97 Sport -- Driving in Ice and Rain

[Susan]

Hi -- if anyone here can help I would really appreciate it! I am a new Jeep owner. I have a 97 Cherokee Sport and have been having problems keeping control in rain and ice. I have replaced the tires and checked the shocks but my mechanic can't find anything.

I love my Jeep now that it is summer but it slides all over the place in when on ice - the body seems to "sway" excessively and sometimes forces my Jeep off of the road. When I pull out in rain or ice my rear wheels spin. I've owned many other vehicles and haven't experienced such a loss of control in bad weather.

If I can't solve this problem before winter I'll have to trade my Jeep -- has anyone had similar problems? Are these problems due to the weight of the back end? Or is this just the nature of how a Jeep Cherokee Sport rides?

Sorry if this is a lame question but I am willing to risk it to get other's opinions!

[Eagle_Scout]

First off -- do you have a 4wd jeep?
What are your driving habits? Just because you have a jeep, doesn't mean you can do anything with it. When it rains you need to slow down, if you lose your rear end and your tires spin, you are going to fast. Lay off the gas pedal!

On ice -- the only thing that will help you is chains or studs. If you don't have them, you WILL slid around. And keep your speeds below 5 mph on ice.

[satan]

Hi howdy ho Susan,

Gotta wonder what-all you're seeing as slippin' and slidin'...

While I do not agree with the veiwpoint offered from TX (I love ice racing - slow don't win), you will still need to drive for the conditions...

If you're used to pushin' the gas tothe floor and spinnin' one wheel on your way though snow and ice, it's possible that you're now spinnin' qty=2 if you have a rear trackloc (limited slip) differential; that would account for a loss of directional stability if you're used to spinning to go.

For the unindoctrinated, the 4.0 does have quite a bit of low end and will readily spin the tires (even on dry pavement) if prompted to do so from the driver's input...

What I did on my wife's '91 Loredo to help reduce the spinning was to go with a highly siped open-treaded A/T tire in a 235/75/15 size (larger than stock to reduce the available power to the ground)... I can still get the rear of that one to run long smoky burnouts, but it seems to spin less on slippery stuff than with those little bald factory-like tires.

I don't seem to have this problem on either of my other qty=2 XJs (mostly due to them being purpose-built)...

I would tend to suspect that what you're experiencing is a conflict between driving style and a limited slip differential (or other lack of familiariety with multiple wheel drive). It's no that uncommon and back whe I worked more in shops, I actually was asked to remove a few limited slip cariers for that reason.