Towing

[WXman]

Has anyone towed with their 4 door JL yet?? Pretty close to making a purchase of a Rubi. Will occasionally be towing a RZR 900s on an aluminum open trailer, probly be around 2500lbs. so if anyone out there has any experience so far with around this much weight, I'd like to know how the JL did. Thanx

Mine has been averaging 20 MPG hand calculated doing a mix of city/highway driving since I bought it.
Today I took a 100+ mile trip with my wife, 10 year old son, a small amount of cargo, and a 6.5x12' single axle utility trailer (1,000 lbs.) loaded with a Polaris Ranger (1,100 lbs) and set the cruise at just under 70 MPH while on the interstate. I got 15.5 MPGs on the trip. Jeep towed the load just fine, but you definitely know it's back there. Stayed in 6th and 7th gear most of the time, but it would downshift to 5th on just about any hill.
My 2013 F-150 was getting 15.5 MPGs with no load and no trailer, so I'm happy.

Sponsored

 

[bobzdar]

I got 12mpg towing this (I'm 19.5-20mpg normally). It was mostly highway and somewhat hilly, including going over Afton mountain in va. Sway wasn't an issue but I have a pro brand weight distributing hitch with proper sized bars and sway control (and the Airstream tows nicely anyway). I set the bar tension one link higher than the pic as the rear was a little low, it kept it fairly level and evenly loaded on the jeep front to rear. I was able to maintain 65mph, which is max I usually tow, except going up the mountain where I dropped to 55mph. It was mostly in 7th gear dropping to 6th for hills. 5th gear going up the mountain. I let it run auto for the most part but switched to manual on the mountain so it wouldn't downshift farther. I monitored temps, max it hit was 220 coolant and 240 oil, 210 trans in 90 deg ambient going up the mountain. Trans was barely warmer than normal, it runs around 204. The other two were 10-15 above normal, so no issue.