cracks in jeep body from towing

[Jeeptheone]

Originally Posted by Nigel

FredE,
Remember, the car you looked at is completely different to the car in question, it shares no commonality with a WG other than the basic principles of design. The towbar on a WH actually becomes a part of the chassis- therefore the crossbracing doesn't need to be as extensive as you might think....

I will post a pic tonight of the WH set up

JTO

[salesguy]

Originally Posted by signwilson

Jeep has finally contacted me verbally nothing on paper and said that they will pay for half the repairs so good of them they believe the weight distribution hitch caused the problem. Do you know that if you use anything except genuine Jeep towing equipment you are not covered under warranty and Jeep does not make load leveling devices though there is nothing in the books to say you can not use them. The repairers all tell me the same thing the vehicle is overated on its tow capacity and they will not repair it without an Engineer modifying it they all belive it is not strong enough

Perhaps it's time for all the car makers to clarify what a 'maximum towing capacity' is.

I always expected ( and explain to customers ) that this figure is just that - the 'maximum'. In other words, I believe that it's only reasonable and sensible to reduce this number if you are likely to be travelling at high speed; over rough/corrugated surfaces; or in hilly terrain. It's a figure that can be relied upon if the conditions under which you want to tow 3500kg are ideal.

[signwilson]

as I have said before the vehicle and wife that has had major spinal surgery and she can not handle rough roads of any kind. the repairers that have looked at the vehicle and quoted to repair it all say the same thing. The Jeep is too thin in the panels and the attachment points are too weak for the tow rate stated none of them want to do the job until an engineer has redesigned it all the other brans of vehicles that do not have a chassis are all below 2,500kg tow with ball weights of 250kg or lower

[dnotari]

I just had a look at those pictures on http://www.caradvice.com.au/category...nty-complaints.

In my uneducated opinion it looks to me like the axis of the trailer or van or whatever had been towed was not level with the car.

Sure ... when you travel on a non-level-road (eg corrugations, etc) the thing attached on the back will jump up and down, left and right while being pulled, but never the less the pulling force can be imagined as a line going through the hitch receiver, parallel to the axis/frame of the trailer/van.

If the axis is not level eg. the trailer/van is lower or higher than then the hitch receiver +/- 3-5cm will receive an stress pulling the assembly downwards.

What can make things worse is pulling the trailer/van over a high obstacle with too much force. Eg. over rocks with height > 1/3 of height of the sidewall height of the trailer tyres (yes .. if they are deflated it will make it worse) or coming down a hill, the truck having reached the bottom and going in a different angle or trailer/van is down and truck is just about to ascending ... there is a point where the truck is pulling up and the van still wants to go down.

Things can be made worse by the back of the van then bottoming out.

Other problem would be if you don't have stabilisiers the thing on the back will be pulled right and left.

All of the above can contribute to the fatigue.

Not saying that this happened in 'signwilson's case, I just wanted to bring up that the correct level of the trailer is very important, specially after a lift, as well as stabilisers and working suspensions on the trailer/van.

I don't think that this will be a big deal to fix as long as you stay away from Jeep.

You can weld U-Brakets (maybe thicker this time or use high grate aluminum) to reinforce the current frame and put a plate where the holes are.

[signwilson]

my van was set up with airbags levels rides and was never off the bitumen but mr Jeep thinks load level devices caused this it is very obvious they haven't a clue when it come to towing their representative told me he has never towed anything in his life.

[Ben]

Originally Posted by signwilson

they will not repair it without an Engineer modifying it they all belive it is not strong enough

To be honest if it were me I'd probably put more faith in Jeep's designers who've spend millions of dollars engineering the car over a repair guy that can see $$$.

No doubt you had a major problem, and I'm glad to see DC came to the party, but given the amount of Jeeps sold worldwise I'd guessing either yours was build by someone with a hangover, or there's other factors at work. Either way its definitely a bummer, and I'm just glad it didn't end up a lot worse.

[signwilson]

Have just found Jeep web site www.wjjeeps.com/trailer.htm and it states there that weight distributation hitches should be used when class iv reciever hitches towing which is what I was doing just as they state