towing my new 23 ft. camper trailer

[714LX470]

I've been wanting to buy pop for a number of years. My wife and I just came back from another camping trip where was attacked by mosquitos. On our way back she agreed it was time to buy a camper. We went down to Mike Thompson rv in Fountain valley and shopped around for an rv. I wanted to get a pop up. She disagreed and said she would rather spend money on a hard shell rv. I asked the sales guy about hybrid campers he told me that they were junk. So.we opted for a 19 ft camper trailer and then was upsold to a.23 with slide with more amenities then my college apartment. They gave us a great deal as they stated. They also threw in a special stabalizing tow hitch with sway control. The entire gross weight is 4500 lbs. I've taken the trailer down to the beach a few times riding ach low. With Pwr switch activated ride has been.great. smooth and has plenty of power driving on flat ground to the beach which is 8 miles away. My question is has anyone towed anything this big long distances. And long uphills such as the Cajon pass or the grapevine off the.5 and what additional maintenance should I be concerned with while towing such a large trailer

 

[liveoak]

i have towed around 6500 lbs to moab from san diego twice and also up to tahoe twice with no problems. grapevine was easy. i always keep the pwr button on and the overdrive off unless on totally flat ground or downhill i turn the overdrive on. sometimes i like to be in control of the gear i'm in on really steep roads remembering to go slow and not over rev. i like to change the oil before any big trip but other than that the most important thing is to make sure your tongue weight is around 10% of the trailer weight loaded and take time to adjust the trailer brakes correctly. have fun and congrats on the home away from home.

 

[maxdog1969]

Very nice, love the art work too

 

[714LX470]

Thanks live oak! I was concerned that I bought too big but seeing your experience with towing 6500 lbs to.Moab makes me feel.confident my hundy will make it to my next camping destinations. Thanks.again..btw. what year is your rig. And how many.miles..mine is a 2000. With 90 k. Almost time tb change

 

[liveoak]

mine is a 2000 with around 120,000 mi. i have changed the serpentine but not the timing belt(s). real soon though.

 

[ssichler]

I haven't towed with the LC yet but I did a big trip thoughout the West with my 06 Tundra a couple of years back with a similar trailer (5,500 dry 7400 GVWR) which has about the same engine displacement. Your trailer probably weighs more than you think once you load your gear, food, and fill the tanks so be cautious.

Here's a map of the trip we did. I would not want to do Teton pass out of Jackson, WY. again and LA is probably my least favorite place to tow due to the bouncy freeways and horrible drivers cutting you off on the freeway merges

 

[Texas993]

I just towed my 6,000' trailer (with a car and gear on it), with 5 people, 2 dogs, and a thule box full of gear. We went from Dallas to Aspen CO. That included several mountain passes. 750 miles the first day.

Hundy did great (thirsty though). Pulled up the mountain passes very well. Just need to take it easy - don't try to maintain 80 mph! I never saw any appreciable change in the coolant temp, etc. I was impressed.

I will say that the truck loses some of it's power at elevations above 8,000'. Pulling at low speeds is fine, but it has trouble maintaining higher speeds. Altitude sucks horsepower.

 

[jttexam]

I haven't towed with the LC yet but I did a big trip thoughout the West with my 06 Tundra a couple of years back with a similar trailer (5,500 dry 7400 GVWR) which has about the same engine displacement. Your trailer probably weighs more than you think once you load your gear, food, and fill the tanks so be cautious.

Here's a map of the trip we did. I would not want to do Teton pass out of Jackson, WY. again and LA is probably my least favorite place to tow due to the bouncy freeways and horrible drivers cutting you off on the freeway merges

That looks like it was a cool trip!

I haven't had the time (or the need) to look it up, but that Tundra handles loads much better than my Land Cruiser. Not sure if it's because the Tundra has the same engine/transmission powering a vehicle that weighs 2,000 lbs. less, or if it is a different transmission/rear ratio, or all three. What I do know is that a friend has a tundra and it will tow circles around my Land Cruiser.

The only real advice I have...take it slow. That transmission is expensive. One of them will hurt the pocketbook, two of them and you're well on your way to the cost of a good high mileage F250 that you can use only when you want to tow your trailer.

 

[knorrena]

My towing relay s*** the bed. A new one is unobtanium and just as expensive as a really good aftermarket one. You may not have the problem of the trailer powering up your dash and your rear window wiper, but I did. Prepare yourself for rewiring your truck 'cause those Toyota engineers that designed the original set are fawktards. I ran new power to the back of my lx470 and spliced in a HD aftermarket towing relay.

You may also want to get yourself a couple of jerrycans; I get about 8mpg towing a 17' hybrid (which is not a POS btw).

