Towing with Grand Cherokee question

I tow with an 04 Grand Cherokee, it has the HO v-8 in it...pulls the boat no problem..however the back end sits real low.

i have looked at old man emu replacement coils for the rear end. Will this fix the problem? and do i have to replace anything other than the coils? Also is there another way that is perhaps easier or less expensive?

Thanks all

You can add a ball extension arm that kinks up a couple of inches? We have towed a 24 ft, 4500 pound boat in the past with a Lincoln towncar that way....probably not much help but thats all I can offer.

I believe you can add air bags to the back-end, Sean. They'll stiffen it up when you fill them and the trailer weight won't bring down the back end so much. You can have them installed for around $400 at a truck accessories place.

A Grand Cherokee is not a proper tow vehicle, but these will help...

Air Springs

get a load leveler kit, problem solved and you keep you smooth ride for the street.

I ran airbags in both my grand cherokee's, made a huge difference.

run the bags. My dad's Denali has them & it makes a huge difference when towing.

Is the airbag installation something that can be done at home or does it need to be done by a shop?

Curious as to why a Grand Cherokee is not a proper tow vehicle? I used mine to pull my boats for five years...

I also towed my boat with my G Cherokee for 3 years... My only problem was poor factory brakes... I replaced with HD rotors and pads and then it was perfect.

Tommy, b/c everything shy of a 7L diesel 1-ton dually is inadequate in the eyes of some (yes, I'm exaggerating, but not by much).

The '04 GC V8 has a 6500lb capacity, which is fine for most most 3-4k lb boats. I would add some airbags since they'll help level the jeep when loaded and not effect ride when you're not towing.

Well to answer the question of why a GC is not a proper tow vehicle lets start with the trucks reliablity. First off you should not have to modify the vehicle to tow. This would be things like air bags, transmission cooler or the tranny will blow up. The tranny will go out early anyway, but will last longer if kept cooler. The rear end is weak, along with the driveshaft. Anything less than a 9 inch ring gear is not going to handle a constant load. The front and rear wheel bearings will go out sooner. BRAKES! this is the number one problem with light duty SUV's. You better make sure to use your transmission to slow down, and then what happens in a panic stop? I bet that 1 ton dually with twice the load can out stop you by 50 feet from 60 mph. Wheelbase has a lot to do with it too. Jack knifing a rig is serious and can easily happen, but more important is the handling benefit of a longer wheelbase.

My friend towed a Tige with a GC for years and spent tons of money fixing it. On the last breakdown when the motor blew up he went right out and bought a Tahoe. He said there was a night and day difference.

Towing a boat with a full size Bronco vs my Suburban is a night and day diffence. The added wheelbase makes it much more stable along with the suspension. Something to be said for not letting your trailer push you around.

I know someone that has a GC with one ton running gear and a Hemi, with a full roll cage tied into a custom frame that he built. Now his truck will pull just about anything.

Where you live also plays a factor in what type of vehicle you need. We drive over 30 miles of windy twisty roads over mountain passes to get to some of our lakes. I can hammer on my truck without fear of over heating the engine, transmission, or my brakes, and no I do not own a diesel one ton.

Your average boat weights in at over 4K on the trailer. The X-Star weights well over 5k on the trailer.

So the question is have those of you that are advocates of the GC as a tow vehicle ever towed with a 3/4 ton or bigger?

BTW there has been a proposal to change the laws for towing requiring a 3/4 ton for a certain weight limit, although I can not remember what it was, so the department of highway transport and safety is aware of some problems.

I may have made a comment about the vehicle, but I also supplied a direct link to answer the question he asked, what have you done to help the original poster?

Sean, the airbag installation is very straight forward and comes with directions. If you are half way handy and own a jack and stands of some kind along with a drill and some metal drill bits it can be done fairly quickly. The nice thing about the airbags is when not towing you lower the pressure in them and your ride returns to normal. A load leveling hitch does the some what the same thing but does not require an air source be it an air tank or compressor. Good shocks are very important also. Bilsteins are some of the stiffest out there, yet still give a nice ride. McNiells or however it is spelled has good prices on them.

Never mind, the Grand Cherokee is great tow vehicle!

(Message edited by bocephus on May 10, 2006)

maybe pete should get a boat before worrying about towing

Why does this allways turn into a bash? Sean is happy with his truck except what he asked about or did I miss his post about how big his ring gear has to be?

I have the exact same model Cherokee. I added a Timbren suspension kit. Less then $300 installed and the thing tows better then the Durango I owned previously. http://www.timbren.com/

On another note I replaced the stock front rotors with Cross drilled / vented rotors from NAPA. The OEM set failed at about 20k.

Pete, chill...no need to get defensive. I guess I was lucky that I got over 100k out of my GC, never had a single problem, doing plenty of towing. I sold it (cheap) to my in-laws, and it's still going strong.

Eustace, I can vouch for what you're saying...my wife and I had a Jeep GC AND a Durango, now just the Durango. the Dodge has much more room, which is nice, but the power is lacking with the same 4.7l as the Jeep.

We're eyeing an '07 Suburban or GMC now...

There is no doubt a night and day difference between towing with a light duty suv and a 1/2 and larger truck... Is a truck better? Absolutely... But some poeple have to make due with what they have...

