Towing with the Sequoia

[BillG]

Is anyone towing with a Sequoia? I have a 02 Sequoia LTD 4wd. I tow a 21' hybrid TT. A Jayco 21C. Extended its 26.5'. Tows great with my prodigy. Not using a WDH yet, but I might start. Although, in the Utah mountains and on the interstate, it is still doing great. Plus, I pull with it fully loaded with water in the trailer. In the truck, I have 30 extra gallons fresh water, fire wood, generator/gas. We usually camp in open camping areas in the mountains, nowhere near a campground or other campers. Therefore we go completely self contained. We carry an extra blue tank for grey water.

On another note, I was told that I have the towing package, but other than the paperwork, how do I tell for sure? Were there any telltale differences in 2002 ? I also heard that the tow package was standard then. Of course I had to do all my own trailer wiring myself since it only came with a flat 4. I know that was the norm then. I did have the new front brakes installed per the service bulletin, what a difference.

Just wondering what everyone else was doing.

Bill

[RockyMtnRay]

Originally Posted by BillG

Is anyone towing with a Sequoia? I have a 02 Sequoia LTD 4wd. I tow a 21' hybrid TT. A Jayco 21C. Extended its 26.5'. Tows great with my prodigy. Not using a WDH yet, but I might start. Although, in the Utah mountains and on the interstate, it is still doing great. Plus, I pull with it fully loaded with water in the trailer. In the truck, I have 30 extra gallons fresh water, fire wood, generator/gas. We usually camp in open camping areas in the mountains, nowhere near a campground or other campers. Therefore we go completely self contained. We carry an extra blue tank for grey water.

On another note, I was told that I have the towing package, but other than the paperwork, how do I tell for sure? Were there any telltale differences in 2002 ? I also heard that the tow package was standard then. Of course I had to do all my own trailer wiring myself since it only came with a flat 4. I know that was the norm then. I did have the new front brakes installed per the service bulletin, what a difference.

Just wondering what everyone else was doing.

Bill

Do some searching...a fair number of TSers have reported good success towing a trailer of the size of yours with a Sequoia.

Tow package...on a pre-03, it was basically just the hitch and 4 pin trailer wiring. Beginning with '03, Toyota finally figured out that a tow package on the Seq or Tundra needed (1) a plug to interface a trailer brake controller, (2) a 12 V supply wire, and (3) a 7 pin Bargmann plug.

Your choice of the Prodigy is excellent.

Now, with regard to needing a WDH. If your Seq has the self leveling air suspension, you probably aren't noticing much if any rear sag from the tongue weight. But be assured that the trailer's tongue weight is have a bad effect on your vehicle's dynamics. In addition to the expected addition of the tongue weight to the rear suspension, it's also causing an unweighting of the front suspension which reduces front braking and steering effectiveness (and may be causing a "floaty" feeling in the front end). And finally, the weight that's coming off the front (due to a teeter totter effect with the rear axle as the pivot) is going onto the rear suspension, further loading it down.

A WDH transfers about a third of the tongue weight to the front suspension and also keeps it from being unweighted. So instead of having a severely loaded rear suspension, you then only have about a third of the tongue weight on the back (the remaining third is transferred back to the trailer's axles).

IMHO, no one should be towing a trailer with a tongue weight over about 350 lbs without a WDH. You undoubtedly have a tongue weight closer to 600 lbs with your trailer so you really should be using a WDH, especially with the extra load of water for boondock camping (keep in mind that water is very heavy...8 lbs/gallon...so 30 gallons is a rather significant 240 lbs).

However, if you do have the automatic leveling suspension, you must pull the fuse for it before you start adjusting a WDH when you get one. Otherwise, the suspension will fight you every step of the way and you'll tend to put too much downforce on the front suspension.

[BillG]

Thanks for the quick reply Ray. I had the flat 4 connector and the hitch. I had previously run all the other wires for the round 7 connector. I just ran the 12 v charging wire yesterday like you instructed. I would have done it last year at the same time if I knew it was that easy. I put in the 30amp auto resetting CB (just like I did with my prodigy) like you suggested.

