That's right! This week in our "Can My Vehicle Be Towed" series, we're looking at the most popular lineup of towed vehicles in America. The Jeep Wrangler has long been a staple of the RVing world (and, spoiler alert, it's a vehicle that we'd highly, highly recommend). There's good reason for that: Jeeps are extremely easy to put into their tow mode, maintain a good balance of being both rugged and comfortable, and don't tend to have a lot of issues.
Before we dive in, though, we're going to add in our typical disclaimer:
This article series isn't designed to dive into the details of every single towable vehicle. While we may reference specific cars as examples, this series is designed to give you general guidelines and words of wisdom when it comes to entire vehicle lineups. The things we cover here will be generally true across all flat towable models of a particular make - or, at least, true in the majority of cases. However, as with any guidance we give in this area, it's very important you review the Recreational Towing section of your vehicle's Owner's Manual. That's the only way to verify that the things we discuss here are applicable to your car.
With that out of the way, let's get started!
The Complexity Scale
In case this is your first week with us in this series, we always start off with something called our "Complexity Scale" where we give a numeric rating for a manufacturer's entire lineup of vehicles based on ease of recreational towing.
1 on our Scale would be something like an older Jeep Wrangler that's completely plug-and-play (very, very easy), while 10 would be something like the Ford CMax (which is literally impossible to tow correctly, even though it's technically "towable").
Without further ado, here's where Jeeps fall on that scale:
Now, based on everything we've said so far, it shouldn't be much of a surprise that Jeeps are so low on our Scale. As we said up at the very top of this article, Jeeps are renowned in the flat towing world as being the 'Gold Standard'.
The only things that drive this rating up to a 4 instead of a 2 or a 3 are:
1. The newer 4xe (PHEV) models of the Wrangler and Cherokee/Grand Cherokee lines. While still extremely simple for electric/hybrid vehicles, they do add some complexity during setup that's not typically true of most Jeeps. For example, because these 4xe models have an Active braking system (as opposed to a Vacuum one), you need to make sure your supplemental braking system is adjusted accordingly so that you don't experience tire lockup.
2. Some newer Jeeps (such as recent iterations of the Grand Cherokee) require a battery disconnect - something that is very atypical for flat towable Jeep models and something that always adds a layer of complexity to both installation and use.
What Additional Equipment Do I Need To Tow?
In general, the only thing that Jeeps are going to need across the board is something like our 12v Battery Direct Kit (or some kind of equivalent third-party outlet). This is because most of the outlets in Jeeps are either not live while towing or they time out after a certain period. The only ones that seem to be consistently live are those in the cargo/rear area of the vehicle, and those outlets should not - I repeat, should NOT - be used for powering a braking system. So, even if you do have a live cargo bay outlet, make sure you install a dedicated one.
Some models of Jeep (especially more family-driven models like the Grand Cherokee and any 4xe variant) may also need a battery charger of some kind (our Towed Battery Charger Plus is more than sufficient for any Jeep that does need one).
Recommended Model
Our suggestion here should come as a surprise to no one at this point: It's impossible not to pick the Jeep Wrangler here - the combination of ease, versatility, and long history of quality is just impossible to beat. However, we would give an honorable mention to the Gladiator series, as they share virtually the same pros as the Wrangler with the added benefit of a truck bed for those who want one.
Really, any Jeep is going to serve you very, very well. If you're in the market for a new towed vehicle - or if you're looking to switch towed vehicles at some point in the near future - you absolutely should consider at least one model of Jeep when you're shopping around.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, Jeeps in general are going to be the simplest vehicles to flat tow by a country mile - both in terms of setup and potential issues that may crop up on the road. We highly, highly recommend them, regardless of whether you're using an RVibrake3 or RVibrake Shadow.
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