NHTSA Complaint #11421577 — 2017 JEEP CHEROKEE

The Jeep is used as a flat tow vehicle with our 2004 Monaco RV. On June 8, we left Ducket Mill Campground in Dawsonville GA to return home to Cincinnati OH. The vehicle was attached to the RV with the Blue Ox Flat Tow system. The four tires on the Jeep were checked and were all rolling. We followed the instructions in the manual, which were also the instructions given to us by the RV dealer who did the installation. One hour and a half after we left, the Jeep started smoking. A truck driver who passed our vehicle pulled off the side of the road yelled that the parking brake was on and needed to be turned off. Upon checking, there were two flat, chewed up tires. We were towed to a tire dealer in Ellijay GA to have repaired. We have one of the tires. That night, we found a Jeep salesman from 2017 on YouTube explaining the parking brake had to be disengaged to make sure there were no problems in flat towing. This was the first we had heard of this problem. We checked in the manual, and the only mention was that the electronic parking brake can be disengaged. No other warning. When we got home, we had the Jeep into the dealer. They could find nothing wrong with the parking brake system. They DROVE the car, but dd not flat tow it. The person at the tire store showed us how the tire was worn and torn up in a small area, probably caused by the parking brake engaging. Since we were not in the car and the car worked fine for an hour and 1/2 (not to mention the entire way down from Cincinnati to Dawsonville), we believe the parking brake engaged by itself as we drove through the mountains.