I'll have to take some pic of the mount I made for my round 7 plug so others can use it. It looks like factory.

What WDH do you like? It seems here that the Equilzer is the best choice.

Hey, im in Colorado Springs every Sunday night in August. Lets get a beer.

Bill

[BillG]

Also, what do you think of transmission coolers? Is it necessary when towing within the GVWR. I haven't had the transmisson over temp light come on.

[RockyMtnRay]

Originally Posted by BillG

Thanks for the quick reply Ray. I had the flat 4 connector and the hitch. I had previously run all the other wires for the round 7 connector. I just ran the 12 v charging wire yesterday like you instructed. I would have done it last year at the same time if I knew it was that easy. I put in the 30amp auto resetting CB (just like I did with my prodigy) like you suggested.

Welcome, glad my advice was of help.

I'll have to take some pic of the mount I made for my round 7 plug so others can use it. It looks like factory.

Please do

What WDH do you like? It seems here that the Equilzer is the best choice.

The Equil-i-zer is very good for two reasons. First, it has very good sway control built in...and you will find that sway control will make towing a lot more enjoyable. It is a friction based sway control but it's a lot easier to deal with than the add on friction type sway control devices from Reese, etc.

2nd, it's allegedly one of the easiest WDH to use when it comes to hooking it up as it does not use chains to suspend the spring bars.

As for myself, I use a basic round bar style Reese WDH without sway control. My TrailManor brand trailer is exceptionally sway resistant though it does have a fairly high tongue weight relative to its total weight.

Hey, im in Colorado Springs every Sunday night in August. Lets get a beer.

Bill

This coming Sunday (8/7) will not be good (leaving very early the following morning on a trip) but 8/14 and 8/28 could work. PM me sometime in the week before 8/14 and we'll see if something could be arranged.

[RockyMtnRay]

Originally Posted by BillG

Also, what do you think of transmission coolers? Is it necessary when towing within the GVWR. I haven't had the transmisson over temp light come on.

Your '02 should already have an external air/oil trans cooler (small radiator looking thing in front of the AC condenser). You also have water/oil trans cooler in the bottom of the radiator. The stock external cooler has been quite adequate so far for me. I do have a trans temp gauge (pan mounted sensor) and have never seen the temp in the pan go above 195 (a very safe temp). In fact I very seldomly see it go over 185, even on 10 mile long, 7% grade climbs. However, most of the severe climbs are at higher altitude and with decent airflow (at least 45 to 65 mph) so the cooler is in fairly cool air and is getting good heat exchange.

One TS Member ("Herbicidal") replaced his cooler with a higher capacity aftermarket one that has a built-in fan. He also tows in California heat (over 100 degrees) on steep, winding roads where he can only go about 25 to 30 mph and therefore wasn't getting much airflow through the cooler. Check his pictures, he may have reposted shots of his cooler installation.

If, for some reason, your Seq does not have the stock air/oil external trans cooler, then definitely you need to install a good aftermarket one.

IIRC, the trans overtemp light does not illuminate until the fluid going to the cooler exceeds 245 degrees (very, very high). If you ever have it come on, a transmission flush ASAP thereafter would be a very good idea.

[BillG]

Thanks for the info. I didn't know that about the cooler.

[Geodude]

Bill - We tow a 33' Antigua 305QBS with our Sequoia. It weights 5200 pounds. The Sequoia does very well. We use a Hensley Arrow for weight distribution and sway control. I can't say enough good about it. We also use the Prodigy for stopping power.

On our recent 10000km trip we had one full-blown panic stop -- the Sequoia's skid control alarm started beeping even, but the whole rig stopped straight and true.

I had a lot of anxiety over towing up to the high elevations in Colorado and it worked but did just fine at the end of the day. On the way home we had three towing days in a row, 8 hours, 9 hours then 13 hours and the Sequoia just kept on pounding out the miles. I'd still like those JBA headers 'cuz no one ever wished for less power for towing!

Lots of pix of our setup on my website if you're interested.