Hi, all!
Well, I'm back in the states again (was stationed overseas) and I am now the proud owner of a 2005 Inferno Red KJ - CRD!!
I picked her up from Salem Chrysler - Jeep in Dayton, Ohio, on 14 November. 2 days later I purchased my first upgrade which was 5 new all-terrain Uniroyals to get rid of the donuts of death that came with her.
I installed the Cobra hand-held CB radio next and added some cool wolf decals I found at Advanced Auto Parts.
I drove her around south-central and western Ohio to break her in before strapping a 5' X 8' U-HAUL trailer onto her and driving from Ohio to Idaho. The KJ had about 1000 miles on her before we left Ohio. The trip was around 2100 miles and took us through Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, and then Idaho.
The trailer wasn't completely full, but pretty close. The Liberty did just fine from Ohio to Utah. I was able to leave the OD and cruise on for most of the trip excepting the steep/long hills/mountains when I kicked off the OD when she got below 55 mph. I averaged a speed around 70 mph for the trip and the trailer stayed right behind me with little to no fish-tailing, even with strong crosswinds and tons of semis, until we got about 15 miles from the Idaho-Utah border.
The road conditions started getting poor with some snow so, I dropped my speed from 75 to 65. I could still see dry pavement in the right-hand lane so I wasn't too worried about whoa-in' up. I guess I didn't see some black ice or something cause the next thing I know, just as I started to reach the apex of a very moderte left hand curve on an equally slight downgrade, the trailer started pulling me sideways!!
I let off the accelerator and tried to counter-steer but, no dice. I knew the brakes would just spin me out so, I went with the momentum and direction the trailer wanted to follow. This allowed me to straighten out the Jeep and keep from jack-knifeing. Unfortunately, I was now driving off the road and across the median! Thankfully, at this point in the roadway the median was shallow and free of obstructions, save a couple hundred tumbleweeds and about a half foot of snow.
So, my wife (driving our Saturn behind me) watches in horror as I fly off the road into a big cloud of snow. I was able to go diagonally across the median and regain full control on the inside shoulder of the east bound lanes. Again, thankfully there was no oncoming traffic at that moment.
To remedy my situation I didn't stop and instead reached down, put the KJ into Full-time and then drove back across the median to the proper side of the road. I came out right in front of my wife in the Saturn who was going about 10 mph at that point.
There was no damage to the KJ, the trailer, or anything else accept maybe my lifespan. I think I lost a year or so off of my life during my impromptu wild ride.
So, that was my first "off-road" experience with my new Liberty and she performed great!
I have had to take the Liberty into the dealership twice now. The first time was back in Ohio when a hose came loose and the KJ lost all back preasure and wouldn't go over 30 mph. Jeep payed to have her towed into town, my folks live out in the country, and discovered that several hoses were not tightened properly at the factory. Easy fix.
The second time was for a blown intercooler to engine turbo-diesel hose. It happened with around 2850 miles on the KJ. She started running rougher, burping black smoke, and had fluctuating RPMs. Took her into the Mountain Home dealership as soon as I got here and they had to order the part from back East. They said that they had never seen that happen before with that part. Anyway, she's back and running like a champ and everything was covered under warranty.
So far, I really enjoy my KJ and I can't wait to take her out into the mountains of Idaho this spring!
- Trooper
P.S. I'll post some pics of my KJ later on this thread.
