My neighbour gave me a 94 Jeep Cherokee Sport it had been sitting 8 yrs I got it running and all cleaned up. My other neighbour gave me a towbar,I have it all mounted and my new used free Towd is ready to go. We are heading to the beach this weekend and towing the Jeep. The jeep has an automatic i know to put transfer case in N do I leave transmission in Park or put it in neutral too?
That depends on your transmission, I had a sport wrangler and put it in 5th to prevent the tranny from turning as we rolled down the road. In the grand I put it in Park.
Best to check the owners manual for the correct answer. Jeeps have several different ways to configure the transmission,
Rich
I used to tow a 98 Cherokee auto. With that one it was transfer case in N and transmission in P. The owner's manual had a section on towing it. Also, there are some active Jeep forums which can answer the question. Sounds like you have some generous neighbors!
jor
I have a 94' Grand Cherokee that we use as a hunting vehicle. We tow it to the ranch (400 miles) with the transfer case in neutral and the transmission in park. No issues.
All automatic 4x4's (real 4x4' with transfer cases) I've towed, including my present Jeep Liberty, it's transfer in neutral, transmission in park. You don't want the transmission spinning. Find yourself an owners manual on the Internet to confirm.
Found it thanks everyone.
What are you using as a braking system while being towed?
Dang bud I could get used to your neighbors.
FWIW,
I used to tow a 96 jeep Cherokee and it was a good one. A little off the original question but I thought worth mentioning is don't rely on the bumper for attachment of the tow bar. I did and when I hit a rough stretch of road, dang near took off the bumper. I had to remove the tow bar from the bumper. I sold the jeep not long after that and never reattached it for towing, so I don't have a tried recommendation for attachment. I just wanted you to know that you need to make certain your attachment is more secure than the bumper. I certainly could envision the jeep passing me sometime or being a little independent on its course of travel. Best of travels.
I used the stock front bumper but, I mounted the tow bar connectors to it reinforcing with thick large fender washers.then I used grade 8 1/2 bolts, I bolted the bracket to the fender using a grade 8 locknut.Then i put a 3/8 chain onto the bolt and 2 large washers doubled up and another grade 8 locknut then bolted the other end into the front towhook bolt. dhrn I tightend it all up chains tightned down etc. Car pulled fine stopped and checked no sign anywhere if anything comming loose.Were in Chattanooga area now set up and relaxing.
Heres the freebie Towd, I put in a new battery,fuel pump,alternator, wiper blades, 5 new valve stems in tires,and gage it a bath runs good.
My '99 Wrangler TJ has an off-road bumper with a 5,000 lb winch (it doesn't weigh 5,000 lbs... it is rated to pull that though... for like 30 seconds) mounted on it. The bumper is not OEM and is pretty stout so I had a friendly welder weld and bolt the Harbor Friend towbar brackets to it (like suspenders and a belt). Because the surface I had available for mounting the brackets was slanted down and back about 30-degrees I wanted to make sure that I had enough strength to account for sheer in the fasteners (which are normally only rated for compression and tension). Sheer strength is an issue when mounting any base plate (or bumper) to a frame where the loads are such that they would bend or break a fastener rather than pull the head off.
(This is an interesting publication on sheer strength in bolts: http://preserve.lehigh.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2821&context=engr-civil-environmental-fritz-lab-reports)
The HF towbar is rated - like so many others - at 5,000 pounds. Although they don't specifically say so, I'm assuming that is the weight of the vehicle being towed and not the maximum spike in the load on the device due to road issues. My TJ, with a cloth top and cloth upper doors, weighs in at about 3100 pounds (slightly higher if I put the 33" off road wheels and tires on).
Originally our plan was to use the $79 HF towbar only for short trips to local campgrounds but since it survived all of those with no issues we first tried it on a 300-mile trip to the in-laws and eventually a 2,000 mile round-trip to California with no apparent issues.
If you do this yourself you should make sure that all loads bear on the shoulder of any fasteners and NOT on its threads; in other words, make sure the fasteners are long enough. The link (above) seems to conclude that bolt grade is not critical in the loads we're likely to encounter; at least as far as sheer is concerned.
The photo shows the Jeep before the brackets (or winch) were installed.
I am not sure I would use a stock OEM bumper - even one from Jeep - unless it was clearly set up for a winch or for towing. But if you have a Jeep Cherokee there are after-market bumpers out there that would do you more good than just a base plate. And probably cost less.
Craig
FWIW,
I think my Cherokee was bolted to the bumper pretty well. However, I wouldn't rely on that stock OEM bumper. Maybe my jolt was unusually rough but...., my bumper bent and was pulling away from the attachments. I pulled mine for several thousand miles before it had an issue. The strength of the bumper and attachments to the frame was suspect with that bump in the road. Just look at the attachments of the tow bar to the bumper to the frame. I would beef them up however one could.
One thing I thought was pretty neat about the Cherokee was that it had open sockets for another bulb in the taillights which meant one could just buy a couple of socket pig tails and wire it forward for lighting. No diodes or fancy electrics to tow. I did not have a brake and don't remember any braking issues/excitement.
Best of travels
Cool I didn't know about the tail lights.