My wife and I have been talking about new carsor maybe 1 or 2 years used.
We have noticed the RAV4. We like the look and it looks roomy enough for us and 1 on the way. We looked at some at the dealership and the prices were quite a bit higher than what was posted on the internet. which I guess meant that the configuration of the vehicles we saw included all the options.
One question I could not get much of an answer for was how much can one tow? Could it pull a small trailer? I am sure it cannot pull a large trailer but, what would the size limit be. I notice that none of them were equpped to add a hitch easily which may be a clue that they are not built for that.
The makers of sub-compact vehicles try not to give you a trailer towing weight rating at all because they're trying to discourage people from towing with them - if you put a heavy trailer on the car and flog it up steep hills with the throttle wide open with the engine wound out in second, and stand on the brakes going down the other side (instead of downshifting), you'll cause a lot of unnecessary wear on the car. Since some people will try making warranty claims from things that break due to that extra weight, the lawyers insist that if pushed for an answer they say "No Towing, Period." But In My Humble Opinion even a very small car like a RAV4 or Echo should be able to tow a very small utility trailer - say 1,000 to
1,500 pounds - with the proviso that it's only used for local trips and that you take it very slow and easy on the car when towing.
A motorcycle trailer and one bike, or one ATV, or one personal watercraft, or a small pop-up tent trailer, or a week's household trash to the dump.
Downshift for hills (both up and down) and stay away from the redline. Like heavy trucks, don't go down a hill any faster than you can go up it, and you'll stay out of trouble. Don't slip the clutch too much while getting moving on stick-shifts, and add an auxiliary transmission fluid cooler on an automatic car.
If the trailer is over about 500 - 800 pounds, or if the car is already loaded full with four passengers, you should get a trailer with brakes (or add brakes to your existing small trailer) so you can stop in a reasonable distance. Your problem won't be in getting moving, it's in getting stopped. If there's an accident ahead, you have to stop before joining them.
They do make surge brakes (hydraulic from a special tongue coupler) and electric brakes (powered from the car with a controller under the dash) for small trailer axles that take 8" and 12" tires.
You will most likely need to have a custom receiver hitch made by a good local welder/fabricator, as you've guessed you are not likely to find a pre-made RAV4 hitch kit on the shelf. Plus, they can tuck the custom ones in tighter and make them look good.
Here (Norway) the maximum weight for trailer with brakes is 1500 kg for the 4WD version. We can get both fixed and detachable towing hitch, but be aware of one very silly thing: With the trailer attached you can not open the back door! Otherwise the car is great, allthough some will find the luggage space to be somewhat small.
"" wrote: > On Mon, 08 Aug 2005 00:23:54 GMT, "R Steenerson" > wrote: > > > My wife and I have been talking about new carsor maybe 1 or > 2 years used. > >
DrawTite makes a Class I and a Class III hitch that will bolt right on a Rav 4. No custom work is needed. As poster stated above. If you plan to go some distance like a trip, keep it under 1000 lbs (600 to
800lbs) but if you want to towing a utilty trailer occasionly to haul something home on a short trip (10 to 15 miles or so) with no big or long hills to climb you could likely press it to 2000 lb or so. This assumes you have a automatic, if it is a stick I would limit max load to less than 1000lbs (local or trip) because of strain on clutch starting the load out on a grade and such.
Rather than relying on various posters' speculation or on links to edmunds, the OP should go to
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and look at the specs. I suspect that Toyota knows more about the Rav4 than any of the posters here (including me) or any other 3rd party. According to Toyota's web site, the max trailer weight is 1,500 lbs so 2,000 is over the manufacturer's recommended trailer weight. Besides trailer weight, there is a maximum tongue weight, usually
10% of the trailer weight so max tongue weight is probably 150 lbs.
Besides horsepower and transmission, other factors that affect a vehicle's towing capacity are cooling, braking, stability, suspension, and chassis.
I would like to thank everyone for responding. I thought I would get one or two but, I got a lot more answers than I expected and it helps a lot. Thankyou everyone.
Manufactures rating should be a guide not a absolute. When you have towed as much as I have and for as many years (well over 30 years) with all kinds of vehcials you learn alot about towing. I would not tow 1500 lbs with a RAV4 any hiway distance at al. It simply does not have the power for that. A 2 litler engine is not enough for that extra weight and drag. I would say less than 1000 lbs for this use and better yet 600 to 800 pounds. (BTW I have never towed with a RAV4 but I have driven one several tiimes and towed with other 4 cyl cars) If used in a urban setting where you are hauling something locally a short distance I would feel comfortable with 2000 lbs or a bit more. It is not the weight you tow as much as how you tow it and it takes a lot more power and strain to take 1500 lbs to 65 MPH and keep it there and stable than it takes to get 2000 lbs to 30 or 40 MPH and keep it there and stable. Terrain is a factor too. Also 10% in the minimum recommanded tougue weight with the range in practice being 10 to 15% with a pull type trailer. Myself I shoot for 15% or so because as long as your vehical can handle the tongue weight, the more stabile the tow will be. Also there is nothing wrong with getting input for people that have towed a lot rather than from someone that reads a manufactures add and decides that everyone else is wrong. Manufactures tend to be over generous for marketing reason and if you follow the Big 3?s guide lines for some of their tow limits on their vehicals blindly you will be sorely disapointed in their tow performance. LOTS of varibles in towing that makes it hard to blanket rate a tow vehcial as it is not cut a dried. (you can tow less on hilly terrain than flat, head wind or not, high altitude or not and so on so do not take ANY manufactures rating as the gosphel.
Also there is nothing wrong with getting input for people
Sno Man, I liked your very thorough explanation. You have a lot of towing experience and knowledge, but I had assumed, perhaps incorrectly, that if the OP didn't know where to look for towing capacities and where to get a hitch, that they had very little towing experience. Based on my assumption that the OP was a novice tower, my intent was to convey that the OP should not exceed the manufacturer's guidelines, which as you have pointed out, are often a little too generous.
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