Towing with a GCherokee question

[jdub]

Hey guys, Just bought the wife a grand cherokee. I was wondering if any of you would recommend towing a 3500lb cj on a trailer or bumper tow the thing?

Stats of the Grand are:
Maximum towing capacity: 6500 lbs.
Trailer brakes hooked up.
4.7 v8 all wheel drive.

I can drive the jeep by itself but it's the comfort thing. I will probably spend much more in fuel. But the comfort of having another vehicle helps too.

Any and all thoughts are welcome.

Grand cherokee by itself gets ~13 miles to the gallon
Jeep Scrambler gets 18 <-- I've always driven this one...
Jeep Cj7 gets 15

 

[jdub]

Oh, I forgot. The next trip is to Moab from Provo.

 

[rockreligious]

I pulled my 3000lb buggy to a competition recently with my 4.7 grand, it had plenty of power but ran HOT. I had to stop every 20 minutes and let it cool down, never agian... thats the only time in the last five years Ive pulled anything with it, and the only time its ever got hot.

 

[jdub]

hmmm, Gotcha. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[rockreligious]

wierd coincidence, a few days before I towed with it a friend of mine who also owns a 4.7 Grand told me his sometimes ran hot and asked me if mine ever ran hot, I told him it never had, then a few days later is when I towed my buggy with it. I do pull my light motorcycle trailer with 4-5 motorcycles on it without any trouble. but dirtbikes wieght less than 250 lbs each with my trailer combined is probably only max 1800lbs.

 

[1995zj]

Paging Cody.......

 

[RockMonkey]

I towed an empty car hauler with a WJ once. It was awful. I can't imagine it with any weight on it.

Also

It only gets 13 mpg?

 

[Dominic]

I have seen people tow more with a grand. I think flat towing it would be a better option. Towing with unibodys isn't any more comfortable than driving a Cj. You feel everything the trailer does. The issue is wheelbase more than power.

 

[jdub]

@rockmonkey. Yeah, factory sticker says 14-20. which I thought was funny. it's a big range. I think with the tire size going up and awd it just sucks. Passes emmissions though, Everything seems healthy. It get's driven 5 milse twice a day. No big deal on mileage for me. I was shocked at the mileage though. Was hoping for at least 15.

 

[jdub]

It does St George to Provo (261mi) in 20 gallons. That's roughly 13 miles to the gallon. But that's a/c cranked and maintaining a 80mph+ speed. I'm sure I could drive better but my cj's never could charge beaver hill like the grand can.

 

[Cody]

I towed a buggy with a 95 v8 ZJ. Total load with trailer was about 6000 lbs, which is within the factory marketed tow parameters for the ZJ. I also had trailer brakes, load distribution, and sway control.

Bad idea. The power was OK at best. It could cruise at 60-65 on flat ground (make sure the OD is off or you'll cook your tranny), but no way could I use AC, and no way would I feel comfortable making any sort of evasive maneuver should a deer or something jump out, a car brake check me, trailer flats, trailer spindles freezing up and ripping off at highway speed, crazy traffic drivers, or unexpected interstate gridlock (all scenerios I encountered while towing with the dodge 2500 that I replaced the ZJ tow rig with). The last straw occurred when I towed down one October and encountered a snow storm at Soldier Summit. Coming down Price canyon in a snow storm, with a trailer that weighs 2000 lbs more than it's tow rig and is 5 feet longer, was nothing short of frightening. I decided that my life, the life of anyone in the vehicle, and the life of those on the road with me wasn't worth continuing the risk. I came home, sold the ZJ (took a bath on it too because I had only had it a few months) and bought a 98 Dodge 2500 CTD. Best decision I ever made.

So will it tow it? Ya. Would I want to be in/about/around it when anything you don't expect happens (which inevitably will happen)? Shit no.

 

[jdub]

Awesome, I kinda thought that the 6000# rating was quite high for that agile of a vehicle. I'll stick to small trailers.
I also figured out that unless I have a nice puller, I'm safer driving both my CJ's down anyway. Fuel bill would be the same- whether I pull two or drive the two.

 

[Cascadia]

My in laws always towed their 7500 lb camper with theirs and never had a problem towing it. They had trailer brakes and k&n cold air intake and gibson exhaust. They always got about 9 mpg towing that trailer. They now have a 2005 Hemi Grand Cherokee they tow with and it gets 7 mpg. They also had a stabilizer hitch, maybe that helped out some. I had a 2002 Grand I towed my enclosed trailer with and it was awesome. But one time I had to tow my hydraulic dump trailer full which was about 8500 lbs, only a few miles, and my jeep was all over the place.

 

[Houndoc]

My dad used to tow 22' boats on occasion behind his 4.0 GC, usually from the dealer in Salt Lake to East Canyon for demos. I road with him once pulling to Flaming Gorge. Did not feel like a very safe ride to me, although power etc did ok.

He did kill his engine with under 100k on it (can't recall exactly what happened- but the Jeep had to be left in Price for a week for an engine swap while we went on to Lake Powell- he was only towing a 3k or so trailer on that trip) and he wonders if the towing of the boats contributed.