Max Tow pushing it too much?

[OurJTOverland]

Kinda related, local dirt stone company would not dump 2 ton soil in my JT cause it was too short a bed. Kind of a PIA.

The Gladiator is only rated to carry 1/2 ton, or 1,000 pounds. If it's equipped with max tow, still only about 1,700 pounds, less than 1 ton for sure.

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[NC_Overland]

I saw someone pulling a two horse trailer with two horses in it with a Gladiator last weekend. It I wasn’t close enough to tell if it was a max tow or not, but it was riding pretty level and he was doing 65 just fine through the hills in E TN on hwy 64 a little it east of the Ocoee. Apparently, the trailer weights vary a lot, so I’m not sure what the total weight was but I was impressed.

 

[Josh00333]

Avg horse is what 1200 lbs x2? + trailer 3k? puts ya at 5400. Most horse trailers are less than 7' wide.

Probably a good set up. Not sure if you do WTH on a horse trailer? Never towed one.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Kinda related, local dirt stone company would not dump 2 ton soil in my JT cause it was too short a bed. Kind of a PIA.

You are lucky the company was smarter than some Jeep owners - 2 tons is 4,000 pounds - the payload on these is less than half of that.
I had 2,000 pound of rock in my Silverado and was really stressing it. I came back to Des Moines from Western KS with over 2,000 of antique engine along with the iron trucks it was supposed to sit on and had that HD F250 on the overload springs. Rode like a Lincoln but still - that was a fraction of 2 tons.

7k-8k payload sure, but dump trailers can easily weigh 2k or more empty making the usable payload on our trucks 6k at best. Soil weights about 2k per cubic yard dry, and stone/gravel 3k. Assuming the trailer holds 5 cubic yards, that's a payload weight of 15k fully loaded or 7.5k half-full PLUS the weight of the trailer itself. More if there's any kind of moisture or water in the soil.

I've hauled dirt and rock - with my other trucks. My prior car hauler was about 2200 pounds empty and it was a flat bed. My current all aluminum trailer is 1500 pounds and it's not got the DUMP ability (it is tilt bed but that adds only about 100 pounds tops)
Dump trailers are heavy - they have to be. They are all steel, sides, dump features add weight, and imagine the tongue weight......

My neighbor hauled dirt in for me so I could build up the area where I built my shop. He worked for the county back then and I've seen what that dirt can weigh. A couple of years ago I had a single load of dirt brought in - the guy said it was 60,000 pounds of soil.

 

[869 KPH]

I agree in this case. A dump trailer is HEAVY on its own. Add dirt and you're easily into HD pickup territory.

I tow heavier and larger than almost everybody with a JT, but even I wouldn't hook onto a dump trailer loaded with soil.

Don't be that guy.

This had to have been taken after some of the load was removed, right? I just can't wrap my head around that catastrophic of a failure.

 

[NC_Overland]

Avg horse is what 1200 lbs x2? + trailer 3k? puts ya at 5400. Most horse trailers are less than 7' wide.

Probably a good set up. Not sure if you do WTH on a horse trailer? Never towed one.

Mine tows a car on a double axle car hauler pretty well. I’ve done it a few times. 5k-5500. Same with a heavily loaded uhaul 6x12 about the same. It’s stable and brakes fine, but it doesn’t get past sixth gear when doing 65-70 and it drops to 4th on bigger hills. And I get like 12 mpg, but I don’t do it often or far so it’s fine.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I saw someone pulling a two horse trailer with two horses in it with a Gladiator last weekend. It I wasn’t close enough to tell if it was a max tow or not, but it was riding pretty level and he was doing 65 just fine through the hills in E TN on hwy 64 a little it east of the Ocoee. Apparently, the trailer weights vary a lot, so I’m not sure what the total weight was but I was impressed.

Modern horse trailers are pretty light. Older ones, all steel, thick heavy wood floors - not so light. Aluma makes a horse trailer, as does another Iowa company Feigherlight, I'd have to look again, but when I was looking at trailers a while back, a heavy two stall is only 2800 pounds. Payload is about 4,000 pounds. so if you had a trailer a bit lighter than my example and 4,000 pounds in it, you'd be in the limits of a max tow.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Mine tows a car on a double axle car hauler pretty well. I’ve done it a few times. 5k-5500. Same with a heavily loaded uhaul 6x12 about the same. It’s stable and brakes fine, but it doesn’t get past sixth gear when doing 65-70 and it drops to 4th on bigger hills. And I get like 12 mpg, but I don’t do it often or far so it’s fine.

My Overland pulls my car hauler loaded pretty well. 13.9 mpg heading over, a bit less heading back. I80 east in Iowa is HILLY - even the big rigs downshift a lot.
Trailer was about 1600, car about 3300 so I figured all loaded up about 5,000 pounds. I kept it at 65-67 and it did fine. Yes, it did drop to 4th a time or two but it really seemed to do great in the 2300 rpm area, hit 3300 rpm quite a few times and still wasn't breathing hard.

