Mike, looking for your opinion and maybe your advice on a couple things if possible. My wife and I just purchased a 2021 Rubicon Unlimited Extreme with the 3.6 E-Torque and 8 speed auto. We got it to flat tow it behind our 2006 GMC 3500 4x4 CrewCab Dually Duramax and Allison auto with our 2020 Arctic Fox 990 truck camper. After reading all you’ve said about the benefits of flat towing, I’m looking forward to being able to enjoy the freedom that having our Jeep with us on our adventures. I’ve done a bit of research on what I need to be safe flat towing, but I’m sure you’ve done volumes more. After all you’ve done and seen, and if you were starting with a clean slate, what gear would you get for what I’ve got? I’ve looked at a few tow bar setups and read up on the BrakeBuddy stuff, but this is very much not a subject I’ve ever studied and I really don’t want to make any expensive bad choices! And you’ll like this (probably not!) our new Jeep has the new hot setup for the windshield, Gorilla Glass! With less than 2000 miles on the clock, my wife and I traveled to Northern California for the Christmas holidays. Traveling home on Hwy 99 just outside of Bakersfield a truck must have kicked up a rock because we didn’t see it, but we sure heard it hit! While still driving we both couldn’t see any damage, so we figured it was a win for the monkey….
When we got home and were washing all the road grime and salt off and was polishing the windshield….
It was a perfect hit, right on the edge! And then to add insult to injury, the damn rock also chipped the paint with the ricochet! Don’t think your chip repair kit would do any good on this edge crack, you can see it’s actually cracked under the Gorilla Glass layer. Wonder how much these cost. Probably won’t replace it till it gets bad as I’m sick thinking about the window guy coming at my baby with his knives and caulking gun! Thank you in advance for your input and knowledge of all things “JEEP”!
First off, thank you very much for following along and for the vote of confidence. Sorry to hear about your windshield as rock chips in glass ****! I was fortunate my first windshield lasted over about 115k miles before one got it bad enough to crack beyond repair. I did have quite a few small chips that I was able to repair in all those miles and about ten years though so I shouldn't complain. When I had my windshield replaced last year I waffled on the Gorilla glass but in the end opted just to replace it with a good aftermarket windshield. I didn't even go back to the OEM with the little Jeep easter egg around the perimeter and so far I've been pleased.
Good for you setting up your Jeep to flat-tow. I think you will be happy with the choice and I hope it opens up the options for you as much as it has for us when traveling. I've hauled the Jeep and Harley in our enclosed trailer for many years as well and flat-towing is just so simple, quick and convenient that even though I miss my race trailer, I don't think I could go back. My wife and I were even talking the other night that our first long trip when we retire is a 3+ month long road trip to Alaska in the coach and she asked if the Jeep would be ok for that. I said hell yeah, that is what we built it for and we tow it everywhere else so why wouldn't we tow it to Alaska. That will probably be a 10k-12k mile trip but shouldn't be any different than a bunch of 1k-3k mile trips.
As for towing and braking setups I have had a few over the past 25+ years and over 200k miles now. My first towbar I fabricated in-house and made it to fold up on the front of the vehicle. That was with our first motorhome and our first Jeep, a 1991 Jeep Cherokee (XJ). We towed that for about 2-3 years before we sold it and upgraded to the 1996 Grand Cherokee (ZJ) in which I bought a Roadmaster Stowmaster towbar setup. This was the one that required a mounting plate for the front and the towbar folded down parallet to the front bumper. However, it stuck out about 10 inches in front of the bumper so when we started doing some off-road trails I would usually remove it and store it in the coach's storage compartment. I did not use an auxiliary braking system on the XJ but seeing as how the ZJ was heavier I wanted some supplemental braking capabilities seeing as how we travel in the western U.S. and over many mountain passes. I bought one of those box style that push against the seat and the brake pedal. Although it worked as advertised, I hated it. I hated the inconvenience of it and hated the bulkiness of it. We only used this setup for about 2 years and I had grown tired of it quickly.
