San Diego trip summary

[BirchyBoy]

We have just completed our trip from Denver, CO to San Diego, CA and back. This is our second long trip with our 238ML. Last year was CO to ME and back. Unlike last year, we pulled the trailer with our '13 Jeep Grand Cherokee Hemi this time around. I'll have some notes on that at the end.

Day 1 - Denver to Green River, UT (343 miles). Green River was HOT - 106 when we pulled in. We stayed at Shady Acres RV park, which I'd give a "C" after staying there.

Day 2 - Green River, UT to Hurricane, UT (276 miles). Hurricane was also HOT - 108. We stayed at WillowWind RV Park, which I'd give an "A".

Day 3 - We were planning on staying in Barstow, CA (291 miles) but instead decided to push through to Chula Vista after calling them and learning that we could arrive an day early. That was a long day (472 miles) but worth it. We had reserved a bay side site at Chula Vista and it was spectacular. Definitely an "A+++++" RV park and we'll go back next year for a longer stay. It was good enough that we added a day onto the end of the visit even though it meant moving sites. Well worth it.

Days 4 - 9 were simply awesome at Chula Vista RV Resort. My 91 year old MIL and my wife's 42 year old niece flew in on Tuesday and spent four nights with us. The original plan was for the MIL to spend two nights with us and then fly home. Because of some technical difficulties with our GC, I told the niece that she wouldn't be able to ride back with us. She and the MIL decided to stay longer since we extended or stay by one day.

Day 9 - Chula Vista to Camp Verde, AZ (438 miles). We had planned to drive back to Hurricane and spend two days at Zion. Because it was so hot and we added a day in Chula Vista, we had to make it home in 3 days. We stayed at Distant Drums RV park and it was again HOT, and windy. Our camper was rocking in the wind. I got sick on dinner; I felt bad for the guy I was talking two in the spot beside me when my dinner decided it no longer wanted to be in my stomach. No warning, no queasiness. Mid-sentence and then I was bent over and throwing up. I did recover enough to ask him for a bucket of water so I could rinse off the concrete.

Day 10 - Campe Verde, AZ to Santa Fe, NM (421 miles). We wimped out and stayed at a Hyatt Place in Sante Fe. Great place, no complaints.

Day 11 - Santa Fe to Denver, CO (392 miles). Home again.

We had some electronics issues on day two of the trip, though. Sometime between hooking up and going to the scales across the street, the vehicle compass, tow/haul mode selector and the transfer case/air suspension controls all stopped working. The air suspension was still working - self leveling was working but I could not set the height as normal.

I did what I could to try and reset the system by checking the fuses and then disconnecting the battery for 30 minutes. After that didn't work, I called my dealer to get their advice. They hadn't heard of that odd mix of issues and told me it would be safe to keep going; just take it easy on the transmission since it wouldn't have the remapped shifting, etc that it should. I was able to lock out "ECO" mode, which lets the engine shut down four cylinders, by moving the transmission selector from DRIVE to 6. I manually selected 3rd gear on long uphill runs and limited the engine to 3,500 RPM's. This maxed out at about 55mph which was fine with me.

I took it to a Jeep dealer near San Diego and they determined that the command module was faulty and needed to be replaced. The issue is that it needs to be sent to Chrysler because it has the odometer integrated with it and needs to be "coded" and would take 3-5 days. Given our timeline, I decided to leave things as-is, knowing that it was running good. Since it was somewhat limping, I told the niece that I didn't think she could ride home. She wasn't happy but understood.

Our travel trailer was a good match for the Grand Cherokee. The camper weighed 4,200lbs on the scale and the Hemi had no issues pulling it up the mountains and maintaining a safe speed coming back down. The Equalizer kept it straight and true, even when being passed by semi's. This vehicle is definitely better than our '99 Yukon was. That SUV had issues when being passed but the GC did much better. I was hoping to average 11MPG, thinking that the Hemi was more modern, etc. Nope, we got 9.8 overall, .2 better than the Yukon.

Even though the GC is rated for 7,500lbs towing, the payload is only 1,050lbs. We had it loaded with about 800lbs of people, hitch and dogs. I don't think I'd want to haul a camper any longer or heavier than ours. There's plenty of power and sway wasn't an issue, but anything more would have me concerned. I did have an issue with the initial setup that I did with the hitch. When I weighed it, there wasn't enough weight being transferred. I paid an "expert" to come to the campground and make some adjustments. He dropped the hitch on the shank, adjusted the pitch and lowered the bar brackets. I hauled it to a scale near the Tijuana border and reweighed it and it was better. I put "expert" in quotes because he did everything with Crescent wrenches. I went behind him with my torque wrench and sockets and made sure everything was tightened correctly.

As the trip ended, even with the technical difficulties, I felt good about the pairing and wouldn't hesitate to leave tomorrow for another trip. 2,700 miles filled with mostly smiles and lots of relaxation.

[DenverCZBob]

Glad to hear you guys had a great time.
Thanks for all the details on your trip. I enjoy reading them. Hope you get your GC straightened out for your next trip.

-bob