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Question: How durable are jeep cherokees in driving offroad in snow?

(Posted by: Chad Johnson on 2009-12-09 12:57:04)

I have a 98 jeep cherokee in excellent condition. the previous owner told me when it snowed he used to take it on a dirt road behind his house and it ran GREAT in the snow. However, im not sure how intense he got with it. what i am wondering is if i were to bring it to like a snow covered soccer field or whatever, how crazy would i be able to go? if i were to drive it around, would something eventually break? is it bad for the truck?

Posted by: Little Wing on 2009-12-10, 21:05:10

Yeah, I agree with jeeper62. I had a 2000 Cherokee Sport and we beat the crap out of it. We were able to drive out of a ravine after we had slid into it when the side of the trail gave way. Drove it through 4 feet of water once when we miscalculated the depth of the "puddle " LOL! I NEVER got stuck in snow, and it snows a lot here. It was my daily driver for almost 8 years, then she finally died with 238,000 miles on her odo. Drive an '02 Grand Cherokee now.

Posted by: jeeper623 on 2009-12-10, 13:01:14

If you abuse anything enough, eventually it will break. Anything from blowing a tire to ripping the transfer case in half (I did both in mine, btw) IME, cherokees hold up better than my beloved wranglers & definitely seem to have better stability in the snow. Have fun, but know when your xj has had enough!

Posted by: Steve A aka StvDiego on 2009-12-12, 08:54:55

Almost any 4WD vehicle is going to do well in the snow, but, it's more about the driver and the tires. There's no vehicle made that will overcome a bad driver and crazy driving will equal breakage no matter what vehicle and that's bad. Tires are much more important. I run tires on my Jeep that are incredible in the rocks, but put them anywhere near snow and they are nothing short of worthless (ProComp X-Terrains). A "mud' tire isn't necessarily a good "snow " tire. If a tire packs up with snow they are nothing more than skis. Get good snow tires