Towing a Van with a JK?

[Tassieguy]

Originally Posted by Yom

A defender is a better choice than a JK for towing around 2 tonnes IMHO.

Having a heap of power is not the most important thing for a tow vehicle.

Have you ever lived with a defender every day? I have and the ergonomics are horrible for a daily drive, awesome in the bush I agree. For various other reasons I won't go into now I will never buy another Land Rover product for as long as I can drive and I own a D3 at the moment.

So far the story seems to be that it can be done but needs some mods to suspension first and possibly a transmission cooler to really make it work well. That I can live with.

[Yom]

Originally Posted by Tassieguy

Have you ever lived with a defender every day? I have and the ergonomics are horrible for a daily drive, awesome in the bush I agree. For various other reasons I won't go into now I will never buy another Land Rover product for as long as I can drive and I own a D3 at the moment.

So far the story seems to be that it can be done but needs some mods to suspension first and possibly a transmission cooler to really make it work well. That I can live with.

yeh but the question is related to towing vehicles, and the Jk is not ideal as one.

It could be though. The chassis isn't bad nor is the wheelbase I think the issue is in the rear suspension. Just changes geometry too much on small bumps and makes for an unsettled rear end.

[Tassieguy]

Originally Posted by Yom

yeh but the question is related to towing vehicles, and the Jk is not ideal as one.

It could be though. The chassis isn't bad nor is the wheelbase I think the issue is in the rear suspension. Just changes geometry too much on small bumps and makes for an unsettled rear end.

So does a Mopar 2" lift fix this problem?

[Yom]

Originally Posted by Tassieguy

So does a Mopar 2" lift fix this problem?

No, its a trait of the short arm suspension in the JK.

Compare the length of control arms in a Defender/Landcruiser/Patrol to a JK and you'll see what I mean.

[davidd]

mate the wrangler is a u.s. vehicle with suspension for the u.s. market. over there they prefer soft spring rates that soak up any sign of a bump . this supension does it very well. i've had mine on somebad corrugated roads and it performed better than any wad i have had before. but the soft rate also contributes to early spring sag and to rear end sag if a decent weight is put on the back end. whatever lift or anything else you do, unless you put teribly stiff rear springs in which will jar you to bits, you will still get rear end sag is my guess. air bags are a good compromise as you can set any suspension you like for normal driving or offroad work and just inflate the bags when you tow. works for me, but each to his own i guess. cheers.

[09JKSHORTY]

Something must have gone wrong with mine, it has the harshest ride of any car I've ever driven. Far worse than a rubber sprung Cooper S. To say the suspension is soft sounds ludicrous to me.

[wranglertj]

davidd is right in saying that suspension is soft from the U.S as this is normally the case with most american vehicles. You will also often find the aftermarket U.S parts are biased to the soft side as well as they dont have to travel far to get anywhere decent and they like their soft slinky flexy suspension on the tracks.
This was certainly the case with my aftermarket suspension as it is quite soft like the factory gear