Traveling from Northern California to all sorts of natural and historical destinations as well as exploring trails and fire roads in search of special views to photograph.
Join us here to investigate the terrain of some beautiful and challenging locations.
I love my '19 Trailhawk. Still not 100% sure the 2.0T is gonna last a long long time, but will see. 40K miles on it, I drive it like I stole it most of the time. It's just a fun little gokart type rig. Hauls ass on the pavement, loves gravel roads, handles 2 track roads, cattle trails, and improved trails. I've owned cars for 40 years plus now, this has been my favorite. It is quicker than most everything I ever owned, drives like a dream on and off road, and will go places my F-150 bucks and paws and throws rocks trying to go. In many cases, I'd wager my Trailhawk would go where my side by side would not. They are fairly evenly matched, with the side by side having just 2 inches more clearance, but way less HP to weight. Potentially looking at adding portal axles in the future, for when it's mostly my putzing around in the dirt rig.
Just wondering how your transmission and PTU are holding up. I’m not happy with the transmission in my 2019. Seems very confused. Constantly clunking in and out of gears.
You test are invalid . On 4 high you go pretty slow. On 4 low you go a bit faster with more rpm On 4 low with diff lock you go pedal to the metal ??? To make a comparison between mode you need to keep the same rpm and speed busy.
Has anybody seen a video of a Trailhawk stuck yet? I've almost never seen them... Has anybody seen the video of a Trailhawk flip over? ... I've never seen one.... Drop a link if you've seen one....
Rear locker: Be in 4lo (which requires a temp neutral to shift into), but be moving forward slightly to engage the locker itself. Otherwise the locker indicator light can sit there and blink forever and never engage if you're just sitting still. Slight side-to-side steering and forward motion is required to pop the locker right in. This is right out of the owner's manual.
First thing, don't stability control off. If he would have done ANY research and just placed the terrain knob to "sand/mud" that'd be done for him and the vehicle would be correctly configured for the situation he put it in. Also, "4x4 is always engaged". No it isn't. The PTU disengages the rear drivetrain when slippage isn't present. This is the case with all Active Drive types on the Cherokee, Compass, Renegade and Chrysler 200 awd that have the 948TE auto transmission. I cringed hard when he went up first incline... Chooses the worst possible line with low clearance and doesn't allow the brake lock differential time to correct traction issues, then goes up again in low range and floors it. WTF. Crawl ratio doesn't determine traction. 4 low can be used anywhere. There's not a "binding" issue present on PTU 4wd vehicles when the rear locker isn't engaged. Also, there's no u-joints to bind while turning. You don't need to stop to activate the rear locker. It actually helps it engage/disengage when moving slowly.
All good except he could have been on Rock to get up there but sand/mud is fine too, he was climbing and need wheel spin out instead of going into sand or mud there he can keep some wheel spin to keep momentum. In 2 3 inches of snow, snow mode is okay but in over 4inches of snow I like sand/mud better and even with traction control puched 5 seconds is even better but it understeer more than to press it just 1 second.
Ya. You can have the locker engaged regardless as long as you're in 4 low. Also the rock mode does have a significantly more agressive power delivery than even 4 auto or any of the other low modes.
@@seanwatson3790 Actually it doesn't, I see you are still giving out false information. Rock mode is nothing more than aggressive Brake lock differential programming meaning that it will brake the wheels much sooner than the other selec terrain modes.
I'm looking for a relatively spacious compact SUV, good for soft off-roading and in snow, mountainous roads. I was looking at this Jeep vs the Forester or even the Rav4 (all 2019-ish) as the jack of trades budget friendly-ish options. Thanks for the video - but yes the audio/music wasn't grea. But I do appreciate on screen comments - much easier for my brain to compute ;)
Honestly all of them seem to be great options. I'm partial to this model for me because of the way I use it, which is long trips and tough trails. If you are mostly doing long trips and camping, a RAV4 hybrid would be great. If you are doing moderate trails and some light snow mud and rain, a Forester would be great. If you are looking for something that is reasonably efficient with serious 4x4 capabilities, the Cherokee Trailhawk might be right. Also, the Cherokee is not great for space. Both other options have far more space. Good luck, take care.
one interesting thing I read in the owners manual page 163 wish (2015 cherokee TH). it says that you can put it into 4 wheel drive low without the engine on. just make sure the ignition is on!
enjoyed your video. definitely sounds like you know what you are talking about. I just picked up my Jeep Cherokee trailhawke 2015 from the dealership for a PTU replacement because of 2 problems that it had. One it would not go into 4 wheel drive because of the electric motor actuator. I let this go since I just needed 2 wheel drive op. It finally caused me to take it in because it got stuck somehow into 4 wheel drive low. The service writer who picked me up was unable to get the car into 4 wheel drive low when I asked him to try it. He was trying to do it on a gravel parking lot. Taking it in after the holiday. Can you give me a link to better understand this system. The user manual is limited.
I had no idea the Cherokee (Trailhawk) was so off-road capable. Seems to be second only to the Wrangler Rubicon............or perhaps third or fourth to some of the more expensive GC trim levels.
Check out Colorado mallcrawlers RU-vid channel , you'll see what they can do. But also they are more capable than the grand Cherokee trailhawk because they see the only trailhawk version that comes with a mechanical rear locker. The gc only has a limited slip rear diff. The only other jeep period you can get with just a rear locker is the gladiator Mojave
Appreciate the tips. One correction: Putting the transmission in neutral may not be the best option when locking the rear axle. I found mine would not lock that way when I needed it. The manual says: Vehicle speed must be below 15 mph" and "It may also be necessary to drive slowly steering back and forth to complete engagement or disengagement of the E-locker" (page 123 for the 2021 Cherokee). I'd recommend locking the rear axle ahead of time if you think you're going to need it. I like the rest of the content.
It’s all fun until the PTU fails. And it will. Then Chrysler wants $5000. And these fail frequently. Every single one will fail. I would never buy another one of these piles of junk. Buy a Toyota!
$1900. Installed. You must suck at negotiating. Also, only 2014-2016 had PTUs with faulty shift modules. If it's replaced with the current revision, the problem no longer exists. Lastly, I don't want to have rust issues and underhood fires like Tacomas have.
@@FoxtrotUniformCharlieKilo774 3 different dealers here in Saskatchewan said the same thing. $5500 installed. No warranty if I do it myself. And I am a GM tech. And I rebuild transmissions and transfer cases and PTO’s. Screw this fiat garbage. She drives a Mazda now.
Try being softer on the Gas. Just like you said in the video the computer is thinking and actively applying power to the wheels with the most traction. Allowing you to crawl up something instead of trying to power through it.
One of the things I've noticed about the Cherokee. It's the most useful 4x4 system of all the Jeeps. The Wrangler/Gladiator can't use their 4 system unless they're on slippery terrain.