Curious on what some of you LJ owners are towing weight wise. I'm stock with 31's, 3.73's, D44 rear....etc. My wife and I are wanting a small camper and I'm curious what your experience is. I know it's rated at 3500#, but I know that's WAY too much.
LJ Towing
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Curious on what some of you LJ owners are towing weight wise. I'm stock with 31's, 3.73's, D44 rear....etc. My wife and I are wanting a small camper and I'm curious what your experience is. I know it's rated at 3500#, but I know that's WAY too much.
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I've pulled some pretty heavy stuff. I never put it on a scale, but my enclosed hauler trailer weighs almost 1000lb empty and I filled it full moving to a new house a number of times. It does fine, but go slow because it brakes much slower. A couple times I said "oh sh. this is heavy" when I moved the first 5' in 1st gear. That load had a bunch of metal. Go with a hard sided pop up and you will be fine.
2004 Wrangler TJ, 42RLE auto trans. F/R lockers, 5.38 gears, Warn Winch, Currie 4" Suspension
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Pop-up tent trailers tow very well behind Wranglers, especially so behind the longer wheelbase Unlimiteds. I know I'm very happy with my Fleetwood Taos pop-up.
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Heaviest I pull is a 6x10 enclosed v-nose trailer, weighing around 2500-2700lbs when fully loaded. I also have a Vanco Big Brake kit (dual piston 48mm calipers + Black Magic Brake pads), 10" drum brakes on the trailer and a trailer brake controller in the Jeep. I have heavy rate rear springs with AirLift load leveling airbags to help control the weight & tendency to bottom out. I've got a heavy duty rear bumper with integrated hitch, and frame tie-ins. Trailer also has a friction sway control bar if necessary, but so far trailer sway hasn't been an issue.
So stopping & controlling the trailer is handled...but now the problem has become maintaining speed. Big loss of power & heating up the engine/trans when climbing mountains & hills. Even with 4.88 gears & a 1-ton trans cooler...
....so I'm currently searching for a used 3/4 ton diesel, which will climb those mountain passes without straining one bit.
So stopping & controlling the trailer is handled...but now the problem has become maintaining speed. Big loss of power & heating up the engine/trans when climbing mountains & hills. Even with 4.88 gears & a 1-ton trans cooler...
....so I'm currently searching for a used 3/4 ton diesel, which will climb those mountain passes without straining one bit.
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here's what I built for camping...
It tows easier than my enclosed full size trailer, and I can see around it much better. You definitely know its behind you going up the mountains and it needs more downshifting, but it's tolerable enough to drive long distances.
2004 Wrangler TJ, 42RLE auto trans. F/R lockers, 5.38 gears, Warn Winch, Currie 4" Suspension
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51,780 Posts
My wife barely puts up with this, you may want to consider one size (barely) larger which normally includes things like a forced air heater & hot shower which mine doesn't have.
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Nice rig!
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What did they weigh originally back in the day?
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Wow, this is good stuff! Love that Shasta. My Dad pulled and Aristocrat 'LoLiner' with a late 70's CJ7, bone stock. It was a long time ago, but I think it was a dog on grades and I believe the Jeep had electric brakes and a weight distributing hitch. Tiny trailer, like 15' Loliner: 1800 lbs. Hitch wt 225 lbs (from web).
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Yeah that Shasta is a classic..
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Were you running stock?
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