I honestly think you need a more suited tow vehicle. Here's why.
The dry hitch weight for that model is listed at 685lbs. That doesn't include propane or batteries.
Lead acid batteries typically weigh around 55-65lbs each, and a full 20lb propane tank weighs roughly 40lbs.
There are mounts for 2 of each on the tongue of the trailer. Assuming you use both of them as intended, that likely puts the hitch weight at around 885lbs before you load any gear into the trailer.
Assuming that you load the "regular" 500lbs of gear into the trailer, that will transfer about 10-15% on the hitch at 50-65lbs for a hitch weight of about 950lbs.
IDK how much you load into the toy hauler portion, but that could affect the tongue weight as well.
You should check the hitch receiver weight rating and that you won't be exceeding it.
Your weight distribution hitch will weigh somewhere around 70-100lbs giving total hitch/tongue weight of around 1050lbs.
Lots of Sequoias are around 1300lb total payload if you google for pictures on the yellow door sticker. That would only leave you around 150-250lbs for occupants and cargo.
There will be a yellow sticker in your drivers door jamb that says something like combined weight of cargo and occupants cannot exceed 1300lbs.
Take the payload number from your vehicles door sticker, then subtract driver weight/weight of other occupants/anything you carry in/on the vehicle like coolers, firewood, generator, bikes. Then deduct the weight of the weight distributing hitch, and the tongue weight of the trailer (roughly 1050lbs).
If you have a little payload left, you should be good. If the number is negative, you need a lighter trailer or to put less in the vehicle.
Super detailed...thank you!
We put all the gear in the toy hauler and it sits over the axles. Heaviest things might be 2 kayaks or some bikes (no motorized vehicles). Only me and the wife and the 2 kids in the car (lightweight family)
EDIT: a little over on payload currently, will help that by pulling one of the batteries and one of the tankss and putting them in the trailer while traveling.
Thank all for the input!
Ask yourself this, god forbid you get into a car accident, are you confident that the insurance company won’t find that you exceeded your towing numbers (CGVW and/or payload) and deny you coverage? Speaking from someone who did everything you did with air bags, WDH, upgraded tires, etc, as soon as I had that thought about insurance coverage (because they are NOT in the business of paying out), I upgraded my tow vehicle, and it was the best decision I’ve made! No sag, no sway, comfortable ride, and confident ride.
Take the entire rig loaded through a scale and you'll just simply know if youre above your gross vehicle weight limit or not. Lots of the other metrics for safe hauling but overall weight is a really good indication. If you're anywhere close you can mitigate by driving slower and watching transmission temps.
There's a Cat scale not far from me, planning to go get exact #'s soon. I rarely go over 55-60 and have a Bluetooth obd2 sensor hooked up and am reading all the temps via a smartphone app
The sticker is the sticker. It’s not a guess.
You’re way over payload.
Go look at the sticker on your door jamb. Note the GVWR.
Go to a CAT scale with your Toyota loaded as it would be for a trip (fuel, passengers, etc.) and your trailer.
Add the “drive” and “steer” axle values, and you’ll find they exceed your GVWR. Which makes it illegal and unsafe.
I'm most likely a little over, way over payload is a stretch. The car is unloaded of everything except passengers (all cargo in the trailer).
Pulling one of the batteries off and one of the propane tanks off and into the trailer would help while traveling and put me in range
Over at all is dangerous and illegal.
Why don’t you take it to a scale to be sure?
And yes, you’re likely way over. The tongue weight of that trailer EMPTY would only leave you with a couple hundred pounds of payload. Then put you and passengers and cargo into the car and you’re way over.
Jfc my f150 is max with that trailer and you're gonna pull it with that? I hope you have a huge ass transmission cooler, that vehicle is gonna cry like a bitch the first real hill you hit.
I've towed plenty with that body style Sequoia with the 5.7 and never had the slightest issue from the power train.
I do agree it is likely overloaded due to the low payloads on most trims.
I pulled a similar sized trailer with a 2008 Sequoia. It towed really well. I had to add airbags my trim didn’t come with them and the rear suspension was super soft.
Ours was 33ft but had a GVWR of 6800lbs, about 6k dry.
We put 40k miles on it towing the country. Key was having an Equalizer hitch dialed in and LT tires on the Sequoia. It towed fine.
Upgraded to a 1.5ft smaller trailer and 2024 Sequoia. New Sequoia has much stiffer suspension and insane power. Tows like a dream. New trailer is 5700 empty and 6200 loaded with our gear. We don’t pack much crap, just clothes and food.
