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do you FLAT TOW your WL Grand Cherokee?????

azdutchie
Explorer
Explorer
do you have a WL Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland, Summit or Summit Reserve? Are you flat towing this vehicle? please let us know if you also have tracking issues....

My 2023 Grand Cherokee L Summit showed good tracking the 1st 5 minutes after putting the vehicle in flat-tow mode correctly behind my DP.

Herewith my findings from 4 hrs of testing last Friday morning:
โ€ข No matter what setting of the computer, the car will track less after about 7-8 minutes and completely stop tracking the tow vehicle after 15 minutes. The steering does not react at all at any speed and the towing vehicle simply drags the towed Jeep front tires through the turn.
โ€ข If you put the steering mode into SPORT, the diminished tracking starts in about 4 minutes, in NORMAL the tracking gets worse after 6 minutes and in COMFORT it lasts the longest, about 8-9 minutes. After each failed test I would go to the vehicle and without changing any setting, the steering wheel moved freely back and forth, as would be expected.
โ€ข I have entered the vehicle into flat tow mode according to the handbook procedure every time, with the doors closed. After the flat towing setting is clearly accepted, I put the key FOB in a Faraday pouch, so that it does not transmit anything to the vehicle. I enter my motorhome, the tow vehicle, and started driving the parking lot at Home Depot on Hunt Highway. Big parking lot to the north.
โ€ข I have tried each setting for a minimum of 20 minutes at parking lot speeds, ranging from crawling to maximum 5 mph. On various occasions I have driven into new paved neighborhoods with speeds up to 25 mph and on SR 24 with speeds up to 65mph. The result are basically the same every time: the vehicle stops tracking/steering/following the tow vehicle after 15 to max 18 minutes, but performing ok after every new startup.
โ€ข I have tried restarting the flat towing process at least 20 times and going back to factory standards after each try. I have varied ride height settings, steering mode settings, but I have always clicked every possible brake and/or detection settings off (that is accident prevention, pedestrian detection, anything and everything)

All in all it is my uneducated opinion that something is wrong with the steering system (EMS?). If I didnโ€™t know any better, it seems as if some part of the system is losing pressure. If there are any oil or air cylinders as part of the steering, it seems that this loses pressure, as the tracking capability is losing abilities gradually. Sometimes it even seemed as the steering tires turned/jumped straight, when the tow vehicle started to straighten out the turn.


We are trying to find other Jeep owners with similar issues. So far the dealership has no idea what to do about it. We have found another 45 other owners.

PLEASE contact us when you have issues as described above!

Thanks

Johan de Keizer
4 REPLIES 4

RichB3125
Explorer
Explorer
I have a 2022 Grand Cherokee Summit. In the last 3 weeks, I have towed it for about 3500 miles with no problems. Except for hitting a piece of debris and flatting two tires. My TPMS saved us.

Rich

enblethen
Nomad
Nomad
Here is one article. Jeep towing jumper kit

Bud
USAF Retired
Pace Arrow


2003 Chev Ice Road Tracker

CA_Traveler
Explorer III
Explorer III
There was a lot of information and problems posted associated with EPS. For earlier years Jeep developed a harness kit that kept EPS on while towing for earlier models than yours.

Strongly suggest you go to the iRV2 forum and see what you can find...:h
2009 Holiday Rambler 42' Scepter with ISL 400 Cummins
750 Watts Solar Morningstar MPPT 60 Controller
2014 Grand Cherokee Overland

Bob

enblethen
Nomad
Nomad
I could not find the article, but I remember an article saying electric steering vehicles cannot be towed with front wheels on the ground.

Bud
USAF Retired
Pace Arrow


2003 Chev Ice Road Tracker