Used this forum when I was looking to buy a Jeep, so thought I would share my thoughts on my towing experience.
I have a 2014 Grand Cherokee Summit, which has the towing package. The truck just had it's second oil change at about 14,000.
I was towing a fishing boat, dual axle. I had taken it into a weigh station, so the weights were: 2,780 front axle, 3,720 back axle on truck, 4,360 boat trailer axle, for a total weight of 10,860. Note that this was also after I had dropped off 2 passengers and their luggage. My estimate, based on a previous weighing, is that the boat/trailer alone weighed about 4,900.
The thing to note is that although I was way below the towing capacity (4,900 vs 7,200) I was probably at (or above with the passengers) the GVW of 6,800 (6,500 without the additional passengers). So if you are pulling a heavier boat, closer to the max amount, you probably can't have many passengers or luggage).
We drove from southern Wis. to Lake of the Woods Canada. The total miles were 1,323. The driving time was 24 1/2 hours. This works out to be about 54 mph, on average. Most of the time was spent at about 65 mph (the max for trailer wheels). The truck calculated 17.6 miles per gallon (sounds right based on a quick manual calc) , which I was very happy with. (Does anyone else think the MPG calculation changes too much? I've had over a thousand miles on the MPG calc, then I drive a couple of miles, and then have the MPG change quite a bit, which would imply a ridiculous MPG the last couple of miles) The drive is fairly flat (one major hill in Duluth, water temp did rise, but stayed ok).
I spent a lot of the time with the cruise control on ( I know they say you shouldn't, but I think that is because it might have trouble finding the right gear. As you can see, not an issue). The truck did a nice job of changing gears when we came to minor hills. It automatically down shifted to keep the RPM's between 2,500 and 3,000 and then slowly shifted up as needed. I only had to manually change gears once or twice. I don't remember any major problems with it having trouble finding the right gear or going to really high RPMs.
There was no sway from the boat (probably because of the dual axle). I just have the normal tow package, no additional load leveling gear.
The ride was great. Very pleased with the truck on the trip and very happy with the truck overall. No problems (except getting used to the diesel/turbo lag when going from a stop ) to report so far.
I have a 2014 Grand Cherokee Summit, which has the towing package. The truck just had it's second oil change at about 14,000.
I was towing a fishing boat, dual axle. I had taken it into a weigh station, so the weights were: 2,780 front axle, 3,720 back axle on truck, 4,360 boat trailer axle, for a total weight of 10,860. Note that this was also after I had dropped off 2 passengers and their luggage. My estimate, based on a previous weighing, is that the boat/trailer alone weighed about 4,900.
The thing to note is that although I was way below the towing capacity (4,900 vs 7,200) I was probably at (or above with the passengers) the GVW of 6,800 (6,500 without the additional passengers). So if you are pulling a heavier boat, closer to the max amount, you probably can't have many passengers or luggage).
We drove from southern Wis. to Lake of the Woods Canada. The total miles were 1,323. The driving time was 24 1/2 hours. This works out to be about 54 mph, on average. Most of the time was spent at about 65 mph (the max for trailer wheels). The truck calculated 17.6 miles per gallon (sounds right based on a quick manual calc) , which I was very happy with. (Does anyone else think the MPG calculation changes too much? I've had over a thousand miles on the MPG calc, then I drive a couple of miles, and then have the MPG change quite a bit, which would imply a ridiculous MPG the last couple of miles) The drive is fairly flat (one major hill in Duluth, water temp did rise, but stayed ok).
I spent a lot of the time with the cruise control on ( I know they say you shouldn't, but I think that is because it might have trouble finding the right gear. As you can see, not an issue). The truck did a nice job of changing gears when we came to minor hills. It automatically down shifted to keep the RPM's between 2,500 and 3,000 and then slowly shifted up as needed. I only had to manually change gears once or twice. I don't remember any major problems with it having trouble finding the right gear or going to really high RPMs.
There was no sway from the boat (probably because of the dual axle). I just have the normal tow package, no additional load leveling gear.
The ride was great. Very pleased with the truck on the trip and very happy with the truck overall. No problems (except getting used to the diesel/turbo lag when going from a stop ) to report so far.