My wife and I just returned from the first major road trip in our 05 liberty CRD. We drove it from Portland to Colorado and back. Total mileage ~2600
First things first, I will say that the Jeep performed awesomely during the trip. Every mile we drove it, we liked it more and more.
One of our goals for the trip was to fill up with biodeisel whenever possible. With the hurricane and current petroleum prices, we figured we would do our part. We filled her up with b99 in Oregon, but unfortunately, the only other biodeisel pump we could find on the way was in Salt Lake city. The funny thing was, by the time we reached Salt Lake city, the price of Diesel was 20 cents higher than the price of Bio-Diesel. Each time we filled it up in Salt Lake city, we had a group of people inquiring about the diesel jeep. We ended up using a couple of tanks of Dino-Diesel in between Bio fills, but I think the mixture in the tank always had some bio-diesel in it.
Our average fuel mileage for the trip was about 25mpg. We normally got between 460-500 miles on a tank depending on who was driving. (My wife has a lead foot) We had the ac on for most of it and were averaging 70-75 mph.
Negatives:
On the highway at cruising speeds, i would have to take it out of overdrive to get it up some of the really long upward grades...
I also noticed it had a hard time keeping the engine temp normal when we would ascend with the a/c on. It wouldn't overheat, it just climbed about 1/4 the way higher than normal on the guage. When I turned off the a/c it went right back to normal in just a few minutes. I am probably going to speak to the dealership about this b/c if it can't go up a hill with just the a/c then how is it going to do it when I have a 2000lb trailer?
The stock tires suck in the mud. They were great in the gravel, and dry stuff but we almost got stuck in a muddy field on our last day of the trip.
Positives:
Where the CRD really impressed me was when we went off road.(besides the mud) We spent 2 days of our trip exploring unpaved mountain roads. The CRD would go just about anywhere we were brave enough to take it. The only limiting factor seemed to be the tires (Stock street tires... don't like mud) and ground clearance. (had to be careful when driving over big rocks.)
There is a road that goes out of Telluride called Tom-Boy road. It is an old mountain pass with a summit at 13,200 feet. When you turn onto the road there are all kinds of signs warning you. One of them says 4x4's only and another says "High-Clearance" vehicles only. That sounded like my kind of road, so I decided to give it a shot. Plus I was really curious how the jeep would handle the high altitude.
The road was simply incredible. It was just wide enough to hold our jeep with the mountain on the left and a nauseatingly steep drop on the right. It was very steep and had switchbacks so tight in places we had to make a 3 point turn to get around. It was mostly gravel and loose rocks on the way up and then rocks and mud on the way down the other side. There was also all kinds of really cool old mining equipment scattered along the way.
I had the jeep in 4x4 Low, 1st gear the entire way up. All I can say is wow. When I needed to get up or over something, just a tap on the accelerator and the torque was right there. The engine never even sounded like it was working hard. It had plenty of power to spare even at the top. It was practically idling the entire time
It took us over an hour to reach the summit but we had no problem whatsoever. There were already some other 4wd's at the top when we got there. We got a lot of stares, and one person yelled out, look a Jeep Liberty made it up, while another asked when they started making them in diesel... Hahaa. Good fun.
The way down was the long part of the trip. The road was really bad. It had been washed out in a few places and there were lots of large rocks we had to navigate around. I think we probably spend about 3 hours going down. I must say, the tight turning radius and narrow wheelbase of the jeep is awesome for going around rocks.
Our drive back to Portland included a stop in Salt Lake city for another tank of Biodeisel and a 17 mile offroad detour to see something called the "Spiral Jetty" (Look it up... its worth the trip)
Overall it was a great trip, and the drive over the mountain definately made me a believer. The jeep is still caked with dirt and grime... I'm wondering how many passes through the carwash it is going to take to get it all off. :lol
My wife is working on a photogallery. I'll post some pics it as soon as it's online.
First things first, I will say that the Jeep performed awesomely during the trip. Every mile we drove it, we liked it more and more.
One of our goals for the trip was to fill up with biodeisel whenever possible. With the hurricane and current petroleum prices, we figured we would do our part. We filled her up with b99 in Oregon, but unfortunately, the only other biodeisel pump we could find on the way was in Salt Lake city. The funny thing was, by the time we reached Salt Lake city, the price of Diesel was 20 cents higher than the price of Bio-Diesel. Each time we filled it up in Salt Lake city, we had a group of people inquiring about the diesel jeep. We ended up using a couple of tanks of Dino-Diesel in between Bio fills, but I think the mixture in the tank always had some bio-diesel in it.
Our average fuel mileage for the trip was about 25mpg. We normally got between 460-500 miles on a tank depending on who was driving. (My wife has a lead foot) We had the ac on for most of it and were averaging 70-75 mph.
Negatives:
On the highway at cruising speeds, i would have to take it out of overdrive to get it up some of the really long upward grades...
I also noticed it had a hard time keeping the engine temp normal when we would ascend with the a/c on. It wouldn't overheat, it just climbed about 1/4 the way higher than normal on the guage. When I turned off the a/c it went right back to normal in just a few minutes. I am probably going to speak to the dealership about this b/c if it can't go up a hill with just the a/c then how is it going to do it when I have a 2000lb trailer?
The stock tires suck in the mud. They were great in the gravel, and dry stuff but we almost got stuck in a muddy field on our last day of the trip.
Positives:
Where the CRD really impressed me was when we went off road.(besides the mud) We spent 2 days of our trip exploring unpaved mountain roads. The CRD would go just about anywhere we were brave enough to take it. The only limiting factor seemed to be the tires (Stock street tires... don't like mud) and ground clearance. (had to be careful when driving over big rocks.)
There is a road that goes out of Telluride called Tom-Boy road. It is an old mountain pass with a summit at 13,200 feet. When you turn onto the road there are all kinds of signs warning you. One of them says 4x4's only and another says "High-Clearance" vehicles only. That sounded like my kind of road, so I decided to give it a shot. Plus I was really curious how the jeep would handle the high altitude.
The road was simply incredible. It was just wide enough to hold our jeep with the mountain on the left and a nauseatingly steep drop on the right. It was very steep and had switchbacks so tight in places we had to make a 3 point turn to get around. It was mostly gravel and loose rocks on the way up and then rocks and mud on the way down the other side. There was also all kinds of really cool old mining equipment scattered along the way.
I had the jeep in 4x4 Low, 1st gear the entire way up. All I can say is wow. When I needed to get up or over something, just a tap on the accelerator and the torque was right there. The engine never even sounded like it was working hard. It had plenty of power to spare even at the top. It was practically idling the entire time
It took us over an hour to reach the summit but we had no problem whatsoever. There were already some other 4wd's at the top when we got there. We got a lot of stares, and one person yelled out, look a Jeep Liberty made it up, while another asked when they started making them in diesel... Hahaa. Good fun.
The way down was the long part of the trip. The road was really bad. It had been washed out in a few places and there were lots of large rocks we had to navigate around. I think we probably spend about 3 hours going down. I must say, the tight turning radius and narrow wheelbase of the jeep is awesome for going around rocks.
Our drive back to Portland included a stop in Salt Lake city for another tank of Biodeisel and a 17 mile offroad detour to see something called the "Spiral Jetty" (Look it up... its worth the trip)
Overall it was a great trip, and the drive over the mountain definately made me a believer. The jeep is still caked with dirt and grime... I'm wondering how many passes through the carwash it is going to take to get it all off. :lol
My wife is working on a photogallery. I'll post some pics it as soon as it's online.
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