Determine Your Jeep's Center of Gravity & Rollover Angles

[Daless2]

(I will post eight separate posts on this thread as I have no clue how to post a document anywhere. Please forgive my ignorance in this matter.)

1. How To Determine The Center of Gravity and Roll Over Angles of “Your Jeep”

So often in our trail side conversations we talk about the CG (Center of Gravity) of one Jeep being higher or lower then the CG of another Jeep, and we relate this not only to the ability to get up or down a slope, but also to the dreaded thought of rolling over.

Yet most of us have never really figured out where the Center of Gravity is actually located on our own Jeep and similarly what the Rollover Angles are.

Why haven’t we done this? Well to be honest, probably because it isn’t so easy to do.

This write-up is an effort to provide a process that most folks can follow to determine the Center of Gravity and Rollover Angles for their own Jeep.

There is some mathematics involved here, Algebra, Geometry and Trigonometry.

However, if you are like me and not a math wiz kid, don’t let that scare you away. I have automated all the math via an Excel spreadsheet.

All that is really required is that you follow some simple directions, take some accurate weight and distance measurements, and then just plug the numbers into the spreadsheet.

If you hang in here with me and follow this process through you will be rewarded with the actual physical locations of the following values for your Jeep.

The 3-Demensional Single Point Center of Gravity of your Jeep as well as the:

* Wheelbase Center of Gravity
* Wheel Track Center of Gravity
* Height of the Center of Gravity


Rollover Angles in the directions of: (incomplete at this time)

* Driver Side
* Passenger Side
* Front
* Rear

If you can use a tape measure, and can get a few minutes access to a truck “weighing scale” like you find at truck stops or a roadside weigh station you can do this.


Frank