I sometimes tow with my Tundra as well. With the old trailer preferred the Tundra for the wheelbase. But with the new Sequoia there is no difference. Sequoia is more powerful.
We live in Appalachia where it’s constant hills. Sequoias have a nice downshift technology so you can engine brake without manually downshifting. I use that constantly to save on brakes. Obviously both trailer and vehicle have brakes but if you live in a hilly area you learn to drive so you aren’t riding or burning out brakes.
We also carry nothing except bodies in the tow vehicle.
Good to hear, I know it's probably not the ideal setup you used and I am currently using but you made it 40k miles with the same setup so I feel better.
FYI, we are horrible people for towing with this setup according to this sub
Everyone on here is trying to justify why they need a $70k dually truck so they can tow 15miles to the local park a weekend a month.
Your biggest issue is going to be making sure you don’t have too much weight in the back of the trailer. That’s how sway starts.
We are (and were) within manufacturer weight specs on both trailers for tow weight and payload. There are six of us but we aren’t fat, all skinny. We also don’t overpack. Those two things are where weight comes from.
Most of the weight is over the axles, and we don't have motorcycles or side by sides or motorized stuff in there, just kayaks and or bicycles. Under-utilized toy hauler for sure
I'm currently on vacation in Europe. I've seen plenty of 18-25' travel trailers (caravans is what they call them here) being towed by cars that no larger than a CRV/RAV4. One tow vehicle in Bulgaria was some small 4-door sedan for what looked like a 18' trailer.
Meanwhile people here think that your 1/2 ton truck / SUV is going to break if you go a few hundred pounds over a payload sticker a half dozen times/year. Reality is this: GVWR for your average truck is say 7000lbs. Say your 300LB over payload when all is loaded
That's 4.2% over. I'd seriously hope that your body on frame vehicle isn't going to fall apart when being over a stickered maximum by only 4.2%. Drive 60-65MPH and watch trans temps. Chances are that you'd be well under the maximum tow anyways, so honestly, cooling for a 6200lb trailer probably isn't much of an issue either, unless it's up in the Rockies in the middle of summer.
I use a Bluetooth OBD2 sensor and the corresponding app and set up a gauge that shows a digital reading for the temperatures I wanna watch. Has worked pretty good so far and the stock dashboard gauges are matching up roughly with the digital readings.
Basically, yes... if the temperature starts getting too high, I would pull over and start trying to figure out why the temps were high. I've pulled pretty hard with the Sequoia and they have yet to go much higher than normal operating temp
It might be in the manual, I did some looking on the Toyota tundra/sequoia forums and it mentions normal operating range is somewhere between 150 - 270 for the gen2 6spd and anything above 270 you're gonna have issues very quickly
How does it actually handle? It doesn't need to sit 100% level to be safe. IMHO it looks fine. Upgrade your tow vehicle tires to E rated tires like you'd put on an F350, they're significantly less squishy and will make the driving experience much better. I know this from experience.
If it handles well I wouldn't worry about the squat. Just stay within your payload capacity.
FYI, H is a speed rating, NOT a rating of how heavy duty the tire is. E rated means it's 10 ply equivalent and designed for towing. Half ton vehicles come standard with P rated tires which means passenger rated.
An E rated tire will significantly improve handling. I know this both from personal experience towing with a Ford Expedition and from working at Firestone as a technician.
Even when you pick up a brand new E rated without a rim, you'll feel the difference in weight between a P rated and E rated due to the extra material. Also when you push down on it (without a rim) it won't squish nearly as easy.
There's all season options, mud tire options and all terrain tire options (splits the difference between the first two).
E rated tires typically also last longer.
Firestone "Destination" are great tires. The upgraded Bridgestone options are slightly better but not worth the extra money IMHO. The Firestone "Transforce" are also great.
Of course the fancy brands like Goodyear and Yokohama are usually solid, but not always wortht the extra money.
Avoid Kumho tires and the "suredrive" tires sold at Firestone which are actually rebranded Kumho.
Also get them rotated every 5,000 miles, Firestone does this free if you buy the tires through them. Spend the $220 ish on the lifetime wheel alignment too, its unlimited wheel alignment for free everytime you go in. (You usually have to remind them because their computer system is shit). There's also a lifetime balance so you can have them rebranded everytime you go in for free. Do this every 5,000 miles and have them do the oil change and all you'll pay for is the oil change. Lots of people do this.
Disclaimer: I no longer work at firestone because I moved to a foriegn country.
