Any Jeep owners out there??

Thanks for that John..... what engine/trans did you have in your Commander and did you tow your BT with it?

If so how did it handle the weight of the BT on the flat and inclines. Our petrol V8, gets it's maximum torque at 3600 rpm....twice that of the maximum torque of a Turbo Diesel, so it just roars it's head off up hills etc.
Cheers
Rick

Hi Rick,
It had the 3Ltr V6 TD with a chip (all Mercedes) and no I did not have the Bushtracker then.
Not sure how it would have handled the BT, but it had the same towing capacity of 3500.
Previous to that I had a 100 Series V8 LC. The Commander had much more power at the right times and was a great vehicle. Just cracked a sad when we returned from the trip with the parts problem and changed back to the old faithful 100 Series.
Suggest a trial tow. I am also not a fan of having a tow vehicle that is not in proportion to the Van, regardless of towing capacity.
Not sure of the Mercedes model now, but it has the 3500 towing capacity but is not much bigger than a Mini. Saw one in Derby last year towing a 23' Jayco, not safe IMHO.
John

Yes, John I've seen some strange things getting down the road too and it becomes a little like the old analogy of the "Tail wagging the Dog" instead of the other way 'round.

The Grand Cherokee has a tare weight of 2355kg which is about 200kg lighter than my 100 series, so there is not a lot of difference in that model. I can't find a GVM figure for the Grand Cherokee to ascertain payload???

Early DAZE yet....Julie still likes the 200 series...so you know what they say "A Happy Life is a Happy Wife"....
Cheers
Rick

Thanks for taking the time to reply Andy and yes, there are conflicting reports about service costs....I have just finished reading a 41 page post on the caravanners forum and service costs there seem to range from $400- $700 and yes the Toyota fixed price servicing of $210 for the first 60,000k....after that it's open slather...Our V8 petrol 100 series just had the 150,000k service with wheel bearnings and new timing belt and we found a weep from the water pump....$1700 later we had the car back. On that side of it, whether we end up with a Jeep or a Toyota, we'll take the 5 or 6 year warranty and trade it in at the end of the warranty as all CRD engines would require a second mortgage to repair, regardless of make.

I just checked the Toyota web site for the closest dealers to Tennant Creek and Darwin and Alice Springs were the closest options...then onto the Jeep web site and the same 2 options were Darwin and Alice Springs....Centralian Motors...so maybe Jeep have extended their dealer network in the last 4 years???

We're still working...own a motel in Armidale, so our trips away are not that frequent and usually around 6 or 7000k in total. Both Toyota and Jeep specify 10,000k service intervals, so we'd just plan our trips around that I guess.

Yes, the Cruiser payload is nothing to get excited about, but we don't take the boat, motor and trailer with us any more as we have that at our beach house in Queensland. I think the Jeep has the same payload of around 600kg.... the most we'd put on any vehicle these days is our 2 X 18kg kayaks and a 40L Engel fridge. So really our requirements for the next 5 or 6 years will a daily driver and running up to Qld to the beach house without the van....and maybe one annual trip away of 4 weeks in the BT.

I must admit that we are being lured by the semingly endless list of Jeeps included luxury features and that it's the same size and weight as our current 100 series cruiser.

Still early DAZE yet though and thanks again Andy
Cheers
Rick

Yes Andy that's so true and with a 3000kg van giving 300 kg of ball weight and a couple of hundred kilos for driver and passenger....only leaves 100 kg for the rest of the fun stuff.

On the subject of GVM upgrades, I notice the ARB gives an extra 280kg and the Lovells is 500kg, but what does this do to the unladen ride of the vehicle???? As we will be mainly using our vehicle for this unladen type of work, a harsh ride would be counter productive too.

If we pay $90k drive away for a VX and then add another $5k to that with suspension upgrades and a towing pack..... the last thing we want to do is be driving a nearly hundred thousand dollar buckboard which we will grow to hate very quickly. We had mid 80's Nissan Patrol with leaf springs when we were younger and more flexible, but don't want to go back to that.

What GVM upgrade did you get and how do you rate the unladen ride??
Thanks in advance
Rick

Poor leg room for drivers is a "feature" of all US made vehicles that are sent to RH drive markets.

The passenger footwell (in Australia) used to be the driver's footwell and had to accomodate 3 or more (foot activated park brake) pedals. That meant the passenger footwell in America was reduced and that becomes the driver's footwell in Australia.

Oh Andy, yes I forgot to mention the Monocoque construction and that was a concern for me as was a panel beater in a previous young life and as I was trawling around the forums, I found an under body pic of a 2011 Grand Cherokee that had a flow through exhaust fitted and this showed up the main lateral bearers and they did look very strong and formed from a very thick sheet steel.

Also, this from the Jeep web site for the current 2011 model "The body structure's torsional stiffness is 146-percent greater than the previous Grand Cherokee, contributing to impressive driving dynamics, a whisper quiet cabin and rock-solid durability."

I guess after reading the 41 page post on the caravanners forum, I have a head full of Jeep at the moment and being able to talk it through with someone certainly helps to get it all in perspective..

Aside from the luxury features and standard TPMS, the new V6 CRD comes in at 177kw and 550 Nm which is about 11% better than the Merc motor it replaces and then owners reporting 7.6l/100k highway and 8.6l/100k combined and then towing a 2800kg van and getting 14.5L/100k.

All food for thought I guess
Cheers
Rick

Thanks Andy, I'll check it out...I'm getting proficient at forum lurking lately, so should be an adventure...Ha Ha Ha

Cheers
Rick