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I just picked up the above mentioned vehicle with a 6 speed manual transmission. It comes with "hill assist". Basically if you're on a hill, you can take your foot off the brake, press down on the gas, let out the clutch, and it won't roll back.

Has anyone tried this on the launching ramp with a boat and trailer on the back?

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yep, Our Subaru has that feature and it certainly helps. It makes retrieving the boat almost to easy.

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so, Turpin, considering you live in Chatham, Va, you mainly go to Smith Mountain Lake?

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My Toyota 4Runner with a 4.7L V8 has an Auto LSD system. I can activate it when the one wheel spins which will transfer power to the other wheel.

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Is it OK to say we had a 2003 Grand Cherokee Limited with all those very cool features and half of them refused to function when needed?

We could not dump that junk fast enough! Not fair you might say but we spent $1251.00 to have a $4.15 part installed in the heater system so we had heat. A stupid little plastic flap that stripped. Windows that went down but not up and a moon roof that leaked from day one. Four wheel drive would engage but refuse to disengage. I am not one to spend much time bashing any manufacturer but you can bet your Whaler we will never own another Chrysler/Jeep vehicle unless they gave it to us.

The "Hill Assist" did work very well and we live on one heck of a hill. I hope your luck is a lot better than ours and it was an otherwise very nice vehicle, we just could not afford all the other ISSUES!

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Shoulda got an F-150 and you wouldn't have to worry about all that stuff.

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I was taught hill assist as 'heel on the brake, toe on the gas'.
Keith
190 Montauk

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OH great! I traded the Cherokee in for a F-250 Diesel that was a great truck except it rusted itself to death in my driveway here in the Salt Belt of NY. $3,300 to replace a cheap, rusted out, Chinese steel oil pan at 60,000 miles was more than I could go.

I am so completely disgusted I have a hard time holding my tongue. I've owned 3 Honda's and 2 Toyota's and each went well past 200,000 miles with minor maintenance and I can't get past 70,000 without major expenses with Jeep, Chrysler, Ford or GM. That is not political nor is it brand bashing, just the plain facts and I have all the bills to back it up. I highly prefer to buy American made products but I simply cannot afford them with all the poor quality that goes in to them. The plastic flap in the Jeep that failed and cost over $1200 tearing out the entire dash board to replace was replaced with a metal flap that cost under $5 and was made here in the USA.

I bought a 1974 BW Montauk with a 1984 Evinrude because I have zero faith in what is available today. I still mow the field with a 1952 Farmall Cub Tractor and Mott mower that has never skipped a beat since before I was born close to 60 years ago.

Kids today blame us old folks for all the pollution they are stuck with yet they have no clue about when we had 1 black and white TV and I was the "Remote" channel changer or when our phones were on the kitchen wall, just one in the entire house and we shared the party line with our neighbors. If we were out when you rang us then you better call back later because we had no voice mail or answering machines. Every idiot did not walk around with a phone stuffed in their ear, you were just not home and "Out of the Area"!

Don't mind me for taking us back to a time when most of us could afford to live. My milk came in bottles and we often got the same bottles back the next week when the Milk man delivered it. We had air conditioning back then called 2/55, two windows down at 55 MPH and I'm not dead yet. My 1965 six HP Evinrude fisherman outboard has probably logged more hours than most computers and caught more fish in the process but it is puking this ethanol crap. Please help us! We can always depend on energy from the wind as long as we can wait for the turbines to arrive from China where they are made from the steel we send and pay the shipping costs.

Oh, BTW, the Jeep you have today went by my house a few months ago. It used to be an American CLUNKER and was crushed at the salvage yard at the end of my road, shipped to China and the steel was sold back to Chrysler so they could build it. Good thing we didn't use any energy in all of that!

So sorry if I took this off topic but re read it and see if I am wrong. We're in serious trouble!

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My wife bought a jeep liberty with a 100000 mile warranty so I felt safe. We pulled a bayliner 18 footer which was no big deal. 3 transmissions went out in 56000 miles. Traded in for 4 runner, and we put 90000 miles on it. I will admit I was pissed with my 9 dollar brake light I had to replace, but that is all so far!! I really wish American cars were better, but sorry I am not sold yet. I do love old ford trucks, but that gas will eat you alive!

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2X that, I can not think of much more to say that would not get me band from the form.

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That's a shame about Jeep. Back in 1990 I bought a brand new Jeep Commanche pick up truck and drove it to death. It followed me to three different countries (active duty Navy at the time) and drove from Key West to San Diego and back on several occasions with only one water pump, one alternator and on cooling hose problem (200,000 + miles). I owned it for 14 years before selling her and I would have never hesitated to drive her cross country again.

