2500 mile round-trip from Fargo to Ouray pulling Camper

fool4wheelin · **Posted:** Mon Jul 18, 2016 1:47 am

Wanted to share my experiences from a recent camping trip we made to Ouray, CO. My wife's family had their reunion in Ouray this year, lucky me :mrgreen:

. We decided to buy a camper and pull it down behind the CRD instead of fly down and stay in a hotel. It was a tight fit but managed to fit 3-carseats in the 2nd-row.

Pre-Trip:
- After looking at and test pulling a few different travel trailers, we found a nice used High-Wall Pop-Up Camper. This thing is loaded with features (including hard-sided bathroom), so dry weight is ~3200 lbs. I ended up scaling it on the way down after shredding a tire on my camper (more on that below), and my combined weight (including passengers and gear) was ~9100 lbs. Dimensions are 7' wide by 6' tall by 19' long, so not bad frontal area dimensions.
- Installed an E2 600lb equalizing hitch with integrated sway control. These are heavy (100+ lbs) and spendy, but I'm very happy with the purchase. One nice feature is the extended ball mount, provides additional clearance to my spare tire.
- Almost installed a standard brake controller under the dash, but decided to go with a Prodigy RF model that installs on the camper. They are more money, but I will be pulling with multiple vehicles. Installation was a snap and it works very well.
- Instead of buying a set of strap-on tow mirrors, I installed a Garmin BC-30 backup camera that wirelessly transmits the video to my Garmin Nuvi. It works good for backing up in close quarters, but is worthless on the highway to see who/what is following behind you. I may investigate an alternate camera that has a more focused view instead of the wide angle lens.
- I've already had the GDE FT-Tune and Euro TC for a few years now, but this was a good reason to install a tune in the Trans-ECU. After working with GDE on a few iterations (GDE very good to work with), ended up sticking mostly with the stock F37 tune with the exception of holding 4th gear til 75 mph. PM me if you would like more info on the iterations I tried.
- I removed the rear anti-sway bar and left the front on for the drive, with a plan on removing it before hitting the trails.
- I was having issues with cabin noise in windy conditions, always noisy on the down-wind door when driving with a cross-wind. Took in into a body shop and they adjusted both front doors and this took care of the wind noise issue.
- Cleaned out my AC Condenser/CAC/Radiator cores. While I was in there I started chasing some chirping noise from my accessory drive. I replaced a couple pulleys and found the noise was coming from my alternator decoupler pulley. Accessory drive is so quiet now I can hear my noisy rockers. Also finally ditched the factory CAC hoses and installed an upgraded set from IDParts.
- CRD had 145k on it before the trip, so just getting broken in.

Travel:
- Blew one tire on my camper halfway on the way down. Apparently the tires on my camper were only rated for 65 mph, so cruising at 80 mph at rated capacity on I-70 must have did them in. Upgraded to an HD set of Carlisle tires in Denver which worked well the rest of the trip.
- Had plenty of power, could easily go 80 mph on flat ground and minor inclines. Struggled a little more that I anticipated on the mountain passes, but with having to lug ~9100 lbs its understandable.
- Trans tune worked well for the most part, holding the shift to 5th gear at 75 mph is a good compromise, sometimes I would like it to shift to 5th sooner and sometimes I would like it to stay in 4th all the time. Biggest issue I had was with 3rd gear in O/D-OFF mode, it would lockup the TC at ~38 mph (~1700 rpm), which in some cases climbing mountain passes my revs were too low and I would eventually power out. If I could do it over again I'd wait to lockup the TC (when towing) in 3rd gear til 45-50 mph.
- Definitely had some overheating when climbing mountain passes when pulling the camper. Had to reduce speed and do the old open the windows/turn the heater on trick to keep the engine cool. Temp gauge stayed pretty much vertical the whole trip; when climbing mountain passes didn't get too concerned until the needle went past 3/4.
- Found that my Fia bug screen was significantly restricting airflow across the heat exchangers. Was lucky to learn this early in the trip and removed it when pulling the camper.

