Thread: Is a Jeep Grand Cherokee really better than a D4?

Got a drive today. The moose test and their arguments is interesting but 4wd of the year made me think it worth a look.

Initial impressions, The Good- lot of kit, very good rear camera and 4wd systems very like my D3. Drive wise- a little more noise, a lighter car and car like handling- It seemed a very good diesel engine. Seats very good, fit out was first rate
The bad- Left foot was clearly suffering from the LHD conversion to a RHD. I did not like my left foot being forced far away from it normal resting position and I am sure I would hate it after several hours driving
The very bad
I dropped the back wheels off a little slope near me( photo below), The front wheel was still on flat ground at the top. It was green grass but fairly dry. Trying to move forward had one rear wheel slipping. Low range, first gear and 4wd mode selected and the same thing with the car moving “Backwards” not forwards. DSC off – Ditto back down the slope with only one wheel seeming to try to provide any forward motion while slipping. At the bottom I tried driving up and failed It has road rubber on.
Took my D3 back without 4wd modes, without low range and in auto it easily moved the back wheels only off and also easily drove up and down the slope with no special setting engaged and now wheel spin- OK -I have AT tires on do this is not fair. I took a Lexus RX350 back with road tires and little Offroad credibility- guess what The Lexus was clearly better on this patch of grass then the Cherokee.
The Jeep Grand Cherokee is not nearly as good 4wd. apparently an Off road pack puts a Limited slip diff on and 18inch rims. It would need that kit as I seemed to have only one rear wheel driving the Cherokee in my simple test. Quadra-Drive® II and Quadra-Lift™ where on the test car. I am not one eyed and was looking with a real possiblity if it was really 4wd of the year to look at one to replace my D3 when/if needed over the next year or two

That's embarrasing for Drive. I thought it was an April Fool's joke.

OK to answer the question - 4X4 of the year awards do need criteria. I don't know what criteria was used for this award, so it's hard to say which is best.

I have driven both vehicles and while the Jeep is good onroad, it's not quite as good as the Disco, and while it's great offroad, so is the Disco.

The D4 kills it for 7-seater versatility and refinement though, not to mention payload and loadspace. But the Jeep is cheaper, is a good car and tows 3500kg in most variants. So it's a pretty good grey nomad caravan-puller.

As for the moose test - I don't normally post to my own blog, but I'm seeing statements made without knowledge of the facts. Full details here:

Jeep Grand Cherokee fails elk test? Full analysis: UPDATED 15/08/2012 | 4WD Book & 4X4 News

Originally Posted by TerryO

The air suspension lifts 2.5 inches in off road mode and doesn't lower until 80 kph.

For those people eyeing-off the Jeep's air suspension, whilst its OR2 height is stated as 2.6", the "80" kph limited height is OR1 at 1.3" and that's only if the speed is kept below 64 kph or temporarily up to 77 kph for a maximum of 20 seconds. It provides less height than LR's off-road height albeit with a 15 kph higher speed limit for continued use. However in a few days time I will know if the Llams height controller works with these vehicles and can therefore provide the same unrestricted speed for off-road OR1 and OR2 raised and Aero lowered heights as it does for LRs. If it works then at least initially it will be only hard-wired rather than plug-in.

I'd fail the moose test in a defender too. Hit it, wrap the winch under car and over roof and drag moose onto bonnet and take home for dinner.

The Llams height controller is not compatible with the Jeep's sensor signals however I now have the necessary information to ponder the design of an equivalent system.

Hi Graeme, since the market for such a device would be huge in the US is there not anything already developed for it over there?
If not and you can do it you would sell heaps of them.

I scanned the net looking for any info on the quadra-lift system and all I found apart from sales blurbs and an erroneous motoring writer's comments was the occasional person having experierenced a couple of unknown faults.

After seeing the Jeep owner off I did some proper thinking and realised it wasn't much of a task to handle the different signal, so called him back an hour into his journey home to try a revised program. However I couldn't get past first base so off he went home again after another hour or so wasted. I've just spotted a simple coding error that was causing the program to be very wayward but will build a proper test module to replicate the sensor signals before the next vehicle test. I can definitely do it with only minor handling of the input signal and tailoring the output signal to the Jeep specific format and also without any circuit changes. There is no guess-work whereas there was with the development for the LR system.

I don't think I would drive one at their full OR2 height very quickly because at that height the suspension tops-out on almost every bump/rut on my driveway, but OR1 or perhaps a little higher might be very useful. I doubt I'll find the necessary ecu connectors to make it plug and play but there's easy access to the wiring to do a hard-wiring connection.

You might have to open a workshop in the US to fit the kits.
Perhaps California or Utah.
(Only kidding)