Karl

 

[EdsCruisin]

I too have a travel trailer labeled at 23' but it measures at 25 and grosses at 5000+ lb. It is a 2005 model hybrid with a slide out and two pop out beds. It is not junk at all. In fact I like that the beds are not taking up interior space. When open, it's really a 30 footer that sleeps 7 comfortably without compromising the full floorplan. I envy that the new ones are lighter.

I have towed it all over the east coast with no problems other than a flat tire. You have AHC, but I use Airlift air bags to help with the ride, in addition to the equalizing hitch.

Key must have items: an isolated relay for all the wires (don't even think of using the stock tow harness); and mirror extenders. I know you cannot see to change lanes without them.

Be prepared to keep the oil barons happy and wealthy!

 

[packetstormin]

What kind of trailer brake controller are you guys running? Also, if anyone has decent directions for installing a trailer brake controller or a 7 pin connector in place of the factory 4 or 5 pin I would be really appreciative if you could post up the install.

 

[Jrod]

What kind of trailer brake controller are you guys running? Also, if anyone has decent directions for installing a trailer brake controller or a 7 pin connector in place of the factory 4 or 5 pin I would be really appreciative if you could post up the install.

I'm using the Prodigy Tekonsha, but the Prodigy P3 is a nice unit as well. It's also a little pricier.

 

[hoser]

I just recently started using my Tekonsha P3 but so far so good. Fits fairly well in place of the ashtray. My understanding is the P2 and P3 do pretty much the same thing but the P3 has some added bells and whistles. Tekonsha offers an optional harness that makes install on the '03-07 easy. Prior years require more work.

On my '98, I had the revised OEM brake light box. I used the Hopkins multi-tow adapter that plugs into existing 4-pin. Then just had to run the aux power, brake wire and reverse wire. Requires a 2" hole or you can use the supplied bracket.

 

[Texas993]

What kind of trailer brake controller are you guys running? Also, if anyone has decent directions for installing a trailer brake controller or a 7 pin connector in place of the factory 4 or 5 pin I would be really appreciative if you could post up the install.

Prodigy controller. I bought a wiring kit from etrailer.com to convert from a 4 pin to a 7 pin. They also have video instructions for installing on a Toyota truck of the same vintage. All of that worked for me on my 2002 LX. Took a little patience and time, but it works very well. It connects directly to the battery and has the necessary relay's etc. Good kit.

 

[714LX470]

Thanks for the feedback. again . The salespeople were the ones who said that hybrid trailers were junk. I personally like the hybrids but Mike.Thompson.rv in fountain valley had none.in stock. I've taken the trailer to the beach. 6 Times this week..total of 65 miles on my odo..and.my.gas tank is drying up quick. Low end power is great but getting this beast uphill. Freeway ramps is a little slow. Still love the 100 regardless. But I wish I could have bought one of those trailers from.the gall boys . Stronger construction for ohv driving.and camping. Ill be at the rv park til the next purchase

 

[Rmcgee]

I have a '98 LC with 151k miles that I have decided to keep and use in place of my truck. I would only be pulling a utility trailer for hauling mowers, lumber, etc. Would I have any problems with my factory wiring harness for what little bit of trailer pulling I would be doing?

 

[LXRunner]

99LX470 + 4750 lbs. 19 Feet Rockwood Roo + 200 miles on east coast at average 60Mph = ...ouch !! 8.5 MPG.

 

[neoworm]

I just towed a 19ft. around the southwest states for 2 months. it sucked. IMO the 4.7 is a bit underpowered for towing anything that big unless it is completely flat with no headwind whatsoever. avg. mpg was around 8. Cost me a fortune. Avg speed was around 50.

As soon as you get into any hills or winds it becomes really hard on the truck. I would never do it again or I would buy a 200 or a Tundra. Good Luck.

 

[TeCKis300]

I just towed a 19ft. around the southwest states for 2 months. it sucked. IMO the 4.7 is a bit underpowered for towing anything that big unless it is completely flat with no headwind whatsoever. avg. mpg was around 8. Cost me a fortune. Avg speed was around 50.

As soon as you get into any hills or winds it becomes really hard on the truck. I would never do it again or I would buy a 200 or a Tundra. Good Luck.

Interesting data point. Do you have any pics of the particular trailer? And do you have any idea how much the setup weighed?

 

[neoworm]

19ft Tahoe lite. Weighed around 4500lbs loaded. Load distributing hitch and airbags. Tekonsha prodigy brake controller. It handled fine it just doesn't have enough grunt. It's way to hard on the truck. My truck is fairly loaded down with mods so a stocker would do better but in my opinion even a bit better would still have sucked. If you don't care about abusing your rig and you'll buy a new one in a few years then I suppose who cares but if you genuinely like your truck and want to hold on to it for awhile I wouldn't tow anything that big with it.