awakeinny

The biggest factor is braking and control of cargo being towed. You could easily lift or shift the rear of your jk from the tow hitch of your Jeep. Stopping and controlling the load at speed is not so easy.

rob_engineer

The truth is that nobody on here knows the truth. I have been following this issue for lore than two years. One person said they spoke to a Chrysler engineer who said it was a factor of whether the jeep could maintain a speed of 45mpg over some mountain pass in the US. Others have said they know it is because the jeep is considered a convertible in the US. Others say it could be a weak hitch. One weird thing to consider is that the Liberty is rated for 5k. It is lighter, has shorter wheel base and has less powerful engine. Go figure.

CerOf

I'm the one who spoke with the jeep engineer. It could not pull 45 pulling a trailer in Davis dam, i70 out if Denver and had temp issues pulling through the desert. They backed off the rating for these reasons along with how litigious our country's become.

Sent from some string and a few tin cans.

CerOf

Absolutely not true with the JKU. It's wheel base is longer than many vehicles and it's track width is wider. It has a curb weight greater than many others, all of whom have tow ratings in excess of 5,000lbs. My WJ that was as narrow, shorter wheel base, with a weaker uniframe, had a rating over 5,000lbs. In fact, I think it was 6500.
It's brakes were pretty much equal to the JKs.
JKU has built in, from the factory, anti-sway control. Not that I need it, I know how to load a trailer.

For example: 5.2L ZJ has a greater tow rating than the 5.9L ZJ. Even though the 5.9 had much more torque and HP. Why you ask? 5.2L had a mechanical fan and 5.9 had electric which was not as efficient in cooling. Same issue with cooling on the '99-'01 WJ. In '02 (or late '01) they went mechanical and improved the cooling.

Much thought goes into the ratings but the JKU's brakes were not the issue. Heck, several states require a trailer to have brakes once over about 2,000lbs. With trailer brakes you hardly have to give a second thought about the tow rigs.

I mean, think about it.....does 1mm extra thickness of a rotor equal 3,000lbs more towing capacity? Of course not. But that is the basic difference in comparing a JKU to a WJ brake.

Now, all this being said: I recommend NOT exceeding the manufactures recommendations.

Have I exceeded them? I take the 5th.

But she did great on a 1,600 mile round trip from TX, over Raton pass, several other passes, and into SW Colorado.

Sent from some string and a few tin cans.

RobtTxRubi

In Germany it's 3500 Kg, that's about 7700 lbs.

goomer214

Wow that's a lot of weight

Softtailfreek

I would never try to haul that much weight with my jk. I pull a small landscape trailer with 2 mowers and that feels fine but 7k lbs is a lot of weight

goomer214

Ok so I'm going to be hauling about 5500lbs with my jk 4 door if these guys can do it I can do it

holy_crap

^^^ LOL, that last picture cracked me up. For reference, my boat with a full tank of gas has a towing weight of 3900 lbs. My 2014 JKUR, automatic with 4.10 tows it no problems.

Huntphreak

One thing to consider is that when you tow the wear rate on EVERY mechanical part of your Jeep goes up.

I just pulled the boat this weekend and now at 105K on the clock, she is getting to the end of her abilities in towing.

7K is more than I would tow unless it is a mile down the road or something similar.

If you must tow I would take a moment to consider the following:

- Your C load tires are not tires E load tires.

- The brakes and are in-adequate, no two ways about it. If you have used those brake under load you know what I speak of. If you have not and you believe the are adequate, give me an honest test run with 3500# and 20mph; stab em to get to 0mph, and I'll bring you the wetwipes so you can clean up.