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....

[j-d]

Woo Hoo! This development at Jeep could be huge! Be sure to post updates.

[Dennis4809]

Thanks to Twoflyrodders, Jeep has admitted the problem is the electric power steering and developed a fix. Will be available soon. For those that have experienced the problem, consider your selves lucky.

[et2]

As stated before. There have been many here that have towed successfully many miles over years with this vehicle, including ourselfs. You can debate what ever you wish. But as mentioned numerous times, there are a whole lot of other variables that need to be considered. The "geometry" is the same on all of these Jeeps. Not every MH is the same, Not every base plate is the same, not every tow bar is the same, not every installer is the same, not every coupling is immobilized,torque specs, suspension issues, maintenance failures, height differences, load specifics, etc,etc. It can go on and on.

If your having a problem, sell it and move on, or get the manufacture to buy it back if your lucky.

Just remember probably many of thousands , maybe tens of thousands have towed the Jeep Cherokee without one issue.

We've towed the Liberty, Cherokee, and now Grand Cherokee. Never one problem doing it.

[j-d]

Going back to the top of the thread, this OP has the appropriate Active Drive II. I read the question as not its "towability" but it's "irritability" while being towed. It was along that thought that I wondered if the steering geometry is getting tweaked from "OK while being Driven" to "Not OK while being Towed.". Specifically, front wheels being pulled forward while driving and being pushed backward when towed.

Steering Damper might help. Do they already have one? Or is there a Kit?

[et2]

There are 3 drivetrains for the Cherokee.

Active drive I - more like AWD, Only 4x4 as required. Can't be dolly towed or four down. Must be trailered with 4 wheels off the ground.

Active drive II - only one that can be towed 4 down behind a MH. Transmission can be disconnected via a nuetral button. Can't be dolly towed

FWD - can be dolly towed or trailered.

[TwoPines]

j-d wrote:
i
Death Wobble is real. I drove a Ford Van that had it and the experience is NAS-TEE. Modified Wranglers get it. A couple pickup models have it too, right from the factory.

I had the "Death Wobble" with a new 1976 Chevy van after going over a uneven bridge expansion joint at about 60 MPH. At the time, I though it was the end of things. A long story short, I had a steering damper installed and never got the wobble again. I have no idea, but perhaps a steering damper/stabilizer would solve the Cherokee wobbling under tow.

[j-d]

I understand the "yellow card" part of your reply. It's this: I have no dog in this hunt. We tow an FWD Corolla or an RWD Frontier, both manual shift and OK to tow per the manual. I wasn't thinking of which model Cherokee and with which drive system is/isn't towable. Just the front end. Just the steering geometry.

Back to this Cherokee, let me try my thought another way:

When RWD (like the Frontier) is being driven, the FRONT wheels are being PUSHED down the road by the rear wheels. Same when it's being towed, but now the MH is providing the push through the tow bar. The steering geometry doesn't know the difference.

When FWD (like the Corolla) is being driven, the FRONT wheels are PULLING the car down the road. Not pushed like RWD. Not pushed, that is, till we TOW the Corolla. Now the geometry is seeing something it's never seen before and wasn't designed to anticipate. Corolla can stand that. CR-V can. Many can. I just wonder if somehow, one Cherokee (even most Cherokee's) can stand it but the change in geometry drives another Cherokee (or just a few Cherokee's) Death Wobble Crazy, just now and then.

Death Wobble is real. I drove a Ford Van that had it and the experience is NAS-TEE. Modified Wranglers get it. A couple pickup models have it too, right from the factory.

And finally, my Pontiac. Had been in a wreck and fixed to look like new but apparently the frame got tweaked. It wanted to make all my right turns for me. The franchised tire shops couldn't align it. "We set it to spec, here's the report." Then somebody said "Take it to the old man at OK Tire" and he got it driving like new. "Son, the specs are just the start. Sometimes you have to go outside the specs to make it right."

I'm empathetic. Been agonizing over this thread all these months since it appeared. No idea if my thoughts will help in any way. Or if what OK Man said can be applied here. Just wondering...

[jergeod]

I have a 2014 2wd I dolly tow. I also have a yellow card which states a 4wd cannot be towed this is right from chrysler and came with the car.

[j-d]

The new Cherokee is native FWD, correct? In other words, the 2WD version is FWD and the 4WD adds RWD to it. Opposite of a Wrangler that's RWD till 4WD is selected then it adds FWD. This sounds confusing, but the point I'm working toward is:
Could DRIVING this vehicle in FWD and TOWING it in Neutral cause strange things to happen to the steering geometry?

