Towing and overheating with Commander Diesel?

[Bushtracker Bandicoot]

Has anyone got much experience in towing a heavy van (2.5 tonnes or more) withe the Commander (or Grand Cherokee) with the 3 litre diesel motor, in terms of any indications of engine or transmission overheating under hot or more extreme conditions, or does the cooling system seem to be able to handle whatever is thrown at it?
I notice that an auxiliary fan kit is availabel in the US for the 4.7 litre petrol to increase the towing capacity over there from 3500 lb (1590 kg) to 6500 lb (2950 kg).
BT Bandicoot

[LiveToSki]

We tow a fairly big van (not sure if it is 2500kgs) but fully loaded it would be close. We took it on a 2000kms trip with no issues. We have also taken it off road (towing the van) up hills and down dale and again no overheating issues. We had temp of low 30's and the air con runnig full speed.
Thumbs up from me.
Cheers
LTS

[Bomber]

We've towed our van, an offroad 17' so pretty heavy for it's length, fully laden it would be close to 2.5tonne, No long trips like LTS but it handled the job with ease.

There' a GC 3.0 in MJOC which has towed a Tvan up Googs, across the Simpson and through the Gibb River Rd without any probs at all.......

[Bushtracker Bandicoot]

thanks guys
It's just I've got a bushtracker on order, which is a heavy piece of kit, and was therefore just wondering how the temps were going to go...sounds like I should be fine.
Only had the commander 3 weeks but is brilliant around the city and have been on a few dirt tracks. I thought it's suspension could be a key weakness, but no flaws showing up so far in terms of holes, bumps or corrugations. Finally traded in my Nissan GU wagon Patrol on it, after just coming back from completing the Canning stock route. Nissan was good but limited to 2.5 tonnes so can't pull the Bushtracker.
Main pain has been fitting in all the interior accessories, including Sat phone, UHF, HF radio, Sat nav and reversing cameras. Still I think I've got a solution now. With no bullbar I'll probably forego fitting the driving lights at this point.

[Bomber]

BB the Jeep nudgebar jas a cross bar suitable for mouting the driving lights, you just need to use a GME mounting bracket (25mm from memory) - this is the official Jeep fix but don't buy them from Jeep .

[tempestv8]

It is possible to monitor the ATF temperature with an OBDII scanner tool like the Scan Gauge II. Only gotcha is that the transmission needs to be in Drive in order to see the fluid temperature on the SGII. If the transmission is in N or P, the temperature shown is actually the coolant water temperature.

Looks like Jeep took the trouble of fitting an oil cooler for the transmission, so this would help keep the fluid temperatures down when towing heavy loads. Of course, driving at the appropriate gear to keep the torque converter locked will significantly reduce the thermal load on the fluid.

I believe that the Merc 5 speed auto has torque converter lockup capability in both 4th or 5th gear.

[Clarky]

My solution to transmission temp monitoring is this B&M transmission pan with provision for a temp gauge & holds an extra 3.8 litres that should help keep things cooler.

Amazon

 

Amazon

Next transmission fluid change I will fit it up, can do a how to thread if anyone likes as these auto's are in 2011 to current JK's as well.