Sprinter Towing

I have an 08 View - 07 Sprinter Chassis. I'm limited to 3500 pounds tow, not due to the engine or tranny, but due to the undersized extension members Winnebago used to get back to the hitch. That was corrected in the 09 View. I tow a Saturn L300 wagon, loaded, at 3500 pounds and have had no problems on any mountain in the Rockies. I do shift manually, use a scanguage to monitor temperature, and accept the speed, and gear, I get to keep the temp under control.

Your only real concern will be the max CGVW limitation. You will go over it well before you are towing 5,000 pounds.

You are giving up at least 500 pounds of capability to use a dolly. My suggestion is to look for a more suitable 4 down tow vehicle.

I personally think the tranny is the weakest link, however on the View/Navion forum there are few complaints posted.

My Sprinter is a 2008 chassis with the 3.0L V6. I have a boat that weighs in at about 2,300 lbs. When I planed a trip from Oregon To Maryland that included a cargo trailer, I chose to not exceed that weight to avoid any unforeseen issues like overheating. 6% grades at high altitudes can be tedious. Towing that weight only had a .5 to 1.0 penalty on MPG. Careful packing got the tongue weight just right on the Uhaul 5X8 cargo trailer with no adverse handling. In fact, the trailer served to stabilize the Sprinter when encountering big trucks going in either direction. I think it was due to some sort of dampening effect. I was going to tow a small car the previous year, but had to abandon the idea. After the first transmission blew up (never towed anything up to then) I was a bit apprehensive. The car would require a dolly. That and the car was way over the target of about 4,000 lbs. I got that number from people that tow with the Sprinter. I stop to ask everyone I can and the conclusion I got was get a Toad you can go with 4 down and under 4,000 lbs. If there are no mountains between you and your destination, I think you can fudge the numbers. By the way neither the boat trailer or the Uhaul had brakes. Never an issue with downgrades. Hardly touch the brakes. Anything heavier or grades over 6%... that's another story.

it would be helpful if posts were a little more specific as to what chassis/engine is involved in each discussion.
bumpy

There are Sprinter transmission coolers one can buy and have installed to keep the temperature from becoming an issue.

This is a picture of our Sprinter based RV with the dinghy attached in Chicken AK. To get there, we had driven this rig over Top of the World Highway. ;)

This is the rig we took to Alaska last summer. We could outrun anything but the biggest engine DPs in the mountains and actually embarrassed some of the gassers. All this and we averaged a bit over 14mpg for the 10,400 mile trip.

The rig currently has around 160,000 miles and we have had no problems. The dinghy shown is a Mini Clubman, weighing about 3,500 in the picture because we use it for additional storage. The gas cans on the safari rack contained 25 gallons of diesel, for emergencies.

Here is a site to help calculate towing capacity.

Read more: http://www.ehow.com/how_4815339_calculate-towing-capacity.html#ixzz2ymgRtdtR

Instructions
1
Locate the vehicle data tag on the driver's door post.

2
Note the CGWR. This is the combined gross weight rating. It is the maximum allowable weight your vehicle, with cargo and passengers, and a trailer can weigh.

3
Determine the loaded weight, with passengers and fuel, of your vehicle. This is most accurate by weighing the vehicle on a public scale. These can be found at truck stops and some moving companies. Check also at landscape supply companies and sand and gravel yards. If a scale cannot be found, estimate the weight by adding the curb weight of the vehicle and all passengers and cargo.

4
Subtract the loaded weight of your vehicle from the CGWR rating of your vehicle. The resulting number is your towing capacity. Keep the weight of your trailer under this number to be safe and legal. Weighing your trailer when fully loaded is most accurate.

My personal 2 cents.
If you have a Sprinter 3500 chassis the tow capacity is suppose to be 5000 lb.
However I would never tow more than half that weight. After calculating the tow capacity I stay below the maximum capacity, to provide a safe margin for those unknowns.
Why; as stated above the transmission isn't designed for continuous operation at the maximum. Stress on the engine, brakes, chassis, suspension and fuel mileage will be considerably lower. If you're towing on flat Oklahoma paved road may not be to bad, but take that to Colorado or Utah Bryce is at more than 8000 ft. Can you imagine the stress on the vehicle. Also consider road surface is it paved rolling drag isn't to high but take it off the pavement on that dirt road (sand, gravel, bumps) what is the drag?
Additional weight; what will you put in the vehicle being towed that adds up, looks like a good place to put extras.
Most people never consider the variables just assume that the book says 5000 lb so should be Ok, I don't think so.

If fully laden you will be at the max combined weight rating for the RV. If you stick around the lowlands you'll be OK but I personally wouldn't want to be doing any serious climbing like that. My toad weighs under 3000 lbs and I feel it back there when I'm pulling it. I am still overtaking the semis when climbing. That being said I do know of people that tow as heavy as you are suggesting with a Sprinter RV and they are fine with it.

It depends how much towing you plan to do, how and where you drive, how close to the 11000 lb vehicle weight you already are, etc, etc. The engine, hitch and chassis will likely handle it. The transmission however, is another issue. All the electronic shifting it does seeking the most efficient fuel useage point makes for alot of shifting. Unless you like buying sprinter transmissions, I would proceed carefully.

you have a 3500 lb. towing capacity and want to tow 4,000 + pounds?
bumpy

How much does your Sprinter actually weigh?

I have a Jeep Libby with the same 2.8 liter 188 hp diesel engine, and my TV and TT combined weight is pretty close to 10,000 lbs fully loaded and ready for bear. Other than a propensity to overheat, it pulls hills fine. I was easily able to keep up with traffic over the Rockies on I-70 west of Denver a couple years ago. I'd hope that the cooling system on your Sprinter was better than on my Jeep, but the engine itself should be able to handle it.

As for the performance, if you double the weight, you will obviously be slower off the line. I get 30 mpg without the TT, 14 with it. What do you get?