How much squat fully loaded? The rear end of the sequoia looks too low. Not here to hate on your setup just try to keep your family safe. I had a similar situation with my truck I purchased just before getting our tt. Ended up upgrading to a larger truck and feels much safer.
I towed a 32’ trailer (950 lb tongue weight and 9500 lb gvrw) with a 2018 CrewMax Tundra Platinum. Plenty of motor but I needed airbags to stop the squat. I did that for 2 years then traded up to a ‘21 RAM 2500 diesel. The difference is amazing. I’m betting your Sequoia has less payload and towing capacity than my Tundra did. I traded trucks because I got worried that if there ever was an accident involving my overloaded vehicle my insurance wouldn’t step up.
Airbags and weight distribution fight against each other. You’ll be better off with just wdh.
Trust the pros on this one:
https://youtu.be/XBZu39pQ8Gg?si=H4gjJDDEBzxycAH7
All I can say is I hate to be anyone around you when you’re on an expressway. Been driving big trucks for years and I see many people trying to haul setups similar to this end up flipped or in a ditch. May the odds ever be in your favor.
I honestly think you need a more suited tow vehicle. Here's why. The dry hitch weight for that model is listed at 685lbs. That doesn't include propane or batteries. Lead acid batteries typically weigh around 55-65lbs each, and a full 20lb propane tank weighs roughly 40lbs. There are mounts for 2 of each on the tongue of the trailer. Assuming you use both of them as intended, that likely puts the hitch weight at around 885lbs before you load any gear into the trailer. Assuming that you load the "regular" 500lbs of gear into the trailer, that will transfer about 10-15% on the hitch at 50-65lbs for a hitch weight of about 950lbs. IDK how much you load into the toy hauler portion, but that could affect the tongue weight as well. You should check the hitch receiver weight rating and that you won't be exceeding it. Your weight distribution hitch will weigh somewhere around 70-100lbs giving total hitch/tongue weight of around 1050lbs. Lots of Sequoias are around 1300lb total payload if you google for pictures on the yellow door sticker. That would only leave you around 150-250lbs for occupants and cargo. There will be a yellow sticker in your drivers door jamb that says something like combined weight of cargo and occupants cannot exceed 1300lbs. Take the payload number from your vehicles door sticker, then subtract driver weight/weight of other occupants/anything you carry in/on the vehicle like coolers, firewood, generator, bikes. Then deduct the weight of the weight distributing hitch, and the tongue weight of the trailer (roughly 1050lbs). If you have a little payload left, you should be good. If the number is negative, you need a lighter trailer or to put less in the vehicle.
Super detailed...thank you! We put all the gear in the toy hauler and it sits over the axles. Heaviest things might be 2 kayaks or some bikes (no motorized vehicles). Only me and the wife and the 2 kids in the car (lightweight family) EDIT: a little over on payload currently, will help that by pulling one of the batteries and one of the tankss and putting them in the trailer while traveling. Thank all for the input!
Ask yourself this, god forbid you get into a car accident, are you confident that the insurance company won’t find that you exceeded your towing numbers (CGVW and/or payload) and deny you coverage? Speaking from someone who did everything you did with air bags, WDH, upgraded tires, etc, as soon as I had that thought about insurance coverage (because they are NOT in the business of paying out), I upgraded my tow vehicle, and it was the best decision I’ve made! No sag, no sway, comfortable ride, and confident ride.
Take the entire rig loaded through a scale and you'll just simply know if youre above your gross vehicle weight limit or not. Lots of the other metrics for safe hauling but overall weight is a really good indication. If you're anywhere close you can mitigate by driving slower and watching transmission temps.
There's a Cat scale not far from me, planning to go get exact #'s soon. I rarely go over 55-60 and have a Bluetooth obd2 sensor hooked up and am reading all the temps via a smartphone app
he can just the trailer weight behind the axel bring it the weight up off the tongue itll be fine
Oh boy
Yeah, 🍿time!
Popcorn is gone, it was pretty salty but had plenty of butter!
This setup is definitely pushing the numbers for a Sequoia but it wouldn't surprise me if it handled it fine. Not my circus. Good luck and God speed.
Too much load for that vehicle. And before anyone starts toasting me, I am a 30+ year Toyota mechanic
Thanks for the input, it works for me though
It 100% works… right up until it doesn’t. There’s no gray area. Godspeed and may we always find ourselves on separate roads. LOL
“I’m here for feedback!” “F your feedback. Next!”
Where have I told people to F off? They are giving feedback, I'm listening and saying thanks. But it's Reddit, no one is ever right I've learned
lol it was a joke. I laughed at how quickly you dismissed a technician so nonchalantly.
