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Pre-towing tips
● Be certain your vehicle maintains a level
position when a loaded and/or unloaded
trailer is hitched. Do not drivethe vehicle if it
has an abnormal nose-up or nose-down
condition; check for improper tongue load,
overload, wornsuspension orother possible
causes of either condition.
● Always secure items in the trailer to prevent
load shift while driving.
●
Keep the cargo load as low as possible in the
trailer to keep the trailer center of gravity low.
● Load the trailerso approximately 60% ofthe
trailer load is in the front half and 40% is in
the back half. Also make sure the load is
balanced side to side.
● Check your hitch, trailer tire pressure, ve-
hicletire pressure,trailer lightoperation, and
trailer wheel lugnuts every time you attacha
trailer to the vehicle.
● Be certain your rearview mirrors conform to
all federal, state or local regulations. If not,
install any mirrors requiredfor towing before
driving the vehicle.
● Determine the overall height of the vehicle
and trailer so the required clearance is
known.
Trailer towing tips
In order to gain skill and an understanding of the
vehicle’s behavior, you should practice turning,
stopping and backing up in an area which is free
from traffic. Steering stability and braking perfor-
mance will be somewhat different than under
normal driving conditions.
● Always secure items in the trailer to prevent
load shift while driving.
● Lock the trailer hitch coupler with a pin or
lock to prevent the coupler from inadvert-
ently becoming unlatched.
● Avoid abrupt starts, acceleration or stops.
● Avoid sharp turns or lane changes.
● Always drive your vehicle at a moderate
speed.
● When backing up, hold the bottom of the
steering wheel with one hand. Move your
hand in the direction in which you want the
trailer to go. Make small corrections and
back up slowly. If possible, have someone
guide you when you are backing up.
Always block the wheels on both vehicle and
trailer when parking. Parking on a slope is not
recommended; however, if you must do so:
CAUTION
If you move the shift selector to the P
(Park) position before blocking the
wheels and applying the parking brake,
transmission damage could occur.
1. Apply and hold the brake pedal.
2. Have someoneplace blocks on thedownhill
side of the vehicle and trailer wheels.
3. After the wheel blocks are in place, slowly
release the brake pedal until the blocks ab-
sorb the vehicle load.
4. Apply the parking brake.
5. Shift the transmission into P (Park).
6. Make sure the
indicator light (if so
equipped) indicates the transfer case is in
4H, 4L, or 2H and that the ATP light is off. If
the
indicator light is flashing, or the
ATP light is ON, make sure the transmission
is in P (Park) (AT) and turn the 4WD switch
to 2WDor 4H.See “Automatictransmission
park warning light” in the “Instruments and
controls” section and “Using four wheel
drive (4WD)” in the “Starting and driving”
section.
7. Turn off the engine.
9-26 Technical and consumer information