Towing issue with a 2024 Rubicon

[handyman98]

I have a fairly small and lightweight camping trailer that is only about 1900 lbs.

When I did a few test runs the RPMs shot up to 4k+ on a flat and straight road with virtually no wind going 60-65. It was struggling just to get to 65.

I went to Trail Recon Summit #4 (without my trailer) and met many other Gladiator owners who towed and did not have this issue but they were not Rubicons. One owner tows a 5700lb trailer with 2 horses and his RPM is about 2200 on a similar road and speed.

Is it the gearing on a Rubicon that is causing this?

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[Brad.Clarkston]

I've towed way more than that with my '22 Rubicon without any issues and never got above 2.5k on anything but mountains.

The only time I had that kind of issue was a bad tire (which ended up blowing) on a single axle trailer.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I have a fairly small and lightweight camping trailer that is only about 1900 lbs.

When I did a few test runs the RPMs shot up to 4k+ on a flat and straight road with virtually no wind going 60-65. It was struggling just to get to 65.

I went to Trail Recon Summit #4 (without my trailer) and met many other Gladiator owners who towed and did not have this issue but they were not Rubicons. One owner tows a 5700lb trailer with 2 horses and his RPM is about 2200 on a similar road and speed.

Is it the gearing on a Rubicon that is causing this?

Rubicon gearing is no different than most others.
Max tow, Mojave, Rubicon and certain others all share the same 4.10 gears.
Overland, Sport, and certain others have 3.73 gearing.
But frankly, it's so little difference, it won't matter much anyway.

You don't have a brake hanging up, do you?

 

[Lost1wing]

My bet would be, if the OP got in one of those other vehicles, it would behave the same way. 4k+ is standard going up an incline towing. 4k is also possible level on the highway at 65mph. What gear was it in, would be my question. Could he have pushed it just a bit more until it shifted to the next gear?

 

[DylanM]

@handyman98
Your trailer's aerodynamics, or lack thereof, play a larger role than its weight in regards to the load on the vehicle in the majority of your towing (towing uphill being the exception). On anything even slightly resembling flat terrain a heavier trailer with lower aerodynamic drag will require less effort by the tow vehicle to pull than a lighter trailer with higher drag.

Regarding your revs while towing, the vehicle basically senses the increased load it needs to move and in response will shift the transmission to the appropriate gear so that the engine is able to best handle that load. Don't be afraid of higher revs with your 3.6 engine, it'll handle them just fine. Yes, the different axle gearing does play some part in the difference you describe, but you need also consider that the factory gearing was chosen due to the larger/heavier tires your Rubicon was equipped with as well. Different tire size and weight, different axle gearing, different trailer size and design... all of these variables make it so a direct "rpm at such and such speed" comparison cannot be made.

I've towed way more than that with my '22 Rubicon without any issues and never got above 2.5k on anything but mountains.

The only time I had that kind of issue was a bad tire (which ended up blowing) on a single axle trailer.

The OP's truck is a '24, making it equipped with the 3.6 gasser, whereas yours is equipped with the 3.0 diesel. You can't directly compare what's a normal rpm between the two.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

@handyman98
Your trailer's aerodynamics, or lack thereof, play a larger role than its weight in regards to the load on the vehicle in the majority of your towing (towing uphill being the exception). On anything even slightly resembling flat terrain a heavier trailer with lower aerodynamic drag will require less effort by the tow vehicle to pull than a lighter trailer with higher drag.

Regarding your revs while towing, the vehicle basically senses the increased load it needs to move and in response will shift the transmission to the appropriate gear so that the engine is able to best handle that load. Don't be afraid of higher revs with your 3.6 engine, it'll handle them just fine. Yes, the different axle gearing does play some part in the difference you describe, but you need also consider that the factory gearing was chosen due to the larger/heavier tires your Rubicon was equipped with as well. Different tire size and weight, different axle gearing, different trailer size and design... all of these variables make it so a direct "rpm at such and such speed" comparison cannot be made.