 

[NC_Overland]

My Overland pulls my car hauler loaded pretty well. 13.9 mpg heading over, a bit less heading back. I80 east in Iowa is HILLY - even the big rigs downshift a lot.
Trailer was about 1600, car about 3300 so I figured all loaded up about 5,000 pounds. I kept it at 65-67 and it did fine. Yes, it did drop to 4th a time or two but it really seemed to do great in the 2300 rpm area, hit 3300 rpm quite a few times and still wasn't breathing hard.

I do have E load 285/70/18s, but it does fine. That engine likes to rev. I wasn’t remotely worried about it.

 

[NC_Overland]

Modern horse trailers are pretty light. Older ones, all steel, thick heavy wood floors - not so light. Aluma makes a horse trailer, as does another Iowa company Feigherlight, I'd have to look again, but when I was looking at trailers a while back, a heavy two stall is only 2800 pounds. Payload is about 4,000 pounds. so if you had a trailer a bit lighter than my example and 4,000 pounds in it, you'd be in the limits of a max tow.

This one wasn’t an aluminum one, but it was fairly new.

 

[piroman683]

I'm slated to pull a camping trailer with a max weight of 6,000 lbs. UNfortunately that is 2,000 over what my Sport JT is rated for based on the door label. My axles are re-geared at 4.56 with 37's, and my clutch was replaced about 10k miles ago due to a recall issue. I'm confident it will be fine especially with how low 1st gear is, but I worry the computer will detect a tow load outside the limits and go into limp mode. Can anyone confirm if the truck goes into limp mode if towing more than its rating?

 

[CerOf]

I'm slated to pull a camping trailer with a max weight of 6,000 lbs. UNfortunately that is 2,000 over what my Sport JT is rated for based on the door label. My axles are re-geared at 4.56 with 37's, and my clutch was replaced about 10k miles ago due to a recall issue. I'm confident it will be fine especially with how low 1st gear is, but I worry the computer will detect a tow load outside the limits and go into limp mode. Can anyone confirm if the truck goes into limp mode if towing more than its rating?

The Jeep doesn’t know the weight and won’t go limp based on the number of pounds.

It could go limp due to clutch over temp issues I believe or any other number of over temp type items, oil, coolant, engine, etc.

Can the truck take it in and of itself? Probably. Can your clutch take it? Maybe, maybe not.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I'm slated to pull a camping trailer with a max weight of 6,000 lbs. UNfortunately that is 2,000 over what my Sport JT is rated for based on the door label. My axles are re-geared at 4.56 with 37's, and my clutch was replaced about 10k miles ago due to a recall issue. I'm confident it will be fine especially with how low 1st gear is, but I worry the computer will detect a tow load outside the limits and go into limp mode. Can anyone confirm if the truck goes into limp mode if towing more than its rating?

I'd be more concerned about the clutch - it's not "how low 1st gear is" but the torque applied through the clutch. There's multiple reasons the tow rating for a manual JT is so much lower.

2,000 pounds over tow rating - you are asking for trouble with the truck and piss-poor handling at best.
Just don't get into an accident. No, they can't ticket you - but if someone gets hurt, you will be investigated.
You'll be really pushing that truck hard. And if you do it, you'd better think about deleting anything you have posted on the web about it LOL

But seriously, one way they protect the clutch is indeed to cut the torque applied - you hit any hills with it, it's going to be quite a load.

The Jeep doesn’t know the weight and won’t go limp based on the number of pounds.

Actually, it does. How do you think they deal with trailers with no trailer tow mode switch? They do detect the torque applied.

And this device takes advantage of what your truck's systems know about you - that your towing don't realize it knows about your towing.......
https://www.curtmfg.com/part/51701

Using the OBDII port, it reads the info your truck has and can tell you your tongue weight and trailer weight just by connecting to your vehicle and driving it.
It's amazing what these trucks do and can do - and know about you.

I noticed a total difference in how mine behaves based on whether or not my car hauler has a load on it. No load, it's like no trailer and shifts and handles like crap. Put a car on it and the shifting and other things are totally different - it's like a different truck when it detects weight.

Think that truck doesn't know?

PRODUCT DETAILS
BetterWeigh wirelessly links to your smartphone to display real-time vehicle and trailer weights. It easily plugs into any standard vehicle diagnostic port (OBD-II) under the steering wheel, and uses Bluetooth to connect to your Apple or Android phone. It then sends a live readout of all weights related to towing and hauling, including the gross weight of your vehicle and trailer, cargo, payload, tongue weight, pin weight and weight distribution. This streamlines the towing setup process for any vehicle-trailer combination and promotes maximum safety on the road. The compact, portable design also allows for easy transfer from one vehicle to another.

 

[piroman683]

@ShadowsPapa agreed hitting any hill will be brutal. I have wondered about what the clutch can handle as well but have not been able to find good info. I do know that the torque maps in the ECM will only allow so much to be applied going from stop to go. I'm not sure how that is changed though when supercharging with the Magnuson kit which I'll be installing in about 2 weeks. One of the reasons I entertained the idea of a heavier load is that the Magnuson kit comes with a warranty on a new truck, though limited on what they would pay out in the event of a failure. This means the ECM would have different torque tables that the clutch/MT should be able to handle based on using their tune. I do have a chance to test-tow prior to my trip too which will be helpful.

 

[rharr]

You should do what you want, that's what you want to hear right? It's not my jeep and you don't live near me, so no skin off my nose.

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