Cheap tow vehicle ideas?

[Borrego Dave]

His experience reaffirms the reports I have read and the accounts by the towing specialist at the seminar I attended.

Would be interesting to see some of these reports.

[AandB]

Gotta love that "Good Road Feel"

[rbryan]

Originally Posted by MC1

My buddy in upstate New York towed his 18' Fun Finder with an 04 Nissan Quest mini van.
It worked fine and when the lease was up he thought he would try something with more power. He leased a V8 4 Runner. Right away he felt insecure with the new vehicle towing the 18'. He made numerous adjustments/added a sway bar etc trying to improve the ride/stability, but it never met his expectations. He ended up replacing the 4 Runner with a Toyota Sienna mini van and the good road feel and stability returned.

His experience reaffirms the reports I have read and the accounts by the towing specialist at the seminar I attended.

The thing about anecdotes is that they can be contradicted by other anecdotes. Probably hundreds of FGRV folks tow with a 4-Runner with great results.

[68dave]

Allot of members on the casita forum tow with their 4runners with no issues, that's why i recommended a 4runner to the OP. I have two 3rd gen 4runners and i haven't had no issues with towing and one of them has a 3inch suspension lift. I will admit i prefer my lifted tacoma as my tv because it's a manual trans. All 3 of my trucks have the same 3.4L v6 and 4x4. I did do two mods to my lifted 4runner before i used it to tow, one is a external trans cooler and 2nd is i installed the bigger toyota tundra front brakes. I also installed the toyota tundra brakes to my tacoma as well. Pics of my 4runners.

[MC1]

Originally Posted by Borrego Dave

Would be interesting to see some of these reports.

I agree Dave. Not a 4 Runner but he publish an on line towing related article not that long ago comparing the larger, more powerful and heavier, Toyota Sequoia to the Sienna and in most ways the Toyota Sienna mini van came out on top.

So knowing what we know about the highly rated Sienna, this is the reason I pointed it out to George.

[Donna D.]

Originally Posted by MC1

My buddy in upstate New York towed his 18' Fun Finder with an 04 Nissan Quest mini van.
It worked fine and when the lease was up he thought he would try something with more power. He leased a V8 4 Runner. Right away he felt insecure with the new vehicle towing the 18'. He made numerous adjustments/added a sway bar etc trying to improve the ride/stability, but it never met his expectations. He ended up replacing the 4 Runner with a Toyota Sienna mini van and the good road feel and stability returned.

His experience reaffirms the reports I have read and the accounts by the towing specialist at the seminar I attended.

Okay, I'm going to be snarky here. But what does someone towing a box like a Fun Finder have to do with us? Those have more frontale area and a big difference between hitch to axle percentage than an all molded towable. Let's at least be on target with someone wanting to tow an all molded towable with [some brand, size] of a tug than mixing up all the stickies. It's far more than just weight.

[MC1]

Originally Posted by Donna D.

It's far more than just weight.

Agree Donna and thnxs for pointing that out. There are many factors involved with the whole deal of set up and components related to towing.

[PC Steve]

I think 68dave and AandB illustrate a key point - there are many perfectly fine tow vehicles, just that some are better suited to a particular user. 68dave obviously likes 4Runners (along with a lot of other folks). Others would prefer a more carlike experience. If they are safe, good for them. They have both set a good example and provided good options. We provide our best service by providing options.

Any reasonable person would realize that they are very different vehicles and one might do something better than the other. The 4Runner provides more off-road capability while the minivan provides storage capacity. Neither is bad - people just value them differently. I find these discussions to be more helpful when the author tells why he likes and dislikes his own vehicle based on experience rather than theoretical or secondhand anecdotes as to why "your" choice is bad.

I love to read Andy Thomson writing on the subject. He is a bright, thoughtful, thorough professional. His well written ideas become less appealing after they are recycled imprecisely several times. He has done much to advance the use of non-truck tow vehicles. But, in the thread I was reading, he was supportive of the existing owner's 4runner and made suggestions to optimize it. He doesn't seem to have any vendettas against trucks, in fact he also suggest modifications to Suburbans (his threads from the early 2000's live on). While I generally hate on dealers of all sorts, I think I would like to do business with Andy if he wasn't on the end of the continent.

Now on to start my thread "Only an idiot would have a non-white tow vehicle"

[Cathy P.]

Originally Posted by PC Steve

I think 68dave and AandB illustrate a key point - there are many perfectly fine tow vehicles, just that some are better suited to a particular user. 68dave obviously likes 4Runners (along with a lot of other folks). Others would prefer a more carlike experience. If they are safe, good for them. They have both set a good example and provided good options. We provide our best service by providing options.

Any reasonable person would realize that they are very different vehicles and one might do something better than the other. The 4Runner provides more off-road capability while the minivan provides storage capacity. Neither is bad - people just value them differently. I find these discussions to be more helpful when the author tells why he likes and dislikes his own vehicle based on experience rather than theoretical or secondhand anecdotes as to why "your" choice is bad.

