Advisibility of using weight distribution hitch: pros and cons

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by Francesca Knowles

That's because there are so many fewer people breathing it!

Francesca

It just seems that way due to land mass (2nd largest in the world) vs population. In 2011 Metro Vancouver area had a population of 2,313,328.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by Nancy

Wow, I guess it has been a while since we bought a draw bar. I thought they were cheap.

They are - $20 to $30 at eTrailer and lots of other places. A lot cheaper than using a WD system because the ball is in the wrong place for the tug...

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by Carol H

Here in BC in particular Vancouver/Whistler area the transit buses are moving away from diesel so we have a large number of transit buses running Hydrogen Fuel cell or Natural gas or electric. Currently Whistler has the biggest fleet of Hydrogen Fuel cell buses in the world. Many of the Down town Vancouver transit buses are electric.

That has lots to do with the high cost of fuel in the Vancouver area (relative to elsewhere in Canada), the artificially low cost of CNG (no road tax), the availability of hydroelectric power in B.C., and even the presence of Ballard in Burnaby. It probably has nothing to do with "clean diesel", and certainly engines of any kind have nothing to do with weight-distributing hitch systems.

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by Brian B-P

Toyota is no longer offering - at least for 2013 - the V6, with its corresponding engine cooling capacity and transmission. I have seen no information to suggest that this marketing choice has anything to do with towing, related to weight distribution hitches or otherwise.

Brian I think you will agree that vehicle manufactures pay big bucks to have their press releases done and will go out of their way to avoid mentioning any negative reasons behind the decision to change their product line ups. They as you know will always put the best spin on their changes as possible. What sounds better - We are changing our line up to conform with CAFE standards to save the environment or we are changing our line because the RAV4 V6 didn't meet the new safe towing standards we agreed to test our vehicles against? or perhaps they have simple had one to many warranty claims regarding the soft back end resulting from towing. Or it could be a combination of those reasons plus a few more no one here has even considered.

The consumer is never going to be told all the reasons behind changes in vehicle offerings & they are for sure not likely to publish them.

[Glenn Baglo]

Or maybe it was aliens.

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by Glenn Baglo

Or maybe it was aliens.

Yup could be! One things for sure we the end user will never know.

[Raz]

Originally Posted by Glenn Baglo

Or maybe it was aliens.

Despite watching countless hours of the X File, Maggie still doesn't buy that one.

[Francesca Knowles]

Originally Posted by Glenn Baglo

Or maybe it was aliens.

That's it!
Aliens that inhale CO and exhale O! Why does Canada get all the breaks, ET-wise? ...

Francesca

[gmw photos]

Let's face it, most people don't buy small suv's to use as tow vehicles. They are economical daily drivers. Which is no doubt why most of them are simply not engineered to take such stress inducing devices as heavy duty tow receivers, let alone weight distributing hitches.
If you want to tow most of the campers that are made, Toyota just happens to build one of the best built, and best thought out tow vehicles on the market. From it's 400 ft-lb engine, to it's six speed transmission all the way to the excellent engineering choice of 4.30 gears, and a frame sturdy enough to take any WD hitch on the market the Tundra is an excellent choice for pulling trailers.

IMO....leave the little cars to what they were intended, which is hauling a few human beings around and getting great gas mileage in the process.

The new Rav will no doubt be better at being what its intended market is. Those of you who got the last generation version and are pulling small campers with it, well, enjoy it while it lives out it's life, and plan on buying something different when the time comes to replace.

As an aside, regarding the epa not liking diesels, that's not the way that whole scene works. The epa could care less what you put in the tank....all they care about is what comes out the tailpipe. It's up to the car company to come up with the mechanisms to make it burn clean.

Now back to your regularly scheduled WD discussion, a subject that, for as simple as it is in principle and actual use, leads to more arguments than seemingly anything else in trailer towing.

[Francesca Knowles]

Originally Posted by gmw photos

Now back to your regularly scheduled WD discussion, a subject that, for as simple as it is in principle and actual use, leads to more arguments than seemingly anything else in trailer towing.

After tires and toilet paper, perhaps...and not necessarily in that order.

Francesca

[Raz]

Originally Posted by gmw photos

o

Now back to your regularly scheduled WD discussion, a subject that, for as simple as it is in principle and actual use, leads to more arguments than seemingly anything else in trailer towing.

Maybe, but I think small tow vehicles wins on this board. Raz

[deryk]

I think its bs...if they didn't want the vehicle to tow or they knew it couldn't handle the tongue weight don't offer the towing package...but they do out of greed...ppl will buy all the options and just never use it. So they make more money. Tears back my parents' bought a new super deluxe dodge grand caravan with tow package even though my dad said he would never tow a trailer.


Tundra huh....hmmm
.

[Francesca Knowles]

Originally Posted by P. Raz

Maybe, but I think small tow vehicles wins on this board. Raz

AAACK!

You're right, Raz...I forgot where I was posting! But now that you bring it up: how about adding "European vs. North American Standards", at least as a subgroup?


Francesca

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by Francesca Knowles

That's it!
Aliens that inhale CO and exhale O! Why does Canada get all the breaks, ET-wise? ...

Francesca

Well if you watched the X Files, which was filmed in BC you would know our aliens can do more than that!

[Francesca Knowles]

Originally Posted by Carol H

Well if you watched the X Files, which was filmed in BC you would know our aliens can do more than that!

Bedtime here at The Home is 7:30 so I don't get to watch much primetime...

Is "X-Files" the one starring that weird guy Stephen Harper and that other weird guy Stephen Harper?



Francesca

[Carol H]

hummm.... me thinks those are The Muffets discussing the Clean Energy Bill!

[MCDenny]

Sorry for the cryptic photo. Deryk asked for it in a PM but I couldn't attach it to the reply.

[deryk]

im at work and my droid only does so well showing pictures...let me ask, when your rav4 is loaded and hooked up to your lil snoozy, how many inches are between the bottom of the receiver and the ground....and how many inches between the ground and the receiver when your not hooked up? im about 9.75" off the ground normally... not sure when im hooked up haven't measured it.

getting annoyed with jc whitney placed order saturday...called today and they said give them 24 to 48 hours to process order....told them its been that long....uhhhh we will email you an answer whenwe get it from the manuf....is it in stock? yeah but normally delivery is 2 to 9 business days.... really most places are next day its out the door with tracking, Im not happy....click....lovely customer service dept lol


deryk

[rabbit]

Whitney is waiting around for someone to eat their lunch if someone hasn't already. Find another supplier. I'm routinely getting mail order stuff on free 2-3 day shipping (Amazon) and got a way exotic rv plumbing chingus from Dyers in AZ in about 2 1/2 days. Whitney has heard of jitney but not airplane.

jack

[MCDenny]

Derek, I'll try to remember to take the measurement when we hook up on Thursday afternoon.