Jeep flat towing

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In Excess

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Looking for input on flat towing a 2020 JL wrangler, don’t really like the idea of the tow plates as we will use the jeep off road. Probably going to do a flat bed as well so we can take jeep and can am on some trips.
 

need ideas for which parts, pieces and thoughts 

 
Aftermarket bumper with D ring brackets. Blue Ox makes an adapter to hook directly to the D ring mounts on the aftermarket bumpers. You need to be sure the aftermarket bumper has d rings rated to tow the jeep, not all after market bumpers created equal. I believe the Blue Ox adapter require a 1" hole for the D ring. If you don't want to change the bumper, I think you are stuck the the frame bracket. You can see the frame bracket just below the bumper on my jeep. I have hit it a couple of times wheeling. I put this on before I added the bumper. Going to loose the bracket and switch to the D ring adapters.

IMG_3011.JPG

 
I use a blue ox setup and am very happy with it.  I hook it to the d rings in front bumper.  For the Jeep I bought/installed a plug and play wiring harness that plugs into the rear taillight. You just have to run it from front bumper to rear taillight.  No cutting wires.  Hooking up the jeep takes about 5 minutes.  

 
I bought the blue ox set up with the d-ring bracket. I personally don't like flat towing behind the RV. I feel like there is a lot of drag on the jeep, I expected it to feel much lighter. I didn't want to cut into the factory wire harness so I picked up some harbor freight magnet lights. I also didn't hook up any braking system, not that you really feel it behind the RV but going down steep grades and breaking the jeep did get a little squrely.  It can't be that great for the jeep, wear and tear on tires and moving parts. I know of a few people who had brain farts and forgot to unlock the steering column. Behind an RV you aren't really going to feel tire scrub until its too late and a tire blows. They both lost tires and one actually lost a wheel and did some body damage when the tire blew. You can't back up, at least with a trailer if you get into a situation where you need to back up you can. Finally if you break your jeep a flatbed trailer sure comes in handy. I picked up a 16' Carson trailer cheap and its perfect for the jeep and feels like less drag when towing. That's my $0.02. If you want to do it I have the set up I purchased I'd sell. 

https://www.etrailer.com/Tow_Bar/Blue_Ox/BX7380.html

https://www.etrailer.com/Accessories_and_Parts/Blue_Ox/BX88358.html

 
Pennywise said:
I bought the blue ox set up with the d-ring bracket. I personally don't like flat towing behind the RV. I feel like there is a lot of drag on the jeep, I expected it to feel much lighter. I didn't want to cut into the factory wire harness so I picked up some harbor freight magnet lights. I also didn't hook up any braking system, not that you really feel it behind the RV but going down steep grades and breaking the jeep did get a little squrely.  It can't be that great for the jeep, wear and tear on tires and moving parts. I know of a few people who had brain farts and forgot to unlock the steering column. Behind an RV you aren't really going to feel tire scrub until its too late and a tire blows. They both lost tires and one actually lost a wheel and did some body damage when the tire blew. You can't back up, at least with a trailer if you get into a situation where you need to back up you can. Finally if you break your jeep a flatbed trailer sure comes in handy. I picked up a 16' Carson trailer cheap and its perfect for the jeep and feels like less drag when towing. That's my $0.02. If you want to do it I have the set up I purchased I'd sell. 

https://www.etrailer.com/Tow_Bar/Blue_Ox/BX7380.html

https://www.etrailer.com/Accessories_and_Parts/Blue_Ox/BX88358.html
Click to expand...
I flat towed our XJ with our Moho to az for a mountain bike race a couple weeks ago, then towed our 26' sport trailer loaded to Glamis last weekend. I swear the jeep felt heavier and I don't use a break controller. Blue OX here too. 

 
Good info, I've been debating setting my WJ up for flat tow.  I think it's just too tall, and probably too "floppy" with the Anti-rocks (they allow a lot of body motion before the rate ramps up and they do much).  It's weird, it drives great down the road or the highway so I guess it should be fine, but somehow I just can't picture it flat-towing well.  I'm probably going to look for another nice flatbed trailer once I get the house done and have parking again and I'll just do that.  That obviously has downsides, especially at RV parks with smaller spots that don't have overflow trailer parking.  

-TJ

 
Currently getting my 21 JL set up. There’s a lot of debate on flat towing with aftermarket bumpers vs the base plates and strength. I chose to go with an LOD bumper and their aftermarket tie in frame brackets for extra strength to the frame. 

To save some money I’m going to go with the Ready Brute Hercules bar with a built in surge brake. I’ll have to run a brake actuator cable from the front of the bumper to the brake pedal. There are other brake systems out there like RVi3 and Invisibrake but I like the more mechanical aspect of the ready brake plus the other options are quite expensive. My Jeep weighs about 5k fully loaded so I’m going to use a brake system. Plus, it’s a law in most states for a braking system and breakaway system. 
 

CoolTech LLC makes a nice wiring harness that ties into the factory lights through the passenger door channel. It has a Jeep vs Tow toggle switch. I’m a little afraid of tying into the factory wiring but the way it’s set up doesn’t seem to intrusive. Plus I can splice it all back together if it needs to be removed. This video shows a complete install where the guy cuts the wrong wire and just butt connects it back together without a problem.


