Severe problem towing 2014 Jeep Cherokee

[Twoflyrodders]

I have a 2014 Latitude V6 with Active Drive II. While towing behind my motorhome on a 5000 mile trip last summer I experienced a severe side to side shaking in the front wheels of the Jeep about 7 times. Extremely intermittent, and difficult to diagnose at first (is it motorhome, towing setup, or the Jeep itself causing this?). Lots of moving parts here, but I am closing in on the answer.
The shaking is severe. I can feel it A LOT way up in the front of the motorhome. First time I thought the drive axle in the motorhome had come loose from the frame on one side! When it happens I stop immediately, of course, and inspect everything. Nothing appears wrong. This seems to occur when one of the front wheels on the Jeep goes over some raised area in the road (once when I took a tight right turn and the Jeep went over a curb, once after going over some white 1" high markers in the road) or perhaps a rutted place (once railroad tracks at an angle), but it is so intermittent it's hard to be sure of the cause, and I cannot reproduce it. It does seem to happen at lower speeds, seldom over 35MPH thank goodness.
At considerable expense I've had the motorhome thoroughly checked (first thought was it was the bushings in the track bar) and there is no problem there. I've replaced the tow bar and checked the geometry - no problem there. New tires and balance on the Jeep. Still no help.
Now I find I'm not alone. Another person wrote to a motorhoming magazine and he has had the same thing occurring. I suspect there are more to come. I'd like to hear from anyone else with this problem on a new Cherokee.
Now, what's going on? Could this be related to the half shaft problems or other front steering things showing up on the new Cherokees? These vehicles have independent front suspensions so there is not way to put a steering stabilizer on them. Mine drives perfectly - no shake shimmy or anything EXCEPT this potentially dangerous thing when towing.
Anybody have ideas? Jeep dealers say they have to be able to reproduce the problem - and I don't want to take them on a 1000 mile or so test ride....

[Twoflyrodders]

Thanks for the replies. Had it realigned and more toe in was added. Will see what happens in July on the next trip.

[Twoflyrodders]

Don that is a good idea. When I next hook it up (won't be towing any distance until July) I will see if perhaps I have a slight uphill angle on the tow bar (this is a new Roadmaster Falcon tow bar and it, combined with the new vehicle, changed the overall height of the setup from what it had been, but it was still near level....

[DSDP_Don]

I've seen this happen while vehicles are being towed. Personally, I think the front end gets lite from being pulled rather than being propelled and causes them to shimmy at the slightest jolt.

I think toe-in will help, but you can only go so far before you start prematurely wearing out tires. If I had this issue, I would try lowering the hitch height so that the tow bar was an inch or so below level at the hitch. I think this downward pull would keep the front end from getting lite.

[Twoflyrodders]

The toe in alteration does make sense and might explain why some do it and some don't. I just returned from the dealer and they did readjust the front end alignment - it wasn't badly out, but some correction (including increased toe in) was made. I have one more idea to check it... hook it up and have someone in the Jeep yank on the wheel while I am towing it. This should simulate striking an object in the road. Will let you know what happens (maybe a few days).

[RJsfishin]

There is a big difference between towing it and driving it.
When driving it, all the slack is taken up toward a toe-in position
When towing it, just the opposite is taking place, negating any tow-in,
which is just inviting a shimmy/wheel wobble.
If it were mine, and as another poster said, I would give it more tow-in,
despite what the specs say.

[mowermech]

I had the dreaded "Death Wobble" in my 2006 Jeep Wrangler, but only when driving.
I never noticed it when towing the Jeep behind the motorhome.
A new steering damper (aftermarket heavy-duty, NOT OEM) helped.
Tire rotation at every other oil change cured it.
I don't know if that will work for any other vehicle, but it worked for mine.

[DutchmenSport]

I had a similar problem with my Chevy Mini Van several years ago. For some unknown reason, at weird and random times, the front end would start shaking violently. It was very scary when that happened. And there seemed to be no pattern to it.

I finally took the van to my dealer to have them look at it. Turns out, the problem did start after I got all new tires. Tires balanced, look good, new and cost a pretty penny too.

Repair shop finally figured it out.

The tires, although new, had uneven tread lines. I can't remember now, but suppose there were 10 rows of tread around the tire. The first row was OK. The second row had high and low spots on it. The third and fourth row were perfectly fine. The fifth row had high and low spots on it. It was so slight a difference you couldn't see it, but they measured each tread line and figured this out.

All 4 tires had this same problem. Under most cases, the tires responded perfect. But when the first tire got in sync with the second tire at just the right spot at just the right speed.... it caused a violent shaking. Slowing down stopped it, but then when regaining speed, it would ot occur again. That's because the tread on the different tires were out-of-sync for the vibration to occur, causing a smooth ride.

I was shocked! The tires were new. I got them from Discount Tire and they were guaranteed. I then went back to Discount tire, explained the tires, and they replaced all 4 tires (and inspected the new one for true round tread on each tread line before installing). It never happened again.

So... you might check the true round of each tread line on your tires and see if that is causing the shaking?

[Twoflyrodders]

I will mention additional toe in as a potential fix to the dealer tomorrow.

[navegator]

Also check the front end alignment, there should be some tow in I do not know how much it is for the vehicles that you mention, there are charts, maybe a 1/2 degree more in might help.

navegator

[rr2254545]

Guess its just you guys, I have towed mine over 50 times and 9,000 miles

Zero problems here - many of us are towing without problems

[navegator]

I had the same problem with my VW, severe shaking after going over a small bump or changing lanes and hitting the white markers.

I replaced the worn out shock absorber's and the problem went away, also check the rest of the steering.

Raise both wheels of the ground and use a pry bar to move all the moving joints, there should not be any movement, slight yes big no, if there is a centering shock disconnect one end and check it also, when the tires are free rotate them and see that they are ok, a small bump one one can also cause the vibration.

p.s. if you replace the shocks, replace all four, do not replace only one.

navegator

[richnorsworthy]

This is the same problem we are having with our 2014 Jeep Cherokee Limited! I have written about on this site also. I have just set another appointment with the dealer. Also have elevated the status with Chrysler enough that they have assigned another higher up person over my case so we will see what happens.

We did have in the shop for this problem and they realigned every thing, but the shop manager said he did not think it would solve the problem. We have only towed it once since then and it was not as bad, but still swayed when we hit a rough spot. Ours is doing the very same way.

We are very concerned about it happening at a higher speed and causing us to wreck. It drives fine otherwise. We no longer trust the vehicle and this is the reason we bought it. Had a 2009 Liberty and had not problems with it.

Stay in touch and be sure you keep pounding on Chrysler about this so we can et something done. We are basically asking for our money back. Will let you know what we find out.