I have towed our new rpod 182g about 300 miles now; this is my long winded experience so far.
3278 pounds loaded, give or take for water, 360-pound tongue weight. It dropped the rear a little over 2.5 inches with everything empty and raised the front just over an inch. Installed the Fastway e2 weight distributing hitch, model FA92-00-0450. With the default settings, the front was back to level with the rear within .5 inch. Loaded up and added a little more spring. Ride was night and day different, no kick, just rock solid. Before installing the hitch I only had sway once due to some tramlining in 18-wheeler grooves that don't match the width of the trailer. After putting on the hitch, I repeated the exact section of road, it rode the edge of the groove without falling in, rock solid. I've towed boats and flatbed trailers all of my driving life, but never a giant slab-sided marshmallow. It is a different load due to wind and the profile. The hitch helps in this situation to properly distribute the weight and prevent sway.
Now I can load up all of my family, family crap, dogs, whatever, and the camper and be perfectly level while maintaining proper weights on the front and rear axle. The scales said I could even add a couple hundred pounds of more crap in both the camper and the truck.
I have been very happy with the fuel economy; towing I can get around 14-15+ (onboard claims as good as 16, lol) on a flat road at 63 or so, which is amazing. I pulled it with my in-laws duramax, 11 mpg but you could not feel it back there.
It moves along just fine but has no guts on the highway, which is fine and is to be expected. Hills around Tennessee can be brutal, but we move up them just fine for now. With the family in tow I'm in no hurry and stick to a safe speed, but not using the cruise it's hard to keep it from creeping to 70+.
Hopkins insight brake controller works well, stops on a dime after dialing in the trailer brakes. I purchased an ultraguage to monitor my temps, and it is always on. Surprisingly the temps are only a few degrees higher when towing than in stop and go traffic. Stop and go and constant high speed (cruise at 80 or so) really raise the temps. While towing, water temp stays no greater than 194, the converter hit 208 degrees after some traffic but settled right back to the 180's. I let it shift to 5th on a flat section of road at 65 just to watch the temps, and the converter temp started to climb rapidly, back to 4th gear - end of that experiment. The converter is still unlocking in 4th gear depending on road conditions. We have a two hour trip next weekend and it will be a little warmer, no worries.
I don't subscribe to the "must have a duramax 3500 dually to tow anything" mindset, very impressed with the 4Runner. Time will tell when the air temps climb into the upper 90's, but for now, it is just fine. I can see myself upgrading to a GX460 or similar in a few years when we jump to a 26 footer, or I get tired of my foot to the floor, but for now; we have a great towing combo.
Controller remote:
No weight distribution, on my test drive:
)which towed like a dream pulling an 18’ Flagstaff Micro-Lite at about 3,000# dry w/ an Equalizer WDH. I’m real anxious (read: nervous) to tow with the 4Runner; it is my single biggest reservation and concern about the vehicle. The low end torque and tranny gearing on the Xterra were seemingly a dream compared to the 4Runner, at least as far as the “seat of the pants” feeling goes, although the numbers on paper are nearly identical as far as horsepower, torque, and even final drive ratio in every gear for that matter! 4Runner is about 500 lbs more porky and too quick on the up shift. I plan on towing exclusively in S-mode and keeping the tranny in the power band.
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