08 4x4 Plat Sequoia Towing Evaluation

[Heatwave3]

Here's my recent real world evaluation of the towing capabilities of my 08 4x4 Platinum Sequoia. I have 7500 miles on my Black/Red Rock interior Seq and recently returned from vacation after towing a 7500+# boat with 6 passengers and gear over 600 miles. I thought I'd share a few "revelations" from this towing experience.

Some background: I've taken this same vacation for the past 20 years to a large lake in central PA towing a boat and passengers with various tow vehicles. All of the previous vehicles (3) were variations of the Suburban. The first 2 were 4x4 2500 Subs with 454 engines. The most recent was an AWD Denali XL with a 6.0L engine. These vehicles stowed alot of gear inside and were reasonably comfortable tow vehicles on my past trips and therefore I thought this year's trip over the same roads with the heaviest tow load I've ever had was quite a challenge for my new Sequoia.

There's a major mountain grade of over a mile located off the PA TP that has always been my nemesis in past trips. There were times in the older Subs that to make the trip up this grade I would have to have floor the throttle and sometimes even turn the heat on in order to keep the engine temp cool. Even with the throttle floored I could never make it above 35mph up this grade while towing.

In the DXL, the engine maintained its temp, even with the AC on, however it would never make this grade at speeds above 38mph with the throttle floored.

As you might imagine I approached this same grade this year with some fear. I had 6 adult passengers and a fair amount of gear on board the Seq plus a boat in-tow loaded with vacation "stuff" that I'm confident weighed more than 7500#s. Could have been over 8000#s.

The trip up the grade in the Seq was quite a shock and also an uneventful experience. I was able to climb this grade at 60+mph and never even used the full throttle. Had I used full throttle, it would have "yanked" my boat and all its contents over this 1 mile mountain road at well over 70mph. Simply unbelievable! I'm sure the 6sp tranny was a big contributor however the 5.7 felt like a turbo Cummins climbing this grade.

Imagine...this was with six adult passengers, AC blasting, 28" boat loaded to the hilt with vacation stuff, adj suspension set to sport and the Seq didn't break a sweat. Neither the trans or engine temp moved a single notch and it was a relatively hot day at over 90 degrees.

Gas mileage over the trip was around 8-9 mph with regular gas. Comfort was incomparable to the GM Subs when it came to 2nd and 3rd row legroom. The Sequoia gave up storage behind the 3rd row to my DXL however the sliding 2nd row seats and reclining seats in both the 2nd and 3rd rows of the Seq made the Sub platforms feel like the passengers were driving in a Geo Metro by comparison.

The only negative issue experienced on the trip was a rather odd one. Essentially while heading out, my wife went to insert a different CD into the 4CD player. Inadvertently she pressed the button to eject the DVD map instead of one of the CD slots. The map ejected and when she pushed it back in, it didn’t seem to be recognized by the GPS unit because I lost all use on the GPS. The map disc could no longer be ejected and couldn't be reached with fingertips.

I stopped at a local Toyo dealer on the way out and they tried to get the unit to spit the Map disk out. No good. They disconnected the battery to see if that would allow the unit to eject the map disk. No good. After disconnecting the battery, the screen would no longer flip out so I couldn’t even access the CD disks. Now there was no function of the audio, GPS or BT phone capabilities. The dealer felt the entire GPS unit may have “fragged” itself and that a new unit would need to be installed. Of course I was bummed but we continued on with the trip (w/o music or GPS). Tried multiple times the rest of the outgoing trip to reset the unit or eject the map disc. No good.

Good news ending to this story. Woke up the next morning. Started the vehicle. Pressed the button to load a disc. The screen flipped and automatically ejected the map disc. I reinserted the disc. The system reloaded the GPS data. And everything was working fine including all of my saved data such as Favs and phones numbers. Everything has worked fine since.

Only conclusion I’ve been able to reach is that the system was confused by the map disc possibly being partially inserted and that the system went into some sort of timeout period that must be passed before the system reboots itself. That period of time was overnight. Of course it could have simply been my wife's fault (she now swears she'll never touch the GPS again). If others have a different conclusion, please feel free to share.

