Towing 2002 Jeep - Steering wheel lock

Trackrig - I'm having a hard time picturing the "flag". Do you have any pics of it?

Doug

Trackrig wrote:

And one more suggestion - get rid of that lousy rear seat. It's nothing but in the way and no one except small kids can climb behind the front seats to get into it. We keep ours folded up and strapped up behind the rear seats with a ratchet strap to the roll over bar otherwise it likes to fall down and squish the groceries behind it.
Bill

Yeah That :) we dumped our's too, we do carry it in the basement if we ever need it.
Shop at Quadratrac, get the rubber floor mats, specially the one for the rear area. saved many spills.

There are several wire kits to run the lights on the jeep. "Cool tech" is the best of the bunch IMHO. very easy to install and uses the jeep lights with out modifications.
Cool tech harness

Rubber mats a must have. :)

Towing a Towed, We watched many Coaches with a rear flap that goes all the way across the coach, these will actually cause stones to fly up and strike the front of the towed. The wind escaping from under the flap acts like a big fan blowing stuff around like crazy. We removed ours, and have not had a stone chip since.

We tow a 2002 Jeep Wrangler. When I bought it tow, I took it to the Jeep / Dodge dealer to be serviced. One of things I told them to do was take the pin out so the steering wheel wouldn't lock up. They told me the 2002 didn't have a pin even though I was sure it did. With everything else to do getting the MH ready to go south from Alaska, I didn't mess with it any further, I just planned on setting the key in the right spot.

Well, on the way south by Lake Minchumina I believe, the steering wheel locked and I scrubbed out the two front tires that were almost new. Fast forward to 2015, I scrubbed out two more front tires when the steering wheel locked up again. Both times it seems to have happened after making several sharp turns. It appears that somehow the sharp turn cause the steering wheel to lock up.

Yes, I have been towing with the key in the off position. What yo do is with the engine running, turn it off to the first click where the engine quits running and the key should come out.

My advice to you, which I'll follow myself when I get down to Washington where the MH & Jeep are currently parked, is to find a jeep shop that knows how to pull the pin. I'd look for a shop that is just a jeep shop that works on real off-road jeeps that are towed a lot, not just a Jeep dealer. In the end, when the work is done, have them give you the pin in your hand so you know it's been pulled.

Other than that issue, the Jeep has been very good to tow, no problems other than the tires. I've towed it about 15,000 miles.

If you haven't hooked up your lights for towing yet, there are two ways to do it. Roadmaster makes the standard kit to hook into the Jeep's lighting system with some diodes to keep from draining the Jeep battery. They also have a kit that doesn't use the Jeep's lights. If you're familiar with the old boxy style tail lights on your Jeep, there's a metal plate inside of them separating the brake bulb from back-up bulb. With this kit, you drill a hole in the plate and install a totally separate bulb. Then you run the wiring from the MH either inside or under the Jeep to the two new bulbs you installed. I have 3+ years on my install and it's working fine. I don't know that one kit is better than the other, but I didn't want to mess with diodes and cutting into the Jeep's wiring system.

And one more suggestion. What the DW saw and made for our jeep is a 4" x 6" flag for the steering wheel. The suggestion she was was someone wrapping a piece of the white "tape" that comes off of a large dog hair roller or lint roller around the steering wheel. When you're hooking up the Jeep your wheels are going to be almost perfectly straight. Wrap the lint roller tape around the top of the steering wheel. Then you can watch the tape in you're rear view mirror to see if the steering wheel straightens out correctly. I caught mine twice not straightening out - wish I'd caught it the other two times also. What she made was a 4"x6" flag out of some stiff reflective material with some Velcro tape. Wrap it once around the steering wheel so the Velcor catch and then turn the rest of it around so it sticks up above the steering wheel. You can see it at night usually reflecting from the MH tail lights in the rear view camera.

And one more suggestion - get rid of that lousy rear seat. It's nothing but in the way and no one except small kids can climb behind the front seats to get into it. We keep ours folded up and strapped up behind the rear seats with a ratchet strap to the roll over bar otherwise it likes to fall down and squish the groceries behind it.

And one more suggestion - have it completely serviced having all of the oils changed in the gear boxes, transmission, front and rear ends and transfer case. Also, I had them change one drive-line U-Joint and check the front axle U-Joints - they found one of them going bad.

And one more suggestion - change out the head lights. I replaced the glass ones with KC HiLites H4 which have lenses made of Lexan which is unbreakable, unless maybe you crash the Jeep. This way you don't have to worry about a rock taking out a headlight. And these lights use the H4 bulbs which are both easy to change out and easier to get brighter bulbs for. Amazon light clicky.

And one more suggestion - when you have it checked out, considering it's a 2002, have them check the steering stabilizer shock. New ones are cheap and easy to change.

Bill

Does the key on the 02 have the security chipped key? Our 05 does, but I am not sure when it started. Go to a locksmith & get a key without the chip. It will unlock the steering but will not start the vehicle.

WE tow 07 JK, we run with the key in and in the on position, steering is unlocked, but the battery must be disconnected or it will run the battery down. SO... you must hook up the battery to unhook the jeep. not much worries getting that done with out us hearing you. Besides we lock our jeep while we tow. simply by having two sets of keys.

I don't tow a Jeep, but I do tow an Explorer with the gear in tow neutral and the key in the ignition. When I am camped or am going to be away from the vehicle I simply take it out of neutral, remove the key and lock it.