The OP's truck is a '24, making it equipped with the 3.6 gasser, whereas yours is equipped with the 3.0 diesel. You can't directly compare what's a normal rpm between the two.

People forget about the frontage specs in the book. They figure weight only. The square feet of the front matters.

My bet would be, if the OP got in one of those other vehicles, it would behave the same way. 4k+ is standard going up an incline towing. 4k is also possible level on the highway at 65mph. What gear was it in, would be my question. Could he have pushed it just a bit more until it shifted to the next gear?

With a trailer that has enough frontage, it's possible. I can stay under 3,000 RPM on the highway on the flats, going 65.
Of course, it sort of depends on my right foot, too.
My Overland didn't really get over 3,300 RPM until I get to some sort of incline.
But - it's a car hauler, not a "travel trailer" or camper with a big square frontage.

 

[Labswine]

Are you shifting manually or just letting the auto trans (try to) do it's thing?

I tow a 27', 5,100 lb (with all we want or need) travel trailer (2021 Vantage Sonic SN220VRB) with my Overland (ordered 5/19, delivered 7/19) and, shift totally manually.

My up shifts are between 2,000 and 2,500 RPMs and once I hit cruising speed of 65 MPH, it's 7th at around 2,100 RPMs. Never see 8th unless going down hill with a tail wind . Yeah, it lets me know it's only a V6 when I hit a grade then it's drop to 6th at around 2,500 RPMs until I crest the grade then it's back to 7th. This is mostly interstate on the east cost going to beach destinations so, not too many heavy grades.

I did a recent trip to the Finger Lakes region of New York (specifically Watkins Glen) this month (10/25), and I was towing through the Pocono mountains and, did have to drop to 5th on occasion just to even maintain 50-55 MPH and that was right around 3K RPMs.

I really didn't care what other drivers thought about my dropping to 50 MPH on an interstate where the speed limit was 65 or 70 because I do MY drive, not theirs.

If you are letting your trans do it's thing automatically, yeah, you'll be screaming along in 4th at 65 MPH and 4K RPMs, even with a trailer as light as yours. Try doing the manual thing and you might see the difference.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Best to NOT keep the RPM down. It's a lot harder on the engine, more load, more heat and all with less oil pressure.

I've also proven holding RPM low artificially is more load - it uses more fuel. I compared.
No way is it ever good to force high cylinder pressures and loads by keeping the RPM down because you don't like "screaming engine".

 

[Sandman 4x4]

I have a fairly small and lightweight camping trailer that is only about 1900 lbs.

When I did a few test runs the RPMs shot up to 4k+ on a flat and straight road with virtually no wind going 60-65. It was struggling just to get to 65.

I went to Trail Recon Summit #4 (without my trailer) and met many other Gladiator owners who towed and did not have this issue but they were not Rubicons. One owner tows a 5700lb trailer with 2 horses and his RPM is about 2200 on a similar road and speed.

Is it the gearing on a Rubicon that is causing this?

What size tires do you have?

 

[Sandman 4x4]

Are you shifting manually or just letting the auto trans (try to) do it's thing?

I tow a 27', 5,100 lb (with all we want or need) travel trailer (2021 Vantage Sonic SN220VRB) with my Overland (ordered 5/19, delivered 7/19) and, shift totally manually.

My up shifts are between 2,000 and 2,500 RPMs and once I hit cruising speed of 65 MPH, it's 7th at around 2,100 RPMs. Never see 8th unless going down hill with a tail wind . Yeah, it lets me know it's only a V6 when I hit a grade then it's drop to 6th at around 2,500 RPMs until I crest the grade then it's back to 7th. This is mostly interstate on the east cost going to beach destinations so, not too many heavy grades.

I did a recent trip to the Finger Lakes region of New York (specifically Watkins Glen) this month (10/25), and I was towing through the Pocono mountains and, did have to drop to 5th on occasion just to even maintain 50-55 MPH and that was right around 3K RPMs.