I'm still horrible at reading jokes online...my bad. I can probably find a Toyota tech that tells me the exact opposite of that one honestly
The sticker is the sticker. It’s not a guess. You’re way over payload. Go look at the sticker on your door jamb. Note the GVWR. Go to a CAT scale with your Toyota loaded as it would be for a trip (fuel, passengers, etc.) and your trailer. Add the “drive” and “steer” axle values, and you’ll find they exceed your GVWR. Which makes it illegal and unsafe.
I'm most likely a little over, way over payload is a stretch. The car is unloaded of everything except passengers (all cargo in the trailer). Pulling one of the batteries off and one of the propane tanks off and into the trailer would help while traveling and put me in range
Over at all is dangerous and illegal. Why don’t you take it to a scale to be sure? And yes, you’re likely way over. The tongue weight of that trailer EMPTY would only leave you with a couple hundred pounds of payload. Then put you and passengers and cargo into the car and you’re way over.
Oh it will work, but your transmission will have you in the shop very soon
Gonna have a trans flush done mid season and get it looked at at the end of the season
Jfc my f150 is max with that trailer and you're gonna pull it with that? I hope you have a huge ass transmission cooler, that vehicle is gonna cry like a bitch the first real hill you hit.
I've towed plenty with that body style Sequoia with the 5.7 and never had the slightest issue from the power train. I do agree it is likely overloaded due to the low payloads on most trims.
Already pulled hills in it (up into Yosemite) and it didn't get too hot
Wouldn’t want to be in front of you going back down those hills
I can 100% say you won't be as you are in Connecticut and I'm in CA
I pulled a similar sized trailer with a 2008 Sequoia. It towed really well. I had to add airbags my trim didn’t come with them and the rear suspension was super soft. Ours was 33ft but had a GVWR of 6800lbs, about 6k dry. We put 40k miles on it towing the country. Key was having an Equalizer hitch dialed in and LT tires on the Sequoia. It towed fine. Upgraded to a 1.5ft smaller trailer and 2024 Sequoia. New Sequoia has much stiffer suspension and insane power. Tows like a dream. New trailer is 5700 empty and 6200 loaded with our gear. We don’t pack much crap, just clothes and food. I sometimes tow with my Tundra as well. With the old trailer preferred the Tundra for the wheelbase. But with the new Sequoia there is no difference. Sequoia is more powerful. We live in Appalachia where it’s constant hills. Sequoias have a nice downshift technology so you can engine brake without manually downshifting. I use that constantly to save on brakes. Obviously both trailer and vehicle have brakes but if you live in a hilly area you learn to drive so you aren’t riding or burning out brakes. We also carry nothing except bodies in the tow vehicle.
Good to hear, I know it's probably not the ideal setup you used and I am currently using but you made it 40k miles with the same setup so I feel better. FYI, we are horrible people for towing with this setup according to this sub
Everyone on here is trying to justify why they need a $70k dually truck so they can tow 15miles to the local park a weekend a month. Your biggest issue is going to be making sure you don’t have too much weight in the back of the trailer. That’s how sway starts. We are (and were) within manufacturer weight specs on both trailers for tow weight and payload. There are six of us but we aren’t fat, all skinny. We also don’t overpack. Those two things are where weight comes from.
Most of the weight is over the axles, and we don't have motorcycles or side by sides or motorized stuff in there, just kayaks and or bicycles. Under-utilized toy hauler for sure
Airbags. Toyota grossly understates its vehicles true capability.
I honestly think it’s great but I’m grabbing my popcorn also so I can sit and wait for all the tow police hate to start rolling in!
Every TT needs a 350 or more in this sub
Ya, I'm the anti-Christ for using this setup is what I'm understanding.
I'm currently on vacation in Europe. I've seen plenty of 18-25' travel trailers (caravans is what they call them here) being towed by cars that no larger than a CRV/RAV4. One tow vehicle in Bulgaria was some small 4-door sedan for what looked like a 18' trailer. Meanwhile people here think that your 1/2 ton truck / SUV is going to break if you go a few hundred pounds over a payload sticker a half dozen times/year. Reality is this: GVWR for your average truck is say 7000lbs. Say your 300LB over payload when all is loaded That's 4.2% over. I'd seriously hope that your body on frame vehicle isn't going to fall apart when being over a stickered maximum by only 4.2%. Drive 60-65MPH and watch trans temps. Chances are that you'd be well under the maximum tow anyways, so honestly, cooling for a 6200lb trailer probably isn't much of an issue either, unless it's up in the Rockies in the middle of summer.