I love to read Andy Thomson writing on the subject. He is a bright, thoughtful, thorough professional. His well written ideas become less appealing after they are recycled imprecisely several times. He has done much to advance the use of non-truck tow vehicles. But, in the thread I was reading, he was supportive of the existing owner's 4runner and made suggestions to optimize it. He doesn't seem to have any vendettas against trucks, in fact he also suggest modifications to Suburbans (his threads from the early 2000's live on). While I generally hate on dealers of all sorts, I think I would like to do business with Andy if he wasn't on the end of the continent.

Now on to start my thread "Only an idiot would have a non-white tow vehicle"

This is an excellent post, except for the last sentence since we have 2 tow vehicles, and, well, I'm not telling the colors now.

I, too, think it is good to get a lot of different opinions which you will get on any subject on the internet. I always try to best match up my "situation" with the others that seem to be similar.

We are "looking" for our molded fiberglass right now. Tend to favor the EggCamper but still have an open mind. We have two big tow vehicles chosen for our experiences even with the lighter trailers. We carry 3 adults, 2 large dogs and a guinea pig and supplies and comfort items for everyone. We have climbed mountains (I don't like it), hit serious cross winds and even going the shorter distance to local parks on the "back" roads, we can hit some really strong gusts. You get "lift". We have a Ford Club Wagon with a tow capacity of 5700 lbs and with a slightly over 2,000 lb pop-up, smooth. We just purchased a Dodge Durango with a tow capacity of 6,700 lbs. It has a thingy for towing stability but I haven't had time to figure out what that is yet. Since we generally only drive within our smaller town (25,000), gas mileage is not our main concern. Our main concern is durability, safety and space.

You really want to understand how all of this works before diving in. Too many people don't make informed decisions and just buy something and hope it works. I have seen a lot of people with insufficient tow vehicles and they were very uneasy on the road which limited their enjoyment.

[Gene Masse]

I have an 06 Chrysler Town & Country. It has a 3600lb tow capacity. I added the receiver hitch when I first got my Casita, and recently bought an aftermarket tranny cooler ($70). The nice thing about them is also the stow n go seats. That makes for a lot of room for "stuff".
I can get about 16mpg towing and over 20 when not. I've used on on a 16' Casita in the past and now have a 16' Scamp.
There's lots of them around so you shouldn't have much trouble finding one.

[MC1]

Originally Posted by PC Steve

I love to read Andy Thomson writing on the subject.
But, in the thread I was reading, he was supportive of the existing owner's 4runner and made suggestions to optimize it.

George, no doubt there are many sources and post by Mr. T. The one I located from 2008 started out like this.....

"Don't buy a 4Runner to tow with. It is a great off road vehicle but I use it as an example of how not to build a tow vehicle. Every spec on it is bad for towing."

That is a very strong message that may or may not be of interest to towing enthusiasts.

[Bob Miller]

It's pretty harsh applying a statement made 6 or more years ago to current production versions, the 5th generation of which appeared in 2009, after that comment was made.


And, without a specific year or year range mentioned in the reference, was he referring to a specific example, or is he condemning the 4Runner all the way back to 1984 when they were introduced as, basically, a rebodied pick-up truck. Toyota 4Runner - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Or, perhaps, he was referring to use in a specific application, such as towing 26' Airstreams, not 17' FGRV's.


Generalities generally don't apply...

[PC Steve]

Originally Posted by MC1

George, no doubt there are many sources and post by Mr. T. The one I located from 2008 started out like this.....

"Don't buy a 4Runner to tow with. It is a great off road vehicle but I use it as an example of how not to build a tow vehicle. Every spec on it is bad for towing."

That is a very strong message that may or may not be of interest to towing enthusiasts.

Could you provide the link so we could understand the context? Andy often addresses Airstream which is useful but not the same. A Casita woild not be as demanding. Likewise, 4runners have been around for 30 years? Their capabilities have changed over the years. They obviously have shorter wheelbase and higher center of gravity. In contrast, is the experience of many Casita owners. Thank for indulging my curiosity.

[PC Steve]

Found it myself. From the original poster on the AS forum. "...Must be a V8 capable of towing the AS (possibly a larger model up to 6000lb)..."

Another 4runner question - Airstream Forums

He clearly doesn't like the 4runner for a large Airstream.

Useful information in context. If I had or really wanted a 4runner to tow a Casita, it wouldn't cause me to rule it out. I think his comments about this specific hitch and it's weaknesses for a wdh is an example of his thoroughness.

[rbryan]

The quotes about the 4-runner and towing are many years old, and they reference towing an airstream that weighs at least 6000 lbs -- not a molded fiberglass towable that typically comes in at the 2000-2500 lb range. Irrelevant, and a little tiresome, but to each his own.

[MC1]

Originally Posted by rbryan

The quotes about the 4-runner and towing are many years old,

So true Bryan and when you refer back to post #6 those are the ones we are talking about.

Originally Posted by rbryan

and they reference towing an airstream that weighs at least 6000 lbs -- not a molded fiberglass towable that typically comes in at the 2000-2500 lb range. Irrelevant, and a little tiresome, but to each his own.

Maybe/maybe not. What is nice about the forum format is that we get to choose what threads interest us and which ones don't. Many of us being towing enthusiasts find these types on discussions interesting and a learning experience. The main goal here is to give George some food for thought.