Whats pulling your RPod

The towing capacity for my Ford escape is 3500 pounds with the factory installed towing package. When it  comes to towing I am very knowledgeable as I towed with several different vehicles over the years many thousands of miles. I also own a Ford E 350 Van with a diesel engine and trailer package. It will not pull the R pod one bit better and I actually prefer towing with the Escape. I get much better gas mileage and the handling is as good as it gets.

marc515 wrote: While the Ford w/ecoboost may tow well, aren't you close to the limit you can tow, considering passengers and cargo in the Ford?

"Close to the limit" seems like a perfectly sensible place for us to be unless we have money and an environment to burn.

The R-Pod was advertised when it came out as light weight and easy to tow.  This would give consumers the opportunity to purchase a nice little camper without having to purchase a large truck for towing.  We have towed our camper with a 06 4-Runner the entire time we've had it.  As far as weight goes the 4-Runner has no problem towing the R-Pod.  At lower speeds you can't tell you have the camper behind you.  Where we experience issues is on the highway when you get above let's say about 55 miles per hour but diffidently at 65-70.  It's almost like you have parachute behind you.  Now I do not drive or try to drive 70 miles per hour the entire time when I have the camper behind us but sometimes on larger highways you need to run at least 65.  The other time I knew I had a load for the 4-Runner was when we pulled the camper through the mountains going from North Carolina to Tennessee.  It was tough on the 4-Runner and actually for a little bit (about half way up) our gas mileage dropped to 8 miles a gallon.  I’m not trying to say that the 4-Runner is weak or that the R-Pod is heavier/harder to tow than advertise.  I am saying that in order to maximize the life of your tow vehicle it’s better to have a higher towing capacity or a little more power so the tow isn’t so hard on everything.  Everybody's different, I don't want to wear out my 4-Runner towing my camper.  I love them both.    

sandlapper wrote: Depends on what you call close. I don't intend to debate it.

Sandlapper, I hope you realize that I completely support your position. I've had a fair amount of towing experience myself. Many, many moons ago, we had two 4-cylinder Isuzu Troopers in a row that we used for towing a couple different campers and a 19-foot cruiser sailboat. The sailboat and at least one of those campers were just about at the limit of the Toopers' rating, but it did a fine job of towing and carrying my wife, our two little daughters, our German Shepherd, our bicycles, and me.

Sam - I agree. You don't need a big honk'n truck to tow these things.

I remember back when we bought our 177 there was a list of every SUV model that could tow it safely. The list was HUGE.

We towed our 177 for 5 years with a 2008 Lexus RX Hybrid equipped with AWD and factory towing package ). The car had a 3.3 liter V6 and we towed our rpod (WDH with anti-sway)through the Ozarks, the Rockies, the Smokies and everywhere in between. The car worked flawlessly and the TV/rpod setup never felt unsafe. Plenty of power going uphill to pass other cars although we usually keep our speed down to 55 or 60 to save on gas.

A couple of weeks ago we traded our TV in on a new 2013 Lexus RX with AWD and factory towing package (same TV, just newer model) and will just keep going as we have.

Note that we put 70K miles on our 2008 TV and never had a single service issue. The only money we ever spent on the car was for regular maintenance, tires, and gas. The original brakes even had 50% of their life remaining.

I submit this as one example of a 6 cylinder SUV rated to tow at 3,500 pounds that did the job safely and without any sign of mechanical problems.

-- Steve