Hey Justin, look in my profile and you will see what I tow and my tow rig is paid for so it sitting does not bother me. I do not need to own a boat as I have friends with very nice boats (Including a brand new BU that has not even been ridden behind yet). I sold my Nautique, which I owned out right so it was not about cost, when my friend bought his Nautique, which my truck is the tow vehicle for. So why should I buy a boat?
http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/3183/324586.html?1147193145

Tommy G said "Curious as to why a Grand Cherokee is not a proper tow vehicle?" So I answered your question as to why I thought a GC was not proper. I do not have my panties in a wad so to speak, instead you guys are the ones that feel like I was ripping on you. The above response above from Justin is a direct attack on me, and very childish, so I did respond with a somewhat defensive reply. Once you tow with a long wheelbase vehicle you will never go back. BTW you can reflash the PCM of the Durango and get more power for around $450.

I am a bit surprised that the tongue weight of the boat loads down the GC that much. Perhaps the real issue is that the ball on the GC is too high or the tongue weight is too much.

If you have a tandem axel trailer then as you raise the hitch you transfer a lot of weight off the trailers front wheels and put it on the tow vehicle. The trailer was probably designed to be level while on level ground. If the tongue drops low then the front wheels end up with too much load, or if the tongue is too high then the front wheels don't carry their fair share.

With the trailer level the tongue weight should be about %10 of the total weight. If your boat and trailer weight ~3000 pounds then it should only put 300 pounds on the hitch. If you and a buddy stand on the bumper, does the car sag that much?

If the tongue weight is too much and it isn't due to the hitch being too high then you can adjust how the boat sits on the trailer. For small amounts this is fairly easy, basically you move the bow cushion back a bit. Moving a few thousand pounds back an inch can make a noticable difference.

If you have a bathroom scale that will go up to ~400 pounds you could measure it. set the scale under the tongue, set a block of wood between scale and tongue and then lower the tongue onto the scale.

If the tongue weight is proper then you can make changes to the truck. Air bags are one approach. I had them on a car many years ago. Made it easy to adjust to the load and then deflate to go back to the normal ride.

If you tow a lot you might prefer to replace the springs with stronger ones. There should be shops in your area that will do this. The main downside of this is that it will effect the ride of your SUV.

No worries Pete. Thanks for the advice on the PCM flash, not a bad idea.

thanks for the input..i love my Jeep..however just got my company car and will probably only use the jeep to tow since the company car is free when i use it. I suppose i could sell it and get a pick-up. I have always wanted a GMC ext cab. just dont want another payment....jeep is paid for;)

Not sure if my opinion counts but I owned 3 Grand Cherokees over a 8 year period and towed with all of them. Ran all three over 150k miles too. No issues with motors or transmissions, even the 4.0L straight six tows pretty well. The rear axles are pretty bad, I had issues with all of them. I replaced rear axles on two out of the three, on the second one I used high performance axles with hardened bearing surfaces and that seemed to fix the problem. The rear axles are easy to change, I got to where I could do them in a couple hours. The rear coils of Grand Cherokees are just too soft anyway, they will bottom with two adults in the back seat with a suitcase in the back. The airbags are pretty easy to install and they just make it a better vehicle.

Now I have a 2001 Chevy Silverado and a 2003 Chevy Tahoe. The Tahoe is by far the best tow vehicle that I have owned. But in reality the truck with it's 1/2 ton rear leaf springs bounces quite a bit while towing down the highway. All and all I don't think it's much more comfortable towing than the GC's were. It might be a bit safer in a panic stop but I would not say that a GC is not an adequate tow vehicle. I actually made two panic stops very narrowly avoiding accidents both times (seperate times when other people made very poor judgements pulling in front of me while I was running down a two lane road). The antilock brakes on the jeep worked fine and the boat's trailer brakes locked a single axle. I never felt like I was in any danger of losing control of the rig.

The size and power of the GC meets the needs of many families. It also makes an adequate occasional tow vehicle. If you are willing to deal with the poor axles and noisy motors they are great.

Mikeski, put some Bilstein shocks on it especially if you have over 40K miles on the rig. The bounce will be gone and you will be much happier. There are not a lot of brands of shocks that perform up to par. They are around $215 for a set of four and can be changed in under an hour.

just changing the shocks will do it?

I too am unfortunate enough to tow w/a GC. I looked at that air springs link and the lists of automobiles it is compatible with does not include Jeeps.

Will they still fit and how hard are they to install?

He has a Tahoe and all domestic vehicles come with shocks that wear out in 40K miles.

Yes Sean you could use shocks to. It will help control the vehicles stability but it will not lift the rear end more than an inch if even that. Unfortunately Bilstein does not make a shock for you vehicle, unless you have a certain model or the years are interchangable. Call Bilstein. If not research and find out who build a high quality replacement that actually lasts and works. Not Monroe, or Pronto, or any of the other lame replacement shocks that are no better than factory.

BTW the ones for a Tahoe are $69 each and only listed on Bilstein's website, not Macneil's below.
Shocks

Eric, call the manufacturer, they can tell you what they will fit and won't. They are pretty much universal.

(Message edited by Peter_C on May 11, 2006)

Your GC (WJ in Jeep speak) will do a fine job. If you are truly worried about the rear axle you can pick up a 44 from an XJ or TJ and have the perches modifeid to fit your WJ. Not that big a deal, and more than stout enough.

I think your tongue weight may be high. But instead of airbags, loadlevel air ride shocks may work better. The difference is that airbags are installed in place of, or inside the coil springs. The shocks are easy on, easy off. You plumb a shrader valve to a convenient place and you con control the stiffness with a simple air chuck at your friendly gas station.