Looking at flat towing an XJ

Anybody have much experience flat towing a lifted XJ? How did you handle the lights? Does anybody offer a solution to add brakes on the towed vehicle, that doesn't cost a fortune?

what are you towing with?
how far are you going and on what kinds of roads?

I used tail light towing diodes from Camping World, installed them inside my tail light housing run the wires inside the XJ plastic side covers and trim rails to the front, install a 4 wire connector. Now when I tow just connect a 6’ cable from my truck to the XJ works great and easy plus it won’t damage the OBDII computer.

-- Dean --

It's all highway, but a lot in the mountains. I'll be pulling with an Exploder. Yes, I know it's not the optimal vehicle, but I have about 40k miles towing with that rig and with the 5.0L, it has done quite well. My biggest concern is getting some kind of brake setup.

old_man said:

It's all highway, but a lot in the mountains. I'll be pulling with an Exploder. Yes, I know it's not the optimal vehicle, but I have about 40k miles towing with that rig and with the 5.0L, it has done quite well. My biggest concern is getting some kind of brake setup.

Click to expand...

That being the case, don't skimp on the braking setup. Check www.campingworld.com and/or pick up a copy of Trailer Life or Motorhome magazines for systems that will let you stop nearly as quickly as the Ford by itself. This is the one I have on my Winnebago http://www.campingworld.com/browse/products/index.cfm?prodID=2506&src=SRCH&tcode=37
but it uses a compressor mounted in the motorhome. Some of the newer systems are different. HTH

old_man said:

Anybody have much experience flat towing a lifted XJ? How did you handle the lights? Does anybody offer a solution to add brakes on the towed vehicle, that doesn't cost a fortune?

Click to expand...

I tow a 2001 XJ (2” lift) behind a small motor home. It tracks well and I do not really notice it except when climbing grades. A higher lift may be different. If it drives well on the street it should tow OK as long as everything is set up correctly but as always YMMV.
I use a Roadmaster tow bar and base plate from Camping World.
Shop the internet for better prices.

I installed a second set of taillights in the Cherokee that are used only for towing and are wired directly to a plug below the front bumper. The brake control wiring passes through the same plug
I have not had good luck with diodes. They result in dimmer lights.
I used tail light bases with spring grommet type mounting.
You drill a large hole in the housing and the new taillight snaps into it. I sealed them with polyurethane.

You should have brakes and many states are now requiring them.
I like and use SMI's vacuum operated brakes. Many use 'Brake Buddies'
Check the following link for a lot of good information on the various available braking systems. Read it all before making any choices.
http://www.rv.net/forums/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/13200019.cfm

Unfortunately, none of the tow brakes are cheap.
If it is a one time trip, rent a front end dolly with surge brakes.

Larry

I've towed a Bronco II with an XJ many times before. One major key to stability is a long tow bar. This gives the towed vehicle less leverage on your towing vehicle's rear end. Make the tow bar easy to detach or you will have yourself quite a tall fixture on your front bumper for the trails. Also, it is good to have the tow bar mounted slightly higher to the towed vehicle (sloping down to the front). This makes it push down on the rear of your rig when stopping quickly rather than (ack!) pushing up.

Make sure the Jeep has plenty of caster in the steering, otherwise it will really want to wander.

For lights - the diodes would work great, but there's a really simple solution. U-Haul (and undoubtedly others) makes magnetic tow lights. They are just trailer lights with wires and a plug mounted on magnetic bases. Stick them to the Jeep, plug them in and go. They'd even be simple to make.

I've never really had any success at coming up with a booty fab idea for brakes. I'd considered putting a boat trailer surge brake hitch on the tow bar, and using hydraulic quick disconnects to tap into the brakes of the towed vehicle. This would probably cause some undesired effects unless you did everything pefectly. Good luck on that one. Maybe the surge tounge setup and a driveline disc brake...

Those Explorers really tow pretty well. They have a good frame and weigh plenty with a decent wheelbase. My '91 'sploder was a towing fool. I hope some of this is good advice... it's all worked for me.

Jaredatriot:

yall seem to be missing that he wants to flat tow it.

I would possibly rent a tow dolly or trailer, but U-Haul will not rent anything that is towed to anyone driving an Explorer. Paraniod assholes. Nobody else around here rents them. Money is a bit tight, otherwise I would have a trailer. I can pick one up for $1100 new.

Being an engineer by trade, I have been thinking about making my own braking setup. I designed a setup, and then later saw something similar on the web. I am thinking about plumbing vacuum back to the vehicle. I would be using a hydraulic type cylinder, but with vacuum to push the brake pedal. I might even apply the vacuum to the booster to amplify the force. If I did it, I would rig a vacuum guage as well as one way valves. The controller could be run just from the brake lights and use a progressive controller based on the length of time the brake is on.

