To Toad or not to Toad?

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Disconnecting the battery is easily accomplished with a remote battery switch, available on Amazon, ebay or most auto parts stores. Or just a simple knife switch on the battery post - just pop the hood & flip the switch lever.

Yeah, car manufacturers have been cutting back on the design features needed to make a transmission 4-down towable. Anything to save some bucks and 99% of the buying public don't need 4-down towing capability. The addition of automated electronic management to so many car systems has made towing ever more difficult, so the easy & cheap answer is to simply "don't do it".

 

[Ernie n Tara]

I'll second the "Jeeps ride better now". Even our Rubicon with stock off road tires, lift, and winch bumper with winch was comfortable, albeit the tires were a bit noisy.
It was also little high to get into. We now have a Jeep Gladiator and it is quiet and rides well.

Ernie

Note: when I traded the 10 yr old Rubicon, I received a better than 50% trade in!

 

[Isaac-1]

You might try test driving a Jeep Cherokee we have one (note the Cherokee is different from the Grand Cherokee, two different platforms, though both are flat towable with certain transmission options). For the Cherokee it must have Active Drive II to be flat Towable, this cane be found on all Trailhawk models, and is optionally avaialble on most other trim levels, though is very rare on lower trim like the Latitude models. Note that Cherokees built from 2015 to mid 2019 require a special flat tow wiring harness that dealers charge about $500 to install, where you have to insert a fuse under the hood, and flip a switch in the arm rest to flat tow (A similar wiring kit is now available for the Grand Cherokee), this powers the EPS system to help prevent death wobble. I would not call the ride in the Cherokee soft, but it is fairly comfortable.

 

[Joenew61]

We tow a 2015 Jeep Wrangler Sahara. No battery hassle, or any other, for towing, just connect the tow bar, electric cable, safety chains, and go (well, be sure the transfer case is in neutral, but on the 2015 don't even need the key in the ignition).

The ride in these later Jeeps is MUCH better than in the earlier ones -- the difference between the 2003 we had and the 2015 we have now is like night and day, though I grant it's still not like a 2002 Mercury Marquis.

Thanks - I really like the look of the Wrangler and having a little more off-road "juice" could probably come in handy.

This is what the 2020 guide says, but I'll look back through the last few years of the guide and the manuals to be sure:

Wrangler/Wrangler Unlimited 3,948 None Yes Yes 22/24 $29,790-$43,435 Special Procedures: Automatic transmission in Park. Manual transmission in gear (NOT IN NEUTRAL). Transfer case in Neutral. See owner’s manual for very detailed instructions on shifting transmission into Neutral.

 

[Joenew61]

Looks like something in the Jeep line will be where we end up. Their product line and trim option combinations are really broad - probably close to 75 different combinations. I guess a visit to a dealer is probably in order to help narrow it down.

 

[Laura & Charles]

2014 was the last model year for flat towable CR-V,s. We replaced our first toad in 2018 and 2014 didn’t seem two terribly old then. Sounds pretty old now... time flies, eh?
I can only echo what’s been previously posted. We had a toad from day one, back in June, 2016.