I tow a 2015 Cherokee Trailhawk, and will state upfront that it is problably my favorite vehicle I have ever owned, and I’ve owned quite a few. But I had several bad experiences with Death Wobble before having the wiring harness installed. I towed for 2 years with no problems before the first incident. The first time occurred at only 35MPH when braking moderately hard for a stop light. I had no clue what caused the problem, and my mechanic and I could not replicate the problem. We thought it was a one time occurrence, and didn’t know if it was the Jeep, the tow hitch, or the motorhome.
The second, and worst incident happened while on the freeway at 65MPH. California has some awful road conditions, and I went over a pothole while a big rig was passing me. The shaking was severe, and a real safety hazard. I pulled over to the side, and the problem was gone as I slowly continued to my destination.
I was on the phone for several hours the next morning trying to determine the problem before one guy vaguely remembered hearing about this. There was not as much information on the subject a few years ago. I contacted Jeep and found out about the wiring harness, which keeps the power steering activated while towing. I had it installed and continued my trip without any problems.
There are 2 steps to activate the harness when the Jeep is being towed, and they must be done in the correct order to avoid problems with the electronics. First is flipping up a lever which is installed in the center console, and second is installing a 10 amp mini fuse in the harness under the hood. When you unhook the Jeep, these steps are done in reverse. It definitely pays to use a cheat sheet.
You must be careful installing the fuse, because the harness is flexible and it’s easy to not have the pins on the fuse properly aligned. This happened to me once, so the fuse was not engaged and I had another incidence of wobble. Now that I understand the problem, I’m confident that the problem is behind me. But just as a precaution, my final check when towing is to make sure the steering wheel of the Jeep rotates easily to indicate that the power steering is activated.
One last note to this rather long post: you should have the wiring installed to make sure your Jeep battery is being charged while towing, otherwise the battery might be dead after a day or 2.
