The Aftermath Of A Jeep Revving To 50,000rpm While Being Towed In 4-Low

What you’re looking at here was once a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon‘s 3.6-litre V6. Now, it’s a worthless pile of mangled scrap, all thanks to a simple but catastrophic mistake. Well, technically two mistakes.

The Wrangler in question was taken to a North Florida FCA dealership where a chap called Toby Tuten works. He filmed underneath the stricken Rubicon, posting the footage on TikTok. Later, he explained to The Drive that the car had been flat-towed behind a motorhome (or ‘RV’ if you’re reading this in the US) in first gear and in the ‘4-low’ low-range mode that’s intended for slow off-road stuff.

Tuten did some rough calculations based on the car being towed at 55mph, surmising this would have caused the engine to turn at 50,000rpm, some seven and a half times the redline.

The damage was extensive. The whole rear of the block is gone, giving a clear view right the way through to the valves, and the oil pan has been ripped open. The input shaft for the gearbox sheered off, and the bell-housing is, well, not really there any more. Even the catalytic converter was damaged by the under-bonnet detonation.

The cost of the replacement parts alone is somewhere around $30,000, Tuten says. That’s more than a base-spec Wrangler, and given that a V6 Rubicon is $47,000, once labour is factored in we wouldn’t be surprised if it’s deemed uneconomical to repair.

Source: TikTok/The Drive