Jeep Grand Cherokee

[scrubjaysnest]

Most TM's with the slides will run over #500 tongue weight from what has been reported on this forum. The axle position is designed to reduce sway problems and this results in an increase in tongue weight. We don't carry fresh water in the TM but with two weeks of supplies we run right at 3640 to 3680 on the axle. With a a 2619, no slide, just the the front bunk your most likely near #400 pounds on the tongue dry.

TM tongue weights as reported here run much higher the folks expect.

[Padgett]

Interesting, will need to weigh. Rear dropped just about an inch with tongue on hitch. Perhaps a 80 pound generator in the battery compartment will help.

[Padgett]

Just an update, went down to Sarasota and back. For a "first time" the only bad part was torrential rain on the return. Towed easily at 65ish when dry & strap on side mirrors could
a) see down the sides of the TM
b) if the mirrors fit, so would the TM

Good news was that the 15" tires did not seem to rub with about 1.5" vertical clearence.

MPG not as good as expected, 17, but included about 100 miles of low speed piddling around without the TM. AC on full whole time. TM's statement of 1 gal extra per 100 miles was not far off. (1.25).

[LoveToCamp]

Since Padgett is on the Grand Cherokee topic, I took my first trip with my new TM and new Grand Cherokee diesel, over the weekend. We went from Denver to Telluride, CO. Campground elevation was 9700', if I recall.

Round trip was 800 miles, with lots of climbing. The diesel worked great, as expected. The TM towed great, as expected. Fuel economy was 21.5 mpg for the trip, which is much better than expected! Had the AC on, so that dropped it about 2 mpg, based on previous use this summer. That compares to 25.5 mpg on flat highway driving over the last month, with AC on.

Bottom line - I love the new GC! And, I think the 14" tires on my 2417 give me better fuel economy than my 13" tires. I pulled the new TM home with my old GC, and it got 3 mpg better on that short trip, than the old TM on the same stretch.

[Padgett]

No question the new turbo diesel with 420 lb-ft of torque and an 8 speed trans is better particularly at altitude than my n/a V6 with 260 lb-ft and a 5 speed. Diesels are inherantly more efficient than gas engines (though direct injection can come close). OTOH in Florida you pay 15-20% more for diesel over 87 PON so my flex-fuel 3.6 is Good Enough for now.

Make sure you check all of the ground wires on the passenger side of the engine compartment are tight, '14s had an issue with that.

[LoveToCamp]

Hmmm. Thanks for the heads-up!

A "strange" that I experienced with the GC, which I did not experience with my old diesel GC - going downhill, there is less engine compression to hold the "rig" back. Going down 6% or greater hills, when engine speed got too high in 3rd gear, it shifted to 4th. 4th would also go to 5th. That is what the manual says to expect. I expected it to hold me back much better. But, the 8-spd tranny behaves differently than the old 5-spd.

That is my only complaint about the new GC. It is rated for 7200 lbs towing, but I would not want to be going down hills with 7,000 lbs, trying to hold it back with engine speed. It won't hold you back, period.

[MarkoPolo]

I always would manually shift to the gear I wanted going downhill to keep the speed under control. My new F150 will automatically do that with the tow/haul switch turned on. A really great feature. Do diesels not allow manual downshifting?

[Padgett]

Did you put it into towing mode ? That is supposed to change the shift points. Also if you manually select 3rd (2.10) I would not expect it to try to shift to 4th (1.67) until over 50 and 5th until over 70 or so. Mustabin interesting

Do you have an aux trans cooler. I destroyed a trans on my GC towing a motorcycle trailer ( 2 bikes) in the mountains because the trans overheated.

[Padgett]

No but I can monitor the trans temp from the dash and heve never seen it reach 180F. The trans is also sealed from the factory. It does have the factory towing package. My trick is to use a lower gear if it can stay locked up (appears to have lockup on all five gears).