolling in. Until then, keep that Jeep rolling and enjoy life.