What Would YOU Do?

BenK wrote:
Rick...so many come here looking for herd confirmation of what they want to hear...

There will be many "sure you can"...."been doing that for years with no problem", etc

Lost is that there is only one person responsible for the setup and it is the driver...even if that driver did NOT choose nor set it up

And many do NOT understand how the several hundred pounds to a couple thousand pounds of lever forces are transmitted to the TV

Am wondering/watching how the new monocoque/unibody CUV's are going to hold up...as more and more are glued together instead of and/or in conjunction with spot-welds

They've been around for quite a while now, and are holding up just fine when used within their stated limits. (Like to point out again, the Touareg is unibody and is rated for ~7,800 lbs towing capacity.

Visit The Honda Pilot/Rdigeline/Odyssey or Toyota Highlander, 4Runner or Sienna forums sometime. LOTS of people use these for towing within their stated manufacturer limits, properly set up, without issues, often for years. Some don't like the lack of power (they want to still be able to drive 75 up mountains, and that just isn't going to happen) but reports of hardware failures are really hard to come by. Many people are happy with trailers that weigh 4K or so fully loaded and the vehicles are perfectly capable of that. (3K or so for the Sienna and Odyssey.)

I've been towing with my 9 year old Sienna for 8 years now and have only needed routine maintenance. It was a 1 year old used car when I bought it. Of the 120K miles on it, about 65K of that has been put on it while towing this trailer and the one prior to this ('09 TrailSport 21' that weighed about the same when loaded). This does include mountains, long distances, etc. I keep my speed at 60mph or below, and don't exceed the manufacturer's capacities. I have never, and will never, recommend that anyone exceed specs. My setup was done carefully (by a dealer, and then fixed by me because they set it up like one would a pickup truck -- didn't send enough weight to the front axle for the Sienna). I stop at a scale every other year to make sure I'm still where I ought to be. I always use all three scales - front axle on the first scale, rear axle on the middle scale, trailer axle on the third, so that I can check axle weights too. I do this when leaving for a 2 week trip, me, wife, kids, dogs, in the car. (We're a lightweight family though. I'm the heaviest at 150 lbs.) With this trailer I am about 250 lbs below the limit (7 percent), within the tire weights by about that same percent, and well within the axle weights. (The '08 Highlander used the same axles, and had higher ratings. The limiting factor on my Sienna ends up being the tires.)

It seems to me it's folk here that just don't want to hear that one really can tow many smaller trailers with something other than a pickup truck.

One does have to set up the vehicle and trailer properly, staying within the overall capacities, as well as the tire and axle capacities, and these are specific to the vehicle (not just the make and model, but also the trim line - extra features add weight, as do passengers and stuff). I also helped a buddy set up a '15 Pilot (including getting final fully loaded weights including a pair of kayaks on the roof and his wife and dog - he had about 11% margin) after doing quite a lot of research on its various limits and idiosyncrasies, including calls to Marysville OH and the factory in Alabama to get technical details about the hitch receiver.

I sure hope you're not suggesting that doing a proper towing setup isn't necessary with other rigs.