Towing a U-Haul Trailer

dtroth91

dtroth91

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I'll be moving from CA to OH at some point in the future.

I would like to tow a trailer vs renting a truck from uhaul for cost efficiency.

I have a 2006 lj with 31s and 3.73s

Heard uhaul won't rent to wrangler without a hardtop, but I have one so I'm covered there as far as I know.

Trailer is 900 lbs empty and we aren't bring furniture. Heaviest thing we are bringing is books. It's mostly clothes and some electronics like our tv.

I don't have any trailer harness but if it's feasible I would get a plug and play 4 pin(install myself), and have a 7 pin and brake controller installed by uhaul, as well as a real class 3 hitch, as opposed to my dirtworx bumper.

I'm a little concerned about the auto trans, but wouldn't be opposed to adding an auxilliary cooler.

My estimate is rough but let's say max 700 lbs of cargo.

No problem going slow and low elevation, and taking my time.

I know some people advise against anything maybe bigger than 14-1500 lbs and others that tow 2k lb pop up campers regularly.

So what say yall? Feasible? Dangerous? Could be done but probably shouldn't?

I've towed empty trailers with an f250 and a pop up when I was younger but would still not call myself an expert
 
Sounds like you're good to go. I'm one who towed my pop-up tent trailer all over SoCal/AZ together with lots of steep mountain roads without problem. Shift your automatic out of Overdrive on climbs. Not to mention your LJ Unlimited is rated to tow 3500 lbs., only the shorter wheelbase TJ has a 2000 lb. tow rating.
 
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3500lb is what an LJ is rated for. Sounds like you will be well under that. No input on Uhaul renting to you with a soft top or not.
 
I towed a 4x8 uhaul cargo trailer from Arizona to Oregon with my LJ on 33's. The trailer was 850lbs and I had, maybe, 700 lbs of cargo. The trip included several long grades. I drove conservatively and had no issues. As long as your Jeep is in good condition you should have no issues. Uhaul definitely won't rent to a soft top so you will need to have the hardtop on. I used a installed hitch as I already had a heavy warn bumper and tire carrier.
 
06lj said:
Uhaul definitely won't rent to a soft top so you will need to have the hardtop on.
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I came here to say this. UHAUL gave me shit with my jeep even though it had a hardtop. Their system saw WRANGLER and immediately came back as no. It wasn't until I walked them out and showed them the vehicle that they agreed. Put your foot down.
 
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Jerry Bransford said:
Sounds like you're good to go. I'm one who towed my pop-up tent trailer all over SoCal/AZ together with lots of steep mountain roads without problem. Shift your automatic out of Overdrive on climbs. Not to mention your LJ Unlimited is rated to tow 3500 lbs., only the shorter wheelbase TJ has a 2000 lb. tow rating.
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Ah! Missed that. Thanx.
 
Obi-Wan said:
I came here to say this. UHAUL gave me shit with my jeep even though it had a hardtop. Their system saw WRANGLER and immediately came back as no. It wasn't until I walked them out and showed them the vehicle that they agreed. Put your foot down.
Click to expand...

I am no fan of uhaul either. I used there shipping pods a couple of years ago for a cross country move. They lost them. It finally took the manager going out and doing a physical inventory of the warehouse to find them. To this day my Uhaul account still shows them in storage. To add to the insult they tried to bill me for the extra storage for the days they couldn't find them.
Every time I've rented trailers I've reserved it online. I swear it used to ask if the Jeep had a hardtop but I might just be remembering things that never happened. Seems to occur more every year.
It does specifically mention that Jeeps must have a hardtop in their towing requirements. The OP might want to have that page printed out in case they give any trouble.
 
Just curious, why won't they rent a trailer if you have a soft top?
 
MountaineerTom said:
Just curious, why won't they rent a trailer if you have a soft top?
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Their reasoning is listed in their "Trailer User Instructions". They claim soft tops offer less collision and ejection protection. The policy has been in place for years and likely dates back to the CJ days. I imagine their lawyers just say it is easier to exclude all soft tops then to try and sort which soft top vehicles can tow and which can't. It's a small number of potential tow vehicles so I doubt they will be changing it anytime soon.
 
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dtroth91 said:
I'll be moving from CA to OH at some point in the future.

I would like to tow a trailer vs renting a truck from uhaul for cost efficiency.

I have a 2006 lj with 31s and 3.73s

Heard uhaul won't rent to wrangler without a hardtop, but I have one so I'm covered there as far as I know.

Trailer is 900 lbs empty and we aren't bring furniture. Heaviest thing we are bringing is books. It's mostly clothes and some electronics like our tv.

I don't have any trailer harness but if it's feasible I would get a plug and play 4 pin(install myself), and have a 7 pin and brake controller installed by uhaul, as well as a real class 3 hitch, as opposed to my dirtworx bumper.

I'm a little concerned about the auto trans, but wouldn't be opposed to adding an auxilliary cooler.

My estimate is rough but let's say max 700 lbs of cargo.

No problem going slow and low elevation, and taking my time.

I know some people advise against anything maybe bigger than 14-1500 lbs and others that tow 2k lb pop up campers regularly.

So what say yall? Feasible? Dangerous? Could be done but probably shouldn't?

I've towed empty trailers with an f250 and a pop up when I was younger but would still not call myself an expert
Click to expand...

Also, for the OP, no UHaul trailer has electric brakes. Smaller UHauls have no brakes, and larger ones have hydraulic surge brakes. So no need for the 7-pin and brake controller mentioned in the 1st post, unless you want them for future towing.
 
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Consider purchasing a trailer and reselling it in Ohio.

Also consider maxing your weight out on some Jeep parts... everything in Ohio rusts quickly.

You could probably make money.

-Mac
 
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MountaineerTom said:
Just curious, why won't they rent a trailer if you have a soft top?
Click to expand...

Many years ago they wouldn't rent to me because I had a 1969 442 convertible, never mind that it weighed 5,500 lbs. and had tons of HP to spare. It was more stable than the hardtop of the same year due to the extra weight down low to keep the frame twist to a minimum.
 
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You definitely don't need a brake controller. Even their auto trailers just have surge brakes on the trailer, no controller needed or even possible that I'm aware of for any u-haul stuff.
 
06lj said:
Their reasoning is listed in their "Trailer User Instructions". They claim soft tops offer less collision and ejection protection. The policy has been in place for years and likely dates back to the CJ days. I imagine their lawyers just say it is easier to exclude all soft tops then to try and sort which soft top vehicles can tow and which can't. It's a small number of potential tow vehicles so I doubt they will be changing it anytime soon.
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Interesting.
 
When I moved from CA to FL; I rented a U Haul truck and a trailer for the Jeep to be towed on….
Didn’t want to drag the Jeep behind the U Haul truck plus I used the trailer for more household items.
A couple years prior I wanted to rent a small U Haul trailer to bring some items across to FL using a soft top JK to tow with. Ran into the same issues online and made arrangements with a friend to use his Ranger to pick up the trailer.
 
P man said:
Uhaul doesn't need to know what you are towing with. Tell them an f250 and prepay and drop off after hours.
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Yes but you have to pick up the trailer with the vehilce. So unless you have F250 or a buddy that does you might not get them to rent it to you. Now I know that the prices of renting leaving from CA is a lot more than renting a trailer in OH and dropping it off in CA.

I would consider what other have said buy a trailer and resell it after you arrive, might compare the difference in cost to renting
 
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