Towing a 22' Cruiser with a diesel Jeep Liberty?

T

Threeweight

New member
Howdy,

Anyone have experience towing a 22 Cruiser with a heavy, torquey, but short wheelbase vehicle?

I have a 2006 Jeep Liberty CRD (one of the 12,000 or so they sold in the US with the 2.8 liter turbo diesel.) My little rig weighs 4900 pounds, empty, and produces 295 ft lbs of torque. It is rated to tow 5000 pounds, and has the factory tow package. It has a few upgrades over the gas Liberty, including 4-wheel disc anti-lock brakes.

I'm considering purchasing a Cruiser in the next 6-12 months, but I do not want to add another vehicle to our list if I can avoid it. The Liberty is a great little truck, and at 28 mpg highway, I don't want to replace it with some 15 mpg pickup. We are a bio-diesel household, and a new (or even used) diesel tow rig would put a C-Dory out of our price range.

Thoughts?
 
I towed my 22 the first two years with a v-6 powered ranger 4x4. It did a ok job but was getting long in the tooth at 240,000 miles. I did a good job towing and does not have near the tow capacities that your diesel does. Ranger was rated for 4000.lbs.

Now to the question of short wheel base. your liberty in about the same as my truck. the wheel base comes into play when you are stopping. I had to hit the brakes hard one time with the ranger and I got pushed a little because I did not have the brakes working on the trailer at the time. It started to push the back end end of the truck to the side. With that said I have also hit the brakes really hard at 40 mph when I first got the boat to see how it would handle. with the 4 wheel trailer and brakes all the way around the ruck stopped in short order and in a very straight line. I think that your tow rig is not the best for the job but if 90% of your trailering is local you will be fine. We towed with the ranger to the west coast of vancouver island over two passes with not to much trouble and many trips to the columbian river. Just borrow a boat and give your rig a try.
 
I used my Liberty to put the boat in on many occasions. Towed it 300 miles once. Like you I had the disks. It will pull it and stop it, but I came to the conclusion it was just to short for any long distances (over 20 miles). To darty and the risk of a jacknife was present.
 
No, I have a dual axle and the Jeep was level. It's a great little tug for down to the local ramp and back, just a little short for long distance.
 
I've been towing a 22 cruiser with my Ford Ranger for 3 years. Ranger is rated for 5,600 lbs, boat comes in at 4,000 so it's near the 80% recommended tow weight. Never a problem, even in the mountains. Surge brakes on the trailer are great. Lots of guys seem to need a Hummer to tow anything at all, but I think its ego talking because the Ranger gets the job done.
 
I agree. The little Liberty would dump it in and pull it out just fine. I towed mine through the Western states from Florida to the Canadian border in Mid-Washinton with a plain Dodge 318 1500 and never had a problem anywhere.

Camped in the Rockies on the way (no problem at 8000+ ft. for the truck):

DEFC10.jpg
 
I have a VW Touareg V8 which is rated at 7700 pounds. It works fine for local towing up to 25 Cruisers (not Tom Cats!). 22s are not a problem. The short wheelbase DOES affect the stability. I do not run the VW 70 plus when I tow. Even with a 5300 pound curb weight I would not push the speed. What the short wheelbase does do is allow me in places where a longer wheelbase truck cannot maneuver in. Some boat yards and launch ramps can be tight and I can go almost everywhere a small tractor can go.

I would not hesitate to tow a 22 with your current vehicle. Let us know what kind of fuel economy you get when you start towing.

Hope this helps, Randy.
 
I also have a Liberty Diesel. I believe the curb weight is closer to 3900 than 4900.

It is torquey, but I did not want to abuse our Jeep, as the wife drives it now.

I just got a lightly used 2500HD Silverado with Duramax Diesel and the Allison tranny. Suweet....
 
We use a middle-aged Bob-tailed Suburban (a Tahoe) which Les tried not too subtly to discourage us from using, not because it didn't have the b...s but because of the short wheelbase. I believe it's just about the same as a Chevy standard PU.
I like the fact that it's fairly manuverable with a short turning radius; but the run down Whidbey Island, across Admiralty Strait on the ferry, through Port Towsend and onto the local Death Stretch of Highway 101 was certainly tense. I'd never towed anything larger than a 6' U-Haul.
We've never triggered the ABS (yet) so I suppose we really haven't challenged the stability issue.
For a point of reference you might research the comparative wheelbases of the vehicles mentioned.

Paul Priest
Sequim, WA
 
As long as you are a bio-diesel household, have you looked into a diesel powered boats? I'd be curious as to what's available. I think Yanmar used to make a 36 hp l diesel outboard, but maybe not anymore.

carl
 
The Yanmar 27 and 36 hp diesel outboards have not been available in the lower 48 because of emissions standards--they are also quite heavy, and probably not suitable for the C Dory because of the weight.

I have heard that some were sold in AK. Not sure if any are available now, but I had information from Canada last year, that they were not available there at that time...
 
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