Questions about a trailer hitch and towing with 2003 Grand Cherokee Overland

500magnum · 06-08-2006, 02:35 PM

1) I assume the Overland is powerful enough to tow a vehicle, am I wrong?
2) Is the Overland pre-wired from the factory with electrical connections to the trailer?
3) How much does it cost for a receiver that bolts to the frame and can someone recommend someone that sells them at a good price?
4) Can anyone recommend a good trailer to haul my stuff in. I am moving and I need to move some stuff. I was planning on getting an enclosed trailer for my cars and also use it to haul my furniture. I have two Corvettes to move and the contents of a house.

I will be buying a winter home in Texas and will slowly be moving my stuff from New York to Texas. Eventually I will sell the New York house and live in Texas full time. Right now the plan is to buy a receiver and enclosed trailer that I can use to haul my cars and furnishings with and move to Texas a little at a time. Any suggestion or comments would be welcome.

wreck76 · 06-09-2006, 05:44 AM

i could be wrong, but i thought the overland came loaded with the hitch reciever installed.

the overland with the HO V8 has a towing capacity of 6300lbs. so one vette at a time should be fine.

MuddyV8YJ · 06-09-2006, 07:15 AM

i agree, the overland usually has all the hitch stuff and wiring pre-installed.

word on the forum is that the rear will sag like crazy. you will have a much better ride if you install some airbags to keep things level. Since you will be doing a lot of towing, i'd suggest getting a tranny temp gauge installed to keep an eye on things.

**BlaineWasHere** · 06-09-2006, 07:19 AM

Therer were a few Overlands NOT equiped with the tow pkg from the factory. This brings up an interesting PROBLEM when towing a lot of weight. You do NOT have the power steering cooler like I do with the factory tow pkg. I am not as worryed about your power steering pump as much as I am your whole Jeep. You cooling runs off you power steering bump and it would be a shame to dramaticly fry you power steering pump them overheat your motor possibly doing massive damage.

Yes the Jeep CAN pull a vette. But with the weight of a trailer and the vette you will be pushing the limit of your Jeep. That is NOT a good idea. I know I would not want to risk damage to my Jeep or do anything dangerious.

If you are going to do it anyway make sure you have trailer brakes wired and a trailer that takes advantage of them. WJ brakes are less then steller in the first place and I have been downright scared pulling just a 3,000 lbs trailer... you will likely doubble that. Also I would get air bags to keep the rear end up in the air keeping the Jeep level and safe. Maybe even look into intalling that power steering cooler.

IMO you should spend alittle money on an older tow rig (desiel) with a trailer for both of you vettes. Many full size trucks can easily tow well over 10K and are already wired for trailer brakes. I am a fan of doing it right or not at all...

blove · 06-09-2006, 12:23 PM

Not being rude, but if you can afford 2 vettes and a summer home, just get you stuff shipped down here.

mrese · 06-09-2006, 02:05 PM

Spending wisely is probably how he can afford these toys!!

I like Blaines idea a older inexpensive tow rig.

I have towed 3500 with mine, no trailer brakes , and it was about maxed out. Even power wise it still had some power but the hills in southern MO was taxing on it, verses 8k-9k with a f 250 with a 460 in the hills of TN was way easier. The f 250 I could even set the cruise.

NY to TX is a long way to be powering a maxed out set up.

19psi · 06-09-2006, 03:32 PM

well.... i towed my galant gsx (3300 lbs.) on a double axle trailer (1800 lbs.) with my overland with my heavy *** swampers and stock 3.73 gears a couple weeks ago. it did ok considering the tires and gears. i was able to maintain about 65 on flat ground easily. uphill i lost some speed though. if you are on stock size tires, i think you should be fine as long as you don't plan on setting any land speed records....

**michiganmaveric** · 06-09-2006, 03:41 PM

Ship your Vettes and rent a U-Haul for moving your, stuff with a trailer for you Jeep. Whty take a chance on burning up something on your Jeep.

You will recoupe the cost of everything in the tax savings of living in Texas. No state taxes in Texas verses a lot of tax in New York.

KingPrat · 06-09-2006, 04:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wreck76

towing capacity of 6300lbs. so one vette at a time should be fine.

If these are older 'vettes, they shouldn't weigh more than 2800-3000 lbs. With the right trailer setup, you should be fine. (judging by the capacity) With a car hauler with things balanced correctly, you shouldn't have any problems.

500magnum · 06-09-2006, 09:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MuddyV8YJ

i agree, the overland usually has all the hitch stuff and wiring pre-installed.

word on the forum is that the rear will sag like crazy. you will have a much better ride if you install some airbags to keep things level. Since you will be doing a lot of towing, i'd suggest getting a tranny temp gauge installed to keep an eye on things.

I never considered the problem with sagging. The last vehicle I did any towing with had the receiver bolted to the frame. I towed a small 18 foot camping travel trailer that was set up with a load equalizing hitch setup. There were some kind of steel spring bars that spread and transferred it to the frame of the truck. I thought they might make the same type of setup for a car trailer as they do for campers. The trailer also had electric brakes, the brake control was mounted inside the car. You could adjust the sensitivity and also flip a emergency switch if you wind up with a possible jackknife situation I guess that may not be any option with this type of trailer, if it was people wouldn’t need to put in air bags. I think read something in the owners Manuel that the Jeep does have some transmission temperature warning light. But there is a reason they call them idiot lights so I guess I’ll need one if I do any towing.

