Sequoia towing at max for over 5,000 miles - comfortably

[RinconVTR]

I posted the same write up in the Tundra forum but felt it belonged here as well as so many people ask about towing with their SUV.

2010 Toyota Sequoia Limited with 155,000 miles
ATF changed out every year, all other fluids kept fresh as well.
LT tires, Bilstien shocks all around, rear spring spacer.

2017 Grand Design 2800BH with shock kit and Hensley hitch. Gross weight fully loaded is 7100lbs with a tongue weight of 960lbs. Again that's fully loaded, with some amount of fresh water, and the Hensley hitch with 1400lbs bars.

Wisconsin to many parts of Cali and many stops in between.
6934 miles total
5,000++ miles towing, including towing to/from/thru Yosemeti, Rocky Mountain NP, Death Valley.
We were towing and pulling thru mountain hills at temps well over 100 multiple days, many days were around 115. Death Valley day was 121.

I'll be very frank, I could not tow this trailer without the Hensley (or Propride) design hitch. I used to tow a 24' trailer with the Sequoia (Honda Pilot too!) and did very well. But one day out of the blue I opted to try the Hensley and never went back. There is simply no comparison.

IMO, anyone feeling they need a bigger truck to tow their in weight spec travel trailer, try one of these hitches before you throw down on a bigger truck or dump your trailer! They have a 60 day trail period, you would only loose about $150 to ship the unit back if you found its not for you. Make no mistake, there will be things you hate about it, but you will absolutely love towing with it. Best of all...you get to keep your favorite 1/2 ton or SUV...and/or avoid buying a dedicated tow vehicle.

EDIT: Additional info;

- Rear camera on trailer is now a requirement for me.

- Brake controller is a Prodigy P2 with "boost option" set on B3.

- Tireminder TPMS (Caught a low tire one early morning, of which eventually required installing the spare and installing the loose spare I bought along. Booster installed, but still lost signal at random, only at speed)

- Levelmate Pro (Wasn't sold on this at first, now I love it)

- LT tire PSI. 65psi Front, 70psi Rear








Vegas baby...


Near the 12,000ft peak of Rocky Mtn NP...




EDITED to fix image sizing from IMGUR.

[rbpru]

I have mentioned before, anyone who farms or works construction knows that 1/2, 3/4 and 1 ton are just suggestions. 🙂

It is simple, the heavier you load it, the more effect it has on braking, accelerating, stability and overall wear and tear.

If your TV is grossly overloaded you will know it immediately. They are not much fun to drive.

Operating near its design limits has the greatest effect on longevity. Basically you wear it out quicker.

For those who worry about handling, one only has to look at the mods done to prize winning "custom street rods" to realize that street legal has a lot of latitude.

[Bobbo]

RinconVTR wrote:

RinconVTR wrote:
It's too bad not one person asked me direct questions about stability, power, MPG and ride comfort. The major things that actually matter when we tow!

Bobbo wrote:

The reason for that is, except for stability, the rest are not safety related and do not affect others on the road in any way.

The "weight police" may be aggravating, but they truly are trying to keep the roads safe.

I disagree.

Does anyone consider what "the rest" (all the other factors for safe towing) really are? Cause "the rest" matters.

I have said for decades..."weight is not everything". And before anyone chimes in and feels that's a foolish statement...think about it first. Weight is just one piece of a nearly equally divided pie. The heavy focus weight here needs to lighten up and consider more factors at play in each case.

For example, many truck owners are well within their weight ratings, yet how often do we read of (or hear from friends and family) complaints and problems about their experience on the highway. There is a significant list of possible problems and solutions depending on what they are experiencing. And often, it's multi-faceted, meaning more than one thing is wrong or multiple changes must be made.

As well, I could easily load 200-300lbs more to my SUV and thus be that much over my gross weight limit. Does that 3-4% increase over the weight rating turn on a magic switch that results in sudden failure and exponentially creates a safety hazard for everyone on the road? Of course not.

Same theory applies to tire speed ratings, which often comes up here when ST tires and the dying 65mph rating comes up. So many fear driving 1mph over the rated speed rating will result in sudden failure. Nothing on earth works that way. Few things in life are that simple!

You are taking my response out of context. The term "the rest" directly refers to your previous post (which you did NOT quote). The term "the rest" refers only to power, MPG and ride comfort. I have re-inserted your post to provide the context for my answer.

[RinconVTR]

Bobbo wrote:

The reason for that is, except for stability, the rest are not safety related and do not affect others on the road in any way.

The "weight police" may be aggravating, but they truly are trying to keep the roads safe.

I disagree.

Does anyone consider what "the rest" (all the other factors for safe towing) really are? Cause "the rest" matters.

I have said for decades..."weight is not everything". And before anyone chimes in and feels that's a foolish statement...think about it first. Weight is just one piece of a nearly equally divided pie. The heavy focus weight here needs to lighten up and consider more factors at play in each case.

For example, many truck owners are well within their weight ratings, yet how often do we read of (or hear from friends and family) complaints and problems about their experience on the highway. There is a significant list of possible problems and solutions depending on what they are experiencing. And often, it's multi-faceted, meaning more than one thing is wrong or multiple changes must be made.

As well, I could easily load 200-300lbs more to my SUV and thus be that much over my gross weight limit. Does that 3-4% increase over the weight rating turn on a magic switch that results in sudden failure and exponentially creates a safety hazard for everyone on the road? Of course not.

Same theory applies to tire speed ratings, which often comes up here when ST tires and the dying 65mph rating comes up. So many fear driving 1mph over the rated speed rating will result in sudden failure. Nothing on earth works that way. Few things in life are that simple!

[DinTulsa]

Great looking setup. Don't worry about some of the replies, if it were up to some people the only thing that could tow a 25ft TT is a 550/5500 series truck. The weight police are really getting out of hand.

