Looking at RAV4 and wonder if the door that is not a hatch is a real bother.

Glenn Baglo tows with one but he hasn't been active since January.

When I did a search I did not find any mention on the way the door opens.

Nancy

Our 2007 RAV4 rear door opens from the driver side towards the passenger side. I don't tow with it and am not sure if it would be a problem opening the door while hooked up.

I've owned the two latest generations of RAV4 - door swings open on both. Hasn't really bothered me.

When towing, bother factor depends primarily on the height of your hitch and ball, as the square receiver on the RAV4 is naturally pretty low so you typically use a draw bar with a 4-5" raise in order to keep the trailer horizontal, and that's what can potentially interfere with the door. The door on the most recent RAV version is a bit higher and I picked my draw bar so it clears the door without any problem even with the raised latch on the coupler. Depending on what you keep on your trailer tongue, it can even open wide enough to allow access to the stuff inside even with the trailer hooked up.

What I like the most about the swinging door is that you can install a bike carrier onto the spare tire, and retain the ability to open the door without removing the bikes.

The 2009 model door has four rest positions: closed, 1/3 open, 2/3 open and fully open. Pulling my Escape, unless the trailer is leaning to the left or the RAV4 is leaning to the right, I can open the door to the 1/3 open position. Any further, and it hits the trailer jack. This is a bit inconvenient, but not too bad. I like my RAV4.

Ron:

I recall you saying that when you were parallel parking (without the trailer) that the door blocked access from the curb to the back of the vehicle, a small inconvenience.

The overwhelming positive opinion from both you and Glenn has been that the RAV4 V6 is a great towing vehicle.

Brian

It might be possible to gain additional opening space by replacing the usual jack with a side mount swivel jack. I've had them on a couple of cargo trailers and they are nice. I seem to recall that I switched to that style of jack because the hatch on the Ford Windstar I had back then would hit the top of the standard jack. They can mess up a truck tailgate some, too, when you drop the gate down.