Something bizarre happened in Houston, Texas last week, but I’m having a hard time understanding exactly what. All I know is that someone drove a severely-damaged Jeep Gladiator pickup on a highway at speeds that I wouldn’t dare approach in many of my fully functional cars — certainly not if they had under-inflated tires, especially if that inflation pressure were zero, and the “tires” were made of just air. Just watch as sparks fly and confusion abounds.
As a general rule, when I write an article I try to make sure it’s informative — that it teaches the average reader something new about cars, even if it’s just something small. But there are times when I just have something weird I want to show you, so that together we can just gawk, possibly drool a little, and then move on with our days.
That’s what we have here. I have basically no context to provide; all I know is that a Texan named Jeremy Price posted this vide to Facebook with just the simple caption: “The shit you see in Houston. Lmao. This was on my way back from my daughters Banquet tonight.”
Click on Jeremy’s profile to watch that video, or you can just check out the embedded clip below from boring.cars, who re-posted the video:
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I really have absolutely no clue what the heck is going on. The Jeep Gladiator is hauling down a highway, with both driver’s-side tires missing, and the wheels sparking against the ground. The front left wheel appears to have disintegrated, the fender flare is missing, the corner of the front bumper has clearly been torn off, and the mirror looks broken.
The tags appear to be temporary ones, so I’m going to assume that this is a fairly new Gladiator. Why the person behind the wheel thinks it makes sense to just pilot the car for several hundred feet (at least) on the highway before pulling into an HEB grocery store is beyond me.
I bet the Gladiator could be fixed fairly easily. Replace those wheels, snag a new front bumper, get a new fender flare (those pop off easily for off-road use), probably get a hold of a new wheel liner, and then just have a look at any other steering/suspension bits that look compromised (I bet they’re fine). Still, I have very little understanding how anyone could think driving a car in this condition is somehow the right move over, say, towing it. That’s the missing answer that I’d like for this article: Why?
Seriously, there’s got to have been some thought-process that went into this person choosing to — instead of get the vehicle towed — hold desperately to that steering wheel while listening to the Jeep as it grinds against the high-speed highway. I see that there’s a Chevy truck in front with its hazard lights on; is that a friend helping the Gladiator driver limp their vehicle off the road? But if the Gladiator driver had time to call a friend, surely they had time to think that, just maybe, driving a vehicle in this state on a public highway is completely idiotic.
Again, sorry about the lack of informative content. This one has me thrown for a loop.
I really wish I had a dashcam to record the time I saw a Taurus catch air over the curb on an I-75 exit in Detroit. It was probably only up for a split second but it truly was majestic to watch it fly, time slowed down as I watched the stupidity and boldness ulfold in front of me.
not a jeep person but is this what the death wobble is?
/s
My experience suggests that this is an example of the driver considering damage to the vehicle to be less important than getting it off the road and on to private property. Even extensive repairs can be cheaper/easier to deal with than answering certain questions. Alternately, the vehicle may be unimportant next to whatever it carries.
Emergency flashers were on, what’s the problem? That’s the universal exemption from any and all traffic and parking laws and safety rules. Like how putting anything inside pita bread automatically makes it health food, putting your hazards on automatically makes anything you do in your car completely fine
I always do this after I lose my crack pipe. Nothing to see here folks. He’s off to his dealer for a refill.
Being that its Houston, the Jeep driver doesn’t dare stop on the highway, lest he be run over. As long as he is able to maintain at least 10 over the speed limit, he might avoid being rear ended by a brodozer.
In all seriousness, he’s probably drunk and is fleeing an accident. It’s the Houston thing to do.
Do they boot vehicles in Houston? Imagining a handicapped or fire lane spot with a lone boot in it, tire still secured but the Jeep has long gone.
Remember crack does not smoke itself
Are we gonna talk about the fact that this guy was on the way back from a Banquet of daughters? The random capitalization and lack of apostrophe really make that statement confusing and disturbing. 😛
In situations like this, my mother-in-law likes to say, ‘they must be a heart surgeon.’
“Honey, the car started making a weird noise on the freeway. I parked it at the mall.”
When I was younger and dumber I kept putting off fixing a bad front wheel bearing in a Dodge Neon until the vibration loosened the lubnuts and the wheel studs snapped off at least 60mph on a badly potholed two lane road. In the middle of a curve too. The driver’s side tire flew off into the woods, thankfully no one was alongside of me and it wasn’t a residential area.
After the initial lurch towards the ground and the car trying to rotate left I somehow got control and managed to drive on the rotor long enough to slow down and get off the road. It wore to the hub, had to replace the whole assembly. Being a Neon I was surprised it didn’t crack the subframe or something. It did die of transmission failure within a few months so maybe something did get knocked loose.
The guy coming up behind me pulled over to see if I was OK and weirdly took the opportunity to tell me how impressed he was with my driving since he was sure I was a goner. I guess I had decent reflexes but that was not a day to feel pride in my accomplishments.
If you’ve ever tried to get a low car that’s missing a wheel up on a two-wheel car trailer and only had a scissor jack to help you’ll understand. The process involves getting the ramps situated, jacking up the damaged wheel until the other one can roll, putting rocks or whatever’s handy under the car to catch it and not break the ramp, chocking the back wheels and then trying to push it up the ramp while the guy in the truck carefully backs towards you.
Replacing the hub, brakes and control arm were easy, getting the car on the trailer was the real punishment for my neglected maintenance. Still all better than being dead.
I think I’m going to use lubnuts from now on.
My guess is there is a car further down the road that also has impact damage. Hit and ran as far as they could.
That’s a good one, or hit the (inside) barrier and just kept going.
I think it’s more than just a flat tire that got out of hand.
I’m just going to go with “High AF”. Definately impaired.
Driving it like s/he stole it (cuz s/he did)?
Disgruntled employee?
Angry spouse?
DUI?
Insurance fraud gone bad?
Owning the libs?
Because it’s fun to do bad things?
Whatever, it’s gotta be a Jeep thing. We won’t understand.
I’m going to jump out on a limb and say what i really dont want to: I wonder if the driver was actually aware this was a bad thing to do??
Cause we seem to be seeing more and crazier behavior over the years
A dude down my street recently got a flat. I was walking my dog and I see his POS slowly crawling down the street on the flat, away from his house. I tell him I’ve got a plug kit he can use, he says no, he’s fine, “this isn’t a big deal, I’ll drive it to” and lists a place about two miles away, to have them figure it out.
Whatever dude.
Some people are just idiots. At least my neighbor recognized it was a problem, and was driving slowly/carefully, but he couldn’t take the final step to realize that maybe even that wasn’t a good idea for a two mile drive.
His truck was back this morning, with the same tire on it–now the sidewall looked beat to hell–so I assume they plugged it.
It may still be on YouTube, but I saw a video some years back where a guy found a Nissan pickup being towed by an RV with the rear wheels locked up.
He finally got the guy to pull over and he refused to do anything about it “I only live a few more miles ahead”.
*forgot to say, I wonder how mad your neighbor will be when he finds the tire flat again, this time due to an unrepairable gash in the sidewall?