Factory Testing?

(beans)

Observer
I recently saw that Toyota tests their vehicles to -60F....


Does anyone know what Chrysler does testing wise? (I'm guessing drive them to the other end of the parking lot...based on my squeaking/vibrating/mess of a JK.....lol)
 

alosix

Expedition Leader
Just wait till you rip off a few brackets to learn how good some of their welders are :)...

Well. the JKs I've seen are orders of magnitude better than most of the TJ's I've worked on for that. Doing LOTS of long arms kits on those I think I only ran into 1 or 2 Jeeps that had the lower control arm mounts welded on good enough to make it take some work to get them off.

Most, we'd cut in 1/2 with the plasma and give 1-2 good strong hits with a sledge and they'd come right off.
 

Topgun514

Adventurer
For Cold Temps, I have personally :bike_rider: tested my 88 XJ at start up cold, from staying in negative single digits an entire night outside and start up at -2 degrees F. She was slow but started first try. It is in the battery for the most part.

Jeep idled and drove fine, the only thing that seemed slow was the power steering, which just whined for a few turns. The key is start up and HEAT up. Make sure she's in the correct temps.

Not many places we see get below negative 40 here in the US and most of Canada. If you are doing cold travel get either a solar or extra battery hooked up to a engine heater plug and USE IT below -15, or any time under 0 if you want, the more the safer your start will be. Make sure your battery is insulated and put a cover over the radiator like big trucks in the Montana region do. Get a tranny heater and pump your brakes a few times to make sure they are okay.

Maybe someone else will chime in on the actual specs ^^^ was just more cold weather travel, when my finals are done I will talk more!
 

shortbus4x4

Expedition Leader
Don't set your e-brake in cold weather, cables might freeze and not release the next morning. Automatic hubs might not unlock/lock in cold weather right away, grease gets cold. Manual trans could be hard to shift at first until the gear oil is warmed up. I remember my grandpa telling me stories of lighting fires under equipment to warm the engine up before they could start it. I generally try to stay away from weather that cold.
 

Douglas S.

Adventurer
Not many places we see get below negative 40 here in the US and most of Canada. If you are doing cold travel get either a solar or extra battery hooked up to a engine heater plug and USE IT below -15, or any time under 0 if you want, the more the safer your start will be. Make sure your battery is insulated and put a cover over the radiator like big trucks in the Montana region do. Get a tranny heater and pump your brakes a few times to make sure they are okay.

We had temps lower than -40 a few years ago for a few days in a row. If you couldn't plug your vehicle in, you were in major trouble (forget about trying to start it - it's not going to happen and even if it does you aren't doing your engine any favours).
 

wjeeper

Active member
Manual trans could be hard to shift at first until the gear oil is warmed up. I remember my grandpa telling me stories of lighting fires under equipment to warm the engine up before they could start it. I generally try to stay away from weather that cold.

Changing to full synthetic seems to help a lot in the cold! On both of my YJ's changed to a full synthetic, made a huge difference! No more unhappy syncromeshes:bike_rider:

On our family farm we still occasionally light fires under our tractors to get them going to plow snow. Take a coffee can, drop in a roll of toilet paper, top off with diesel, light it off under the oil pan and go eat breakfast.......fires right up........grandpa has been doing it since tractors were new and aint burned one up yet (knock on wood)

To kinda stay on the OP's topic I remember seeing a Top Gear where they stuck Hammond and a car in a freezer and then waited to see which quit working first......if memory serves me the car gave up first, but just barely.:Wow1:
 

wjeeper

Active member
We had temps lower than -40 a few years ago for a few days in a row.

-40!?:Wow1: Never had to deal with that kind of cold her in northern utah........in all honesty I would like to experence that kind of cold at least once in my life! (yes I am cold blooded:sombrero:) But when it gets about -5 to -10 your killing your motor trying to start it without some sort of block heater. The oil is so thick your lifters sound like they are w/o any oil.
 

Harald Hansen

Explorer
Good battery and good oil is a must! Fully synthetic all the way, baby! :)

For extreme conditions I agree that an engine heater is required. But a block heater is not the only alternative. Webasto and Eberspächer (Espar in the anglosphere) both make fuel-burning heaters that will first heat your engine coolant and then turn on your heater fan, making the cabin nice and warm in addition to the engine. They are pricey, but about as easy to get used to as A/C in hotter climates. You'd also be totally independent - no mains power required.

The alternative is to never shut you engine off, Siberia-style.
 

96discoXD

Adventurer
-40!?:Wow1: Never had to deal with that kind of cold her in northern utah........in all honesty I would like to experence that kind of cold at least once in my life! (yes I am cold blooded:sombrero:)

I saw -33 on a ski trip to Ontario a few years ago, trust me you don't want to experience it! The only upside was my brother-in-law and I appeared to be some of the few people crazy enough to ski in that cold so there were no lines at the lift, and we were able to keep skiiing to stay relatively warm.:coffeedrink:
 

K2ZJ

Explorer
Just wait till you rip off a few brackets to learn how good some of their welders are :)...

Well. the JKs I've seen are orders of magnitude better than most of the TJ's I've worked on for that. Doing LOTS of long arms kits on those I think I only ran into 1 or 2 Jeeps that had the lower control arm mounts welded on good enough to make it take some work to get them off.

Most, we'd cut in 1/2 with the plasma and give 1-2 good strong hits with a sledge and they'd come right off.

Off topic: I can't say axle welds should do that, although I know this have been a problem on the Dana 30 for years, but most car companies only want 70% weld accuracy for their robotic welding. If you look at any manufacturer there are a ton of missed/crappy welds. I know GM was told to fix it by some manager and the robot programmers did. Those cars came off the line and were to stiff! They had to go back and make the welds miss again. The engineers actually design the cars to have missed welds. Those axle brackets are a different story.
 

b52

New member
We've had up to -25 degrees Celsius in Toronto the last dew days and my Cherokee didnt even hesitate to start. The only issue I had was getting the doors to open as ice had sealed them shut! I snow plow commercial properties with my 2000 Jeep Cherokee and she runs strong and problem free every night! But with that being said I have made a few mods to make this thing as capable as it is for the work it does; i.e suspension kit, hd power steering pump, optima battery, tranny cooler, oil cooler, aluminum rad, tw driveshaft and synthetic oils all the time every time. Also, because my t-case and tranny take a beating from the snow plowing, I change out those fluids every season with good synthetics to ensure long life. You always need to equip your rig specifically for the conditions it is exposed to, the type of work it will be doing and always look for the factory weak points and address them. If all that is done, your rig will always be reliable regardless of the conditions.
 
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(beans)

Observer
Great responses, thx guys.

what about durability testing? not just temperature, but how'd chrysler test my JK? I'm pretty sure they either didn't, or the test pilot was deaf and immune to vibration! lol
 

K2ZJ

Explorer
Great responses, thx guys.

what about durability testing? not just temperature, but how'd chrysler test my JK? I'm pretty sure they either didn't, or the test pilot was deaf and immune to vibration! lol

There is a course they run it through. I thought t was 4 miles, but 1.5 seems right after writing 4. everyone that comes off the truck has a couple miles on it.
 

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