[TJeeper]

I had a similar experience towing with my Sequoia. It is a 4x4 SR5 with the 5.7. I was towing my Jeep on a trailer, which weighed about 6.5k lbs. In Colorado the passes are steep and high, some top out at over 10,000 feet. The lower oxygen concentration saps the power from vehicles, I've read it lowers the horsepower rating for a na vehicle by 20% at that altitude. According to all my friends with diesel trucks, no gasser can pull this much weight and still maintain the speed limit. Well I can report my Sequoia can. I had no problem going the speed limit on any of the passes we took, even passing vehicles that were going under the speed limit. For those who are familiar with highways in Colorado, I was able to maintain 65 mph climbing towards the Eisenhower tunnel on east bound I-70. The gas mileage for the trip ended up being 11.7 mpg. I've been waiting for an SUV that can tow this much weight for years. So far we have been really happy with our Sequoia, it has been everything we expected.

[Only Toyota for me]

I love reading these posts.

People have a hard time beleiving the Tundra/Sequoia with the 5.7 is a towing beast! But it is.

And yet when not towing, the mpg is not bad at 18-20 on the hiway from what i've been reading anyway. This makes me want to dump our v-6 4runner for one. Maybe when the lease is up.
We went on a trip to Vegas in my bro's 07 sequoia with the 4.7 and ran across a neighbor who just bought the 08 with the 5.7 at a gas station.
Needless to say, he got 18.4 for the same trip, and we got 16. Both loaded about the same, and drove about the same way. Plus his was brand new!
We're still toying with the idea, but we won't take it in the shorts with our trade in's. So we may have to wait til the lease's are up i guess.

[JBK23]

The trip sounded like lots of fun I wish I could have went with you sounds like the Sequoia fited every ones needs in terms of leg room. I bet your pround to drive and have the 08 Sequoia with the 5.7 the trip really makes the 5.7 sounds like a beast and with it being the Platinum every one was happy.

[Robert_Laurali]

we have the 08 2wd sr5 (did this model and trim/options just for most out of towing) and I too pull/tow a Jeep buggy thing on a 16ft flat bed trailer that total weighs in about 7200lbs.

Power is incredible and stopping and traction also incredible. My only concern is the trailer at this weight and without the sway control and weight dist hitch. It tends to sway some at speeds over 60-65 on occation and the back end down drop about 4-5 inches with what I can only estimate is about 800-1000 tongue weight. I keep the TW up to help eliminate sway.

I am in the process of researching a good wieght dist hitch and sway control to add to the trailer though.

Other then mentioned above. I have to give this 1/2 ton (yeah right) SUV much better ratings then my F-150 super crew with the 5.4 engine, in towing and comfort and everything basically.

[Marazzito]

How'd the Sequoia's air suspension level out the load? Did it do the job as advertised or was that to much weight to be level'd out?

[Heatwave3]

Originally Posted by Marazzito

How'd the Sequoia's air suspension level out the load? Did it do the job as advertised or was that to much weight to be level'd out?

My Plat 4x4 Seq was perfectly level for the entire vacation with 6 people on-board, gear behind the 3rd row, a 7500-8000 boat with maybe 600-700lbs of tongue weight. Rode with the adjustable suspension in "sport" mode and with the tow/haul engaged.

The single best tow vehicle I've ever been in which includes 25 years of towing with many 3/4 ton tow vehicles. The Plat Sequoia was without a doubt the most powerful, comfortable and level package I've personally experienced for towing.

[Marazzito]

Originally Posted by Heatwave3

My Plat 4x4 Seq was perfectly level for the entire vacation with 6 people on-board, gear behind the 3rd row, a 7500-8000 boat with maybe 600-700lbs of tongue weight. Rode with the adjustable suspension in "sport" mode and with the tow/haul engaged.

The singlest best tow vehicle I've ever been in which includes 25 years of towing with many 3/4 ton tow vehicles. The Plat Sequoia was without a doubt the most powerful, comfortable and level package I've personally experienced for towing.

I'm SOLD!!