Trailmanor accident on rv.net message board

Yes, the person that told me about that worked for a transmission shop for years, then I conferred with another friend of mine who knows a lot about towing, and is also a truck driver.......he said the same thing........It's not good to tow with a cherokee regular or grand.........

Happytrails......

;D
The Jeep is doing fine, but I have already mentioned that we are taxing the Jeep to the limit (5000 pound tow limit and the max loaded weight of our 3124 is supposed to be 5000 pounds)

On relatively flat surfaces the Jeep does fine (in terms of power) but on our week-end excursion last Friday, the mercury hit 93 with some hefty hills.  Needless to say, by the time I hit the top of the hills, my speed had dropped about 10 MPH and the engine temp had raised 10 degrees.  Keep in mind the "hefty" hills were in the river valley in Iowa (we're not talking the Rockies here!).  

Given the new information I had (about the Jeep's transmissions) and the fact that sometime we would like to go visit my wife's sister in Utah with the camper (which will require us to climb some "real" hills)  we purchased a new tow vehicle (2002 Chevy Avalanche) last week-end!

They are very nice (plus my towing cap went up to 7100 pounds!)  We are looking forward to riding "in luxury" to get there (wherever there happens to be!)

Good for you Dan, I'm sure you'll rather like the new tow vehicle over the jeep. If you were curious tho, please take the time to call any of your local transmission shops, I'm sure they'll tell ya the same about the jeeps. I'm glad I found this out now myself as I was considering a grand cherokee as a replacement. They're one of the best off road "off the shelf" vehicles you can buy, but they're not much for towing.........as an update, I'm still looking for a new vehicle, and my insurance adjuster went on vacation, so still haven't even gotten a check or anything yet.  :-/ I am hopeful tho, yesterday I found one EXACTLY like my old one minus a few things, that would have been covered I'm sure, and to top it off, even had a new motor in it.....the problem? It was only the 2.8l and not the 4.3l which is why the guy traded it in.....so he could tow his boat with it..........Oh well, search is still on............lol

Happytrails.......

Yeah - The Jeep had a 4.0l (6 cylinder).  While it could get the job done, I was starting to get more uncomfortable with the strain I was putting on it when climbing hills.  This new vehicle will give me peace of mind as well as a better ride.

The Avalanche has a 5.3l which gives it that extra edge for climbing hills.  Keep in mind I was towing the 3124 and a smaller model might have been more appropriate for the Jeep.  

Good luck on your search for a tow vehicle...

Well, finally heard today on that, of course the adjuster tried to "adjust me" out of almost $2,000.00, > But I went to two car lots and searched the local autotrader, and showed him 9+ vehicles all right in where he really did need to be at. One of the things I really liked about my blazer was it had a brush guard on the front that made it look really good. Well, I located one that was 1 year younger than mine, with the brush guard, and it had a tow package   I told him about it, and he's going to get with them about it and try and work something out tomorrow!  ;D Wish me luck! (I will have to upgrade the tow package from a class 2 to a class 3 since the toungue weight of my TM's close to 450lbs.)  :-/ But I still like it, it's pretty nice looking..........

Happytrails........

GOOD FOR YOU HAPPY T. !!
Red

Legally, dealers can sell you anything--even if your vehicle isn't able to carry the weight of the trailer/camper!  Trust me, I went to court after nearly getting killed in Death Valley when a dealer lied and overloaded my truck by about 1,500 pounds.  

Anyway, yes, you do need a sway bar, and probably lift bars too, towing your trailer, dry weight or fully loaded.

Happy trails!

Joan

Happy:

Real sorry to hear about the accident -- on the plus side is the fact that no serious bodily harm occurred.  Granted, the old Blazer has far more than a bruised ego, but nothing there that a ringing cash register can't fix.  Another one of those events that make you feel truly blessed and appreciate life.

On to the basic gist of this thread -- Larry, Paul, Jon, & Oilspot are right on.  Sway is all about physics (remember the class in HS that bored you to tears) and moments of inertias.  The TV plays a role, but rather minor.  It's really about the loads, and their locations in relation to each other.  

I was driving down I-95 in the vicinity of Fredricksburg VA.  There was a Ford F-350 with a crew cab (so it had a wheelbase of about a million miles) pulling a U-haul.  No doubt the person that loaded the trailer had no idea about sway because the trailer was all over the road behind the Ford.  They must have had all the load positioned behind the trailer axle.  The truck was obviously more than capable of towing the load, but the sway was the result of poor loading -- not tow capabilities.  I'm an aircraft maintenance officer and we see the same thing happen with control surface oscillations.  And just as the thread indicates, the more you do to try to correct it, the worse it becomes (same thing with acft).  So the moral is be really meticulous about how and where you position the loads in relation to the trail axle and the tongue weight.

On a lighter note, Happy -- when the TM sitting in your yard starts going into trailer ball withdrawl (awaiting your new TV), give a holler before the For Sale sign goes on it.