Mountain Trails:
- My suspension and tires were stock, the only upgrades I did for the trail ride was install factory skid plates and tow hooks. I also had front and rear anti-sway bars removed and aired down my tires.
- I'm a big fan of lowering tire pressure for riding on the trails, but it seemed to be a tradeoff between ground clearance and ride quality. I started out at 25 psi, and when I went down to 20 psi, the ride was much softer across the bumps, but I seemed to be hitting my skid plates a lot more.
- We rode the Imogene Pass and Corkscrew Gulch/Hurricane Pass trails South of Ouray. My CRD was one of 14 Jeeps in our group, the rest were new JK Rubicon rentals. My CRD performed well on the trails we ran, but I had to be careful on the lines I picked when navigating the obstacles. Tried showing off once passing a few JK's over some higher ground and got hung-up once.
- Lost my front license plate bracket when crossing a stream that had a deeper section. I would recommend removing the front license plate if fording water.
- When descending the mountain pass trails, I noticed the faint smell of burning oil coming from the engine compartment. I was initially concerned but eventually realized it was only happening when I was severely pointed downhill. I'm assuming it must be easier to blow oil out the CCV or something at that angle. Will have to look into it to see how to mitigate, but it didn't seem to be a big deal other than the smell.
- I was not very impressed with the ride quality on rough terrain after removing the anti-sway bars, didn't seem to make much different whether the front was on or off. I have previously removed the anti-sway bars on my '98 XJ (have quick disconnects on the front on that one) with very positive results. I'm assuming the front springs on the CRD are much stiffer than those on my XJ. When I get a chance I'm hoping to compare the suspension travel on my KJ vs my XJ. May be looking into an OME suspension upgrade in the future.

wilco549 · **Posted:** Tue Jul 19, 2016 3:06 pm

Good write up...looks like a good trip! (less the blown tire.)

can I ask why remove the rear anti-sway bar??

mass-hole · **Posted:** Tue Jul 19, 2016 6:43 pm

wilco549 wrote:

Good write up...looks like a good trip! (less the blown tire.)

can I ask why remove the rear anti-sway bar??

Articulation. I dont think he meant while he tows.

I do know that when I went to go trim the UCA pockets a few weeks back I tried to use a floor jack to lift up on the lugs to help compress the front suspension and make more room for my cutting wheel. I put the rear opposite tire on a ramp to help try to use the rear springs to counter the floor jack. I first tried it with the front sway bar connected and it would compress a few inches and then the rear opposite corner would just start taking up the rest of the slack to the point that the tire was mashed up against the liner. It never got anywhere near the front bump stops. I then removed the lower end link bolts and it made a world of difference. I hit the front bump stops no problem.

flash7210 · **Posted:** Tue Jul 19, 2016 7:53 pm

I've heard that removing the front sway bar does not offer much more in articulation. Especially if you are already using stiff OME springs.
But for the rear, removing the sway bar does help the solid axle flex more.

fool4wheelin · **Posted:** Wed Jul 20, 2016 12:12 am

mass-hole wrote:

wilco549 wrote:

Good write up...looks like a good trip! (less the blown tire.)
can I ask why remove the rear anti-sway bar??

Articulation. I dont think he meant while he tows.

Correct. The front bar is much larger and does most of the work anyway. Before the trip I removed them both and drove to work a few days that way, it softened the ride some and you could feel a little more sway around the corners, but I never felt like it was an issue. Hooked the front back up before the trip.

My XJ (with stock springs and 2" spacers) is a different story, disconnecting the front anti-sway bar really makes the front axle flex. Jeep bragged up how much suspension travel they built into the IFS on the KJ's, hard to believe its so far behind the XJ, unless is the CRD that's the difference. I suppose the stiffer front springs have stiffer shocks as well.

flash7210 wrote:

I've heard that removing the front sway bar does not offer much more in articulation. Especially if you are already using stiff OME springs.
But for the rear, removing the sway bar does help the solid axle flex more.

My springs are all stock. I considered putting the OME springs in before the trip but figured it was too much to bite-off at the time. I did measure my ride height per the specs in the Service Manual (measured from the spindle CL to the lower control arm pivot) and I was within spec. Strange thing is that the CV shafts go uphill from the diff to the wheel spindles, seems like there is plenty of room for a lift. IIRC Jeep lowered the KJ's after the first year to make them more stable on the road.

I was assuming the OME aftermarket springs for the CRD had more travel thus providing a softer spring rate/ride, is that not the case?

fool4wheelin · **Posted:** Wed Jul 20, 2016 12:53 am

I suppose I could share some pics...

mass-hole · **Posted:** Wed Jul 20, 2016 2:03 am

fool4wheelin wrote:

I suppose I could share some pics...

Ouray is pretty spectacular. I had to drive from Durango to Rifle and back in early December for work, so I drove up through Silverton and Ouray and really wanna go back for fun.

I wasn't in the Jeep, but it showed me that the EcoBoost has no issue at 10-11,000 ft. It had a little more lag but still pulled hard.

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2500 mile round-trip from Fargo to Ouray pulling Camper

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