2017 Toyota Highlander towing

It might work out if you are happy with the same vehicle frame as the Camry but I'm just not a fan of TVs with front wheel drive. Get the AWD if you go with the Highlander. .

KirkJB wrote:
Anybody out there towing with a Toyota Highlander? Manual says it has a 5,000 lb tow rating. I will be towing a 3,700 lb GVRW Lance 1575. It looks OK on paper, but does anyone have any experience. Will also be installing a Prodigy 2 or 3 brake controller. Thanks in advance for any input.

I have towed this weight with my front drive 04 Ford Freestar minivan. This will be absolutely no problem at all. The Prodigy controllers are good. You might want to have weight distribution to send some of the tongue weight to the front wheels. But, this will work fine.

We have a 2015 Highlander that DID NOT come with the factory towing package. We added the hitch and wiring harness ourself. Our primary purpose for this was to be able to haul or golf cart with this car while the TV hauls the 5er. The golf cart weighs roughly 1200 pounds and the trailer weighs roughly 750 pounds...so very roughly the combo weighs around 2000 pounds. Its a small footprint and represents little to no aerodynamic drag issues, such as what you might experience with a travel trailer.

Based on my experience, I would prefer to not tow much more than what we're towing right now with our highlander. Short trips on flat ground would be OK I'm sure, but the Highlander is far from a suitable TV...IMO. Otherwise, we love it as a general purpose vehicle.

We looked at a used Highlander and drove it a year ago. It wasn't set up for towing and was not a higher end one. I then drove a used VW V-6 Touareg and really liked it. It is rated to tow about 7,700 pounds, has an eight-speed automatic. We hooked it up to our 3,500 boat and towed it to the lake about 75 miles each way and the vehicle didn't even breath hard there and back. Towed the boat as if it wasn't there and had no trouble pulling the boat and trailer out of the lake up a pretty steep ramp. On top of that, it registered 14 mpg on the console, which I know can be a bit off but I was impressed with the towing capability of this vehicle. If you can find a good used gas one around, you might consider taking a look at it to see what you think.

You'll have no problems pulling that size/weight with a V6 highlander. There are a few here on the forums that do so without complaint.

Thanks to all for your input. We don't plan any off roading so I'm feeling confident my Highlander can get the job done.

I towed trailers in the 2500-3500 lb range with my 2008 HL AWD with factory tow pkg for 140,000 miles (out of 185,000 total miles on odometer). Both work and play. I kept it around 60-62 mph mostly, and 35-45 mph on grades. It did fine until near the end, when the trans temp light started coming on occasionally during tough tow climbs or extremely hot tow days.

I would recommend limiting frontal area as much as possible. My TT was 7' wide and 99" advertised height. This will be a bigger factor at highway speed than a few hundred extra pounds. If you don't have the tow package, get a tranny cooler installed.