Up next in 10
2018 Jeeps, Rams off-road
Feb 4, 2025
Amateurs taking 2018 Jeep and 2018 Ram trucks off-road to see how good they are
View Video Transcript
0:01
so it's 2017 and another year to go
0:03
off-roading this time we followed behind
0:06
somebody in a Jeep Compass for a while
0:08
we also took out a compass and we took
0:10
out a rebel there you see the compass is
0:12
going through some rather nasty uh
0:16
contortions now a Wrangler will keep all
0:18
four wheels on the ground at all times
0:20
for Maximum Traction uh as you can see
0:23
the compass raises two wheels at a time
0:26
the Renegade occasionally would raise
0:28
three wheels at a time but this is quite
0:32
an effort for any car and there are
0:34
vehicles that claim to be off-road where
0:37
if you try to do this exercise you will
0:39
end up with a bent frame and you'll be
0:41
stuck after the first test it's lifting
0:44
up alternate tires so the front right
0:48
and the rear left get lifted up while
0:51
the other two tires get uh put
0:54
down and it is quite a ride inside as
0:58
you can see here I am trying to hold the
0:59
camera steady not having much luck of it
1:02
but you can see the next uh obstacle
1:04
over is the breakover test and that's
1:06
where you go over this very very steep
1:08
little Hill and uh you see if the bottom
1:11
rubs on the top of the hill and it
1:15
doesn't in any of these
1:18
vehicles um more fun and more
1:20
challenging than it looks here on
1:23
film so we're doing the photography from
1:26
a Jeep Renegade and we're following a
1:28
Jeep Compass the Renegade is the bottom
1:31
of the line for the Jeeps the compass is
1:33
the next step up a brand new compact
1:35
that was just launched here we see that
1:37
the driver is going to go through a very
1:40
deep puddle uh we have photos of this
1:42
from a previous here you can see just
1:44
how deep it is and these vehicles just
1:47
don't lose traction and they don't die
1:51
either uh both of the drivers are very
1:54
inexperienced the driver taking meat
1:56
round on the Renegade had never been on
1:58
the course before and I think that the
2:01
compass driver probably hadn't
2:03
either we took the cars through water
2:06
that was even deeper because it was
2:07
raining while we went through the course
2:11
this Trail is all loose mud because
2:13
water has been coming out all day these
2:17
cars started driving on this Trail at
2:19
about 8:00 in the morning we took this
2:21
video at about 2:40
2:23
p.m. the trails were muddy they've been
2:26
going through them all day and these
2:28
Jeeps have been in constant use
2:30
as far as I can tell they have no
2:32
problems they've been running the entire
2:34
set of them the whole day long they
2:36
didn't swap in fresh ones every hour
2:39
it's really a testament to how well they
2:40
make them because every Jeep regardless
2:44
of articulation and other issues which
2:47
come in handy at Moab and the mo
2:50
absolute toughest Trails where you'd
2:52
want to be in a modified Wrangler
2:54
Rubicon regardless of all that these
2:57
bodies are just incredibly tough
3:00
and that's just something that's amazing
3:02
that they still build them to this
3:04
standard so here we're basically going
3:06
up a set of
3:07
Timbers I really don't know if you get a
3:10
sense of the height this is a breakover
3:12
uh test also a traction test the cars
3:16
really have no problem if you drive it
3:18
and in the case of the Renegade if you
3:21
just give it enough gas it will just go
3:24
all that you have to do is steer and the
3:25
car does the rest uh I can tell you from
3:28
experience on that hill all that you you
3:29
don't even have to worry about coming to
3:31
a stop and starting up again you just
3:33
have to trust the car's automatic
3:36
functions now if you're getting tired of
3:38
the sound of my voice we'll just go
3:39
through a little bit more of the trail
3:42
but I just have to say again you can see
3:43
how the car is bouncing around and
3:46
that's for a good reason you really
3:47
can't see the trail very
3:49
well um when you can see it the camera
3:52
sort of hides just how deep these ruts
3:55
and spots are they are very deep it is
3:59
not not an easy
4:00
Trail it's not one of those places where
4:03
you would say well I can take my
4:04
all-wheel drive Subaru on there because
4:06
you would either be stuck or you'd be
4:08
getting a toe and a new car and these
4:11
vehicles even the Renegade even the
4:13
compass they can just do this all day
4:15
long without any problems they come back
4:18
they're covered in mud they've got uh
4:20
grass sticking out of the
4:22
underside you hit the skid plates over
4:25
and over and they just hold even the
4:29
cheapest of the Jeeps if it's trail
4:31
rated as long as it's trail rated you
4:34
will have very thick steel skid plates
4:37
that will protect the bottom of the car
4:39
if it is not one of the trail rated
4:41
models you almost certainly do not have
4:43
the skid plates and you don't want to be
4:46
doing any of this with
4:51
it as close as you want me you see why
4:55
too they they do trails and packs cuz
4:57
it's just you sure just follow the back
4:59
you know Jeep in front of you and you
5:01
always know you're you
5:04
know that's why they have the big trail
5:07
rides with the leader and everybody
5:08
follows a leader you
5:09
know I got a bog over
5:13
there it's a lot easier following than
5:15
having
5:17
to especially because you can see when
5:19
they bought them out on something and
5:21
say maybe I should take that slightly
5:22
slower there should be some good stuff
5:24
right here I I'll hang back just a
5:26
little bit there
5:41
fun that is
5:43
fun now here we actually switched over
5:46
to a ram Rebel which is a much larger
5:48
vehicle it means that it's a little
5:50
harder to take the narrow trails and the
5:52
turns become a lot tougher but you have
5:54
more than enough power uh you just don't
5:58
even notice some of the mud and and
6:01
other bad conditions you go right
6:03
through that little
6:05
puddle uh it's just very easy car to
6:08
drive Offroad
#Autonomous Vehicles
#Autos & Vehicles
#Custom & Performance Vehicles
#Jeep
#Land Rover
#Motor Vehicles (By Brand)
#Motor Vehicles (By Type)
#Off-Road Vehicles
#Outdoors