Bent Frame?!?!

[mujaman]

1990 YJ Gas Tank

i got REALLY stuck today. the entire right front end of my 97 XJ was under mud and water... not a good situation. we tried everything to get it out... four wheelers and all (unfortunately we didn't have another jeep/truck that could make it to where we were). finally we got it out with a hand-crank winch (a real pain). while it was stuck, i opened the tail gate with the idea of loading the back end (which was still on fairly solid ground) with rocks, and when i tried to shut it... it wouldn't even come close. as soon as we got it pulled out though it was fine. is this just some natural flexibility the frame has (since XJ's are a unibody construction), or is this something i should be worried about?

 

[jhiggins]

I don't know have you tried to post this under the cherokee forum???

 

[far_right]

i would say it was b/c of the unibody....

 

[PASmokeater]

It's all flex, and it's a good thing. You just want to make sure you didn't do any perminent damage.....keep an eye on the carpets next time it rains...see if you have any leaks, and new rattles are a good way to tell if anything is bent.
Alo, the driving manners of your Jeep will be different. If you've had it for awhile, you'll notice this before anything else.



Rob 8)

 

[jps4jeep]

Even trucks with full frames, when they flex the axles hard, the body will slightly shift on the frame. I would assume your assumptions are correct, but I would get under there and just do a vissual inspection of the undercarriage just to be on the save side!

 

[mujaman]

thanks for the input everybody. i'm pretty sure it was just everything flexing... no permanent damage. i haven't noticed anything different while driving it (and i would if there was anything), and everything lines up correctly now. i sure was worried there for a while though!

 

[Bounty__Hunter]

Just normal XJ flex. Watch the seams where the rear doors meet the body, this is where you'll first see the signs of permanent twist in the body.

Let's not forget to resize the pics in the sigs, a little big there :shock:

 

[Snitty]

its always good to hear that something you thought was something bad, is nothing bad at all

 

[Saurian]

You know, I read this post, so when I sunk my Jeep, I was not too worried. My dad, however, was freaking. Cruising down a snow-covered Upper Peninsula road, I turned off into what I thought wasa trailhead, but turned out to be a ditch... Passenger side hood was at snow level, drivers side rear tire was at lower chest level to me... Really stuck... And when I opened the hatch, it would not close, was about a half inch off kilter... Soon as I got it back on level snow, hatch closed just fine... Apart from the brakes grinding a little bit due to the wheels being full of gravel and ice, Jeep's behaving just fine. So, that's my horror story... Thanks for the first post or I would have been freaking...