500magnum · 06-09-2006, 09:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlaineWasHere

Therer were a few Overlands NOT equiped with the tow pkg from the factory. This brings up an interesting PROBLEM when towing a lot of weight. You do NOT have the power steering cooler like I do with the factory tow pkg. I am not as worryed about your power steering pump as much as I am your whole Jeep. You cooling runs off you power steering bump and it would be a shame to dramaticly fry you power steering pump them overheat your motor possibly doing massive damage.

Yes the Jeep CAN pull a vette. But with the weight of a trailer and the vette you will be pushing the limit of your Jeep. That is NOT a good idea. I know I would not want to risk damage to my Jeep or do anything dangerious.

If you are going to do it anyway make sure you have trailer brakes wired and a trailer that takes advantage of them. WJ brakes are less then steller in the first place and I have been downright scared pulling just a 3,000 lbs trailer... you will likely doubble that. Also I would get air bags to keep the rear end up in the air keeping the Jeep level and safe. Maybe even look into intalling that power steering cooler.

IMO you should spend alittle money on an older tow rig (desiel) with a trailer for both of you vettes. Many full size trucks can easily tow well over 10K and are already wired for trailer brakes. I am a fan of doing it right or not at all...

Thanks for the advice about the cooling, I’ll pop the hood tomorrow and see exactly what I have under there. I may consider a used diesel to save the Jeep. I can probably use it and sell it when I get done with out taking much of a loss.

500magnum · 06-09-2006, 09:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wreck76

i could be wrong, but i thought the overland came loaded with the hitch reciever installed.

the overland with the HO V8 has a towing capacity of 6300lbs. so one vette at a time should be fine.

Thank you for all the replies and good advice. I am sorry I didn’t get the chance to reply sooner. I bought the Overland new but I misplaced my owner’s manual. The Overland came standard with the most powerful engine Jeep made that year but it didn’t come with a hitch. I remember reading that it was set up for towing and I think I read something about it being pre-wired when I bought it but I didn’t pay too much attention to it because I was just looking for something that would be a good snow car.

500magnum · 06-09-2006, 09:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrese

Spending wisely is probably how he can afford these toys!!

I like Blaines idea a older inexpensive tow rig.

I have towed 3500 with mine, no trailer brakes , and it was about maxed out. Even power wise it still had some power but the hills in southern MO was taxing on it, verses 8k-9k with a f 250 with a 460 in the hills of TN was way easier. The f 250 I could even set the cruise.

NY to TX is a long way to be powering a maxed out set up.

T

Mark you took the words right out of my mouth. One thing I want to correct that blove said. It is not a summer house. The house I am getting is a winter house, not a summer house. But I plan on living to Texas full time as soon as I take care of unfinished odds and ends up here and sell my New York house. As mark correctly pointed out I would not have what I have now if I spent my money foolishly.
The question kind of reminds me of something that happened a few years ago. I invited a bunch of guys over to the house to watch a PPV fight. My cousin brought along a friend. I don’t recall exactly what was said but he made some kind of comment about my frugal spending habits. This guy had to ask my cousin to bring him over because his car needed to be fixed. He was living in a rented basement apartment without windows. This guy comes over to my house which is totally paid for to watch the fight on my big screen TV and he winds up bragging about how much money he spends. I have 3 cars and a motorcycle and he has a broken car that he can’t afford to fix and he makes comments about my spending habits and how much money he is able to spend. My conservative spending habits have allowed me to retire at age 45, I just ignored him.
By the way saving money is not the reason I want to transport some of my stuff. I bought my 62 Vette in Idaho a few years ago and had it shipped to New York. I have heard of a few accidents where cars have been damaged in the process of being transported. I even saw pictures of a 61 or 62 that fell off the front of a trailer, so I was worried for the 2 to 3 weeks it took to transport the car. A few years ago when fuel cost half of what they cost now I paid close to $2,000 to have one car transported from Idaho to New York. I haven checked but I bet it would cost at least $6,000 to $8,000 to transport two cars at today’s rates. That ain’t chump change.
Here is something else I didn’t mention in my first post. I happen to own over $20,000 worth of guns, some of, which are very rare. I also load my own ammunition as a hobby. I really don’t trust any moving company to transport my guns or handle 10 to 15 pounds of gun powder plus primers.

500magnum · 06-09-2006, 09:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by michiganmaveric

Ship your Vettes and rent a U-Haul for moving your, stuff with a trailer for you Jeep. Whty take a chance on burning up something on your Jeep.

You will recoupe the cost of everything in the tax savings of living in Texas. No state taxes in Texas verses a lot of tax in New York.

As I said in my other post it isn’t just the $6,000 to $8,000 it will cost it is the piece of mind. I don’t know if you ever saw how the transport car. They use lifts that stack one car on top of the other. When my 62 was delivered from Idaho it scared the hell out of me watching it come off the truck. It was stacked on the top row and they had to drive it on to a platform about 15 or 20 feet high. There was no stop at the end of the platform so if the guy’s foot slid off the brake or something else went wrong my car would have taken a 20 foot, maybe more drop.

I tried to post a picture of my Vettes but I can't see it. I have posted pictures on other forums before but this one does not seem to show.

500magnum · 06-09-2006, 09:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KingPrat

If these are older 'vettes, they shouldn't weigh more than 2800-3000 lbs. With the right trailer setup, you should be fine. (judging by the capacity) With a car hauler with things balanced correctly, you shouldn't have any problems.

Thanks for the help and suggestions. I am planning way ahead. I plan on flying out to Texas in late July or mid August to buy a small temporary house. I will make a partial move in late September or early October the latest. I will probably travel back in forth to New York a few times and hope to be totally out of New York by Spring.

I have a 62 and a 96 I tried to post pictures but they aren't showing up