Crosscountry Towing

stoutdog · **Posted:** Thu Jun 07, 2012 3:21 pm

My father (papaindigo) and I just completed a 1,900 mile trek from Arizona to Florida. Fully-loaded, with a kayak on the roof, and pulling a packed 5x8 trailer, the Jeep handled wonderfully. We averaged about 21.5 mpg on the trip, cruising at around 63mph (low of 20.3, high of 23.0 - yay for the flat country along the Gulf coast). You could definitely feel the weight back there, but the CRD had no trouble to speak of... it only downshifted on a half dozen of the steepest hills, and that's before we realized we could ramp up the speed beforehand and make it all the way up with no shifting needed.

Absolutely no complaints... Very proud of my little CRD

ibedonc · **Joined:** Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:40 pm **Posts:** 236

my 05 limited is that color

ChooChooman74 · **Posted:** Thu Jun 07, 2012 4:46 pm

What was the approximate weight of the trailer?

papaindigo · **Posted:** Thu Jun 07, 2012 5:49 pm

Inside the Jeep we had 2 adults and enough stuff to approximate 800 lbs or more as the combined adult weight was ca 400 lbs; empty trailer weight 900+ lbs and I'm guessing we had somewhat over 1,000 lbs of furniture, books, etc loaded inside the trailer so trailer weight was on the order of 2,000-2,500 lbs. Jeep was a bit visually down toward the back with no one in the front seat (no clue what it looked like with us in the front seat but suspect level) which made the trailer look like it was a bit nose heavy. Tugging on the trailer tongue suggested tongue weight of 250 lbs +-.

As for towing at first the steering on the Jeep felt "light" but in the long run there was zero trailer wiggle; no particular sense of being pushed downhill; and the occasional somewhat abrupt stop was dead straight.

PS - just to add for speed we generally ran 60 - 63 depending on traffic or about 1800 rpm. Temp gauge (Kap's tstat mod) was rock solid barely left of dead vertical.

mark2m · **Posted:** Thu Jun 07, 2012 6:26 pm

I towed a 5x10 uhaul trailer loaded with a tool box loaded with tools, my motorcycle and a bunch of boxes from NY to Ca and back. Over 3000 miles one way with a trailer hook behind me and I never felt uncomfortable at all. Bone stock at the time and driving at 70-80mph the whole trip I average 18mpg. Cant complain at all. The CRD did downshift a few times on some of those huge mts but kept pulling without a issue. This is with stock torque converter and no shudder. Still have the same converter and GDE hot tune and going strong with 89k miles on it. I love this Jeep.

Mark

ajdance · **Joined:** Tue Jun 07, 2011 11:49 pm **Posts:** 11

I did an Indiana to Arizona run with a 6x12 trailer (full) and the Libby was packed also. We averaged 15 mpg. Only trouble was the mountains going from Payson to Mesa. The engine got pretty hot pulling a long 6% grade. Still never went below 50 even with the computer reducing the RPM's. So We love the little horse..... 106,000 and still going.(timming belt @100k)

Sir Sam · **Posted:** Fri Jun 08, 2012 3:08 pm

I went 1300 miles form NJ to colorado with a 5000 lb CRD behind mine.

mikey1273 · **Posted:** Fri Jun 08, 2012 3:25 pm

that is real good...

not cross country but I took my CRD camping in the Pocono's towing my pop up camper for the first time the other weekend. the camper is about 1100 pounds empty and I had maybe 300-400 pounds of gear food and clothes between the camper and back of the jeep. with two people I got 25 MPG doing around 65 most of the way. Mine did down shift a few times on hills also but did real well. I would say it towed the camper like a dream.

Crosscountry Towing

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