I’m choosing to flat tow instead of trailering it for a few reasons. One, we are in to state park and national park camping. They have strict length restrictions. I’m able to disconnect the Jeep and use it’s own power to park elsewhere or in front of our RV. Having a trailer is another restriction where it needs to be moved by the RV or Jeep and take up more room. My RV is 33ft so I fall into all the 35ft site limits. With my 20ft trailer, I’m 53ft and won’t fit in those spots.

Jeeps are by far the most popular flat tow set up out there. Mainly for the ease of set up, no steering wheel lock, and transfer case neutral. My dad did it for thousands of miles with a Jeep TJ when I was little and didn’t come across any problems.
 

Merry Christmas! 
 

Tow bar I went with. 
https://www.readybrake.com/store/p88/HERCULES_TOW_BAR.html

Bumper I went with. 
https://lodoffroad.com/products/2018-jl-jt-signature-series-mid-width

CoolTech Harness

https://www.cooltechllc.com/2018-jeep-wrangler-jl/107-114-jl-tow-harness-kit.html#/69-jl_tow_harness_kit-basic

 
Lots of good info, still debating on how to do it. I have been liking the lod bumper already 

 
I don’t have info specific for the Wrangler but I tow two different Grand Cherokees with our moho:

For dirt trips I drag my 93 ZJ around on a 16’ flatbed trailer. Tows great but I’m 60’ long overall which sucks for parking at times and is sometimes a major pain in the ass at campgrounds. I run a Prodigy brake controller to run the electric trailer brakes. I don’t trust that old ZJ for flat towing and was glad I had the trailer when I blew the front differential all to hell at TDS a few years back. It was a chore just getting back to camp, there was absolutely no way in hell it was going to get flat towed home.

For non-dirt trips I flat tow a 21 WK2 with Roadmaster components. I didn’t want to mess with the vehicle wiring at this time so am running a TowMate wireless light bar on a hitch bracket I fabbed up. Currently not running any sort of brake actuation system but am looking at different options for the piece of mind. It tows great, feels lighter than the flatbed and ZJ (as it should, there’s about 2k lbs less back there). Way easier to park at a store when needed and is the ticket for campgrounds. The factory made the WK2 very easy to flat tow, hookup takes less than 5 minutes. Drug that thing from San Diego all the way up to Port Angeles Washington and back this past summer. The one big downside is that you cannot back up if you get into a situation.

If you’re going to be doing rock crawling or other relatively aggressive off roading, the trailer is probably the safer bet for when mechanical issues do arise. If you’re just a trail/dirt road cruiser and it’s not as likely you’ll have a major drivetrain parts failure, it’s hard to not suggest flat towing instead.

 
raspadoo said:
I flat towed our XJ with our Moho to az for a mountain bike race a couple weeks ago, then towed our 26' sport trailer loaded to Glamis last weekend. I swear the jeep felt heavier and I don't use a break controller. Blue OX here too. 
Click to expand...
Probably has to do with the over 100lb/ea rollers most built Jeeps have. 

 
Know of 2 jeep transfer cases that blew up being flat towed....don't know why they do, but  2 neighbors blew theirs up...Tj and Xj, then dealt with another TJ that blew up.  If you can trailer it, much better. Lots of people flat tow.  I did led boat light kit, and fab'd a T bracket that mounts in the rear hitch of the jeep... all the wire and T bracket come off once I'm at my destination.  Like plugging in a trailer. 

 
I've been flat towing a JK since 2011 and now a gladiator JT. I got a factory flat-tow wiring kit for both vehicles from Mopar. The JK plugged into the connectors at the interior passenger footwell, the JT has wiring that goes all the way to the tail-lights (actually a JL kit that was extended). Both were towed with a roadmaster bar and hidden hitch mounts. As long as you don't try to back-up when connected and remember to put the transfer case in neutral you're good to go.

 
I have my jeep JKU set up with SMI brake system plug and play wire harness and use Blue Ox tow bar with aftermarket bumper and blue ox bolt on brackets Had to drill a couple of extra holes in the bumper and end of the frame but that makes plenty strong, all the tow bar parts are 10K rated and the brakes are proportional works great takes about 5 min tops to be hooked up and headed down the road. Your jeep should be easy to set up to flat tow which is most coinvent imo. If we are taking jeep and sxs i put both in the enclosed trailer, but just traveling we flat tow for sure more wear and tear but that's what we bought it for travel and mild wheeling and we tow a lot and no issues so far.

 
Great info from all aspects, So I wasn’t super clear on this and my plans that change on almost a daily basis. We have a toter with a gooseneck hitch which is the tow vehicle.

we are going to flat tow as we apparently are old now and will be traveling a bit more

We are also getting a gooseneck trailer so that we can put both the jeep and and x3 on a trailer for desert trips. This should keep us at California’s 65’ length limit. 

we also have a 40’ stacker that we use for racing which puts us over 70’ which won’t work for us on some of our desert trips 

I don’t see us flat towing until summer but I need to get everything on order and installed so I can get installed before it’s time to hit the road

 
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