Jeep Grand Cherokee or Dodge Durango behind FC

[bosshog]

I've been looking for a toad to pull behind our FC. We have the 250hp turbo Cat in our XV. This will also be my daily driver for work since i sold my 420SEL diesel last month. I'm partial to the 95-2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee, but am also seeing some fair deals on 98-2003 Durango's with lower miles than most of the Jeeps.

Will I notice the difference in weight between the 2? The Durango seems to be around 4800#, the Jeeps from 3800-4300 depending on year. I have a 10,000 Blue Ox bar with the Ready brake on it already.

I know the ideal one would be a Wrangler or Liberty, but they are a little small for me as a daily driver. Plus there is sometimes 4 of us traveling. We already have a Liberty but it's 2 wheel drive. Good vehicle, but I need a little more legroom!

[Pletcher]

I am very partial to 93-95 Grand Cherokees (ZJ). I have had 7 of them over the past couple years and am very familiar with them inside and out. 93-95 are not bad but the interiors are not as refined as the 96-98 and have a tendency to rattle and squeak with their ever growing age. The drive trains are identical for all 93-98 (other than some switching of computers etc so no worries there. The 318 magnum has always been rock solid in the ZJ's along with that series of 4.0L's. The 99-04 Grand Cherokee's (WJ) is a different animal in itself. I have also owned (1) and will only ever be (1) of those for the following reasons. Chrysler in all their infinite wisdom threw out the 318 and replaced with the new OHC 4.7 engines. They made good power but had many design flaws with smaller oil journals that could become blocked with debris from extended oil change times. So,.... With that said, you still have the choice of the 4.0L straight six that was used for many years and was actually created by AMC back in the 80's. Unfortunately though the newer 4.0L's were sometime plagued with head gasket issues (not sure if it was Chrysler cheaping out on the gaskets or what) which isn't the end of the world but still can be an issue. The interiors on the WJ's are much more refined than even the later ZJ's but unfortunately may come at a price. All of the Jeeps I talk of here have manual transfer cases for ease of towing. The Dodge on the other hand I do not have the experience with. My good friend had to work on his quite often, but thats as much as I know. The Dodges do have IFS up front where all the Jeeps that I speak of have solid axles in the front. Grands only went IFS in 2005 with the release of the (WK).

[yesmar]

Both are good tow vehicles. With the truck, you can haul a golf cart to wog.

[Mallie Lennon]

just remember the problems with the transfer case neutral in
model-year 2005-2010 Jeep Grand Cherokees and model-year 2006-2010 Jeep Commanders

[bosshog]

I too am partial to the earlier ZJ series due to the engine problems in the 4.7's, also prefer the body style. It seems if they are well maintained they will run a lot of miles, but the few I've looked at so far are all sludged up due to poor oil changes. Most seem to have a ton of miles on them so far. I don't want to go any newer than the WJ (ends in 2004) series.

I had a 258 in a Scout II years ago, it was a great engine. The 4.0's in some years had manifold issues also- I believe 99-2000.

The Durango is more truck like being based on the Dakota, has a frame instead of unibody. The 318's are pretty bulletproof again if maintained. I've had more vehicles over the years with the 318/360 than anything else. I've found a couple nice Durango RT's with the 360(5.9), but they do like gas!

[Clueless]

The 4 liter in years around 2000 had a head casting problem and several of them have cracked resulting in coolant loss and eventual oil pressure problems due to the leaking coolant draining right onto a center cam bearing and eroding it. This is especially true for the Cherokee.

[Crit Bliss]

About the same as driving with the water tank full or empty, not very significant in my mind.