An alternative is a electricly operated linear actuator. I want to interface it to the pedal instead of tapping the hydraulics. The best would be to modify the vacuum booster so that it can be externally triggered.

Boy I wish I had hung onto that last booster so I could slice it open to see exactly how it is controlled.

I looked at towing flat, and will when I have to, but went with a tow dolly because of the brake requirement. I use a 33 ft Coachmen motorhome and researched the toad brake controllers. It seems all of them have some customers which have cars that burned up their brakes without knowing it until it was too late because they didn't fully release. I could not ever get any more detail on why, but in several cses the mfg either picked up part of the tab on repair or replaced the unit free, etc. That leads me to believe they are covering their liability concerns as well as customer service ones.

Anyway, I didn't want to risk burning up the Jeep. Will tow without brakes for short runs and where legal, and tow dolly with electric brakes for cross country.

The only tow bar brake option I found that was reliable in this regard was a surge brake system that tied a cable to your brake pedal and to a spring on the hitch so when you slowed fast (braked) it pulled on your pedal. The cheapest solution too, but a bit more work to hook and unhook. I may still install that one day.

If you invent your own old_man, remember that braking on the toad is an assist and not primary braking. I would focus on the release being failsafe first. Especially with a large motorhome (I know the original post was for an Explorer), but you don't feel a thing from back there and might not know about trouble till you see flames!! There are all types on the market already, including the linear actuators, vac assist to the car's booster, vac operated self contained, etc, and they all seem to try to outdo each other on how fast they can make a little Saturn stop a 30,000lb motorhome... Just a little residual pressure and it's goodbye brakes. :scared:

I have pulled a vehicle behind a motor home for years with no towed vehicle brakes. The tow vehicle in that case was many times heavier than the towed vehicle. With the Cherokee, the vehicles are of similar weight, so brakes would be in order.

Hey Tom do you know if Colorado has changed its laws on towed veh. yet?
I have flat towed my XJ behind my old Winnie for the past 3 yrs with no brakes, but I have heard that colorado either has changed it law or is going to change it law on this.

I agree. I was trying to point out that releasing is important too, even with an Explorer. I had an electric controller on my Explorer towing a travel trailer (heavier than an XJ) and I could set it so that the brakes dragged some and the Explorer still towed it nicely. I had visual indication on the controller for the electric brakes and could monitor it and shut it down though. The controller was up front with me. I think the problem with releasing on some of the other ones for towed cars is that even if it thinks it's released, it may not have, so even the feedback indicators may not represent the real status.

Perhaps (just thought of this) if he went with a built in or self contained system that uses the car's pedal he could tap the brake switch lines and run a separate indicator up front. It's pretty sensitive, and if it closes any other time than during braking, you pull over and check it. A little extra safety for a little wiring.

I once Flat towed an 86 Ford Ranger ex. cab 2wd behind the XJ for 350mi. Whew. Want to talk about a hairy ride? That truck pushed my Jeep all over the place. It was a white knuckle experience for sure! Ill never do that again.

this is prolly a dumb question but when you tow with a dolly do you have to unhook your front driveshaft or is N on the transfer case sufficient? I thought you always had to flat tow a 4x4 unless it's got a shaft unhooked.

Nope, depending on the model it can either be towed in Neutral-Neutral, or Neutral-Park... We have towed out cherokee all over the US in N-N... it's a 95' Sport, 4.0l with the 231... Not all 4x4's can be towed with all 4 down, just have to do some research...the owners manual gives the towing procedure for the XJ's...

Just caught thatr you mentioned the Dolly... how did i miss that? Well, it can be towed with 4 down, i'm not sure what the deal with the dolly is... i know there is a pump that is driven off one of the drivelines or something like that to circulate fluid... not sure which one though. In any case, i would still like to believe that by following the proper towing procedure, dollying would be the same as all 4 down.

y2kxj said:

this is prolly a dumb question but when you tow with a dolly do you have to unhook your front driveshaft or is N on the transfer case sufficient? I thought you always had to flat tow a 4x4 unless it's got a shaft unhooked.

Click to expand...

I've never heard of that... Neutral is neutral. Perhaps you are talking of some non-towable 4wd dollied backwards - front wheels down? In 4hi and neutral the frontdriveshaft doesn't move, so there wouldn't even be a pump that would get driven 4 down.

That thread didn't say anything about droppign the front shaft to use a tow dolly.... Is that what you meant?:huh: