How much pitch & roll is too much?

[RagTopDeluxe]

This was quite a descent:

(the staircase on Broken Arrow)

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[Dkretden]

Personally, I wet my pants at about 1.5-degrees but I’m a pussy.

 

[AZ-Chris]

I am much more tolerant of pitch than I am roll. I've been as high as 20 degrees of roll and DID NOT like it . . . especially since I was just about to get to The Steps on Black Bear Pass. It was probably all for the best, as it made me extremely cautious and SLOW once I got to The Steps. That trail will get the adrenaline pumping.

 

[The Fixer]

Loving all things cars, I go to a lot of car shows & did the "Camp Jeep" experience several times. On stock Jeeps (unbelievably all models from the Renegade to the Wrangler) they take you up and down a 35 degree pitch approach/departure 18' tall 'mountain', and a 25-30 degree wedge to experience roll & articulation.

Both the pitch and roll angles were pretty impressive... while I love watching what people can do with their wranglers on extreme trails, that little course that all the models can manage confirmed to me that stock is all I personally am willing to handle! ;-)

Here's a quick video I put together from when I was at Camp Jeep at the NYIAS in 2019 -

 

[Neen_Spell]

When you roll over, that’s too much.

Wow, suuuper helpful!

 

[omnitonic]

After I did the lift and tires, I got my Jeep up to 26° on the roll gauge. I got out, carefully, and rocked the Jeep to see how close it felt to tipping. It was scary as hell, but it actually felt pretty firmly planted. I consider that my red line, and 20° is my yellow line.

I don't think I ever want to try going over 26°. Sure, it felt pretty firmly planted, but how much longer would that have been true? Another degree? Another five? It's impossible to know until you go over, and then you have a real problem.

Back when I worked in a tire shop, I lifted a Chevy Cavalier to change the tires. No big deal. Common as mud. I followed the shop protocol of lifting it up a little bit and shaking it before going all the way up with it, and that fact saved me from getting fired. The first wheel that went back on, BOOM! that Cavalier took a nose dive. It was balanced, and then it wasn't balanced. I had it just a little too far forward on the lift, apparently, but my bump test did not clue me in to this fact at all.

Kind of like how my Jeep felt pretty firmly planted. Yeah, it was, but I wouldn't want to cross that line. When the balance tips, things to to hell quickly!

 

[UKCATS]

Wow, suuuper helpful!

You are welcome. When you wheel hard enough to roll over, and spend the effort to document the exact angle which resulted in said rollover, please share. Otherwise, zip it. No one cares.

 

[UniqueUserName]

That center of gravity moves a lot when you lift and start putting things up on the roof. I'm not the least bit surprised that Jeep doesn't go out on the limb and preprogram warning marks on the display. Perhaps one day they'll be able to compare loading on the wheels on each side and give the driver a warning when it starts to get "light" on the uphill side.

 

[roaniecowpony]

It is a physical fact that any object will tip over only when its center of gravity gets outside its base of support. A jeep's base of support is easy to measure -- it is simply the vehicle's track width. The center of gravity, however, is not so easy to measure. A stock, static vehicle by itself will have a very precisely located CoG, but fuel tank levels, lift kits, mounted accessories, and occupants have a huge effect on the dynamic CoG -- especially the number, placement and weight of occupants. For instance, a single occupant in the driver's seat will raise the CoG of the vehicle slightly and move it a little to the left. A driver plus two passengers in the right front and right rear will raise the CoG even more, but move it slightly to the right. Yes, placing two occupants on the uphill side of your vehicle will help significantly.

As long as you keep your CoG over your track width your are in good shape, provided no additional force is applied (like momentum) which would swing your CoG past the tipping point.

In the Wrangler diagram below, if you assume the CoG is at the center of the spare tire mount (quite conservative, even with four occupants), I calculate the rollover angle would be roughly 40-degrees. It's easy to see how lowering the CoG would increase this rollover angle.

Theoretically

This talk of rollover is exactly why I never gravitated to lifting either my Jeep or trucks (very much). I haven't had clearance issues in my light offroad uses, so I have no desire to lift it.

 

[HungryHound]

I've done 29 roll several times but did my first 31 pitch today. Rear locked in but slipping a little, seat cranked up so I could see better but of course the damn seatbelt locked up so I couldn't lean forward to see at the top. Luckily, passenger could lean sideways and see the right turn at the crest.
That's in a 4xe so it's 4-doors which would affect pitch and the batteries are low and in the center so that would affect both pitch and roll. Front end felt light, but not tippy.

 

[JollieOllie]

I was at a 26 degree Pitch, and having done that for the first time it felt pretty steep. (Though I felt I could have gone steeper.) It was hard getting out of the Jeep and even harder getting back in! The rear bumper nearly scraped at the bottom. Stock 2021 Rubicon 4xe.

 

[El Zilcho]

Up to 39 pitch. Scary the first time, ok second and third time 26 or 27 roll, was terrified and never want to do it again. But from the outside when I watched it on video it did not look impressive at all.

 

[Alan_Hepburn]

For the technical answer: draw a vertical line from the center of gravity point down to the ground; if that line intersects the ground outside of the rectangle made by the 4 tire footprints then you're going over...

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