Why is there a common problem with jeeps frames after an accident occurs?

Answer 1

The Jeep frame is what is called a unibody. It is welded to the body. therefore if it is hit and bends one or the other, the other one must go with it. There is a fine line where the bend can be bent back close enough to what the factory calls good enough. I hope this helps.

CORRECTION>>>>>The above is incorrect. Unibody is a sheetmetal framework that is formed out of the body of the vehicle itself. Jeeps do not use Unibody construction The SMALL Cherokee (no longer made) utilized a composite constuction of two subframes and a partial unibody. ALL other Jeeps are and were full framed and were NEVER "WELDED" to a frame. This is why they can be "body lifted".

The issues you are referencing are inherent to any properly constructed vehicle designed for off road use. As these vehicles are subjected to stresses far beyond that of those presented by even the worst road, they are built with extremely stiff frames that do not flex excep under the most severe conditions, which would make any other frame twist and stay twisted. While this means that they can take greater strain and stress without sustaining damage in an accident, it also has the adverse affect of making them too stiff to be easily and permanently straightened during the course of collision repair, where a lesser fame would be repairable.

This has to be understood that while it can be detrimental, it also means that a jeep frame will survive collisions WITHOUT twisting that would require major repairs on other frames. Another point must be made for the fact that there are substantially greater numbers of OLD jeep vehicles registered and on the road than any other manufacturers 4WD vehicles, and with AGE comes rust which does compromise a vehicle frame. This alone does skew the statistics in this matter. So you can see this is a relative issue, which really isn't a negative thing once you understand all the real facts.