Tow Vehicle Advice Needed for Novice

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?

bgum wrote:
Go for the V6 nonhybrid and add tyranny cooler. You will also a brake controller either wired or wireless. You will exceed the hybrids towing capacity.

Thanks! Good info.

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.

20 gallons of water is 160 pounds
1 propane tank is 40 pounds
1 12 volt battery is 50 pounds
All of a sudden you have used 250 of your 500 pounds

Go for the V6 nonhybrid and add tyranny cooler. You will also a brake controller either wired or wireless. You will exceed the hybrids towing capacity.

QCMan wrote:
Trying to figure that out can be tricky as Casita only lists dry weight which is a useless number as they do not specify cargo carrying capacity. The 17 starts at 2480 pounds before any options. Judging by the size and storage available, a guess would be that one would be hard pressed to fit 1000 pounds into that unit and that would put it just over the threshold for brakes in most states so that adds a brake controller to the picture.
Highlander specs range from 1500 to 5000 pounds max towing so check the vehicles carefully. A hitch can be added easily and is mostly a bolt on setup that can be done in the driveway. Another omission by Casita is that they do not list even dry hitch weight. Makes it hard to determine if a light duty weight distribution hitch is needed. The seven pin outlet is usually a plug and play item available wherever you find the hitch.

I was wondering about the weight issue. We only take 2-3 day trips so do not have anywhere near even 500 lbs. The Highlander hybrid is attractive since the tow vehicle will be my wife's commuter car but I'm a novice at these issues and am concerned that the 3,500 rating is too low.

Trying to figure that out can be tricky as Casita only lists dry weight which is a useless number as they do not specify cargo carrying capacity. The 17 starts at 2480 pounds before any options. Judging by the size and storage available, a guess would be that one would be hard pressed to fit 1000 pounds into that unit and that would put it just over the threshold for brakes in most states so that adds a brake controller to the picture.
Highlander specs range from 1500 to 5000 pounds max towing so check the vehicles carefully. A hitch can be added easily and is mostly a bolt on setup that can be done in the driveway. Another omission by Casita is that they do not list even dry hitch weight. Makes it hard to determine if a light duty weight distribution hitch is needed. The seven pin outlet is usually a plug and play item available wherever you find the hitch.