Long story short; my '03 GMC Sierra Duramax has been in the shop for the past 1.5 months as the entire drivetrain bombed on me. Up until last week I was borrowing a friend's Ram 3500 Cummins to do my tow stuff, but he's back from his business trip and needs his truck back.
I have a rather critical SCCA Club Race to attend this weekend and my only option to get it there is borrowing my father's 02 Sequoia Limited with the V8 engine. It has almost 78,000 miles on it. I have access to an open trailer that weighs about 2000lbs and my race car weighs about 3500lbs, for a grand total of 5500lbs towing weight. I would be towing the car for about 3 hours in an area that has some hills. I think I read the max towing capacity was 6500lbs, is this correct?
I am mostly concerned about drivetrain damage; it is my father's car and obviously I want it to be safe. Will I be safe towing this much of a load? I could probably find a lighter trailer, but am not 100% sure at this time, if worse comes to worse, will 6 total hours of towing 5500lbs be dangerous?
IMHO, you will be fine. I have an 07 Tacoma and I tow a 1967 Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40 I am just under 6,000 lbs. My 4.0 is about the same as your Dads 4.7 in the HP department, you do have a torque advantage though. I tow up pretty steep grades at fairly high altitude to get to the Rubicon and the Tacoma handles the weight well. I will be in 3rd gear to hold 60 on long steep grades (which is about the same as the 4 speeds 2nd gear), but it can handle the high revs and is happy to keep going. I highly doubt you will have any issue, but it will not be as easy of a tow as your Duramax or your friends 3500.
I've towed a 2500lb flat trailer with a 2300lb spec miata a few times with my wife's 06 4runner with the 4.0, up some good sized inclines in utah, and haven't had any problems. Have also towed the same set-up with my dad's t-100 v6 and although slow it towed just fine (brakes left a bit to be desired)...
The 4.7 should do just fine, just remember to take it out of overdrive, watch your temp in the hills, and have a brake controller in the sequoia.
Yea, definetely keep it out of over drive. I think you will be fine and will be happy with the Sequoia as long as you remember it is not 3/4 ton or 1 ton. Let us know how it pulls.
It tows great as far as 4-5000lbs or so. It has 410 rear end gearing which provides for better passing ability, and it will outweigh the trailer slightly. It also has a tranny cooler on it & 2 fans (one electric and one pulley type). So it shouldn't give you any problems at all. That is providing it has been well maintained.
The only thing with that sequoia is the da** brakes....toyota upgraded them in 2003 which was much needed. So whatever you do, be sure you have a trailer brake controller. Or the trailer should have surge brakes like on a boat.
I think you'll be fairly impressed the way it will handle the load though. I preferred to tow our TT with the sequoia vs. my tundra back then. It just seemed to handle the weight better. Other than spring capacity, it's a little weak.
But, seriously though, don't be a bit worried about hurting the rig. If it's been well taken care of, you will have no problems whatsoever.
On the good hills, you will be in 2nd gear (which will engage automatically at 67mph) or you can slam it in a littler earlier if you want. It's not yours though, sorry you may not want to do that.
OD off you will lose the torque converter though, so in order to gain it back and get about 300-400 rpm's, you can push the od button. Just to try and keep it from going into 2nd on moderate hills. It helps a lot, beleive me.
Hello and Tow Question
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