Follow Up: 4 Runner Towing Reality

Agreed. You simply can not reasonably tow what you want with that. Sway control helps, but it will still sway unless you get a Hensley or p3. You would need towing mirrors too. I've been there. No way you could tow it for 5 hours straight either.... Just too nerve racking.

Have you considered an class c or older dedicated towing truck? Maybe something from the early 2000's? Or even a used E350 work van? This could be a low cost solution.

THANKS for everyone's input. Our current thoughts are that we should stick with the vehicle GVWR & payload differential (620 lbs) and subtract a weight distributing hitch weight (approx 80 lbs?) from that leaving 540 lbs for the loaded trailer tongue weight.

The trailer we're drooling over has a dry weight 275 tongue weight, a dry weight of 3400 lbs and fully loaded 5400 lbs. I'm not sure why they add 2000 lbs for fully loaded, but if we only added 1000 lbs which I've heard is a reasonable assumption, this trailer would be gross weight 4500 lbs. At 10% tongue weight, it would be 450 and 15% would be 680, so we'd "weigh in" at approximately 12% if we limited the "stuff" aboard to 1000 lbs.

We're both concerned about the semi-truck windage which has been mentioned above. If we do this, we will have a weight distributing hitch and sway bars, anything that can help.

We've looked at alot of travel trailers. We're thinking of living for 2-3 months at a time. We want to tow it from Illinois to the Grand Canyon and southern Utah National Parks. We don't want a pop-up camper because we want to camp in national parks, some with bears.

Not sure about R-Pods, although I really like them, but we understand they sway terribly behind any vehicle. Today we looked at an Airstream 19' Bambi which we cannot afford and I didn't really like and a TrailManor 20 (22?) footer 4500 GVWR, no longer made. The Casitas are too small for us to imagine living in for 2-3 months at a time.

Beginning to think we need to postpone this wild idea until it's time to replace our 4 Runner (currently 110,000 miles, anticipating 200,000 plus) and take off cruising in our sailboat down the Eastern Caribbean instead.

Thanks again for the input! Anyone with more insight on the trailer specs we're drooling over, please add your comments! THX! J&D

For what it's worth: maximum trailer weight is a warranty issue but tongue weight is a safety issue. Concentrate on staying within your gvwr as shown on the dot safety information plate on your door post. Let That Determine the trailer size. Good luck / skip

We tow a 3500# trailer with a I6 Envoy with no problems whatsoever. We've been on many week-long trips. We have a sway control bar without a WDH, although I'm thinking about getting one. Our camping needs are simple, and I really prefer an SUV over a pickup. I keep hearing how bad SUVs are to tow with and how great pickups are. But, if you look at an SUV compared to it's sister pickup, quite often wheel bases and track are very similar. I generally tow a little under 65MPH, as the ST tires are only rated for that anyway. Keeping it in 3rd gear at 63-64 produces 12+ MPG.

Is this the best tow vehicle? Probably not, but is it worth trading in a 20 MPG SUV for a 14 MPG pickup? Not worth it to me. Just stay shy of your max tow weight, and I think you'll do fine.

CommuterCruiser wrote:
Hi all -- I posted a week ago or so and got several opinions on how to determine if our Toyota 4 Runner can tow a travel trailer and if so, what the GVWR limit should be for safety.

Toyota says it can tow 5,000 lbs. This forum told me to check the vehicle GVWR inside the drivers door - 5,580 lbs. Then we were advised to go to a CAT scale and get the truck weighed. 4,920 lbs with both of us, a full rod of cloths and two big plastic bins of clothes, David's boat tool box, kayak racks, several boxes of books and miscellaneous other stuff. In short, probably a similar amount to what we'd be carrying if we were RVing.

As I understand it, now we take the vehicle GVWR minus the total vehicle weight with stuff loaded -- 5,580 minus 4,920, which is 620 pounds. That 620 pounds has to include the trailer tongue weight which should be 10-15% of the trailer GVWR plus the weight of the weight distributing hitch. Do I have this right?

So what recommendation would you have for a max GVWR we should be looking for in a travel trailer?

Any advice or help appreciated. The dealers keep telling us we can buy anything up to 6,400 pounds (the Trailer Life Towing Guide rating for our truck) and we're not sure they're being realistic. So we're looking for real life advice.

THANKS so much! Jan & David

I used to tow a 5000 lb. TT (650 lbs. of tongue weight) with a late model V6 Nissan Frontier (1400 lb. payload capacity). The Frontier V6 has slightly more hp/torque (than a 4Runner) and is rated as capable of towing 6000-6500 lbs--very comparable to your Toyota. For my tastes (braking & handling), this Nissan Frontier was at its very limit towing 5000 lbs. (with 650 lbs. of tongue weight).

IMO, tongue weight is more of a limiting factor than tow weight in your scenario. You cannot simply use the TT manufacturer's "empty" tongue weight to make your choice. "Loaded" tongue weight can change radically (both up and down) depending on the design of the TT and how your gear is loaded. FWIW, it's much easier to make a reasonably accurate guess at overall, loaded tow weight.

For example, you could very easily purchase an "empty" 4000 lb. TT (maybe 5000 lbs. loaded with gear/water) and have your tonque weight easily soar way over 800-900 lbs. even though the "empty" tongue weight was only rated at 450 lbs.

FYI, most Cat III hitches (which is probably used on your 4runner) are typically limited to 500 lbs. of tonque weight and 5000 lbs. of tow weight when not using a WD hitch, and 600 lbs. of tongue weight (and 6000 lbs. of tow weight) when using a properly adjusted WD hitch.

We had a 3.6L Toyota Tacoma that was rated to tow 5000lbs and we tried pulling a 4000lb(gross)Nash. Although it felt pretty stable we felt it lacked adequate power and braking for that load. So, although the book says it's ok, it did not feel right for us and we upgraded to a larger truck.

Real world... Any high walled trailer is going to be hard. The truck is just not heavy enough to prevent sway from passing semi trucks and wind.

Any trailer around 3500 lbs is starting to push the limits, if not uncomfortable already for most. Now, if you were towing an aerodynamic boat this would be different.

It also depends on how far you plan to tow it. A few 30-60 minutes trips at 55 mph may be acceptable to you.

agesilaus wrote:
Also braking is very important, your SUV won't have the braking capacity it needs if you are going downhill and the trailer brakes get unplugged or otherwise fail.

NO TV is safe in that scenario. How would that big 5th wheel treat your F-350 in that situation?

OP, don't let the folks scare you. 6400# is probably a reasonable limit.

Also braking is very important, your SUV won't have the braking capacity it needs if you are going downhill and the trailer brakes get unplugged or otherwise fail. Plus that 6000 pound trailer will be shoving the SUV downhill all the time.

640 is 10% of 6400 or 15% of about 5400. So in theory the dealer is correct. However he is not taking into account wind resistance towing that big box behind you. Our last TT was a 20 foot Arctic Fox. We pulled it one time with a 2002 Trailblazer I6 before we realized that we had screwed up. If you really want to prevent the same mistakes, get the lightest HTT you can be happy with.