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Old 05-08-2018, 04:40 PM   #21
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We tow our Escape 19 with a 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee V-6 with towing package. We have been very pleased with its performance and gas mileage. We get 16 mpg towing. It just turned over 50,000 miles (17.000 miles of that were towing) and the only expense has been tires. I hope we got one of the good ones in the lottery mentioned above. We tow over the Sierra Nevadas, Donner Pass, and Tioga Pass, among others, with no problems. It doesn't go full speed at the summit but we never felt like we weren't going to make it by any means. The 2014 is rated at 6200 lbs towing and 620 hitch weight so it is more than enough for our 19.
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Old 05-08-2018, 10:03 PM   #22
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We narrowed our choices for a 21 tow to the Colorado/Canyon mid-size truck and the Jeep Grand Cherokee before ultimately getting the Canyon. As is almost always the case with SUV's as tow vehicles, payload capacity was the limiting factor for the Jeep, so we went with the truck option. But if you don't load the tow vehicle up with lots of stuff and/or people you won't have any problems towing a 21 with the Jeep.
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Old 05-08-2018, 10:16 PM   #23
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Originally Posted by gbaglo View Post
Everybody should own a Jeep, once.
Growing up on a beef cattle ranch in Colorado, we had a 1943 military surplus Willys (faded blue, Air Force?). Its body was beat to pieces, but it started every time you turned the ignition key to "On" and pushed the little dash-mounted starter button, and the drive train was still rock solid. We used it to haul fuel, oil, grease, baling wire, etc. to haying equipment out in the field and pick up field rocks and willow branches in the hay meadows. I can't remember how many of my cousins, nieces and nephews learned to drive a stick shift behind the wheel of that old thing. If the "instructor" was ever worried about the "student driver" headed toward disaster, you could just reach up to the middle of the dash and turn off the ignition key. No problem. Start over. Fun times. Good memories of our one and only Jeep. It sold at auction when my parents retired and sold the ranch in the mid-1980's. I'm not sure who bought it, I was away at college. But I bet it still runs to this day. Someone got a heck of a good little Willys in that one.
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Old 05-08-2018, 10:24 PM   #24
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we had a 1943 military surplus Willys (faded blue, Air Force?).
Not in 1943. Back then it was the Army Air Corps. Didn't become a separate service until 1947. They probably repainted it before you got it.

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Old 05-09-2018, 08:58 AM   #25
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Not in 1943. Back then it was the Army Air Corps. Didn't become a separate service until 1947. They probably repainted it before you got it.
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Thank you for your service! I know I should have said Army Air Corps but just wasn't thinking it through when I posted. My uncle Miles was enlisted in the Air Force in the early 1950's, stationed mostly in Germany, where he received a lot of training in advanced electronics of the time (among other things, he helped keep flight control towers up and running). That military training in electronics served him well throughout his post-military life. He is still living and in mostly good health. I need to visit with him more about it when we visit this Summer.
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Old 05-09-2018, 09:22 AM   #26
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We bought an '08 Diesel Jeep GC about 2 years ago. Towing capacity is 7500#. While we want to buy an Escape 19 in the near future, our experience towing a Casita 17 SD is relevant. We do not use an anti-swaybar, and the Jeep has no problems with being pushed around by the trailer. We just drove from Portland, OR to John Day averaging 18 mpg, on the flat interstate we get 20 mpg. We have no plans to change our tow vehicle once we purchase the Escape 19. Our JGC has not been a shop Queen, we have 130K miles on it.
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Old 05-23-2018, 12:33 PM   #27
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I bought a used Volvo CR90, rated for 4950 lbs, and it pulls my 19' very well. But I don't go over big mountains.
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Old 05-23-2018, 02:20 PM   #28
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I bought a used Volvo CR90...
An XC90, perhaps?
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Old 05-25-2018, 07:57 PM   #29
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Yes! - can I blame this on dyslexia? : )
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Old 05-26-2018, 08:39 AM   #30
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CMC,
We are here at the Osoyoos gathering and I walked the loops to make a list of the tow vehicles. There are 6 Jeep GCs, but also 6 Highlanders and 3 4Runners and 2 Pilots in the SUV category. I didn’t note the trailer size that each was towing—-maybe today.
This was out of 113 here yesterday and I couldn’t tell what engines were in the Jeeps, but I don’t think I saw any JGC with the EcoDiesel badging.
Also 3 Pathfinders, a Durango, a Tahoe, and 2 Sorrento, and an FJ.
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Old 05-26-2018, 09:00 AM   #31
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Bill, would you say that pick up trucks is the largest group of toads there?
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Old 05-26-2018, 12:00 PM   #32
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While we are not there, our diesel Jeep GC has a rear label "3.0 CRD". This is the Mercedes V6 common rail diesel. It was only available 2007 and 2008. I believe after 2010 that the eco-diesel came out.
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Old 05-26-2018, 02:14 PM   #33
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Originally Posted by cpaharley2008 View Post
Bill, would you say that pick up trucks is the largest group of toads there?
"Toad" usually means a vehicle which is towed behind a motorhome, rather than a tow vehicle.
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Old 05-26-2018, 02:28 PM   #34
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While we are not there, our diesel Jeep GC has a rear label "3.0 CRD". This is the Mercedes V6 common rail diesel. It was only available 2007 and 2008.
Right (although Wikipedia says 2007-2009 for the CRD). "CRD" means "common-rail diesel", and is a description (not unique to Mercedes) of the modern design for diesel fuel injection, but Jeep used it as a marketing identification for the diesel.

