Another stupid noob question

I would pull the ABS fuse and air bag fuses if you are worried about it.
 
Profile says he has a ZJ. I've never pulled the airbag fuse in my TJ, and I've hit some things pretty hard, but never very fast. Dunno about ABS. It is certainly easier to pull the fuse than to find out the hard way.
 
is'nt abs a good thing to have, even on the trails? If you slide down a hill in muddy conditions, you can still steer the trail rig. If you lock em' up, you cant steer anymore, right?

I guess my question is..why would you want to override the abs?
 
ABS doesn't work very well on loose surfaces such as dirt or gravel. When you slide on pavement the surface doesn't change. When you slide on loose surfaces, material builds up in front of your tires, helping you stop. Newer ABS systems deal with this much better than older ones, but still sense sliding as a bad thing. I've had waaaaay too many close calls on gravel roads because of the ABS in my 1990 XJ.
 
I don't know why everyone is scarred of airbags going off while off roading. You have to hit something extremely hard for the airbags to go off. Hard enough for the system to warrant deploying them, meaning you'd have to crush the front end of your rig the equivalent of a 30-40 mph head on collusion. If you hit anything that hard, you'd want the airbags to go off to protect you. Off road or on. I've jumped my '98 taco and the airbags didn't go off.
 
Most airbags systems use and inertia switch basically a ball mounted on a spring Chrysler vehicles have them built into the airbag control module it is not how fast you hit something it is how hard you hit it that blows the bag(s).
 
rob92xj said:
Most airbags systems use and inertia switch basically a ball mounted on a spring Chrysler vehicles have them built into the airbag control module it is not how fast you hit something it is how hard you hit it that blows the bag(s).
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Exactly. If you hit something hard enough to create the same force that a 30 mph head on causes, You're gonna want the airbags to go off to help protect your ars.
 
rattlecanpaint said:
Exactly. If you hit something hard enough to create the same force that a 30 mph head on causes, You're gonna want the airbags to go off to help protect your ars.
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An airbag can blow at 0-5 mph just as well as 35 mph, inertia and deceleration rate are what trigger the bag. The last airbag class I took was 2 days long there is alot to them, when off road to prevent a very expensive and un-necessary repair pull the fuses.
 
rob92xj said:
An airbag can blow at 0-5 mph just as well as 35 mph, inertia and deceleration rate are what trigger the bag. The last airbag class I took was 2 days long there is alot to them, when off road to prevent a very expensive and un-necessary repair pull the fuses.
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Sorry but I don't think you have enough inertia at 5 mph to deploy the airbags. If that were to happen the 5mph bummpers would be a moot point. (As in the person from NYC who parks by braille at 5 mph would cause $3k worth of damage to their vehicle by deploying the airbags and it really wouldn't matter that the bumpers weren't damaged. The last airbag class I took was 3 days and it involved fiber optics for information and crash data transfer. Believe me, I know there is a lot to an airbag system. I've seen cars that were totaled by a side impact and only the side that was impacted had the airbag go off. Neither one of the fronts went off. BMW sent an engineer out to see why they didn't. The conclusion, they weren't supposed to go off. There wasn't enough forward force to deploy the front bags.

I'll say it again, if you cause enough of an impact to deploy the airbags, you are going to need them. That's why the automaker spent millions of dollars in R&D to design a system that protects the occupants.
 
I have taken classes on this as well and just pulling the fuse will not completely prevent an airbag from deploying. Any sort of short could set it off. So just leave them alone and you should be fine.
 
I have hit and seen people hit things pretty hard and never had an airbag blow. I belive jeep and other offroad vehicals do look at other varibles beside inertia. I spoke with a guy one time who was in 4 low and missed a shift. he claimed to be going alomst 30 mph before the highlift mounted on his front bumper stoped him. airbags did not deploy. (some of you may know him) If you are worried pull the fuse. I personally don't.

on the ABS, the cal is yours, try wheeling with it in some and out other times. jsut remember to cycle the ignition when ever you swap the fuse in or out.
 
Dylan W. said:
Yeah, that has me thinking about my airbags now. That is a good video...shows you the speed and force of the airbags.
Looke dlike the jeep only hit below the bumper too. No head on collision needed.
Here it is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs44P5nNrDs
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Thanks for posting that link Dylan. It just looks like a hard landing that completely bottomed out the front suspension very quickly, with a small hit on the lower front. Not anything like hitting a brick wall or head on collision.

I heard that after the bags deployed he couldn't see anything from the powder and bag in his face and ran offcouse. In that aspect its much safer to pull the fuse and not worry about running over an innocent observer when on the trails b/c you can't see because of an airbag.

Just my .02
 
I've seen a Jeep come in with both airbags blown the driver was sitting at a stop light and was hit. I have also seen one of my co-workers not realize that the key was on in a vehicle he was removing a seat from, the seat fell on the airbag control module and the air bags deployed again another vehicle sitting still.

If someone is concerned about the airbags going off while wheeling pull the fuses(most Jeeps have 2) and wait 10 minutes for the capacitors to drain after 10 minutes the bags are just sitting there with no electrical charge.
 
Dylan W. said:
Yeah, that has me thinking about my airbags now. That is a good video...shows you the speed and force of the airbags.
Looke dlike the jeep only hit below the bumper too. No head on collision needed.
Here it is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs44P5nNrDs
Click to expand...
Again the airbags used in Jeeps are inertia sensitive, there is no front impact sensor on that Grand Cherokee only sensor to deploy the bag is in the control module under the console, same for Wranglers(TJ) and 97-98 XJ's had a recall to re locate the airbag control module to under the console it was under the drivers seat from the factory but they didn't think people would put stuff on the floor that would roll under the seat and deploy the bag.
 
SStone said:
I have taken classes on this as well and just pulling the fuse will not completely prevent an airbag from deploying. Any sort of short could set it off. So just leave them alone and you should be fine.
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There is no way a short can set off a airbag. they require 12v applied to the air bag to deploy. also on all air bag systems there is a fault check by the air bag computer. if there is any thing wrong with th system then they will not deply. there is air bag light just like a check engine light that will notify you of that
 
Ridgerunner said:
also on all air bag systems there is a fault check by the air bag computer. if there is any thing wrong with th system then they will not deply. there is air bag light just like a check engine light that will notify you of that
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That is not true just because the airbag light is on the system can still work or at least Chrysler system do, the only way to keep the system off is to pull both fuses. A short to 12v on the squib circuit can blow the bag.
 
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