Toyota RAV4 Towing Speed: Your Opinion?

1500 lbs is pushing it for a 2 liter engine. I would limit speed to 60 and down shift on long hills and keep rpm around 4000 or so when climbing them and not tow floorbaorded at any time. Watch engine heat and if it get warm, throttle back and let it cool. I personally would suggest you keep it under 1000 lbs if you are trtaveling any real distance or ground is not fairly flat if you plan to drive that Rav4 for a while yet with having to rebuild it.

----------------- The SnoMan

Flat ground and reasonably straight, Id stay under 75 for sure, more likely about 65 would be ideal. Is it the 2.2 Rav or 2,0litre?

You are kinding right?? I are going to pay for his repairs or wreck if it get away from him at the speed or he cannot stop in time?

----------------- The SnoMan

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You have a typo, you mean yes you are. The brake on that RAV4 do not have that much reserve and stopping from 75 in a hurry would not be possible and even from 65 it would be tuff. Need to keep speed down.

----------------- The SnoMan

in article snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com, SnoMan at snipped-for-privacy@snoman.com wrote on 4/7/06 10:13 AM:

Wow. The pot calls out the kettle!

-jeff

Id tow a braked trailer at 75 no worries in a RAV, esp if its the 2.2 version. Drive to the conditions and youd be fine.

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Hey all...I just came here looking for some similar advice; was wondering if the 2.0L RAV would be sufficient a vehicle to tow a boat(and motor). Not a cabin cruiser or anything like that..just your average 16-18ft fishing\water-skiing type boat. Not sure what average weights are for that type of boat/motor/trailer ,,, any experienced advice here will be much appreciated!

Paco

Whats the weight of the boat and trailer with all ski equipment fuel etc. If its over 750 Kg Id suggest that you buy a bigger vehicle or get ya freinds to cart some of the gear for you.

There's no such thing as the "average" 16-18 ft boat. Initially, you said "1500 lbs", but I get the feeling you don't already own the boat or you would've KNOWN the weight, instead of saying "average". It depends on whether it's basic 3-bench boat with no superstructure or interior "furniture", or something more elaborate. Looking at the Lund boat catalog on my desk, I see 18 ft boats ranging in weight from 2600 lbs down to around

600 lbs, depending on design.

I have a 14' boat, very basic. Including trailer, and fully loaded with fuel, motor, too much paraphernalia and maybe a stripper borrowed from a local club, it weighs about 1100 lbs. I used to tow it with a 1992 Taurus (6 cylinder, front wheel drive). The car had enough power, but in any kind of turbulent situations (crosswinds, or behind tractor trailers), things got interesting. Lots of shimmy, due to the car's muddy suspension. As far as I was concerned, the smart thing to do was to double my predicted braking distance. My trailer had no brakes, so that's a factor here. Someone else mentioned doing 75 mph with a braked trailer. I can't address that, never having driven with one.

So, multiple factors to contend with:

Suspension: Will the car be overly affected by the trailer? I don't know how a RAV 4's suspension compares to that of a normal sedan. If you've driven both, you should be able to determine this.

Drive train: Is the RAV 4 a front wheel drive vehicle? In theory, that's less than ideal for towing, since the trailer tends to pull down the rear of the car, taking some weight off the front wheels. I suspect that the design of the entire suspension determines how much of a factor this is. If the rear end is pretty stiff, the car should remain level. And, if it's got rear wheel drive, this whole factor is a little less important.

Brakes: Someone else here mentioned that the RAV 4 might not have enough reserve braking power for high speeds. You'll find that out quickly on your own, after going through some somewhat scary stopping experiences, or replacing brakes & rotors more often. What is the rated towing capacity of the vehicle?

Transmission: Auto or manual? You'll want to do the scheduled maintenance earlier than the book recommends. If manual, and you tend to be sloppy with the clutch, you'll want to stop that behavior while towing, and drive as if you were teaching a kid how to use a stick shift. By the book, in other words.

You might consider having a transmission oil cooler installed. Any competent mechanic can do this, as well as most U-Haul places, although I'm not sure I trust the help they hire.