Towing with the LX700h OT - Toyota apologists move along
- Thread starter Canyonero
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I wonder about this quite often too. With a family of six fitting everything in one vehicle is basically impossible. It's much easier to have a camper with everything In it and just hook up and go. They market these big campers such as the Pause campers and Black series as being able to go anywhere but they clearly have their limits. Only alternative is something like a teardrop size to fit two inside and mount a rooftop tent for the kids. Has anyone here tried taking a caravan/large camper on significant off-road adventures with a LC?
Fwiw - that's probably being winched. They do take them on some pretty crazy trails but they need a lot of winch and towing to get through the rough parts. It's equivalent to towing another LX with a Camry stacked on top. With enough time and winch pulls you can get a lot of places. But it would be a lot easier with a trailer built wtfh modern composites that weighs half as much.
trailer looks too high for the lower lx to tow comfortably.... imo
a truck with equal height tow hitch/ball should be used and 10k lbs rating....ie tundra
solve-you buy a tow tundra wifey meets you at camp, chew the lx all weekend dont even unhook the tundra
boom, universal order is restored
a truck with equal height tow hitch/ball should be used and 10k lbs rating....ie tundra
solve-you buy a tow tundra wifey meets you at camp, chew the lx all weekend dont even unhook the tundra
boom, universal order is restored
That’s my plan… I don’t plan to go off as crazy as Kedron does, but I plan on overlanding with it. You’re not going to catch me on Black bear pass, but I hope you find me on some smaller trails. If I want to go off-roading/rock climbing, I’ll take the wife’s jeep.
and to clarify, the pause reboot 17.4 that I ordered is ~ 7500 loaded, not 10k. If it’s too heavy, I’ll get a F250 tremor… but I hope that wont be the case.
While the photo I shared above was an extreme, this is more representative of what I am expecting…
Yeah this seems very reasonable, definitely will take a bit more pre-planning to ensure we don't get stuck on a trail and can;t turn around here on the east coast. The lx 700 is a fantastic tow vehicle by the way, at least for short trips with my dump trailer it has been great. The AHC really is clutch on these trips, adapting to whatever load I have on the back, Its a 10k gvwr trailer but usually don't have it loaded much more than 6k total. With no wind resistance it takes that element out of the equation.
A 7,500 gvwr travel trailer is on the heavy side for any ‘half ton’ truck/suv.
Proper weight distribution hitch and methodical loading makes it possible though.
I would almost say yeah go a little heavier if you wanted and get the Tremor. Have had many CCSB F250s and they are absolute tanks.
Anderson WDH for highway, disconnecting it for slower offroad and using the Morryde articulating hitch feature for the rough stuff.
I've owned a 2017 F250 and 2018 F350 in the past...but I want to give the LX a try first. If after a few runs, it's not up to the task, a F250/F350 Tremor with Carli suspension will be purchased. I've done the Smokey Mountain 500 before, so I know the rough parts in Georgia. This will allow me to gauge the capabilities. I have a Ford Ranger Raptor and a Ford Expedition Tremor accompanying me on the trip. I did it solo last year for Christmas.
I've had some crazy tow combos over the years, LOL
I custom built a teardrop off-road trailer about a decade ago when I had more time and less kids. I think you could have one custom built either locally or in China to your size and design spec for the same or less than most of the available commercial products. It depends a lot on what type of creature comforts you want and what compromises you're okay with. If you're okay with a roof top tent style camping, you can make it a lot smaller. Even something like a Jumping Jack trailer is a pretty good option if you want a rooftop tent type concept on a trailer that's bigger than 4 people.
I really like having hard sides for a few reasons - where I live now there's bears basically everywhere, so it adds some safety, but also it's nice in bad weather either hot or really cold. The one I built did not have an indoor bathroom or kitchen though. The kitchen was outside in a rear hatch, but it did have a sink, running water, a 2 burner propane cook top and a 12v fridge/freezer on a roll out drawer plus a set of drawers and cabinets for storing stuff. Basically it was a mobile kitchen plus a hard sided tent on wheels - with a solar off-grid battery powered A/C unit to keep cool in the desert. And it carried IIRC 22 gallons of water. Bathroom was a slide out portable toilet in a side panel with a tent. Shower was just a spray head on a hose attached to the sink and outdoor shower situation. The interior was just a bed and some cabinets and the bed folded away to make a cargo area for bicycles. In many ways it was nicer experience to use than my current full size travel trailer with a slide, shower, etc because it was so simple and easy to just grab and go. Now I have to do a full re-pack every trip, dump the tanks, etc. And my current one always needs some minor issue fixed because it's built cheaply by Thor. Even at 5500lbs on tandem axles it's not realistic to take on beaches or softer terrain. It just sinks in. I've been stuck once in the Yukon territory on a fire road that got soft and had to pull a winch cable to get out.
