hey, new here, first car was a 94 jeep cherokee country, then it got t-boned and wrote off (broken axle) on boxing day and so I upgraded to a 96 grand cherokee LTD last month.

I was just curious if I am able to disengage the full time AWD so i can just use 2WD, it really downs the fuel and im gonna be taking it down to Florida for a month and I know 4WD is not great on dry pavement and also that means a TON of extra gas costs.

Thanks.

 

Greetings,
Not to poop on your parade but, trust Chrysler. They have engineered the AWD to operate quite well on dry pavement. I agree, it probably DOES wear your tires a bit more than just 2WD, but it still works on dry pavement. Unless the gurus on this site can provide a cost effective alternative leave things as they are.
It's about 1600 miles from Ottawa to Miami. @ 18 MPG you will have to buy about 176 gallons there and back. @ 22 MPG you will be buying 144 gallons. A difference of 32 gallons. @ $3.00/gallon that's less than $100! When I drove down to FL in Jan., gas was about $150/gal
Get a good tune up, realise the gas savings (not only to FL and back but for the next 10k+ miles and enjoy the ride.
Peter.

 

Well honstly your best bets are to keep weight to a minimum, if you have to bring anything make sure you center the load (i traveled from NC to Ontario two weeks ago, and hardly spent anything on gas) but i folded down my back seats and secured my load behind the drivers seats, this distrubutes the weight just like a passanger would and not affect the handling... but if you have passangers in the back seat, as far forward as possible, the goal is to not be "tug boating" but jeeps are pretty good for not doing that..

your best bet is going to be looking at your tires... dont drive knobbys down, or oversized, you want as narrow and as hard as possible, less tire deflection more MPG ofcourse if the weather turns its easy to take the air out... bit harder to pump it back in

unfortunately disengaging AWD means removing your front drive shaft... and as far as this goes, the computer wont know it (i dont think) and will attempt to make corrections in the event of slippage... now the computer wont see those corrections taking affect either, and most likely assume the front are slipping... and put the traction back to the rear tires... sooo it should be ok... id remove the driveshaft well in advance, and take it for a spin and see how it does see if theres a difference...

now i've removed my front drive shaft on my jeep (a selectable 2WD) during the week days and hooked it back up on the weekends and know it gives me some mpg, but driving habits are key to mpg...

 

i went to whitby from ennismore tonight and i put a jerry can in, it said i had 200km on the DTE and its only 120ish there and back and the DTE was down to 0 half way back home tonight, i was neutraling down every big hill there was and tried not to let the rpm over 2000 which wasnt hard but this isnt the first time its happened, it seems that once i get past a quarter tank the gas starts to get chugged, im not sure whats going on.

i would have filled up had i some cash, but all i had was $3 things weren't looking good but i made it home haha.

 

i think its just the design of the tank, as the fuel goes down i believe it gets narrower to keep the fuel towards the pump, and maybe the adjustment of it is off... but it just drops quicker and the computer isn't correcting for it... i dont know... i know i can go atleast 48miles after my DTE says 0, and thats with a quick spill at 118mph too, getting onto the highway and some *** wouldn't change lanes so i dumped it and went around him and got carried away when he started to catch up to me at 85mph

so i know its good for a few miles before the thing cuts off on you... when you've already put in the jerry can

 

Don't take the readings to seriously, they are a comparison average of the last tank you went through and also in US gallons which are less than an Imperial gallon.

Dan