I really didn't care what other drivers thought about my dropping to 50 MPH on an interstate where the speed limit was 65 or 70 because I do MY drive, not theirs.

If you are letting your trans do it's thing automatically, yeah, you'll be screaming along in 4th at 65 MPH and 4K RPMs, even with a trailer as light as yours. Try doing the manual thing and you might see the difference.

That’s exactly how I tow in any vehicle I own. That’s just fine as long as you’re never more than half throttle and trans, oil, coolant temps are not too high. With oil pressure nice and steady, plus full synthetic and changed every 3-4K miles.

 

[handyman98]

What size tires do you have?

What came on the Rubicons... 285 70 17s. After all the scraping I did at Merus I am planning to go to 35s.

 

[handyman98]

Are you shifting manually or just letting the auto trans (try to) do it's thing?

I tow a 27', 5,100 lb (with all we want or need) travel trailer (2021 Vantage Sonic SN220VRB) with my Overland (ordered 5/19, delivered 7/19) and, shift totally manually.

My up shifts are between 2,000 and 2,500 RPMs and once I hit cruising speed of 65 MPH, it's 7th at around 2,100 RPMs. Never see 8th unless going down hill with a tail wind . Yeah, it lets me know it's only a V6 when I hit a grade then it's drop to 6th at around 2,500 RPMs until I crest the grade then it's back to 7th. This is mostly interstate on the east cost going to beach destinations so, not too many heavy grades.

I did a recent trip to the Finger Lakes region of New York (specifically Watkins Glen) this month (10/25), and I was towing through the Pocono mountains and, did have to drop to 5th on occasion just to even maintain 50-55 MPH and that was right around 3K RPMs.

I really didn't care what other drivers thought about my dropping to 50 MPH on an interstate where the speed limit was 65 or 70 because I do MY drive, not theirs.

If you are letting your trans do it's thing automatically, yeah, you'll be screaming along in 4th at 65 MPH and 4K RPMs, even with a trailer as light as yours. Try doing the manual thing and you might see the difference.

I am doing the Auto Trans. Let me try shifting manually and see how much difference it makes.

 

[handyman98]

Rubicon gearing is no different than most others.
Max tow, Mojave, Rubicon and certain others all share the same 4.10 gears.
Overland, Sport, and certain others have 3.73 gearing.
But frankly, it's so little difference, it won't matter much anyway.

You don't have a brake hanging up, do you?

Brakes are good...I did two 8+ hour drives after the trailer test run and eveything seemed normal.

 

[Labswine]

I am doing the Auto Trans. Let me try shifting manually and see how much difference it makes.

A couple of times, I tried to put it into the Auto shifting mode at 65 MPH and it immediately dropped from 7th to 4th and the RPMs went from 2,100 to over 4K...and this was on a level road, no grades or anything so, the Auto trans computer really doesn't know any better than what your intuition will tell you. Cruising at anything less than 2k RPMs isn't Kosher. Plus in deference to @Shadowpapa's opinion, my temps, both engine, trans, and oil never tops 215 degrees (according to the 'Off Road Pages'.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

A couple of times, I tried to put it into the Auto shifting mode at 65 MPH and it immediately dropped from 7th to 4th and the RPMs went from 2,100 to over 4K...and this was on a level road, no grades or anything so, the Auto trans computer really doesn't know any better than what your intuition will tell you. Cruising at anything less than 2k RPMs isn't Kosher. Plus in deference to @Shadowpapa's opinion, my temps, both engine, trans, and oil never tops 215 degrees (according to the 'Off Road Pages'.

Must be the drag from the long camper - and the frontage. Mine would never do that even in a mild grade. Has to be a whole lot more drag on that thing.

"Hunting" is horrible on the transmission. Even the books say if it hunts or there's excessive gear changes, put it in manual mode.
Mine would have been struggling at 2100 RPM, near lugging. My engine ran cooler in the mid-2,000s telling me I had reduced the load and combustion pressures/temps.
But flat is almost unheard of here until I get into IL, then it was a different animal.

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