Towing travel trailer with 3rd GEN

[BOSSIND]

I've search on the forum and will continue to do but have yet to find an answer to my specific needs. The 4Runner tow rating in 5000lbs, ideally you would like to be 75% of that... however that puts me into too small of a trailer. So my question s has anyone done any towing at the 5000lb rating and perhaps a bit more? The trailer I'm looking at is a Jayco 221 has a dry weight of 3805lbs and a max load rate of 4950lbs. So I'm right up against it, plus than you'll have stuff loaded in the 4runner as well so Iit may exceed it - I suspect a lot of folks do with out even realizing they have.

The longest distances I would be traveling would be a 2hr trip, most would be an 1.5hr.

I did pull a trailer the other week about 1000lbs less and I had no issues, I knew it was back there plus I didn't have the electric brakes hooked up but had no issue braking - I would certainly have an electrical brake working for this trailer.

Has anyone pulled this type of load?

 

[trailmix]

I honestly wouldnt want to pull a 22ft travel trailer with my 4runner. First off it would be working pretty hard to pull it especially if you are hitting any hills and stopping something like that would be scary with a coil sprung rear end. Just my 2 cents

 

[BOSSIND]

I honestly wouldnt want to pull a 22ft travel trailer with my 4runner. First off it would be working pretty hard to pull it especially if you are hitting any hills and stopping something like that would be scary with a coil sprung rear end. Just my 2 cents

With electric brakes you'll be surprised how well they stop, weight on the tongue is what matters to the coil springs and even a smaller trailer if not balance can place a lot on the rear coils - so one always has to be-careful there. Of course stabilizer bars would be in use. The trailer has a 500lb tongue weight. Guess I'm more concern about having the power to pull it.

 

[Gerdo]

I would bet that you would regret doing it. Not because it would damage the 4runner is you are smart about towing and add the proper equipment. If it's an auto trans I would strongly suggest a trans cooler.

Not only the weight but the front area of the trailer will add tons of wind resistance that would hold you back.

I towed a smaller trailer with the front area of 5'x 5' with a weight of ~2000#. With a head wind, it was difficult to hold 65mph and I was getting ~10-11 mpg.

 

[the great him]

well take this for what its worth, but id recommend installing a large tranny cooler at least the B&M 70624 -i have dual coolers. you are gonna be working that 3.4 if you have any hills to pull, it can do it but just dont think you are gonna make time. and be nice to your tranny. also a set of air bags in your coils to help with the load and keep things level. and do the TBU(tundra brake upgrade).

i have towed a 06 f250 4x4 quad cab with the 6.0 on a trailer that weighed in at ~3000lbs by itself with my runner. i did not yet have the TBU or a trans cooler when i did this and wished i did(i flushed my tranny right after this), but i did have trailer brakes and a controller as well as rear air bags. it was a 3.5hr+ trip mostly freeway but i had one small climb and a big long down hill that i was glad i had trailer brakes for, cause with out them id of been shoved through a guard rail and off down to the river below. i dont know what i weighed in at but the truck it self weights somewhere between 6-8k lbs and so i figure i was double the 5k lb load rating and i didnt have any issues other than being way under powered, i only reached 50mph once or twice

 

[Pikeman]

Search for a thread in this section "what have you towed". Now I highly discourage towing a 22' enclosed trailer, even a 16' is bit much for our trucks. It is not necessarily the weight as I would tow a flat car hauler with a load on it at 5-6k no worries. Here is the big difference between a heavy flat and heavy box trailer. The enclosed trailer has a much larger surface area both front and sides making it more DANGEROUS in winds. Trailer brakes are great for stopping but wont do jack for you in high winds. I have over 2 million miles in a big rig pulling both box and flat bed so have some experience and that doesnt include all the trailers I have pulled with my own vehicles. Another thing you need to consider is the tow vehicles wheel base compared to the trailer length. Our vehicles are too short and with the coil rear suspension would get whipped around in a heart beat. I have seen tons of Tahoe's towing 22' trailers get knocked around in the winds and pushed off the road and they are heavier and a little longer wheel base.

Things that need to be considered when buying a trailer:
1. weight and capacity of vehicle
2. vehicle length to trailer length
3. type of trailer and surface area
4. trailer brakes

 

[the great him]

^^^Pikeman you do make a good point about the surface area being a big factor, i didnt think about that, yeah the winds(even a small gust) could reek havoc on you.

 

[BOSSIND]

Well some food for thought for sure, still like to hear from someone that has done it and get their feed back. I would add a trans cooler to any truck or suv I used for pulling, thats a given.

 

[Pikeman]

Boss, I have towed a 6x12 enclosed cargo trailer and it was fine but did notice the wind. I have also towed a 16' ultra light travel trailer(much higher than a cargo) for a friend after he bought it. It was close to my house and he is 60 miles away so I delivered it to save him gas and it was opposite of traffic. I am very thankfull that the winds were not bad that day but was not to bad overall. I know winds are bad everywhere but here in So Cal all you need to do is look at the Freeways on the weekends and you see 30% of the vehicles are pulling trailers so I get to see first hand what pulls what safely in various conditions.

 

[Shawn5800]

Im having second thoughts about pulling my recently aquired snowmobile trailer. Its a 12 foot aluminum open trailer, v nose, and i haul two sleds on it. The trailer alone seemed to be NO problem to tow. I have yet to haul with both sleds though...

Any feedback on that?

 

[BOSSIND]

Im having second thoughts about pulling my recently aquired snowmobile trailer. Its a 12 foot aluminum open trailer, v nose, and i haul two sleds on it. The trailer alone seemed to be NO problem to tow. I have yet to haul with both sleds though...

Any feedback on that?

Like I said in my first post I towed a 4000lb camper a couple weeks ago that was 18feet without issue and I didn't have the electric brakes hooked up so I don't see you having an issue with 2 sleds. Oh on my return trip on sunday I was hitting winds from Irene, though Irene didn't hit us all that hard the winds were much stronger than we see around here, trees fell down, power outage and yet I felt perfectly safe towing, sure I could feel the wind hitting us but at no point was I concerned about being blown over - perhaps with a bigger trailer I would have been.

 

[Nunyabiz]

Well I have never towed anything with my 4Runner however I used to tow my Boston Whaler 19' Outrage with Twin 75hp Yamaha's that was fitted with a custom TTop and Teak tackle center loaded with 63gallons of fuel on main plus and extra 36gallons in the 2 bladder tanks.
Boat itself was at least 3500#+ fully loaded and I think with trailer which was a nice tandem axle was just under 1000#.

So total weight had to be about 4500# maybe a tad more and I towed that boat/trailer and gear from Newport Beach California to Cabo San Lucas, Baja Ca which is just under 1000 miles each way down the infamous Highway 1 in Mexico and I did that with a Ford Bronco II which only had a 2.8l V6 and 115hp was the Eddie Bauer edition with towing package which was 5000# and the trailer had surge brakes.

Would have been impossible without the surge brakes but with the trailer surge brakes the Bronco actually stopped quicker towing the boat that without it.

I also Beach Launched on numerous occasions into the surf with it, backed right into surf on the sand and pulled a #4500lb boat and trailer right on out without a problem.
I did this twice a year for 8 years, plus towed the same boat to and from the boat launch in Newport Bay literally 100s of times during that 8 years.

So I must believe that if that piece of manure Bronco II could do it then I cant imagine that this 4runner with 70hp more couldn't.

Amazingly I never had a problem with that Bronco II although by the time I sold it with about 110,000 miles on it, it was pretty much spent.