Earlier this year Jeep unveiled the new off-road version of their popular and perennial top-line SUV, the Grand Cherokee Trailhawk. Now that they’re coming to a showroom soon, we’re taking a closer and more detailed look.
The Grand Cherokee has come in a number of trim levels and versions over the years, but has almost always had a more sedate and luxurious direction than other models like the Wrangler and Cherokee. For 2017 that all changes with the first ever Trailhawk.
And while you have always been able to get the Grand Cherokee in a “Trail Rated” guise, the new Trailhawk not only adds beefier hardware to the mix, but takes the design down the road of rugged and rocky.
There’s red tow hooks, a black graphic on the hood and a unique front fascia that are considerably more masculine. Its 18-inch wheels and tire package are more off-roady but you can also option 20-inch wheels with Goodyear Adventure off-road tires.
Underneath, the Trailhawk gets its own variation of the Grand Cherokee’s Quadra-Lift air suspension. Here it has increased articulation range and suspension travel than enable now 10.8 inches of ground clearance. Its approach angle is now 29.8 degrees.
Extra skid plates are added to protect its standard Quadra-Drive II 4×4 system with its crawl ratio of 44.1:1. An electronic limited slip differential at the rear axle along with its electronic traction and terrain management programs provide for traction and speed control up and down hills.
You can have all three available engines in the Grand Cherokee Trailhawk. These include the 3.6 liter V6, the 5.7 liter HEMI V8, and the 3.0 liter V6 turbodiesel. If you tow, you’ll be glad to know the off-road Trailhawk doesn’t lose anything in towing weights over the other Cherokees.
The interior also gets its own theme with black leather and suede sport seats that feature red accent stitching. The stitching continues throughout the interior which is trimmed out with brushed piano black and gun-metal finishes.
The 8.4-inch Uconnect touch screen has an expanded array of “Off-road Pages” that display graphics for live wheel articulation, system status and a number of other metrics of your off-road action.
Topping off the entire package is of course the Trail Rated Badge, that’s really what gets people excited.
We expect to test drive the new 2017 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trailhawk this fall if all goes well, both on and off-road and will bring you a more detailed report at that time. The new 2017 Jeep Grand Cherokees should be landing at your local dealerships very soon with pricing to be announced any day now.
