how capable is my Trail-hawk

[coxy1954]

Hi Guys i have done a lot of remote travel in the past and I plan to continue with a trip planed to travel the outback way later this year. Prior to buying my Trail-hawk I owned a 4w4 ute which I modified with bar work suspension upgrades winch, long-range tank and thousands of dollars thrown at it to make it bullet proof because thats what you do. Other than installing a UHF unit I would like to think that this vehicle is capable of travelling on any outback track right out of the box. What modifications or weak areas if any need to be addressed before heading outback.
Cheers Coxy

[lujabe]

Im assuming you're talking about a Cherokee Trailhawk (there was grand Cherokee Trailhawk edition for a little while also).

I took mine on a central Australia trip and it impressed the hell out of me on the dirt out there. Only thing I'd changed is putting some all terrain tyres on it (the original tyres are road-oriented).

For off road work, I'd love a set of rock rails for some extra protection due to not having enormous ground clearance...

Generally though, they're pretty handy out of the box - the vid below isn't a bad demonstration:

You Tube

[valpacer]

Fuel capacity is the killer for outback

[coxy1954]

Iujabe thanks for your reply, yes it is a 2015 Cherokee Trailhawk. I have seen lot of info on just how tuff they are which is one of the reasons for my decision to purchase one . Also my 4w4 ute was not the most comfortable vehicle on a long trip unlike the Jeep which is luxury. Its my personal view that it is more that capable just wanted to seek out other options.
cheers Coxy

[lujabe]

Oh, one other tip I'd give for travel on outback dirt... The stones will make a mess of the plastic cladding pretty quickly... I put a set of basic mudflaps on for the trip which helped a little, but even after a couple of hundred kms the rocker covers, lower door mouldings and rear wheel arch flares had taken a bit of a beating. I then just covered them with a few layers of gaffer tape which did the trick to protect them from further damage. Next time I'll do that before I hit the dirt.

I also found running tyres around 24-26 psi worked well on the dirt (highway pressure is way too high for that sort of use, IMO). The tyre pressure alert wasn't happy the whole time, but you learn to ignore that light!

And as mentioned, carry fuel! I never needed to use what I was carrying, but I pretty much fueled up every chance I had. No servos I encountered were out of fuel, but there are plenty of stretches where if you had to skip one cos they were out of fuel, you'd be cutting it uncomfortably fine to make it to the next on a tank.

[Trailfirst]

For the tyre px sensor system its a pity we don't have the facility to specifically choose the units (ie. psi) and then also set the alert figure... I'm hanging out for a uconnect / evic "root" on these that looks easy and safe!

[lujabe]

Originally Posted by Trailfirst

For the tyre px sensor system its a pity we don't have the facility to specifically choose the units (ie. psi) and then also set the alert figure... I'm hanging out for a uconnect / evic "root" on these that looks easy and safe!

You can set the units in uconnect to metric or imperial. Metric shows pressure in kpa and distances in km. If you switch to imperial you'll see psi, but everything else will switch to miles instead of km... Not perfect but it is possible to see psi. But the tyre pressure monitoring is a pain at times - the alert pressure really does need to be adjustable.