I have a 2000 cherokee sport with the 4.0L inline 6. automatic trans. I need to tow a car from about an hour away back home on an open car trailer. my cherokee came with a hitch and ball that will work with the open car trailer I can borrow. Can these jeeps tow a car easily? is it even safe on the motor/trans to tow a car? Just never seen anyone use jeeps, allways a v8 full size truck or something.

 

I think your biggest issue will be stopping somthing like that. next being tranny wear. A lot of people that to significant stuff with their xj install a tranny cooler. Is the trailer you are gong tp be using equipped with brakes? If not i feel that its going to be pretty sketchy. My xj ive towed 2 waverunners and a 19ft center console boat and i had to really be careful to leave plenty of space in front of me. I tow my 14ft aluminum bass boat all the time and even that i can feel pushing under braking. The motor and tranny with a cooler has the power, but again unless the trailer has some good trailer brakes i would not attempt a hour drive

 

Rereading your post are we talking a flatbed 4 wheel car trailer or a 2 wheel car dolly ?

 

I pull a trailor with mine 6x12 single axle with brakes on it,i have pulled a car dolly with a Honda on it ,no prob pulling .Stopping was another story.I think i would use a full size pu. better safe than sorry.

 

I pulled a small tool trailer with my Cherokee for 3 years and the only issue I found was increased axel bearing wear. I had to replace them once a year in and again when I quit pulling it.

 

its a full car trailer. with 2 axles. 14 or 16ft long i belive. it has new trailer brakes on it but i dont have any sort of brake controller. i'd have to look into how those work.

 

Brake controllers are cheap and easy. Just go to a trailer shop and they should hook you up. Since the trailer has brakes don't worry about yours. I have a lot of family in the livestock business who have all used the trailer brakes instead of the full size truck brakes. Stopped just fine when I was there. Normally I would agree that trailer is too big for your Jeep but since its not very far I'd say go for it. I myself pulled a full size cattle trailer with 18 head of cattle through the AZ mountains for about 100 miles with my v8 ZJ. Don't underestimate your 4.0. It will pull it but just take it easy and you will be fine.
Only issue my be overloading the rear springs. If your stock then it my just drive like crap so balance the load on the trailer if possible or you can be pulled over.
Good luck

 

I pulled a Buddys XJ for about 4 hours on a heavy equiprment trailer. The trailer itself was really my towing limit. Once the xj was on it it was prayers and bumpstops all the way home. Broke both rear bumpstops and I'm now looking for new rear springs oh and had to replace my motor mount on drivers side exhaust manifold from slamming into firewall after motor mount broke and it took about 1/2 mile to stop in a panic, but yes it will tow it.

 

Big difference between how much weight a vehicle can safely tow and how much weight a vehicle can move.

 

so what is the tow capacity of an xj?

 

5,000 pounds if properly equipped.

Towing a car on a dolly should be no problem. A car on a large open trailer could be an issue depending upon the weight of the trailer. If the trailer comes with brakes consider a brake controller and getting your trailer wiring converted over to a 7 pin setup for the brakes.

 

I used an open car trailer, uhaul with my 87 xj.

With it empty i had no problems stopping.
Lol, but then i had to tow my g/f kia to va beach from hampton.

Normally its already over an hour drive, i could feel the pull and hesitation once it got loaded down, took me about 2 hours once i learned to adjust for stopping & at what speeds, everything was all gravy.
The key was to leave plenty of room and a lot of coasting.

I had a tranny cooler and brake controller installed since then and since have towed a buick on a car trailer w/brakes. Talk about a world of difference, there is nothing like being able to stop when you want.

I would say if properly equipped, brakes on the trailer, brake controller and a cooler, tow what you want.

 

Trailer brakes provide the ability and gets by certain hwy laws. Only issue is overloading which is illegal and very dangerous.

 

What hwy law(s) could u get by when using trailer brakes? Manual says use trailer brakes if the trailer/load exceeds 1000lbs.

 

No way. This is FAR too big of a trailer to pull safely with a Cherokee. The trailer alone will be close to the safe capacity.

The issue is not being able to pull it - the engine certainly can do that without too much trouble. The issue is controlling the load. I'd never pull anything heavier than 80% of the tow vehicle weight. If the load is heavier than the tow truck, guess what, the load controls the tow vehicle, not the other way around. Imagine trying to turn a corner at the bottom of a hill or having to swerve in an emergency situation...not going to happen.

This is the same methodology Uhaul uses for it's tow behind rentals, and why they won't rent a 6x12 trailer or a car trailer to a person using a cherokee. Our vehicles are VERY light, and not well suited for towing applications.