[Bobbo]

RinconVTR wrote:
It's too bad not one person asked me direct questions about stability, power, MPG and ride comfort. The major things that actually matter when we tow!

The reason for that is, except for stability, the rest are not safety related and do not affect others on the road in any way. Your power, MPG and ride comfort may be important to you, but they don't cause safety problems. Stability is the only thing listed above that may be a safety concern, thereby affecting others. The "weight police" may be aggravating, but they truly are trying to keep the roads safe. (Some of them even attacked me for pulling a 6000# GVWR trailer with a 1/2 ton truck. The truck is rated by ford to pull 11700#.)

[RinconVTR]

crk112 wrote:
Wow very defensive answer for a simple honest question from someone trying to learn.

I do come across that way when I write sometimes. It was not intentional in my reply to you. Sorry about that.

Although when you add in all those attacking me over weight numbers, I did think you might be one of them. Glad you're not.

It's too bad not one person asked me direct questions about stability, power, MPG and ride comfort. The major things that actually matter when we tow!

By now anyone reading my posts here or other, know I'm frankly honest and come across "sometimes harsh" as one particular forum admin stated to me (not here). Thus, if I have something negative to add or a bad experience to share, I'll tell you flat out without sugar coating.

I will never state false positives and put fellow RV's at risk. We drive the same roads after-all.

[crk112]

Wow very defensive answer for a simple honest question from someone trying to learn.

[MikeJulieGDImag]

Good post, RinconVTR. Unfortunately, anytime the 'tow vehicle' debate comes up there are always the 'anything less than a 3/4 ton is unacceptable' crowd that chime in. I know people that started with a 3/4 ton and moved up to a 1 ton truck and even with all that overkill are more scary on the road than those with a 1/2 ton or SUV because driver skill is always important.

BTW, i've pulled a Grand Design 2800BH with an Expedition EL into the smokey mountains and back and in heavy rain more than once without issue.

[RinconVTR]

crk112 wrote:
I notice you didn't factor your tongue weight into your spreadsheet.

So if the sequoia has 1230lb payload capacity (from your spreadsheet), and you have a 1000lb tongue... how do you figure 820lbs remaining payload?

- ck

The spread sheet and scale weights answer all questions.

Keep in mind, the payload sticker is meaningless with known scale weights. Actual or remaining Payload is a derived number from actual scale weights.

Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (7300lbs) - Curb Weight (6480lbs-loaded with family) = Remaining Payload (820lbs).

Add my rounded tongue weight of 1000lbs, then subtract the WDH transferred weight as shown on the scale from WDH attached vs not attached (exactly 200lbs) and you'll clearly see how ad why the math works out.

With the WDH connected, the Gross Vehicle Weight is 7200lbs, just 100lbs under. I consider this max'd out.

It's all there and dead nuts accurate. There is nothing to hide.

[crk112]

I notice you didn't factor your tongue weight into your spreadsheet.

So if the sequoia has 1230lb payload capacity (from your spreadsheet), and you have a 1000lb tongue... how do you figure 820lbs remaining payload?

- ck

[rbpru]

The closer you are to the weight ratings the more you increase the tow vehicle's wear and tear.

There in nothing mysterious that happens as you approach or even slightly exceed the manufacturer's recommended ratings. Wear and tear, acceleration time, braking, and handling degrade as the load is increased.

This is just the nature of the beast.

Some folks like to offset this with bigger and stronger, others are quite content with what they have.

[camp-n-family]

firestorm79 wrote:

RinconVTR wrote:

Oh I get it. So because I can find an abundant number semi trailer and 5th wheel roll overs and should assume what happened in each case, we all must assume that towing in general will get us all killed. Just look at all those pictures on the internet!

Back to reality, see below for my actual verified weights.

The scale shows you're over the limits of your vehicle. Your defensiveness seems to indicate you know I'm right and either you're trying to justify what you're doing anyway or perhaps you're just one of those Internet tough guys.

The scale doesn't show that at all. He's very close to some limits but still within with the hitch adjusted. There is nothing wrong or unsafe with towing at the limit. Even if he was over on the payload he could still tow it safely while under the tire and axle ratings (which he is well under), just like almost every 3/4 ton truck/5th wheel setup.

[firestorm79]

RinconVTR wrote:

Oh I get it. So because I can find an abundant number semi trailer and 5th wheel roll overs and should assume what happened in each case, we all must assume that towing in general will get us all killed. Just look at all those pictures on the internet!

Back to reality, see below for my actual verified weights.

The scale shows you're over the limits of your vehicle. Your defensiveness seems to indicate you know I'm right and either you're trying to justify what you're doing anyway or perhaps you're just one of those Internet tough guys.

[RinconVTR]

firestorm79 wrote:

RinconVTR wrote:



I think its fair to say, practically every vehicle and towing rig type in the world has been involved in some unfortunate incident.

But it takes a special type of weak human being to paste such images into a forum and add their own pure speculation simply to create fear in people.

Why is it the people who overload their vehicles are the one's who feel the need to post about how they've successfully done it without any problems? Then there's the people who laud them for their "accomplishment". I don't often see people that have 1,000 lbs of extra payload after they're fully loaded posting about how they've done it without problems. There's no need to. The point of me posting the pictures was because it is a similar setup to what the OP posted and a caution to those who think it can't happen to them.

Oh I get it. So because I can find an abundant number semi trailer and 5th wheel roll overs and should assume what happened in each case, we all must assume that towing in general will get us all killed. Just look at all those pictures on the internet!

Back to reality, see below for my actual verified weights.








Fully loaded (fresh water on board as well) tongue weight via Sherline scale.




My own spread sheet of the above weights;