Tahoe Tow Vehicle Equipment Questions
Though my 4Runner has handled my Jayco X20E it's slow on hills and seems to struggle a bit. If I'm going to get bad mileage anyway I'd rather have it with something with more power. So I've been lo...
Forum Discussion
camp-n-family wrote:
Is your 4Runner older with a v6 or the V8? If you're looking for used (pre '09 before they dropped the v8) and like the 4Runner and it's only the V6, trade up for a V8 model. Its night and day. I towed a 19' HTT @ 4k with an '03 v6 which struggled in the hills and headwinds. I traded for an '04 V8 and it pulled like the trailer wasn't there. So well in fact that I bought a bigger tt (26' @ 5500lbs).
If you're looking at Tahoes why not consider a Sequoia? More power in the 5.7l and you can't beat Toyota reliability.
Good questions. It's a 2007 with a V6. I thought about looking for a V8 4Runner from back when they still made them (not sure why they discontinued them). But I have a few beefs with the 4Runner. (1) Cruise control isn't worth a flip if you've got the least hills. (2) You couldn't see the black instrument panel in the daylight so their solution was to leave the instrument panel lights on all the time. Cheap fix, but too often I start out in a brightly lit parking lot in the evening and forget to turn on my headlights because the instrument panel is already lit up. (3) The readouts are LCD which you can't see during the day if you're weating sunglasses. (4) You can't buy a piece for a part; you have to buy the whole assembly. That's just a few of them. (5) A few others I don't recall at the moment.
I agree you can't beat Toyota reliability, which was why I bought the 4Runner in the first place. But with the problems above, and the fact that the Sequoia gets worse gas mileage than the Tahoe, I've been less inclined to look at the Sequoia.
Your experience with the V6 was like mine--struggled with hills and headwinds. I'm glad to know the V8 worked better. But you said you towed 5500 lbs with a V8 4Runner? I'm surprised it would handle that much. the 07 was only rated 5000 lbs with the V8 or V6. Granted you could tow more, but since my V6 struggles with the 3900 lb and you add the extra weight of any cargo I'm surprised it did well. Interesting to know.