[Jagtech]

The angle of the tow bar is of utmost importance here. If the wheel alignment doesn't fix it, look carefully at the tow bar to make certain its level.

[et2]

I've spendt 38 years in the automotive industries. One thing I'm certain of is the easiest thing to blame usually gets the the people screaming. Yet after further research they've been proven wrong time after time.

So from my point of view there are plenty of thing to point fingers at. Way too many unknowns and variables.

I'll wait for a in depth report. But I suspect it'll never happen and many people will continue towing the Cherokee without any issues.

[lryrob9301]

webslave wrote:
If I had to guess what their fix will be..."This vehicle is not intended to be towed recreationally and such use will not be supported by the manufacturer" will be added to the owner's manual. All automobiles are designed for independent use and as such, I don't believe that any of the regulatory agencies can mandate a fix for a use the vehicle wasn't expressly designed for. I am also sure that there is small print somewhere that says that the information and specs can be changed at any time.

I am not demeaning nor minimizing the issues you and the other 39 people are experiencing, but, 40 people having the issue is a small number compared to the number of units that aren't experiencing the problem. There are currently now six of us snowbirding in this park...zero issues. Comparing the 40 having the issue for a use the vehicle wasn't expressly designed for to the 100,000 or more Cherokee units on the road that are perfectly stable for the purpose the vehicle was designed for means that their is no impetus for Fiat/Chrysler to do anything at all. As many manufacturers have already demonstrated, recreational towing is not a large enough market segment to be concerned with. I suspect the NHTSA won't have any control over it either since, again, the Cherokee is safe for the intended use for which it was designed.

I wish you, the 40 or so, all the luck in the world, but, the money just isn't justifiable, from a corporate standpoint, to bring many, if any, engineering assets to bear for an unintended use of the vehicle.

Having worked for the worlds largest automotive manufacturer, the above is absolutely 100% correct. No manufacturer gives 2 cents about the toad market, NONE OF THEM. IF their products are towable behind a motorhome OK, but they are not going to spend a penny to correct any towing issues, that is not the intended purpose of their vehicles. I would be very surprised if the NHTSA even acknowledges any complaints, since again the vehicle is not being used for it's intended purpose. Sorry but this is the facts of life in the corporate world from someone who spent 37 years in the automotive manufacturing business.

[kedanie]

Wow!!! Quit holding back, tell us how you really feel.

Oh, and a Merry Christmas to all.

Keith

[RJsfishin]

I can't believe the real jerks here that can't know that this is a problem w/ JEEP, and nothing else !! Blaming it onto a towbar, or any part of the toad setup. just shows ignorance in some people, and just the fact that some Jeeps have the problem and some don't, says a lot about the quality control in the jeep factory. I have seen and read enuff about all this, that I will never buy another Jeep again....ever. And if I had one of the defective ones, I would ditch it in a heartbeat, no matter what the financial loss would be.
My heart goes out to those faithful Jeep owners that got shafted by these defective and unsafe vehicles.

There, that's my 2 cents worth !!

[webslave]

If I had to guess what their fix will be..."This vehicle is not intended to be towed recreationally and such use will not be supported by the manufacturer" will be added to the owner's manual. All automobiles are designed for independent use and as such, I don't believe that any of the regulatory agencies can mandate a fix for a use the vehicle wasn't expressly designed for. I am also sure that there is small print somewhere that says that the information and specs can be changed at any time.

I am not demeaning nor minimizing the issues you and the other 39 people are experiencing, but, 40 people having the issue is a small number compared to the number of units that aren't experiencing the problem. There are currently now six of us snowbirding in this park...zero issues. Comparing the 40 having the issue for a use the vehicle wasn't expressly designed for to the 100,000 or more Cherokee units on the road that are perfectly stable for the purpose the vehicle was designed for means that their is no impetus for Fiat/Chrysler to do anything at all. As many manufacturers have already demonstrated, recreational towing is not a large enough market segment to be concerned with. I suspect the NHTSA won't have any control over it either since, again, the Cherokee is safe for the intended use for which it was designed.

I wish you, the 40 or so, all the luck in the world, but, the money just isn't justifiable, from a corporate standpoint, to bring many, if any, engineering assets to bear for an unintended use of the vehicle.