Towing Questions

Hi all, I have a 99 XJ Sport with about 60,000 miles on it. I change all fluids reguraly and keep it maintained pretty well. Here;s my question- I Want to purchase a small covered trailer and tow between 1000 + 2000lbs from Alaska to Florida. Is this feasible for my I6 engine? I dont have a tow package so I need to go get one and a wire harness, what else is needed for the setup? Any information would help alot, thanks.

No problem. 4.0 auto XJ's are rated for 5ooolbs (I think). You obviously need a hitch, ball mount and ball. As far as wiring, the older XJs need a taillight adapter. I don't know if yours does or not. If you hae amber turn signals in the rear, you will need it. It adapts 3 circuts (2 signals and brake/running) down to two (signal/brake and running) for the trailer. You need to know what kind of woring the trailer has on it. It could be 7 way, 6 way or flat 4. If you don't know, install the 7 way on your rig. You can always adapt down from that. The trailer may or may not have brakes. If it does, there are two types. Electric and surge, If it has surge brakes, you won't need anything else, Surge brakes can be identified by what looks like a stacked coupler on the trailer. Should have some kind of master cylinder on it. If it has a 6 or 7 way plug, it may have electric brakes. Peek inside the wheels and see if there are drums, or look for wires coming out of the backing plate. Those require a brake controller to be mounted to your dash and wired up. If it has a flat 4 connector, it has a surge brake or no brakes, and you just need to wire for lights.
Make sense?

'noggin has it covered pretty well.

One thing I would recommend in addition is a transmission cooler if you have an automatic transmission.

In any event, you'll need the magic wiring box as XJs have separate turn and brake lights. Any decent trailer shop should have it on the shelf.

If the trailer is only a ton or so, I guess I'd think about not installing electric brakes for just one trip. If you've got any ideas about towing in the future, suck it up and get the controller. Even considering the price, I'd STRONGLY recommend a Tekonsha Prodigy over any other inertial controller. The other two options would be a Jordan, or a Brakesmart (which apparently has some business "issues" at the moment.)

One other peice of advice. When comming down out of the mountains drop that tranny down to third, and don't ride your brakes, or you'll warp those rotors in no time.

thanks for all the info guys- I'll take that advice and let you all know how it works out.

Just my 2cents unles you are on really flat ground don't use over drive all the gears have about 13 clutches except 4th and it has about 3 per my local tranny shop that had to do mine at 86000 they told me it was there #1 problem in utility vehical tranny problems heavy pulling can wear out the tranny fast if towing in over drive and having one rebuilt is not cheap.