Yahoo Autos 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trailhawk Road Test Review | How far off-road are you going?
The 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee, perhaps more than any vehicle it competes with, must be many things to many different buyers. In its base Laredo and mid-level Limited trims, it offers heart-of-the-market buyers a rugged two- or three-row option with legitimate dirt-road capability. In its upper-crust Summit and Summit Reserve trims, we said it compares favorably with luxury offerings from Audi, Lincoln, Land Rover and Mercedes-Benz. And then there’s the Grand Cherokee Trailhawk, which is the model we just spent a week driving on and off pavement. It ostensibly competes with off-road-biased SUVs like the Toyota 4Runner TRD Pro, but as we’ll explain, it casts a much wider net than that.
Jeep has made sure that casual observers can tell that the Trailhawk is no ordinary Grand Cherokee. A matte-finish hood decal immediately gives it away, punctuated by bright red tow hooks and unique 18-inch wheels shod in chunky Goodyear Wrangler off-road tires. But it’s what you don’t immediately see underneath and inside the vehicle that really makes the Trailhawk tick.
As you’d expect from a Jeep wearing a Trail Rated badge on its fender, the 2022 Grand Cherokee Trailhawk comes with a full complement of steel skid plates to protect its delicate underbelly. Hopefully they won’t be needed, however, as the height-adjustable Quadra-Lift air suspension system lifts the Grand Cherokee to a maximum 11.3 inches of ground clearance. That’s more clearance than a Wrangler Rubicon (without the Xtreme Recon package’s 35-inch tires) and affords a water fording depth of up to 24 inches. The suspension will adjust itself based on the Selec-Terrain Traction Management mode selected, or can be manually adjusted with a toggle to the right of the knurled dial that acts as the shift lever.
Jeep’s Selec-Terrain Traction Management System includes modes for Snow, Sand/Mud and Rock in addition to the Auto mode it’ll stay in most of the time and, oddly enough, a Sport mode. These modes are selected with a toggle to the left of the spinning shifter. Selec-Speed Control keeps the vehicle traveling at a constant (slow) speed regardless of incline or decline, without further driver intervention.
Like the Wrangler Rubicon, Ford Bronco and certain versions of the Toyota 4Runner, the Trailhawk offers a sway-bar disconnect. Basically, hitting a button on the console electronically disconnects the front sway bar that normally connects the driver- and passenger-side wheels. That allows the two wheels greater freedom of movement and therefore increasing suspension articulation. It automatically reconnects at normal driving speeds to provide safer on-pavement handling.
Also standard is Jeep’s Quadra-Drive II full-time four-wheel-drive system, which features an active transfer case and a rear electronic locking limited-slip differential. It’s capable of sending as much as 100% of total engine torque to one rear wheel. Naturally, there’s a 4 Low mode that locks the front and rear differentials and switches to 2.72:1 gearing for low-speed crawling. There’s also a Neutral mode that allows for flat towing on the road.
Now would be a good time to point out that all of that excellent, top-shelf hardware is mostly designed to help the Jeep Grand Cherokee Trailhawk excel off road. Sure, there’s a Sport mode, but there’s no getting around the fact that this SUV wears knobby tires and basically was engineered to be at its best while crawling over boulders, mucking through mud, sleighing through snow or whatever other sort of off-road scenario you can dream up. That’s not to say it’s no good to drive on the road, but buyers who don’t know what a disconnecting sway bar is or why it might be useful — stuff that adds significant cost — ought to look at one of the other fine Grand Cherokee trim levels. We’ll dive a little deeper into that discussion a little further below.
