96 Grand Tow Rating 4.0
- Thread starter mattvw65
- Start date
To be perfectly honest, they should have really put at least 1/4 ton brake's on this model. THe braking worked but like you said, if you have to stop in a hurry forget about it. I was coming out of the canyon into Spanish fork on that bridge, and some lady decided she wanted to slow down really fast for NO reason, scared the crap out of me. But, the jeep did respond but If I was driving it like I normally did, without being conscientious about my load i would have rear ended her pretty good.
jeep-N-montero
Formerly black_ZJ
- Location
- Bountiful
I towed a friend's Suburban with a strap about 15 miles once without any issues. And also flat-towed a Miata to Maine and back 2 years ago with zero issues other than running a bit hot up long hills. Mine came with the tow package and 3.73's though.
- Location
- Bountiful, land of rocks
Trailer Idea was ditched before I hit farmington, took it back to layton and put it on a car dolly. On the way down I averaged about 65, with dropping into the high 50's.
On the way back however, I clicked off the OD, sat the rpm's around 2900ish on flat, and topped out at 3100 climbing and REALLY flew. I was doing about 75-80 from Spanish fork to layton. The ZJ performed WELL above my expectation's 31" tires, stock gearing. Flowmaster, K&N fipk2, Bored Throttle body.... blah blah... I kicked it down more than I liked but this jeep flat out impressed the HELL out of me with my Sidekick on the dolly. I know the GVRW is about 3100 on the kick, but with a tent and some sleeping bags in it, in addition to the hard top, 6 point cage, and rear swing out I have no idea what my weight is. I have read the empty stock weight with stock tires is about 2500.
I was VERY impressed with my return trip, I was pretty nervous on the way down, kept checking my Trans fluid, oil pressure, and straps, made about 6 stops on the way down, let the jeep breath.
PS averaged 12mpg on the way down, 11 backewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
Normally see about 20 with the MTR's on it freeway
Sounds like I should sell my F*rd and use the wife's ZJ for towing duties.
wait wait wait. You were towing with the OD on?
woops.
So, you had to keep checking tranny fluid, stay very conscious of anything that might spring up in the road, pull the front driveline, run with no AC (not that it was an issue this time of year), and your thankful you were paying close enough attention to avoid the brake check you received from some idiot driver.
Don't you think it would be a little nicer to just put the thing on a trailer and go to moab without having to stress about 98% of that stuff?
woops.
So, you had to keep checking tranny fluid, stay very conscious of anything that might spring up in the road, pull the front driveline, run with no AC (not that it was an issue this time of year), and your thankful you were paying close enough attention to avoid the brake check you received from some idiot driver.
Don't you think it would be a little nicer to just put the thing on a trailer and go to moab without having to stress about 98% of that stuff?
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Ya, It would be nice.... but Im stuck with it for now.. I would prefer a truck for the tow
this young grasshopper has learned much......
If I had been in that situation I would have had to go really really really slow. Or just parked it and waited it out. I dont think I would want to tow that much weight in bad weather... I would say 2500 lbs would be a great all around weight for the ZJ if you ran into less than ideal conditions.
agreed