A Category 4 hurricane tore through the coast of Florida this year. The Atlantic hurricane season ended with 14 named storms, eight hurricanes, and two major hurricanes, including Category 4 hurricane Ian, the 5th strongest hurricane to ever make landfall in the US. The hurricane season may have ended, but it's never too early to prepare for the next one. You can no longer ignore the impact of rising water when planning your next Jeep build.
Whether to navigate the next storm surge or head out for some outdoor adventure on the trail, you want to do some prep work on your Jeep Wrangler, and this article highlights the ways to improve your Wrangler's off-roading capabilities. The automaker is happy to tell you that “over eighty years of Jeep Brand off-road evolution are rolled into the Wrangler.”
Wrangler is the first vehicle people connect with off-roading, just like convertibles evoke imaginations of drop-top rides through the Florida Keys on warm summer days and pickup trucks are one for hauling and country driving. Although Jeep offers a variety of standard and available features to support your Wrangler's off-road performance, there are still one or two things you can do to transform it into a proper off-road beast.
The Greatest Risk To Your Jeep Wrangler While Off-Roading
Besides common problems like water leaks and wind noise associated with the Jeep Wrangler, fording water pose the biggest risk in your off-road adventures. Your biggest concern is water getting inside the air intake located behind the passenger headlight, just above the fender well. You don’t want water getting through and into one or more of the engine cylinders, as that could hydrolock your engine.
Also known as a hydrostatic lock, a hydrolocked engine happens because excess water in the cylinders causes the pistons and other parts of the engine to lock up. Your Wrangler’s engine cylinders compress air as it works, so water getting in there also gets compressed and could result in catastrophic damage as the piston tries to compress the water.
This is particularly important because while a hydrolocked engine is fixable, the cost can be astronomical, ranging from $3,000 to over $8,000, and your vehicle warranty is useless in this case. Fixing a hydrolocked engine is time-consuming, so don’t blame the mechanic for the high cost. It's always good to be prepared and understand what you need to know before driving your Jeep Wrangler through water.
Here’s How To Make Your Jeep Wrangler A Better Swimmer
Your Wrangler is a land vehicle, but also an off-road-capable 4×4. The current realities of Mother Nature as well as the necessity to cross shallow or deep lakes and small streams make it important to discuss how to keep water out of the engine and make your Jeep Wrangler a better swimmer.
First things first: breather tubes. Your vehicle’s transfer case, front/rear axles, and automatic transmission have breather tubes that relieve pressure in this critical drivetrain system. You risk water getting into the system and contaminating the lubrication oils if the tubes get submerged in water.
So, what can you do to prevent this from happening? Extend the breather hoses with tube extensions. You can buy the parts you need and extend the hoses yourself, but several companies like River Raider sell complete snorkel systems with just about all you need to make your Jeep a better swimmer.
If you're going the DIY route, you'll need a 3/8-inch hose mender (if you're just extending the factory hose), hose clamps (to secure the ends), and a 5/16-inch rubber fuel line. Delete the mender if you plan to replace the whole thing. Once you have all the parts you require, your next step is to extend the hose and secure it to a good spot, raising it as high as possible or routing it to the air box. Just remember to first remove the air box and properly seal all the holes and seams to prevent water from getting through the bottom or sides.
Your Wrangler can very well ford through water safely as is, but extending the breather hose is going the extra mile to make your vehicle a formidable off-road beast. With the breather tubes secure, your next step to making your Jeep Wrangler a fearless swimmer is to invest in a snorkel system to extend the air intake as high as possible, even up to the vehicle’s roof line.
Your Wrangler isn’t an off-road beast without a snorkel. It helps keep the engine breathing while your Jeep wades through water. Some snorkel systems like the ones from Rugged Ridge are efficient enough to also protect your air filter by filtering sand and dust before they clog and compromise the engine's ventilation. So, to make your Jeep Wrangler a better swimmer? Beef up the breather tubes and snorkel.
More Ways To Transform Your Jeep Wrangler Into An Off-Road Beast In Mud Or Water
Your Jeep Wrangler can be as at home in mud or water, as it is on regular roads. However, we've pretty much established your vehicle needs some modifications to be better at what it got built to do. Your goal is to safeguard the mechanical and electrical components. To safeguard your Wrangler's electrical components, devices like ignition switch harnesses and waterproofing kits for the fans and power distribution packs will boost their immunity from water.
Equipping your Wrangler with bigger all-terrain tires and lifts will not only improve the vehicle’s off-road capability in mud or water, but also make them look the part of a formidable off-road beast. You’re in luck because Jeep builds them to accommodate custom off-road add-ons like wider tires and lift kits. Some Wranglers models even have backspacing to accommodate tires up to 35 inches.
The next step is to seal the caps – steering caps, gas caps, and distribution caps. They all need to be watertight when you head out there. And finally, the exhausts. It’s just as important to protect your Jeep Wrangler’s exhaust from drinking up as it is the engine. There are aftermarket exhaust fording kits with things like vent tubes and raider ties, or even a smog pump that you can get to protect the exhaust from drinking. Now, go get your beast.
Sources: Jeep, Extreme Terrain, Four Wheel Trends, prb.org, Lange Tech