I built mine from the ground up including the chassis and I designed it around matching track width to the 4Runner I towed with and it had matching axle bolt pattern and used the same wheels, so all the tires and spares were interchangeable anywhere. It also had the matching track width so offroad it trailed nicely behind and if the tow vechicle fit - so did the trailer. And it was about 1500lbs loaded because it was made with foam sandwich composite walls.
I think you could have one built like that with room to sleep 6 in bunks and made with 2 axles on a pre-made independent suspension axle set with a great outdoor kitchen, and a simple bathroom for in about a 16x7 foot box and keep it under 3k lbs if you make the primary box out of something like Plascore honeycomb as your base and were okay with painted interior and exterior to keep weight down. I have used Plascore to build a sailboat and they can custom build panels to order, so you or a local builder could assembly in relatively little time. It's a polypropylene honeycomb core board with fiberglass on both sides and it makes a super rigid light weight panel that could be perfect for light weight travel trailer. There are many other similar products. If I were building another one - that or a foam core composite is what I'd go with. I would also consider ground pressure and design around high floatation tires. That's easy to do if you're starting from scratch but hard to retrofit.
Anyway - long story, but you could definitely build something for 6 people that is probably better than most of what is available on the market and super off-road capable as a one-off project and keep the weight low enough that it would be easier to take into the back country. I think finding the tow vehicle that's comfortable for 6 might be just as challenging now that the Suburban has gone pretty hard toward minivan life.
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Intuitively the 17.4 seems a lot more manageable for an LX. It looks like a very nice design. I'd expect it to be very well manufactured at the price point. It's just a little surprising to see the weight.
Suburban/Yukon XL Z71 or AT4 with height adjusting suspension (and adjustable links) with some 285/60/20 Toyo AT3. Thats what I would run if I didn’t have the LX.
This sounds like a great project for one day when I’m really traveling more and have a little bit more time on my hands than now. I think I need something off the shelf, but appreciate the feedback and ingenuity.
I don't know a ton about the powertrain strength on the late model GM full size SUVs, but the ones I've had in the past were not super confidence inspiring. I've got to imagine if they're holding up to almost 700 ft lbs of torque in the Cadillac trims it's pretty robust. If it's the same powertrain downstream of the engine. The killer for the GM offroad is how they designed the LCAs - they're just so low to the ground. The adjustable air suspension gets the body up nicely, but the suspension is really designed to sit low to the ground. Its kinda hard to fix this without some pretty major re-working of the system:
I think even at stock base height the Nissan Patrol has more clearance than the GM maxed out. Nissan did a really impressive job on that IRS system to maximize clearance.
The LX is quite a lot better as well.
Yeah. That rear suspension on the GM's is weird. I had an AT4 Yukon before the LX600 and my wife has a 4WD Denali and I just can't get over how low those hung down.
He was needing seating for 6. That's a bit of a tough challenge to both seat 6 comfortably for longer trips and work offroad. The world of options gets pretty limited at that point. Especially if the occupants are tall kids or adults. It would be such a great option if Toyota would just build a Sequoia without the hybrid (or move the hybrid battery somewhere underneath) and add awd and front and rear lockers like the LX700 OT.
The AWD isn't strictly necessary to me but it's the only powertrain that is compatible with a front locker. The front diff disconnect is now in the diff carrier, so you can't put any sort of front locker aftermarket in the sequoia or tundra.
I watched a video on the Armada Pro4x.
I would throw it in between the Sequoia TRD and the LX off road. Watching videos of it flex etc. Its really hard to beat the LX. The Armada has air adjustable suspension which is significantly cheaper to produce than the hydraulic AHC we have. (Check out the price of adding Liquid Springs to a Ford Super Duty for example)
It definitely has more interior space if you need to haul passengers; considering jumping over and supporting it as they actually gave us the real deal Patrol now. Competition is good.
Don’t know about the towing but it is slightly longer. So that would potentially help some.
Funny I have only been in a Patrol overseas to personally reference. Not a popular vehicle around here. But rode in an older Q80 recently to lunch and explained to the guy they neutered them a little for the US market so there isn’t a following; he got a really good deal on it used.
I would throw it in between the Sequoia TRD and the LX off road. Watching videos of it flex etc. Its really hard to beat the LX. The Armada has air adjustable suspension which is significantly cheaper to produce than the hydraulic AHC we have. (Check out the price of adding Liquid Springs to a Ford Super Duty for example)
It definitely has more interior space if you need to haul passengers; considering jumping over and supporting it as they actually gave us the real deal Patrol now. Competition is good.
Don’t know about the towing but it is slightly longer. So that would potentially help some.
Funny I have only been in a Patrol overseas to personally reference. Not a popular vehicle around here. But rode in an older Q80 recently to lunch and explained to the guy they neutered them a little for the US market so there isn’t a following; he got a really good deal on it used.