My current F-150 is an '05 model and I've never had one lick of problems with her. I have 145,000 miles on her now and, knock on wood, have never once been let down by it. For me, im still impressed with Ford quality.

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Gam don't fret over buying Japanese. A lot of them are built in the U.S. with American labor. That means jobs..

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Sorry for my rant above. I spent the day mucking out my basement from the flood and my buddy came up to help me lift a few things and brought his 15 year old grand daughter for the ride. A rather opinionated young lady who proceeded to to tell us that this flood was our (older folks) fault and went on about how we are destroying the environment and leaving her generation with the mess and all the debt. She about lit my retro-rockets with her tirade and all because she was mad about being here where her cell phone/text gadget has no signal and she was out of touch with her friends. My buddy just shook his head and said they teach her this stuff in school. I think the only intelligent thing this gal said was that she is learning to speak Chinese.

I did have excellent service from my F 250 with 7.3 diesel but if you do a search about the oil pan rust issues on this vehicle you will find lots of disgruntled owners. The correct repair requires the engine to be completely removed, flipped over and the new pan to be installed and sealed at a cost of $3,000 -$4,000. Rumor has it the oil pans are stamped in China from junk steel. I have only replaced one oil pan in my entire life and only because I hit road debris that punctured it.

I'll go back to my basement now and get over it.

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Well, the Wrangler is my son's vehicle, I only asked in case I want to use it in a pinch.

I actually pulled a Montauk with my 4 cylinder Chevy Luv pick-up with a 4 speed.

I generally pull my boat with a 2010 4Runner.

I had a 2005 Ford Exploder that was just out of warranty. Going home from work one day the check engine light comes on. I stopped by my friendly Ford dealer to fix it. $1300 to replace a hego sensor. Two months later, I'm driving home from work and the check engine light comes on again. Another $1300 to replace the hego sensor. I sold it the week after that, and bought a 2004 Jeep Wrangler that I never had a problem with, and enjoyed lifting and doing other mods to.

Hey, how did we get off track anyway?

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"Hey, how did we get off track anyway?"

That would be my fault! Sorry

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Apparently you both have "issues."
:^D

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We've owned 5 Jeeps from Cherokee, Grand Cherokee Laredo, Wagoneer Limited,...
We have put over 160,000 miles on all of them before we sold them with very few minor problems.... Nothing major....

We now own a 2008 Grand Cherokee Limited.
http://www.joekriz.com/photogallery.p...hoto_id=41

Before buying the above, we test drove just about everything out there including the Cadillac SUV and many other high end SUV models.
We still preferred the Jeep over other models for a variety of reasons.

There are a few Lemons in any brand we buy including outboard motors.......

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I've always liked the Jeep products.......guess it started back in the CJ days of Jeep for me.

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Yeah I agree except for there were cars lined up whn we dropped off the liberty! Sad thing is they still make them. I love Jeeps honestly. I like the new grand cherokee but I am too weary to give them another try. Wranglers and cherokees I have heard many good things about. I know many people with Jeeps and they hold up fine.

Regarding new ford trucks, I also know many people that hate those things because of problems. Their cars have been pretty bad too. My wife's parents buy a new one every 3 years even though they have many problems. They just bought a fusion and it would take too long to list the times they dropped it off. Seems like they still have a way to go for me as well. I am a toyota guy for the long haul. I guess I just don't want to take the chance of wasting too much money on a car I already spent a lot on. Not bashing by any means, just whining I guess because of all my issues!

My outboard on the other hand is a pain in the rear. Hopefully next year she will be replaced with a nice Yamaha or Etec!!

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Hey, I'm going to get us back on track, OK?

The 2011 Wrangler with a six speed manual transmission and the hill assist worked great at the launching ramp. When my son was pulling the boat and trailer out, he took his foot off the brake and the Jeep just sat there and didn't move until he gave it a little gas and let his foot off the clutch. Very impressive.

I don't know if I said this earlier, but we've owned 4 Jeep products since 1994, two cherokees and two wranglers. We've been happy with them.

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Guilty as charged sorry! Hill assist is sweet, it has saved me and my wife many times! (she usually pulls the boat out after I hook it up and get inside). Word to the wise though it doesn't help if she accidentally puts the thing in reverse!

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Saw a program on the TV today about Studebaker collectors. They had the hill assist at least as far back as the early sixties.

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If my memory is correct, it seems I remember reading/researching something about Studebaker may have been the first vehicle available with Hill Assist.
I remember the first time I drove my wife's Subaru, I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong or rather thought something was wrong with the brakes. Of course she loved that joke. I've never owned an automatic transmission vehicle and after driving a vehicle with hill assist it's a very nice feature though I'm not usually one for extra bells and such.