Want to Flat tow my Jeep Cherokee TrailHawk

[mhbell]

What else do I need? Here is what I have so far.
I am going to flat tow my 2017 Cherokee Trailhawk behind my motor home. I have installed the Blue OX base plates and a Hopkins wiring harness for the tail and brake lights. Will take it to dealer and have the Mopar 68321424 AB Flat Tow Kit installed for the death wobble Not sure yet what breaking system I will use. However I have run a wire from the AUX 12 volt in 7 wire to 6 wire connector up to the area of the battery. Do I need some sort of battery charger to keep the battery from running down while towing. I have been told that the Mopar Flat tow Kit uses the battery while towing to prevent the Death Wobble and that the battery will run down if not charged by the motor home while towing. What else do I need.
???????Mel

[houstonstroker]

don't forget safety chains and brake away kit.

[mhbell]

I got the Flat Tow Harness Kit and had it installed by the dealer. I did make one modification to it. I cut the wire ahead of the fuse and ran it to a SPST switch with a safety cover and mounted the switch on the dash. I can leave the Fuse in instead of removing it when I want to use the jeep without towing. It works great and I no longer have to insert the fuse when I want to tow. I just throw the switch. I want to add a LED indicator light so I can tell when the switch is in tow mode. I am thinking maybe I could hook the LED to one side of the switch and the other side to ground. Not sure if that will work or not.Mel

[Ken_C]

tommieteflon wrote:

mhbell wrote:
What else do I need? Here is what I have so far.
I am going to flat tow my 2017 Cherokee Trailhawk behind my motor home. I have installed the Blue OX base plates and a Hopkins wiring harness for the tail and brake lights. Will take it to dealer and have the Mopar 68321424 AB Flat Tow Kit installed for the death wobble Not sure yet what breaking system I will use. However I have run a wire from the AUX 12 volt in 7 wire to 6 wire connector up to the area of the battery. Do I need some sort of battery charger to keep the battery from running down while towing. I have been told that the Mopar Flat tow Kit uses the battery while towing to prevent the Death Wobble and that the battery will run down if not charged by the motor home while towing. What else do I need.
???????Mel

We've been flat towing our 2015 Jeep Cherokee for about two years now. I just recently added the Patriot II braking system because it was an easy install. After experiencing the death wobble two times we decided to fork over the money to have the Mopar Flat Tow kit installed. I also added the RVI Tow Charger to keep the battery topped off while driving.

You definitely need a charge wire from the coach to the Jeep to keep the powered steering from draining your Jeep battery. One other caution, the jeep will automatically set the emergency brake if you have the drivers door open while setting up the tow mode. Just make sure the E brake is off before you exit the jeep.

[mhbell]

So far I've installed the Hopkins Wiring harness for the brakes, tail and turn lights. Installed the Blue Ox Base plates (What a job) Whew glad that's over. Then I installed the Brake Buddy break away and the RVi battery charger. I managed to get a good like new Brake Buddy with remote. Wired up the umbilical cord from motor home to the jeep 7 wire to 6 wire. made sure I've got one hot lead for the battery charger when hooked up to tow. Got a Blue OX Aladdin tow bar.Tomorrow I take the jeep to the dealers to get the flat tow kit installed. I plan on installing a switch so I won't have to remove a fuse every time when towing. Hopefully I won't need anything else. If I would have known about the flat tow kit at the time I purchased the Jeep New, I probably would have made the dealer install the kit or else would have bought elsewhere. Nothing was mentioned about the kit when I told them I was buying the jeep to flat tow.
Mel

[tommieteflon]

mhbell wrote:
What else do I need? Here is what I have so far.
I am going to flat tow my 2017 Cherokee Trailhawk behind my motor home. I have installed the Blue OX base plates and a Hopkins wiring harness for the tail and brake lights. Will take it to dealer and have the Mopar 68321424 AB Flat Tow Kit installed for the death wobble Not sure yet what breaking system I will use. However I have run a wire from the AUX 12 volt in 7 wire to 6 wire connector up to the area of the battery. Do I need some sort of battery charger to keep the battery from running down while towing. I have been told that the Mopar Flat tow Kit uses the battery while towing to prevent the Death Wobble and that the battery will run down if not charged by the motor home while towing. What else do I need.
???????Mel

We've been flat towing our 2015 Jeep Cherokee for about two years now. I just recently added the Patriot II braking system because it was an easy install. After experiencing the death wobble two times we decided to fork over the money to have the Mopar Flat Tow kit installed. I also added the RVI Tow Charger to keep the battery topped off while driving.

[mhbell]

The Hopkins wiring harness is Hopkins 56208 Diode Plug-in Simple Wiring Kit
For the Tail and brake Lights.Plug-In Simple - no cutting or splicing saving you time Isolates towed vehicle from motorhome Utilizes OEM connectors for enhanced fit and weatherproofing.I will probably go with the Ready Brute Braking system. Much cheaper and easy install.
Thanks for the info
Mel

[Tripalot]

I don't know what a Hopkins wiring harness is. I use an Invisi Brake system that takes care of the brake lights and tail lights and of course the Morpar Flat Tow kit. The Morpar kit allows the electronic steering to operate which eliminates the death wobble. Yes you certainly need some way to keep the Jeep battery charged. Once again in my case the battery is charged via the Invisi Brake system as long as I remember to tow with the parking lights on. To avoid trouble when towing be sure to do a complete lock to lock wheel check when hooking up. A couple of times I've run through the hook up sequence only to find that the wheels were not free to steer. The entire hook up process in my situation is about 17 steps long a pain in the butt but at least it works. The last check is to have someone walk beside the tow car and watch to ensure that all 4 wheel turn freely and that the front wheels actually turn when cornering.