Toyota Highlander Hybrid
My wife has fallen in love with the 2013-2008 design of the Toyota Highlander as a family vehicle, so we are looking to replace our 15 year old AWD Astro van with one. I have a few questions concerni...
Forum Discussion
bikendan wrote:
first, your Astro was the only minivan to be a truly good tow vehicle.
with the 4.3 Vortec v-6 and that it was built on a ladder frame chassis, it had the highest towing capacity of all minivans and highly prized for that purpose.
second, the Highlander is a unibody construction and smaller v-6.
I cannot speak to the issues of payload, tongue weight limitations, and hybrid concerns, but I can speak to this other point. A modern unibody structure is at least as capable as a poor flexible ladder frame structure on an old Astro van. If the setup is correct (weight distribution), a modern vehicle like a Highlander will tow better than the Astro. Maybe the hybrid has too many limitations, I don't know and I don't claim to know. But, I have towed heavier trailers than this with both my unibody Ford Freestar van and with a 2002 Astro van, and the unibody Ford tows it much easier with no drama.
