Pulled a 2000 lb Trailer...

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with my 2002 Camry SE 4 cyl Manual for 100 mi yesterday. 2000lb is the max tow capacity for this vehicle. Got a few hundred pounds of cargo on board too, so I am close to the max payload capacity too (tongue + cargo weight).

I can feel the weight on take off and braking. But in all fairness it drove fine in city and highway speed of 60 mph. I feel safe as long as I increase the following distance to compensate for the load.

I did most of the highway towing in 4th gear. It was 94F out, no movement on the engine temp gauge from the normal spot. It finished with 19-20 MPG. I will pull an UOA to see how the PP 5W30 handled the stress.
 
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Wow!

I wanna see the UOA
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I dont think that pulling a trailer for a short trip will change your wear metals.

Now if you pulled this........

Trailer
#3800lbs
Truck on trailer #5000lbs
4- V8 engines in bed of truck on trailer #2400lbs

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I tow with my Highlander, which has the same engine/tranny as you. It's actually not bad. With the exception of a few large hills, there's really no need for third. It's not fast, obviously, but it gets the job done with no overheating or funny shifting/noise.

I get about 22-26 mpg normally, ~18 with a 1500 lb trailer.
 
Originally Posted By: MarkC
Engine okay, how about the transmission?

That gear box is running RedLine MT90 that has about 40K on it. Think I should pull it and analyse it?
 
UOA on a manual? You don't really learn much, in my opinion. The only number I see as useful is visc. If in doubt, change it out. I only ever change mine for shift feel, not because I think the oil isn't protecting well. My two cents.
 
I know a guy who tows nearly that much with a Scion... not that I would, mind you.

I towed more than that across-country nearly 2000 miles, over three mountain passes -- it was much harder on the flatbed trailer than on my Golf TDI. Had to drive about 55 mph nearly the whole way, or else the trailer would start to fishtail. Got about 42.5 mpg for the entire trip.
 
I've pulled about 3000lbs in my '00 Volvo V70 NA. the max it can tow is I believe 3200lbs. the car did it with no problem. btw this was in the appalachian mountains :)

so long as you don't overheat the tranny and brakes, and the engine has enough power to do it, there shouldn't be a problem.
 
I've we're starting a "I've towed..." thread...

I've towed 753 Bobcat plus attachments (buckets, jackhammer, and post hole digger) with my wife's Saturn Vue. It was probably 6k-6.5k. Accelerating & braking took a while!

When I was shopping for the receiver hitch, my wife didn't understand why I kept looking until I found a 2" one :)
 
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around 24K from the factory receiver hitch. roughly 2.6X what the recommended weight is and around 4.5K on the ball when loaded up.

didn't change my engine oil UOA's one bit. But the auto trans wasn't happy.

Pulled that up 1-5 from California into Oregon in July.
 
What is in that trailer to make it 24k? And what vehicle can tow that much in a tag along mode... A dump truck could I guess Maybe an F550?
 
its a "custom" 5 horse bumper pull. It has 3 7,000lb axles under it and usually hangs out behind a Prevost diesel pusher bus conversion motor home. but since their million dollar bus is about as reliable as a yugo. My truck seems to always have to step up and fill in fairly often.

And truth be told that truck did just fine with it. You definitely KNEW it was back there ever second of the trip but it never gave me an unsafe feeling. I wasn't going to push my luck either.

Even with 340,000 miles on the clock the truck simply did its job without skipping a beat.
 
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Originally Posted By: Dualie
its a "custom" 5 horse bumper pull. It has 3 7,000lb axles under it and usually hangs out behind a Prevost diesel pusher bus conversion motor home. but since their million dollar bus is about as reliable as a yugo. My truck seems to always have to step up and fill in fairly often.

And truth be told that truck did just fine with it. You definitely KNEW it was back there ever second of the trip but it never gave me an unsafe feeling. I wasn't going to push my luck either.

Even with 340,000 miles on the clock the truck simply did its job without skipping a beat.


At least you are consistent and overload both the trailer and tow vehicle. Hope you have good trailer brakes. Insurance companies don't take too kindly to being overloaded if you have an accident not to mention to legally tow that much weight you need a CDL. :)
 
Originally Posted By: Junior
Originally Posted By: Dualie
its a "custom" 5 horse bumper pull. It has 3 7,000lb axles under it and usually hangs out behind a Prevost diesel pusher bus conversion motor home. but since their million dollar bus is about as reliable as a yugo. My truck seems to always have to step up and fill in fairly often.

And truth be told that truck did just fine with it. You definitely KNEW it was back there ever second of the trip but it never gave me an unsafe feeling. I wasn't going to push my luck either.

Even with 340,000 miles on the clock the truck simply did its job without skipping a beat.


At least you are consistent and overload both the trailer and tow vehicle. Hope you have good trailer brakes. Insurance companies don't take too kindly to being overloaded if you have an accident not to mention to legally tow that much weight you need a CDL. :)


What I meant to say was, that is more weight than I would want to pull with that tow vehicle.
 
Originally Posted By: Junior
Originally Posted By: Dualie
its a "custom" 5 horse bumper pull. It has 3 7,000lb axles under it and usually hangs out behind a Prevost diesel pusher bus conversion motor home. but since their million dollar bus is about as reliable as a yugo. My truck seems to always have to step up and fill in fairly often.

And truth be told that truck did just fine with it. You definitely KNEW it was back there ever second of the trip but it never gave me an unsafe feeling. I wasn't going to push my luck either.

Even with 340,000 miles on the clock the truck simply did its job without skipping a beat.


At least you are consistent and overload both the trailer and tow vehicle. Hope you have good trailer brakes. Insurance companies don't take too kindly to being overloaded if you have an accident not to mention to legally tow that much weight you need a CDL. :)


Thanks mom.

my truck is registered 35K GCVW. NONE of the Axles were more than 100 lbs. over on axle weights, tires are the best money can by and were actually at 90% at that time. I carry commercial insurance on that vehicle with 2X the minimum coverage required. MY insurance agent knows what I do with the truck and is fine with it.

And I have a CDL. you need one to drive a Kenworth heavy haul and still pull permits to move oversize loads.

care to spout and judge anymore?

OH and just so you know the truck has all stainless DOT legal flex lines, hawk pads and cryo'ed rotors at all four corners, trailer has electric over hydraulic disk brakes on all three axles. Plus the truck is fitted with an exhaust brake.

Oh and going through my original post my fat fingers put in 2.6X what the rating is it should have been 1.6x the factory rating. For GCVW.
 
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