Highlander Hybrid Towing

[Lynn Eberhardt]

I finally got my 2017 Highlander Hybrid ready for towing our '06 Scamp 16. We sold or '08 Hi Hy and so had to start all over. The after market hitch was straight forward bolt on and the 4 prong connector was pretty much plug 'n' play. It's the other three connections that presented more of a challenge. The 12 volt battery is in the rear, the brake pedal switch has four wires to control the regenerative braking, the back up lights are in the tailgate, and the car's computer is fussy about anything being messed with. This afternoon, I took it out to adjust the brake controller and everything worked perfectly. It even looked like I may be able to use the fridge on 12 volts while traveling. Yay!

Lynn

[TomandCallie]

Sweet! Just out of curiosity, what is the tow rating for the hybrid Highlander?

[Lynn Eberhardt]

Originally Posted by TomandCallie

Sweet! Just out of curiosity, what is the tow rating for the hybrid Highlander?

The tow rating is 3500 lbs. and they all come with plugs in the rear ready for the four wire electronic adapter.

[Mike Magee]

I do not think a 4 wire plug includes a charge line to the trailer battery.

[Lynn Eberhardt]

Originally Posted by Mike Magee

I do not think a 4 wire plug includes a charge line to the trailer battery.

The four wire is ground, running lights, right blinker, left blinker. The custom adapter, available for most cars, supplies power to both the right and left blinkers when the car's brakes are applied. New cars have separate brake and directional bulbs, most trailers don't. Most cars come with a convenient connection point for this adapter. The additional three wires in a seven prong are 12 volt (preferably only when the car is running), trailer brakes(not the brake light), and back up lights. Many cars don't make it easy to get to these connection points.

[Jon in AZ]

Originally Posted by Lynn Eberhardt

...Many cars don't make it easy to get to these connection points.

That was one factor that led us to a Pilot over a Highlander. The Pilot was factory pre-wired for a 7-blade connector with a port under the dash for a brake controller. Seems like it ought to be standard for any vehicle with a tow rating of 3500 pounds and over.

Your Highlander sounds like an excellent tow vehicle. Having gotten past the set-up hump, it should give many miles of reliable service.

I'd be curious to hear how engine braking, regenerative braking, and friction braking work together on downgrades to control speed when towing. I got to try out the regenerative braking on a Prius on a steep downgrade. It was great- controlled speed without even touching the brake pedal, and seeing the battery charge go up was sweet. Loud, though.

[Wayne Collins]

We had excellent performance from our 20017 Highlander Hybrid, pulling a 2000, 16Dlx Scamp. Seems to me the 12 v battery was under the hood up front.
The shop we had install the brake controller and 7 pin connector, had to run a 12v hot wire to the back, and another wire to feed the brake controller.
I don't recall that they had to do anything special at the brake pedal switch.

[WDavidG]

We had several happy years towing our 13' scamp with a 2008 highlander hybrid, though the hybrid technology didn't seem to contribute much when towing. When we replaced it with a 2017 Highlander we noted that the EPA mileage for the hybrid vs non-hybrid was definitely better for city driving but only marginally so for highway driving. As we are now retired, not commuting to work, and live in a rural area we do almost no city driving. That coupled with the higher towing capacity of the non-hybrid (5000) and the higher cost of the hybrid led us to go with the non-hybrid this time.



As mentioned by others, we were also surprised that for a 5000 tow capacity vehicle the tow package didn't include 7 pin wiring but we did negotiate as part of the sales terms that the dealer would install it. It did take a return visit to the dealer for them to get it right.



Hybrid or not, we continue to be pleased with the Highlanders.



A note on weights: we're obviously way below the TV's tow capacity rating, but find that on longish trips, with tongue weight and camping gear (and I think not carrying anything that unusual or excessive) in the TV, we are surprisingly close to the rear axle capacity. I may pull together my CAT scale numbers and post separately. "Towing capacity" is only a part of the capacity equation and may not be the limiting capacity. This could mislead folks to over-estimate what they may be able to tow. Certainly not something I understood when I got into this four years ago.

[Lynn Eberhardt]

We towed with our '08 Hybrid for 8 years and really liked how it handled downgrades in the "B" (braking) mode. The new one calls it downshifting but it seems to work as well. Haven't taken a trip with it yet. We'll see.

[Mike Magee]

Originally Posted by Lynn Eberhardt

The four wire is ground, running lights, right blinker, left blinker. The custom adapter, available for most cars, supplies power to both the right and left blinkers when the car's brakes are applied. New cars have separate brake and directional bulbs, most trailers don't. Most cars come with a convenient connection point for this adapter. The additional three wires in a seven prong are 12 volt (preferably only when the car is running), trailer brakes(not the brake light), and back up lights. Many cars don't make it easy to get to these connection points.

My point was, you remarked that you'd like to use the fridge on 12V while traveling, but the battery will not get any recharge from the HL. This means your trailer battery would run down really fast... or will you mount a solar panel on the roof or something?

[John in Santa Cruz]

Originally Posted by Mike Magee

My point was, you remarked that you'd like to use the fridge on 12V while traveling, but the battery will not get any recharge from the HL. This means your trailer battery would run down really fast... or will you mount a solar panel on the roof or something?

Lynn was saying, they added the 7-blade, with its wiring, including power/charge and brake controller.

[Lynn Eberhardt]

I guess in my first post I only commented on the difficulty of making the final three connections. I did make them and initial tests with a meter seem to indicate enough current flow to keep the battery up and run the fridge on 12 volts while traveling. This is primarily due to the car's 12 volt battery being in the rear. Sorry for any confusion regarding what I had finally finished.