Decided to cruise on the beach today. I put it in 4wd high and went. It seemed not to want to shift above 2nd or 3rd and the RPM's would just drop to almost a stall. I would need to completely let off the gas and press down quite a bit to get the RPM's back up.

Any ideas?

 

Might have been your transmission overheating, Have you had the recall work done?

 

Never thought of that. I don't think it was ever done. Would that cause it?

 

The root cause it the the stock transmission cooler is not large enough for the Jeep.
This can lead to overheating when towing and when in 4hi going at low speeds for variable lengths of time. The recall just adds a warning that displays a 'HOT OIL' notice on the speedo before it gets to the real overheating stage that can cause your transmission start functioning weird or failing.

Go to the dealer and have them pull your codes and then do the recall work.
You would also need to check your fluid to see if smells or looks burnt, you might need to change it.

Then install an aux transmission cooler. ( around $60, less than 2hrs )

 

for what years ??

 

It started with the 2007-2008 but I have a 2010 and they did it to mine.

 

The 2010 probably has the recall already applied.
Don't think that they increased the size of the trans cooler itself.

 

Maybe it was your traction control ESP kicking in and applying brakes to the spinning wheels bogging the motor down

 

How fast were you going?

 

If you are running in sand you should be in low range and aired down to 10-12 psi.