Abstract: Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) are temporary networks without using any fixed infrastructure. Dynamic topology of MANETs often results in an easily-broken path especially when the node speed is high. Thus, finding a stable path using low speed nodes to route is the goal. On the other hand, most routing protocols use flooding approach and the propagation distance can be restrained by setting the time to live (TTL) field. When the TTL value declines to zero, the route request packet should be dropped. Accordingly, it may incur considerable routing overheads owing to aimless flooding. This study proposed an adaptive TTL-based protocol (AODV-TTL) modified Ad hoc On-Demand Distance Vector (AODV) routing protocol to route packets. The TTL value will be deducted dynamically according to the node speed and reaches zero quickly when the packet pass through some faster nodes. By this way, not only the broadcast range is restrained to a smaller range, the overall routing required number of broadcast packets can also be reduced. Consequently, the routing overheads will cut down and find a stable path because some faster speed nodes have been excluded automatically. Simulation results showed that AODV-TTL protocol can find a more stable path and offer better performance in the number of broadcast packets and throughput than original AODV.