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I believe after 2010 that the eco-diesel came out.
After Daimler dumped Chrysler (including Jeep), the Grand Cherokee lost access to the Mercedes engine; the replacement VM Motori engine (which Fiat Chrysler calls "EcoDiesel" in North America) is used in the next-generation Grand Cherokee (which is still current), starting in 2014 in North America (2011 in the rest of the world). The Mercedes and VM Motori engines are very similar in design and performance.
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Old 05-27-2018, 12:47 AM   #35
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Tow vehicles

Quote:
Originally Posted by cpaharley2008 View Post
Bill, would you say that pick up trucks is the largest group of toads there?
30 out of 106 were SUVS. Balance were pick-ups. 8 of 106 were diesel.

Ford 28, Toyota 23, GM (Chev + GMC) 19, Dodge/Ram 11, Nissan 11, Jeep 6, Honda 4, Kia 2, Range Rover 1,
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Old 05-28-2018, 12:13 AM   #36
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We like our 2015 JGC with EcoDiesel. Towing at 8000 ft altitude, it can slowly accelerate from 50 mph up a mild slope. (I'd hoped that with turbo it would accelerate nearly as enthusiastically at high altitude as it does near sea level, clearly that was an unrealistic hope.) It is happy towing our 21' Classic, which is way below the tow rating of 7,200 lbs. It is also pleasant and comfortable to drive when we're not towing. We get in range of 17 mpg while towing. As someone new to diesels, one thing I hadn't thought of was our added stress from needing to never-ever fill with gasoline instead of diesel. So far, so good.

Regarding reliability, we noted that automotive reliability has improved across the board over the last several decades. The most reliable vehicles may suffer between a quarter to a half of the problems of the least reliable, but even the least reliable are better than average vehicles a few decades ago; so we got the tow vehicle that we liked the best. We also hedged our bet by buying the longest term extended warranty that Jeep offered.

We towed for a little over 100 miles with a simple ball hitch, no anti-sway or weight distribution. It was fine, but we preferred a belt and suspenders approach to safety and got a Reece Strait-Line weight distribution hitch. As others have said, cranking in sufficient weight-distribution makes towing much more pleasant by making the JGC and trailer feel like a single unit, rather than jerking on each other over bumps.

The JGC may be unique among unitized body vehicles in working well with weight distribution; because it has a short frame extending from the hitch and bumper up to the rear wheel mounts, so it can survive stresses from a weight-distribution hitch more like a separate body-frame SUV or pickup. While shopping, I also crawled under a Chevy Suburban and a Chevy Traverse to check the mounting of the hitch receiver. The Suburban receiver was heavy-duty steel, securely attached to the frame, the Traverse receiver was heavy sheet metal that appeared unlikely to survive weight-distribution stresses. The JGC receiver mounting was also heavy duty, more like that on the Suburban, or a pickup.
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Old 05-28-2018, 05:53 AM   #37
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill and Earline View Post
30 out of 106 were SUVS. Balance were pick-ups. 8 of 106 were diesel.

Ford 28, Toyota 23, GM (Chev + GMC) 19, Dodge/Ram 11, Nissan 11, Jeep 6, Honda 4, Kia 2, Range Rover 1,
Thumbs up for record keeping.......thanks
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Old 05-28-2018, 05:55 AM   #38
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Originally Posted by Brian B-P View Post
"Toad" usually means a vehicle which is towed behind a motorhome, rather than a tow vehicle.
I use the term interchangeably, since motorhomes are not normally discussed here, sorry for the confusion....
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Old 05-28-2018, 10:02 AM   #39
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill and Earline View Post
30 out of 106 were SUVS. Balance were pick-ups. 8 of 106 were diesel.

Ford 28, Toyota 23, GM (Chev + GMC) 19, Dodge/Ram 11, Nissan 11, Jeep 6, Honda 4, Kia 2, Range Rover 1,
Hi: Bill and Earline... Thanks for mixing your "Walk in the park" with a score of tug's. Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie
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Old 05-28-2018, 02:06 PM   #40
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Without even trying Bill has eliminated the need for about 200 posts. In the next year. “ “Is anybody towing with a ___________.” Yes!
What no Lexus? Save your money and get a Highlander.
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