New From Pittsburgh

[TJinPgh]

Hi everyone. Thanks for letting me join this community. I wanted to take a moment to say why I came here as I don't yet own a Liberty.

I own a relatively small pop-up camper (about #1200 dry). For the last few years we have been towing this with a stock 6 cyl 2004 Ford Escape. No tow package. This puts us right at It's limit with a few adults and gear and it is taking it's toll.

So I began to ponder my options for something more capable. As most know the ootions with over 2k pounds towing capacity are somewhat limited to trucks and SUV.

I had to decide if I wanted to replace my reasonably fuel efficient daily driver with one of those or get something older to tow with.

In the spirit of the latter I came across a 2005 Liberty with a little over 91k miles and what looks to be a factory tow package. No frills. Asking about $4k.

In general, does that seem like an investment worth considering? Anything about that particular year that makes it untrustworthy or a bigger headache than the next ?

Most of our camping is within a two hour radius. Some a bit further. Two of our destinations involve some reasonably steep hills of several miles.

The pop-up does not have brakes.

TIA


TJ

 

[Dave]

Welcome. The KJ in the pic looks good.

The KJ with the tow package is rated for 5,000lbs. I have towed that much. You wouldn't have any problems. Just lock out O/D on those hills so you don't beat up your ******.

Dave

 

[tommudd]

Like mentioned keep the OD off, plan your stops ahead of time, and enjoy
I've pulled trailers between Northwest Ohio to Boston and back, Ohio to Orlando and back etc so just use common sense

Pittsburgh, great town, many thing to do.
One of my Ex's lives there

 

[TwoBobsKJ]

Double check that it actually has the tow package. Due to a silly and unnecessary recall Chrysler was forced to put trailer hitches on all KJs; the Jeep you're looking at (which appears to be in great shape) may just have the hitch without the trailer harness and heavy duty cooling.

The HD cooling isn't necessary, especially with a pop up camper, but the trailer harness sure is convenient. You can buy and install a 4-pin harness from etrailer.com (I prefer the factory 7-pin with a 4-pin adapter) but since your trailer doesn't have brakes a 7-pin isn't necessary.

Many on here have towed 5000 pounds or more with a KJ that doesn't have a factory tow package. That Liberty will have an external transmission cooler and power steering cooler so it is already MILES ahead of a Ford Escape for towing. Seriously, you'll forget it's back there after 50 miles or so (but try to remind yourself you've got a trailer when you pull off the interstate to get gas. Ask me how I know...)

When you get to the campsite throw the Jeep into 4WD and go exploring some trails! :waytogo:

Bob