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.

[firestorm79]

camp-n-family wrote:
Hard to say just from pics of the aftermath. What was the cause? Improper setup? Driver error? Wind? Sway? A properly setup Hensley could very well have prevented that but so could many other things.

I didn't see if they had a WD hitch connected as the receiver was torn off the frame and unhitched from the trailer. From what I saw it came down to simple physics. The tow vehicle was unable to handle the mass and resultant energy of the travel trailer at speed.

On paper that vehicle can tow 8,700 lbs and carry 1,600 lbs of payload and I'm guessing the trailer has a dry weight around 6,000 lbs. On paper it should tow just fine but in reality there's no way they should have hooked up that combination.

Just because I can find a hitch that will allow me to pull a 51' transport trailer behind my VW Jetta TDI doesn't mean I should moonlight as an OTR trucker.

[camp-n-family]

Hard to say just from pics of the aftermath. What was the cause? Improper setup? Driver error? Wind? Sway? A properly setup Hensley could very well have prevented that but so could many other things.

[firestorm79]

Do you think the Hensley would have helped here? I watched the front wheels of the TV come off the ground before the TT overtook the TV and tossed them in the ditch. Thankfully nobody was hurt.

[lanerd]

RinconVTR wrote:

CarnationSailor wrote:
I think I recognize that old car in the second picture. Was it taken near Baker, NV on the road to the caverns in the Great Basin?

Petrified Forest NP road just before crossing the Interstate bridge, on what was Old Route 66, an old Studebaker.

https://www.nps.gov/pefo/learn/news/new-route-66-exhibit-and-pull-out.htm

I am really surprised someone has not snatched up that old car. It may be rusted, but I bet it can be restored.

Ron

[RinconVTR]

CarnationSailor wrote:
I think I recognize that old car in the second picture. Was it taken near Baker, NV on the road to the caverns in the Great Basin?

Petrified Forest NP road just before crossing the Interstate bridge, on what was Old Route 66, an old Studebaker.

https://www.nps.gov/pefo/learn/news/new-route-66-exhibit-and-pull-out.htm

[CarnationSailor]

I think I recognize that old car in the second picture. Was it taken near Baker, NV on the road to the caverns in the Great Basin?

[RinconVTR]

busterbrown73 wrote:
I'm a Hensley owner too. Love the hitch. Works awesome when you're within the specs. It connected my 2008 Yukon XL Denali to my 7200 lb Keystone Bullet. My Denali had nearly 1600 lbs of payload capacity. With 900# on the hitch ball, 200# for the Hensley, 2 adults at 300# total, 3 small children (another 100#), car seats, and few odds-n-ends, we ran out of payload.

With the Sequoia's, payload capacity is significantly less. Don't know how you stayed under your SUV's limitations?

We moved up to a 3/4 ton truck as it offered the required payload for my Hensley and the toys the kids want to bring along. Again, the Hensley is a great hitch but it will not increase capacities (GAWR, Payload, GVWR, GCWR, etc).

I am not over any weight spec...when the WDH is applied/attached. Without the WDH applied, the rear axle is over weight and I'm just over GVWR.

Trying to calculate this on paper is difficult and thus appears that I would be overweight. I took an educated guess when I purchased this larger trailer based on previous experiance and it worked out perfectly.

The 200-300lbs of transferred weight is enough to just barely get me under Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (which also means I am not "over payload spec) when fully loaded. It is also well under Gross Combined Weight Rating.

[goducks10]

Nice pics and write up. It's nice to see real life adventures rather than just speculation. Towing aside that must've been a great family trip.

[RinconVTR]

53chevy wrote:
Thanks for the write-up. Would you be willing to provide some specifics/pics on your camera and display setup?

It's pre-wired fora Furion camera by Grand Design for plug and play connection, so there was little I needed to do. This is the unit found on Amazon...there are a few different models;

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017P8H71E/ref=sxr_pa_click_within_right_1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=3...

[camp-n-family]

busterbrown73 wrote:
I'm a Hensley owner too. Love the hitch. Works awesome when you're within the specs. It connected my 2008 Yukon XL Denali to my 7200 lb Keystone Bullet. My Denali had nearly 1600 lbs of payload capacity. With 900# on the hitch ball, 200# for the Hensley, 2 adults at 300# total, 3 small children (another 100#), car seats, and few odds-n-ends, we ran out of payload.

With the Sequoia's, payload capacity is significantly less. Don't know how you stayed under your SUV's limitations?

We moved up to a 3/4 ton truck as it offered the required payload for my Hensley and the toys the kids want to bring along. Again, the Hensley is a great hitch but it will not increase capacities (GAWR, Payload, GVWR, GCWR, etc).

Yes he'll be over payload but more importantly he will be well under the axle and tire ratings. The under rated payloads aside, the Tundra/Sequoia platform will tow at max tow rating all day long.

[busterbrown73]

I'm a Hensley owner too. Love the hitch. Works awesome when you're within the specs. It connected my 2008 Yukon XL Denali to my 7200 lb Keystone Bullet. My Denali had nearly 1600 lbs of payload capacity. With 900# on the hitch ball, 200# for the Hensley, 2 adults at 300# total, 3 small children (another 100#), car seats, and few odds-n-ends, we ran out of payload.

With the Sequoia's, payload capacity is significantly less. Don't know how you stayed under your SUV's limitations?

We moved up to a 3/4 ton truck as it offered the required payload for my Hensley and the toys the kids want to bring along. Again, the Hensley is a great hitch but it will not increase capacities (GAWR, Payload, GVWR, GCWR, etc).

[53chevy]

Thanks for the write-up. Would you be willing to provide some specifics/pics on your camera and display setup?

[azrving]

Nice looking set up and I agree on the rear view camera. If I didn't even double tow I would still want one. Toyota makes good stuff.

[RinconVTR]

DownTheAvenue wrote:
The only thing wrong with your setup is lack of towing mirrors. The Toyota is 79.9 inches wide at its widest point. Rearview side mirrors should look down the side of the trailer.

On the contrary...I can see better and more than most.

The side mirrors give me a great view of both sides and the REAR CAMERA on the trailer gives me more than you ever see with side mirrors. I mounted the display next to my GPS on the dash, I'll never tow a TT without a rear camera again!

[DownTheAvenue]

The only thing wrong with your setup is lack of towing mirrors. The Toyota is 79.9 inches wide at its widest point. Rearview side mirrors should look down the side of the trailer.