So as a follow-up, I drove the trailer about 350 miles or so round trip between Seattle and Astoria, OR. Flat, straight highways, it does fine, as you can imagine. It'll sit around 2500 RPM so it absolutely chugs gasoline but it's pretty uneventful towing in that situation.
Going up gentle-sloped hills it generally does fine. If you're willing to sacrifice some RPMs/MPGs, you can keep it above 40/45 mph without much heartache. However, I can't imagine what it would be like over a real mountain pass. It would probably be going about the speed of a loaded Vanagon Westfalia.
Curves are where it really feels the least confidence-inspiring. Especially bumpy downhills where it feels like the trailer might lift the ass-end of the 4Runner off the road and then push the rear end around. I doubt that would actually happen with the trailer brakes and what not, but the short wheel base really makes it feel pretty sketchy.
Keep in mind, this is all with a proper weight distribution/anti-sway hitch setup. I'm sure airbags would help a bit, but only for the bouncy feeling. Obviously that wouldn't help with the lack of power and lack of gears.
Just knowing that a vehicle exists that would barely even notice the trailer back there makes me want to give it a shot over the 4Runner. Which sucks because I generally love the 4Runner in every other respect.
But if we're ever planning to do any trips with this thing over 150/200 miles from home, there's just no way it would make sense, especially when we inevitably encounter a real mountain pass.
Just got to convince the wife that a more expensive vehicle makes sense in the long term. Especially sucky since Ford is running 0% APR for 72 months on F-150s until the end of September...:wow:
