Towing with a 200-series Toyota Land Cruiser (3 Viewers)

[linuxgod]

Yes. Only downhills did i let it shift up to 7th. Most of the time i was running S6 or S5 and on the big climbs S4. Once in a while it needed 3rd over a few of the higher passes.

I think when the trans temp spiked was running in S4 for 20 minutes in a headwind. The fuel consumption graph on the nav screen said like 5 mpg for 20 minutes straight

It’s typical for me on a mountain pass to get temps in the upper 240s. If you’re already below your 1:1 gear (6th in the 8 speed), sometimes downshifting one more gear will help temps a little as it increases engine RPM which increases fluid speed. So long as it goes back down during normal driving these temps don’t worry me, just be prepared to do full A/T fluid exchanges every few years. BTW normal for me is about 215F when towing (since I’ve regeared) but I’d expect closer to 200F for you

I’ve had a couple trips where the crosswinds were so bad I averaged about 5.5mpg on one of the tanks averaging 70mph. That’s pretty unusual even for me but around 7mpg is pretty normal. I’ve seen sub-3mpg on some long and steep mountain passes though the averages for a whole tank are typically better

 

[GordJ]

2 5/16" is very common on larger cargo trailers, dump trailers, etc.

I don’t know where my head was at. I have what i think is a 1 7/8” ball on my utility trailer, a 2” on my “camping” trailer and boat trailer and a 2 5/16 0n the wdh for the travel trailer.

 

[skrypj]

It’s typical for me on a mountain pass to get temps in the upper 240s. If you’re already below your 1:1 gear (6th in the 8 speed), sometimes downshifting one more gear will help temps a little as it increases engine RPM which increases fluid speed. So long as it goes back down during normal driving these temps don’t worry me, just be prepared to do full A/T fluid exchanges every few years. BTW normal for me is about 215F when towing (since I’ve regeared) but I’d expect closer to 200F for you

I’ve had a couple trips where the crosswinds were so bad I averaged about 5.5mpg on one of the tanks averaging 70mph. That’s pretty unusual even for me but around 7mpg is pretty normal. I’ve seen sub-3mpg on some long and steep mountain passes though the averages for a whole tank are typically better

My trans temps were all over the place it seemed like. I think I saw as low as 180 up to mid 240’s.

My F150 was really consistent. It opened the transmission fluid cooling loop thermostat at 195 and ran around 200. Even in the most extreme conditions it would only get up to 208 or 210.

Once I added the hayden cooler to my GX460, it was the same. 200F just driving around unloaded, 208F foot on the floor climbing with my trailer.

i guess i was just a little surprised to see it get that high because the transmission cooler seems decent sized. Those are temps I saw on my GX460 before I added the Hayden.

 

[linuxgod]

My trans temps were all over the place it seemed like. I think I saw as low as 180 up to mid 240’s.

My F150 was really consistent. It opened the transmission fluid cooling loop thermostat at 195 and ran around 200. Even in the most extreme conditions it would only get up to 208 or 210.

Once I added the hayden cooler to my GX460, it was the same. 200F just driving around unloaded, 208F foot on the floor climbing with my trailer.

i guess i was just a little surprised to see it get that high because the transmission cooler seems decent sized. Those are temps I saw on my GX460 before I added the Hayden.

@TeCKis300 added a secondary (really tertiary) cooler so maybe he can chime in. IIRC even in his case it was a reduction of maybe 10 or 15F. I will say that unloaded I rarely see the pan temp ramp up, even though the torque converter will ramp up quickly when it unlocks. There's a lot of cooling capacity in the radiator and transmission cooler. (Note that before regearing I'd sit around 196-200F but now I routinely sit around 214-217F once I've been driving for a while).

Forcing yourself a gear lower on mountain passes will help a bit once you're below that 1:1 ratio, because fluid speed through the cooler is determined by engine RPM. I've had temps a few degrees cooler in 2nd gear at 40mph in a mountain climb at 5K RPMs than in 3rd gear at 3500 RPMs. But it's still hot, yes.

Note that the ATF light comes on when the TC temp hits 305F and turns off at 270F (or slightly higher) IIRC. So yeah 250F seems hot, but it's 20F below the point where Toyota would ever warn you, which leads me to believe it's not nearly that concerning.

 

[2HundyJTex]

I bought the ClearView Mirrors and I love them. I bought them used but they were like new. The version I bought was for the 2018 and I had to hardwire it to match my 2011 bc the only feature my OEM mirror had were power fold which the ClearView mirrors did not have. I tested each wife with a 12v tester to figure out which wore in the OEM harness since it wasn’t plug and play. Ran wires from my front blinkers to the Clearvews to get the mirror blinkers working. Got everything wire up correctly. The only issue is that when I press the mirror switch to move the mirrors left they go right and it does that with all directions. ClearView sent me new motors and same issue. Definitely don’t have the wires hooked up wrong. Might be something with the relays somewhere.

But the mirrors are awesome and permanent. I can see a ton of stuff yhat I couldn’t see before, even with the clip-on tow mirrors. A+ mod in my book.

Sleepy, which of the 3 Clearview models did you buy and do you have pics? Thanks in advance!

 

[2HundyJTex]

Firestone 4164 for the stock LC, 4129 if you’ve lifted as they’re 1” longer. Or buy the 4164 kit and cut off one less bump stop

Sorry to go back in time … but I’ve heard that some of the bags can become pinched or dislocated in more extreme off-road articulation, and so was discouraged from this. Is this true in your experience?

 

[linuxgod]

Sorry to go back in time … but I’ve heard that some of the bags can become pinched or dislocated in more extreme off-road articulation, and so was discouraged from this. Is this true in your experience?

That is what Firestone says in the install instructions. I’m sure it’s possible but I did not experience that when running “empty”. In practice 5psi in the bags doesn’t do a lot and would not impact articulation significantly anyway

 

[sleepycruiser]

Sleepy, which of the 3 Clearview models did you buy and do you have pics? Thanks in advance!

I am not sure which model. I bought them second hand. Mine are power upper mirror, but not heated and not power fold. The previous user had them on a 2018 so the plug was not plug and play. Figuring out the hard wiring wasn’t too difficult and I just used t-taps in case I ever want to go back to stock. They make a huge difference with normal driving. We pull a camper and I haven’t had the chance to use these to tow the camper yet, but this is going to make a massive difference. After driving with these on and then driving my wife’s GX it is hard to drive with small mirrors. This week I did have a guy get too close to the center lane and smacked my DS mirror. He took off. It broke the top mirror, bottom mirror, and turn indicator. I messaged ClearView and they had the parts shipped out within a day.

 

[skrypj]

Are you getting weird operation from the RedArc TowPro's? Mine is really weird and I would say about 30% of the time it does not properly connect. Sometimes it will just be a constant green flashing light and does not apply the trailer brakes at all, even manually. I pull the plug from the controller, and plug it back in, and it fixes it usually. Then other times it works normal from the get go.

From what I can tell in the users manual the green flashing light indicated some kinda of bad power or ground connection? Where are you grounding them? I am using the TPH-021 connector.

I had similar issues on my GX460 as well.

 

[Ratchey]

Are you getting weird operation from the RedArc TowPro's? Mine is really weird and I would say about 30% of the time it does not properly connect. Sometimes it will just be a constant green flashing light and does not apply the trailer brakes at all, even manually. I pull the plug from the controller, and plug it back in, and it fixes it usually. Then other times it works normal from the get go.

From what I can tell in the users manual the green flashing light indicated some kinda of bad power or ground connection? Where are you grounding them? I am using the TPH-021 connector.

I had similar issues on my GX460 as well.

Mine does something similar. I had to have the first one replaced as I had to reach under the dash to disconnect/power reset it everytime I used it. (bug in the initial firmware) With the new one I will get a failure like yours about every 8th or 9th time. Easy enough to reset I haven't messed with trying to fully fix it.

 

[linuxgod]

No issues at all with mine. I have had issues where I have no trailer brakes or lights but it’s been because the 7 pin didn’t seat right.

 

[Sandroad]

Are you getting weird operation from the RedArc TowPro's? Mine is really weird and I would say about 30% of the time it does not properly connect. Sometimes it will just be a constant green flashing light and does not apply the trailer brakes at all, even manually. I pull the plug from the controller, and plug it back in, and it fixes it usually. Then other times it works normal from the get go.

From what I can tell in the users manual the green flashing light indicated some kinda of bad power or ground connection? Where are you grounding them? I am using the TPH-021 connector.

I had similar issues on my GX460 as well.

Hmmmm…….I was about to change from Tekonsha to RedArc because of the much cleaner install. There really isn’t a place for the Tekonsha that looks good and doesn’t occasionally threaten knees. Maybe I’ll hold on to the Tekonsha that has never failed or caused any problems.

 

[GordJ]

Are you getting weird operation from the RedArc TowPro's? Mine is really weird and I would say about 30% of the time it does not properly connect. Sometimes it will just be a constant green flashing light and does not apply the trailer brakes at all, even manually. I pull the plug from the controller, and plug it back in, and it fixes it usually. Then other times it works normal from the get go.

From what I can tell in the users manual the green flashing light indicated some kinda of bad power or ground connection? Where are you grounding them? I am using the TPH-021 connector.

I had similar issues on my GX460 as well.

Do you get a “short circuit no brakes” message? The reason that I ask is because of a random, aggravating bug that took me what seemed like forever to find. I won’t go into everything I went through but I ended up replacing the brake assemblies on the trailer finally to no avail. I was getting that message randomly and finally out of desperation I pulled the wires out of the axle and found a loop of wire that had worn through the insulation. After too many miles of gravel road I guess and sometimes when i braked the coil would hit the axle and short out. It actually landed securely against the steel once and i ended up driving home from Dawson City, Yukon within no trailer brakes once. Probably not your cause but I thought that I’d mention it.
And Sandroad, P3’s rock!

 

[terrapin]

I had a similar problem with my RedArc. It would occasionally not connect properly and I would have to plug/unplug the 7-pin connector a few times to make it work.

A few months ago I had a flat tire on my trailer and when I removed the wheel I noticed that one of my brake wires had been rubbing against the inside of the tire and was worn almost completely through. I've only used it once since repairing the wire, but did not have any connection problem that time.

 

[linuxgod]

Brake shorts suck. I had a brake wire that was shorting the first year I installed my Redarc. The trailer brakes were shutting off after about a second. I initially thought it was a controller problem. Apparently the wire connecting the magnet that activates the electric brakes is a common item to fail if it pops out of the clip retaining it inside the drum because it can rub the drum and wear the insulation. In my case the wear (and short) happened only when braking.

Hearing some other stories I do wonder if the Redarc is less forgiving of a short… where the Redarc detects a ground fault and releases the brakes (or perhaps resets or goes into limp
mode) maybe the Tekonsha defaults to applying full brakes and/or ignores the short?

 

[GordJ]

Brake shorts suck. I had a brake wire that was shorting the first year I installed my Redarc. The trailer brakes were shutting off after about a second. I initially thought it was a controller problem. Apparently the wire connecting the magnet that activates the electric brakes is a common item to fail if it pops out of the clip retaining it inside the drum because it can rub the drum and wear the insulation. In my case the wear (and short) happened only when braking.

Hearing some other stories I do wonder if the Redarc is less forgiving of a short… where the Redarc detects a ground fault and releases the brakes (or perhaps resets or goes into limp
mode) maybe the Tekonsha defaults to applying full brakes and/or ignores the short?

I think that the Tek just gives a clear message on the controller. The brakes cut out immediately, with an “short circuit detected” message, until the next application where it repeats. In my case at least. I don’t remember the exact message but it makes it clear that it is a fault in the trailer. I went through the changing magnets and everything else too until I lucked on one lonely “shorted inside the axle” post on YouTube.

 

[skrypj]

Do you get a “short circuit no brakes” message? The reason that I ask is because of a random, aggravating bug that took me what seemed like forever to find. I won’t go into everything I went through but I ended up replacing the brake assemblies on the trailer finally to no avail. I was getting that message randomly and finally out of desperation I pulled the wires out of the axle and found a loop of wire that had worn through the insulation. After too many miles of gravel road I guess and sometimes when i braked the coil would hit the axle and short out. It actually landed securely against the steel once and i ended up driving home from Dawson City, Yukon within no trailer brakes once. Probably not your cause but I thought that I’d mention it.
And Sandroad, P3’s rock!

No I dont get that message.

 

[eatSleepWoof]

I've never had a single issue with my RedArc.

 

[skrypj]

Brake shorts suck. I had a brake wire that was shorting the first year I installed my Redarc. The trailer brakes were shutting off after about a second. I initially thought it was a controller problem. Apparently the wire connecting the magnet that activates the electric brakes is a common item to fail if it pops out of the clip retaining it inside the drum because it can rub the drum and wear the insulation. In my case the wear (and short) happened only when braking.

Hearing some other stories I do wonder if the Redarc is less forgiving of a short… where the Redarc detects a ground fault and releases the brakes (or perhaps resets or goes into limp
mode) maybe the Tekonsha defaults to applying full brakes and/or ignores the short?

That seems to be the fault I get. The Black wire is the +12V coming from the factory brake controller plug. So it almost seems like maybe the Redarc is getting a low voltage or something from the car on startup and freaks out. I believe the controller is always powered, even when the car is off, so I wonder if its worth wiring the black wire straight to the battery.

Like I said, its random. I had it happen when I was leaving one camp ground and heading to another. I drove 15 minutes without brakes thinking it was trying to calibrate, but never did. Then stopped for gas, pulled the plug on the controller, plugged it back in, and it worked totally fine the next two days of towing.

Before that, it happened when I was pulling the trailer out of storage to get ready for the trip. So of the maybe 4 times I connected the trailer I had this happen twice.

 

[Ratchey]

I did add Dielectric Grease to my 7 pin. Haven't had the issue since then but can't say for sure that was any kind of fix.