Towing with a Jeep Wrangler Unlimited

How far are you going? Do you have brakes on the trailer? A rule from long ago used to be that the tow vehicle should be the same as or more weight than the load,but this was when all you had to do to tow was add a hitch and cooler, now days everything has changed. I do know I just pulled our new to us Vdrive with a vehicle rated for 2000 lbs for 350 miles with no trouble at all. I do plan on adding a trans cooler eventually.

Used to tow quite a bit with my old CJ-7 and it did fine. As Gary mentioned, if the trailer has brakes that's a big plus and as you mentioned, just for short trips. If it was mine I would certainly try it. Just like driving in the snow, slow down, plan your stops and be careful. When backing down the ramp be prepared for the front tires to skid, if Jeep is an automatic maybe use 4WD low when launching possibly using forward acceleration to slow descent.

I had a 1996 jeep Cherokee 6 cylinder which used to pull my 85 SN. I installed a transmission cooler and the vehicle never had an issue pulling the boat up. I typically pull 30 miles to the lake each week with a couple of trips to Lake Gaston about 2 hours away. I decided to upgrade my tow vehicle because I was not comfortable with the braking power and my boat trailer did not have surge brakes. Also it really did not handle speeds over 55 well. Don't know the weight difference between Wrangler and a Cherokee but guessing the Cherokee weighs a little more.

There was just a thread about towing with a 4 door jeep and the comments were not good. Weak frame? Down the street is fine but definitely stay off the highway.

I put this in google "towing 4 door jeep correctcraftfan" and Towing a SN2001 with a Jeep? is the first result. Exactly the thread I was thinking of.

Kevin,

Thanks! Will use google for forum searches in the future...

Zach,
I give it a try and see what happens...the ramp is not very steep anyway.

I agree with what TRBenj says. Give yourself some room while on the road. Should be fine up and down the ramp.

+1 Tim. You have to be aware of your surroundings, what you're driving,and what you're towing. Like I said I preform a lot of tests in a vehicle that I haven't towed with before especially if its approaching the maximum tow rating.

The new tires on my truck have a little softer sidewall than before which causes it to take a second longer to straighten the trailer out. I don't like this but the previous tires had crap tread wear and this is about all I could afford at the moment. Hopefully these will take the truck well over 100k miles.

I considered a Wrangler for myself but I could only afford a 3.8 version and with as much as I tow highway I thought no way can I pull that off.

Another good tip. Those tires and wheels look much larger than stock. This alone probably reduces the breaking ability quite a bit. Like Tim said stopping is more important than anything else.

Paul, I have seen guys in even more capable tow rigs with sway problems. I just don't know how someone can continue to tow right along if it is like that. Scariest one I saw was this summer. A guy with a 20ft or so Sea Ray was swaying down the highway towing with a Suburban. Full of his whole family and loaded up. That thing must have had a serious weight distribution problem.

My roommate was riding shot gun and was like what the heck. I did a fast lane change to show him how a trailer should behave. I can't help but wonder when they guy saw me with a single axle trailer truck right past him at 75 while he is swaying along that maybe he is doing something wrong?

People are weird.

Worked like a charm this weekend (on the short tow to the ramp)
Thanks y'all