One step closer
Posted: Thu May 27, 2021 7:03 pm
We've been trailering a Nissan Juke for the past couple of years as our "towed", but where I store my car trailer may be coming to an end, so I decided that perhaps it was time to make a change. Went looking and found a nice '15 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk that can be flat towed (amazing how many people think that ALL Jeeps can be flat towed - wrong), and yesterday had the mod installed at the dealer for the power steering bypass relay. I found a super clean Blue Ox towbar and bought it, and the baseplate kit just showed up so have to pick a day and see about installing it myself since it's well within the scope of things that my brother and I have the tools and ability to do.
I'll be honest - the thoughts of being able to have the Jeep sitting here at home and we decide we want to go away for a few days so all we have to do is pull the RV into the alley, drive the jeep around to the back end, do the checklist and connect and we can go has me antsy for a change! The car trailer routine worked really good for us for the previous 5 years, and I have zero complaints about towing that way, but the thoughts of just how simple and easy the Jeep will be is truly something to look forward to! The only sad thing is that the Jeep comes with a price - we had to sell our '08 Honda Pilot that we've gone cross country multiple times in and loved, but it can't be flat towed and was way to heavy to haul behind us (plus it's huge - thus the Juke).
I had built a light bar for on the back of the Juke when it was on the car trailer, so modified it a little bit to go below the bike carrier on the back of the Jeep, and that will be my tow lights now instead of messing with the Jeep wiring harness. The light bar actually shows up really nice, and since the taillights on the Sahara will still be clearly visible, the best of both worlds in my mind. We had been pondering how many years we were going to want to try to travel with the Sahara, and this may have just bumped our expiration date out there quite a ways in the future (and again, now I'm truly kind of antsy to be able to hit the road).
I'll be honest - the thoughts of being able to have the Jeep sitting here at home and we decide we want to go away for a few days so all we have to do is pull the RV into the alley, drive the jeep around to the back end, do the checklist and connect and we can go has me antsy for a change! The car trailer routine worked really good for us for the previous 5 years, and I have zero complaints about towing that way, but the thoughts of just how simple and easy the Jeep will be is truly something to look forward to! The only sad thing is that the Jeep comes with a price - we had to sell our '08 Honda Pilot that we've gone cross country multiple times in and loved, but it can't be flat towed and was way to heavy to haul behind us (plus it's huge - thus the Juke).
I had built a light bar for on the back of the Juke when it was on the car trailer, so modified it a little bit to go below the bike carrier on the back of the Jeep, and that will be my tow lights now instead of messing with the Jeep wiring harness. The light bar actually shows up really nice, and since the taillights on the Sahara will still be clearly visible, the best of both worlds in my mind. We had been pondering how many years we were going to want to try to travel with the Sahara, and this may have just bumped our expiration date out there quite a ways in the future (and again, now I'm truly kind of antsy to be able to hit the road).