Tow vehicle one
Tow vehicle one was a 2009 Toyota Sienna. We had bought the Sienna during our boating days. With the back seats out, it makes a good, convenient cargo vehicle.
When it came time to research and buy trailers, we went with something less than or equal to the 3,500 Sienna tow rating. With its 3,500-pound rated axle, the Casita was the perfect fit. In the interim, between placing our order and the trailer arriving, I kept reading “experts” who said you needed a 5,000 (or more) rating to pull 3,500 pounds, which didn’t make sense to me, math being math and all. I decided not to worry about it and see how the van did once the trailer arrived. In January 2021, my awesome Connecticut auto mechanic scoped out the job and gave me an estimate. With the Casita coming in August, I booked an appointment in June.
My guy added the hitch, wiring harness, and brake controller. Unfortunately, we found that in the time between January and June, the oil cooler kits for the 2009 Sienna became unavailable for purchase by independent mechanics. We decided to see how the Sienna did once the trailer arrived. I ordered the Anderson Weight Distributing Hitch (WDH) to come with the trailer. After the trailer was delivered and I set up the WDH, we went camping in Connecticut and Massachusetts, and it was fine.
Then we moved. To Virginia. To the Piedmont area just east of the Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah National Park. The van made it up, and van made it down, but it wasn’t happy, the transmission temps started to read high, and I wasn’t thrilled. (Without the oil cooler, the towing capacity for the van was less than 3,500, so it’s not Toyota’s fault.) This is a video someone else made of the road. (Jump to 1:49 for a quick look at the interesting part.)
Tow vehicle two
So we shopped for tow vehicles. It was not easy to find inventory in 2022. I had had a couple of pickups earlier in life and did not want to deal with the weather and security issues of an open bed. Looked at Highlanders and 4 Runners. While their 5,000 towing capacity was fine, I wasn’t thrilled with their cargo capacity, which really wasn’t much more than the van. I watched Steve Lineberry’s choosing a tow vehicle video. He has an interesting discussion of Choosing by Advantage, wherein you assign numerical values to the things you care about and then pick the high scorer. I didn’t do that, but I did appreciate the outlining of the features of the different tow vehicles.
In the end, the built-in hitch, large cargo capacity, and TOW/HAUL mode led us to go with a late-model Sequoia. It’s built on the same frame as the Toyota Tundra pickup.
It’s big. When you open the door, you don’t step inside. You step up to the running board, and then you get inside, probably using the convenient grab handle by the pillar. When you park, it fills the entire spot. When you stop at the gas pump, it empties the wallet. And when you tow a Casita, it’s Trailer? What trailer?
For us, the gas guzzling isn’t a show stopper. We’ve kept the van which, ironically enough, can transport something the Sequoia can’t — a full 4 x 8 foot sheet of plywood. Using the van also keeps the mileage down on the Sequoia, which has a warranty expiration at 100,000 miles.
Traditionally we’ve identified vehicles by brand, e.g. the Honda, the Subaru. Since “Toyota” would be ambiguous, it’s “the van” and …
THE MONSTER.
Toyota recommends a sway bar if the trailer is over 2,000 pounds, so we ordered a sway bar from etrailer.com and had the local trailer shop weld the attachment bail to the frame.
Also in the trailer order was the ball mount and a Redarc Tow-Pro Liberty Brake Controller. Our local mechanic installed it for us. He said the tough part was finding room behind the dash.
The controller is unobtrusive and easy to operate.
While I was upgrading things, I heeded The Handy Camper’s advice and upgraded my jack, too. The nice thing about the Sequoia back going up, instead of down like a pickup gate, is that it easily clears the jack:
Hitching is straightforward, especially compared to the down-up-down jack sequence we used when hitching the Anderson WDH to the Sienna. The sway slips on easily with the two pins, and then I just flip the tension lever. I do remove the sway before backing into a campsite.
Likewise, driving is straightforward. Start the van, verify brake controller LED is lit up, press the TOW button, and drive. With updated shift points, I don’t have to mess with the manual downshifting when going up and down hills, as I did with the Sienna.
