angler_2

Todd, I'll try my best to answer your questions. Before I get into specifics here is soem other info. I too researched the deisel a lot before buying. Since it is relatively new I normally wiat for a few years for the bugs to be wokred out but I was wanting to get a hybird and didn't want to pay the high prices, whne I read about the liberty I was interested. There is a jeep forum that has a liberty section that you can get more info from. We love it. If you drive 60-65 MPH roads (we don't have many out here) you can get 26-28 MPG. Concerning the 3023 I'd research it some more. With the short wheel base the onger the trailer the more potential probelms you might encounter going downhill around corners. Rockymountainray has some posts on trailer length and wheelbase of TVs and has towed with the Cherokee which has close to the same wheel bse as the liberty.
Specific answers to your questions above:
#1. I assume you mean the manual button on the electronic brake controller. There are many different types of brake controllers( see rockymntnray's past post in the brake controller section of this forum. these buttons allow you to brake the trailer, should the controller not give you enough braking power in certain situations. Primarily when you are going downhill around sharp bends and the trailer starts to push your end of your
TV around. There are a few posts on this subject in this forum.
#2 Yes we have an automatic. One of the good things with a diesel is you get more braking power from your engine. My wife drives almost 3,000 feet down in elevation every day to work. Most of the drop is around hairpin turns in a two mile stretch. She drops it from drive into 2nd and doesn't have to brake much. There is another lowwer gear where you can crawl at 10-15 mph. Also with the diesel it seems to stay in overdrive more as the inceased torgue at low RPMs doesn't seem to make the liberty have to shift into a lower gear as much.
#3- Since the 2072 is slightly longer than the rule of thumb for a trailer based upon info provided in the forum for the trailer length limit for the TV's wheelbases, I would not go any longer than the 2072 personally. The jeep liberty manual says to limit trailer length to 25 feet though but I don't trust such a statement without looking into all the variables such as the type of trailer and how it is loaded. There are many different tow calculations you can make that include length of trailer measured from ball to axle, tongue weights, etc. You can find them in this forum and other trailer forums on towing. I don't know much about how wheel base of your TV will affect control on snow except the same concern mentioned in #1 which means you have to be very careful to brake before the turns going down hill. When you get too long a trailer you reportedly feel like your driving on balloon wheels or your on ice in some turns. I also own an F150 and know for sure that I'd have to worry less if I was towing with that in the snow and ice. Many others might be able to provide you with info on this.
#4 - as far as power you can definitely pull much more that the 2720sl. In fact in other forums I've read that Jeep limited the towing rating of 5,000 lbs mainly because if they put it higher it would encourage people to tow heavier trailers that were longer. Again, the short wheel base seems to be the big limiting factor. I've read many people towing heavier boats with no weight distributing hitches etc. but it was to tow only two miles to a lake on flat ground and situations like that.
#5a) On gas mileage verses speed, I think thas certain engines have a zone where you might get the same gas mileage or even alittle better in you go
60 instead of 55 for example. With the liberty I do know for sure that once we get up to highway speeds my gas mileage does drop the faster I go with and without the trailer. When I was traveling at 65 I would be getting about .5 MPG better than traveling at 70. Note that I reported that I got lower gas mileage driving at the very slow speeds of 25-35 when I was in the snow storm. I was at lower elevations and less mountianous terrain as I was only two hours from home traveling on the plains when the big storm hit. I think it was because of the snow and slush that is harder to drive through .....much like when you drive with less air in your tires. Maybe with a deisel you have to get up to a crusing speed for the best mileage, I don't know much about this so maybe others who drive deisels can help you out with this.
#5b) I'm ashamed, as others have also noted in this forum, that yes..... I did read in here that you are to limit your speed to 65. I tried keeping it at this but since the speed limits out here are 80 and we're conditioned to these speeds, it's hard. I found that the diesel pulled so well that it was hard for me to keep it down. (Probably only had pedal down 1/4 of the way on the flats.) I tried to keep it at 70 for the most part. Since I didn't hit the plains until late and it was raining and snowing, I was not able to use the speed control.
6) Yes I got the tow package and it is standard, if memory serves me right, on diesels only. If ordering a gas liberty you'd have to ask for the towing package. Concerning the wiring. I had them run a whole new set of wires back to the seven pin plub from the controller and they used 12 gage. The rv dealer didn't have a wiring diagram for a liberty to splice into the ones under the dash and manual doesn't explain either, so to be safe we did it that way.
I was going to have my jeep dealer do it but ran out of time before I left. When I was talking to service they said that jeep didn't put in a wiring harness for brake controllers because didn't expect people to be towing trailers this light that had electronic brakes.

Concerning the mph reports on the diesel. Not sure which you have been reading but in the jeep forums most people have been reporting anywhere from 24-28 MPG on the highway. I couldn't find any towing mileage so don't know how it compares to others.

Good luck with your choice in finding the right TV for you!