Here is our second coach, first diesel pusher, and our 1996 Jeep ZJ during a road trip. This was with the factory front bumper and Roadmaster Stowmaster towbar setup. Not seen is the box style braking system on the driver's floorboard.
After the second year and during the winter off-season I sold both the Roadmaster Stowmaster towbar as well as the Brake Buddy braking system. I fabricated a custom front bumper for the ZJ to allow a better approach angle as well as incorporate tow points into the bumper for flat-towing. I had also purchased another Roadmaster towbar but this was the Sterling aluminum towbar that mounted to the coach and the arms connected directly to the Jeep's front bumper. I also splurged and purchased the U.S. Gear's Unified Braking System. This was an electronic braking system that was tied in with the coach's signal but used the Jeep's braking system and an aux. vacuum pump to pull a vacuum on the OE brake booster. It then used an electrical linear actuator to pull a cable that connected to the back of the brake pedal and proportionately braked the Jeep in relation to the coach. The linear actuator mounted under the driver's seat and was completely out of the way and out of sight.
I absolutely LOVED this setup. Both the bumper and supplemental braking system were clean and un-cluttered whether it was in use or daily driving. No need to remove the towbar when we traveled for off-roading because the towbar was mounted to the coach and when we returned home or just disconnected to go sight-seeing we didn't need to remove anything from the Jeep and store it, simply disconnect and go.
I carried that exact same setup over to our next Jeep and next coach over the following 15 years or so. I ran that exact setup in our current coach and current Jeep up until about 3 years ago when I did the LS swap. With our current 2011 Jeep Wrangler I built a custom towbar crossmember for the front of the Jeep to connect the Roadmaster towbar to and kept it low and back so as not to encroach into my approach angle for off-roading. I like this setup so much that when I started seeing some slight wear in the arms of the towbar I opted to rebuild it vs. replacing it, even after all those years and miles of use. At the time of reconfiguring our current Jeep when I added the LS engine I knew it had gained some weight over the years and was pushing the limits of the Sterling 6k pound towbar even though it gave no signs of any issues. I sold the Roadmaster Sterling towbar and the U.S. Gear Unified Braking System to a fellow Jeep club member who had just purchased his first motorhome and was looking for a setup to flat-tow his 2004 Jeep TJ.
At this point I purchased another Roadmaster towbar, the Nighthawk 8k pound setup. The first year I towed the Jeep without a supplemental braking system because I could not make up my mind on which one to go with even after much research. IT was at this time I kicked myself for selling the U.S. Gear Unified Braking System as they had quit manufacturing it by now. I sold it because it had a small vacuum pump that mounted in the engine bay and I wanted to clean up the engine bay and didn't want that pump. After deciding on a supplemental braking system I discovered that I still have to mount items in the engine bay so I should have just kept the Unified Braking System.
I now have the Demco Air Force-One braking system that uses the coach's air brake system to provide proportional braking to the Jeep. It work great but does require air brakes on the tow vehicle.
Here is our current setup as of last year.
We have friends who have the Roadmaster as well as Demco and Blue Ox towbars. I have seen on a couple of RV forums over the past couple of years about some Blue Ox failures, some quite devastating. I'm not certain as to the exact cause of these failures but it still gives me pause to recommend them. I do like the quick release front connection points of the Blue Ox setup however.
I have absolutely nothing bad to say about the Roadmaster towbars in all of the miles I have used them and don't have enough personal experience with the Demco to say one way or the other.
As for supplemental braking systems I have used the Brake Buddy, Unified Braking System, Air Force-One and have installed a couple of the M&G setups in other Jeeps. I really like the M&G setup and the Air Force-One but they require air brakes on the tow vehicle which won't work for your setup. You could use a Brake Buddy style if you are ok with the box in the front floorboard area of the Jeep but then storing it when you get to your destination is a PITA. Personally, I would see if you could find a used U.S. Gear Unified Braking System somewhere as that was probably the best system I have ever ran.
Other than that I don't have much personal experience with some of the newer ones out currently.
Sorry for lengthy history of our setup but hope some of it was helpful to assist you in making a decision based off what I liked and didn't like about each.