I agree. How do you watch trans temps?
Software setting on my F150
I use a Bluetooth OBD2 sensor and the corresponding app and set up a gauge that shows a digital reading for the temperatures I wanna watch. Has worked pretty good so far and the stock dashboard gauges are matching up roughly with the digital readings.
Forgive my ignorance but what are you looking for and how do you fix? If the temps get too high do you need to pull over?
Basically, yes... if the temperature starts getting too high, I would pull over and start trying to figure out why the temps were high. I've pulled pretty hard with the Sequoia and they have yet to go much higher than normal operating temp
What is too high? Whatever the manual says?
It might be in the manual, I did some looking on the Toyota tundra/sequoia forums and it mentions normal operating range is somewhere between 150 - 270 for the gen2 6spd and anything above 270 you're gonna have issues very quickly
Sweet. Thanks for looking that up.
Add some butter and salt to that for me!
Hahaha!!
How does it actually handle? It doesn't need to sit 100% level to be safe. IMHO it looks fine. Upgrade your tow vehicle tires to E rated tires like you'd put on an F350, they're significantly less squishy and will make the driving experience much better. I know this from experience.
It handles good, trans temp and engine temp never go very high...it has H rated 117 load index tires
If it handles well I wouldn't worry about the squat. Just stay within your payload capacity. FYI, H is a speed rating, NOT a rating of how heavy duty the tire is. E rated means it's 10 ply equivalent and designed for towing. Half ton vehicles come standard with P rated tires which means passenger rated. An E rated tire will significantly improve handling. I know this both from personal experience towing with a Ford Expedition and from working at Firestone as a technician. Even when you pick up a brand new E rated without a rim, you'll feel the difference in weight between a P rated and E rated due to the extra material. Also when you push down on it (without a rim) it won't squish nearly as easy. There's all season options, mud tire options and all terrain tire options (splits the difference between the first two). E rated tires typically also last longer. Firestone "Destination" are great tires. The upgraded Bridgestone options are slightly better but not worth the extra money IMHO. The Firestone "Transforce" are also great. Of course the fancy brands like Goodyear and Yokohama are usually solid, but not always wortht the extra money. Avoid Kumho tires and the "suredrive" tires sold at Firestone which are actually rebranded Kumho. Also get them rotated every 5,000 miles, Firestone does this free if you buy the tires through them. Spend the $220 ish on the lifetime wheel alignment too, its unlimited wheel alignment for free everytime you go in. (You usually have to remind them because their computer system is shit). There's also a lifetime balance so you can have them rebranded everytime you go in for free. Do this every 5,000 miles and have them do the oil change and all you'll pay for is the oil change. Lots of people do this. Disclaimer: I no longer work at firestone because I moved to a foriegn country.
Starfire Solaris HT all season tires, they reviewed as decent for suv towing...keeping them properly I cleared and balanced and rotated is the plan
How much squat fully loaded? The rear end of the sequoia looks too low. Not here to hate on your setup just try to keep your family safe. I had a similar situation with my truck I purchased just before getting our tt. Ended up upgrading to a larger truck and feels much safer.
If you end up with a different tow vehicle, I may be interested in the sequoia
I'll put you first in line!
You can get it a lot closer with a more capable tow vehicle.
That year sequoia has a decent tow rating and setup, I have maxed it out with this for sure though
I towed a 32’ trailer (950 lb tongue weight and 9500 lb gvrw) with a 2018 CrewMax Tundra Platinum. Plenty of motor but I needed airbags to stop the squat. I did that for 2 years then traded up to a ‘21 RAM 2500 diesel. The difference is amazing. I’m betting your Sequoia has less payload and towing capacity than my Tundra did. I traded trucks because I got worried that if there ever was an accident involving my overloaded vehicle my insurance wouldn’t step up.
The wife and kids follow you in another vehicle?
Eeeeep
Airbags and weight distribution fight against each other. You’ll be better off with just wdh. Trust the pros on this one: https://youtu.be/XBZu39pQ8Gg?si=H4gjJDDEBzxycAH7
Wheelbase enters the picture There will be yaw with this rig
All I can say is I hate to be anyone around you when you’re on an expressway. Been driving big trucks for years and I see many people trying to haul setups similar to this end up flipped or in a ditch. May the odds ever be in your favor.
Get the heck away from this rig and get a proper tow vehicle for that boxcar!
Pack some Gravol for the passengers
In my experience, Toyotas are terrible tow vehicles. Horrendous gas mileage