Pulling travel trailer concerns

[Dan Higgins]

Since you are new to towing with a 200 series, there is a good, rich (and admittedly sometimes overwhelming) thread on Towing with a Land Cruiser somewhere on this forum. That said, I think many of the critical points have been addressed already in this thread. I have towed 2 travel trailers, similar in size. Both approximately 6K# GVWR. First 3 years towing throughout Colorado. This past year here in Oregon. I choose to go “by the book” 90% of the time. S6 (2016 LC w/ 8-speed) and ECT to start. Downshift when appropriate in order to manage speed on descents, especially curvy descents. Sometimes I’ll downshift going uphill if it seems like the tranny is hunting. I like to see the RPM in the low 3,000’s but its not the end of the world if it is higher or even in the high 2Ks for a bit. I just prefer that it is not always switching or that it “lugs down”. As for Cruise I will occasionally use it on the flats to give my leg a break. But I tend to err on the side of caution. Where @linuxgod is carefully monitoring all of his systems and therefore will push LC much further than I care to. But he has to drive all the way from Chicago! I just find that when I am towing I just slow everything down. I relax a bit more. But my trips tend to be up to 5 hours with a couple of breaks. Not the long hauls that some folks are doing.

Bottom line is that the 200 with its engine and sturdy suspension and weight seem to make it a very solid towing platform provided you stay safely within the tow weight and tongue weight ratings. (Also, since my trailers have been over 5,000# I use a weight distribution hitch.)

 

[linuxgod]

I do use cruise but primarily on long flat-ish ~75MPH stretches especially in Nebraska or eastern Colorado when traffic is either fairly light or all lanes are simply moving at the same speed. I don't use radar cruise, mostly because my brain goes into auto-pilot and I find myself suddenly doing 10 MPH under the speed limit behind a slower vehicle in the distance because cruise control backed off my speed and I didn't notice. I prefer making the conscious decision as to whether I want to slow down or pass.

That said I suspect the cruise control warning in the manual exists for 2 reasons:

1. If you're in a higher gear (I know the 2013 manual says you can tow in 5th) then with a heavier trailer it will unlock the torque converter to rev and get you to speed, then relock in 5th, then you'll lose a bit of speed and it will re-unlock and repeat, all of which can generate a lot of heat.

2. If you use radar cruise it will automatically brake your vehicle if someone jumps in front of you or hits their brakes. I've never tried to see if it'll STOP the truck, but I did have someone jump 3 lanes when merging once and as they crossed my path radar cruise applied the brakes. I suspect the system isn't calibrated for varying different trailer weights so in an emergency it might not apply sufficient braking force to stop you (or conversely with the electronic trailer brakes it could conversely cause them to lock up and then you might lose control).