HappyTrails wrote:
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LOL, just looked back and noticed you have a manual transmission, that's ok then
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Yeah, mine has the manual tranny and so far after about 2400 miles of towing (nearly all of it on Colorado's rather steep mountain roads) I haven't had even a hint of problems.
Although Jeep says "automatic only" for towing with the Cherokee (probably because of clutch issues, mostly while starting from a dead stop), the manual tranny works very well. I've got one more gear range (5 vs 4) than the automatic and NO heat load on the cooling system from the invariable slippage in the automatic. I really baby the clutch during starts and all gear changes and haven't noticed a single indication of clutch issues..engagement point hasn't changed, no chatter, etc.
One big factor in my favor is that because of the exceedingly thin air at Colorado's high elevations (I'm almost never towing below 6500 feet, usually between 9000 and 12,000 feet above sea level), the engine is only putting out 35 to 50 percent of its rated power. So the driveline stresses are much less than they would be if the engine was putting out its sea-level power.
In any event, the Cherokee is the largest vehicle I would ever consider as a tow vehicle. Because I mainly use my TM as a base camp for mountain climbing/hiking, I often find that only a small, narrow, high-clearance 4WD vehicle is able to negotiate the Jeep trails that take me to the actual hiking trailheads. A larger pickup or full size SUV is simply too big and has too little ground clearance to go up those Jeep trails to the trailheads.