Tow Vehicle Advice Needed for Novice
Hi, I'm looking at used Highlanders to tow my 17 ft Casita, both gas and a hybrid. But the two I'm looking at do not have a hitch. Is there anything special to know about getting the hitch and plug in...
Forum Discussion
Flapper wrote:
In general, from most restrictive to least, the order is:
Hitch rating - can it support the expected tongue weight, with or without weight distribution. Easy to spec the right one, if your vehicle does not have one yet, from a decent hitch shop. Existing hitches may be the first limit you hit.
Payload capacity - From the door sticker. How much can the vehicle carry. Everything added since it rolled off the assembly line counts - floor mats, running boards, other dealer options, tools, dogs, old french fries, all passengers, sometimes the driver, your new hitch, tongue weight of the trailer. This is the one that usually causes the most problem. No way to increase, except to get a different vehicle.
Towing - what the vehicle can pull. Usually the least restrictive limit.
ALL vehicles can tow a lot more than they can proportionally carry. If you are shopping based on close to the max tow rating, you will be WAY over the payload capacity.
Since you have the trailer, best is to get total weight, ready for camping, at a truck stop, and also find the current tongue weight. Then start estimating all the other stuff that will go in the tow vehicle. If it accommodates it all, you will have no issues at all with what it can pull.
If you do not actually have the trailer, find out what its GVWR is (the max it is designed to weigh). Assume 15% of that number will be tongue weight, for your payload calculation. That will be a "fat" number, that leaves with a fair amount of fudge room if you misestimated other things.
Whoa, that's a lot for my old brain. Thanks, I'll have to read it again slowly. :) I'll have to Google the Casita's tongue weight. By GVWR you mean for the tow vehicle?
