SWPERIC

you will b fine. maybe look at some airbags for the rear springs. only $75. i have found that the rear suspension seems to b the weakest link in the chain.

Jave

Just took a picture of the car with trailer attached:

Does the rear sag look like too much? It's sagging about 1.5" - 2".

dannomite

I think your trailer is loaded heavy in the front. Personally I don't think it is a big deal to tow that much. As long as you have some expirience towing and as long as things are loaded correctly. Surge brakes are a waste of time in my opinion. They tend to be quirky most of the time and when they do work they take a second to activate, which can cause problems in poor road conditions. Going back to the weight on your rear axle for a moment. I really think that you should try and adjust your trailer load a bit to take some of te rear axle of the runner and the front axle on the trailer. The problem with having the rear end sag is that you lose front braking on the runner which is where most of the braking should happen.

J2F42C

Make sure your brakes are in great working order.

Do not tow in O/D....

I'd get a ball mount with less drop (1" or no drop).

I used this twice on towing a trailer with my 4 runner to control sway until I bought my Tundra. I gave it to my friend who uses it behind his Trailblazer to pull his pop up camper.

http://www.amazon.com/Reese-Towpower...=pd_sim_auto_2

Jave

Would be a bit of a pain to change the ballmount right now but do you think it's worth it? Is it really bad with the amount of drop I have right now?

Gerdo

Start truckin. Take it easy. Leave lots of room in front of you for stopping.

Surge brakes can take some time to get used to. The harder you hit the brakes the harder the surges apply. I have seen people do panic stops and have the surge brakes lock up, not good. You can jab the 4runner brakes and let off, this will have the trailer brakes do a lot of the work. If you are too easy on the brakes, the trailer brakes may not apply. Depending on the trailer/brakes, I usually jab the brakes and then apply gentle after that. Also the surges sometimes need a little yank to release after stopping.

I wouldn't be concerned with the hitch drop or the rear droop unless... Too much rear droop/tongue weight will actually lift the front wheels (un-weight). This will give you light steering. This is one of the most dangerous things about towing. You will know. If it feels like you are steering on ice then you need to shift some weight to the rear of the trailer. Too little tongue weight and you will get tons of trailer sway. More tongue weight (except when it un-weights the front) is better than too little.

Jave

Thanks for the info on the surge brakes. They seem to work quite good actually with the testing I've done. Tried it on some steeper hills here in town and it does just fine.

As for the ball mount drop, I currently have a 3 1/4" drop but as the trailer is tilted forward quite a lot as you can see, I think a 2" drop would be better. Gonna head over to uhaul and have them swap it before I go. There's already quite a bit of weight on the tongue... about 480 lbs (although that's before I moved some of the weight to the rear of the trailer so it should be a bit less now) so I think decreasing the drop to 2" would make things more ideal.

Sound like a plan?

Gerdo

Sounds good.

You will get a feel for things on the highway. Remember if the nose feels light or you get toms of sway, take the time to stop and move some things around.

Have a good trip and let us know how it went.

JBurt

It's already kind of saggy. A different mound would give you much needed clearance for driving around town with dips and driveways and such (I can't see much of a difference on the freeway though. It would just get the trailer tongue up higher off the ground.

MadCityRich

I'd also recommend putting as much weight in the 4Runner itself as reasonably possible. When dealing with mass and momentum you want to reduce the ability of the trailer to throw you around to the degree possible.

I did a U-Haul dual axle trailer on my old '95 Toyota PU from Sherkston Ontario to Madison Wisconsin. I had the pickup loaded as much as I could. Even in that situation it was a bit sketchy, though I had more cargo weight in the pickup than the trailer. I did find it interesting that the U.S. U-Haul people wouldn't let me take the dual axle trailer, but that the U-Haul in Hamilton Ontario had no issue with it. I'm guessing that the liability laws are different.

Good luck and don't rush it!

MadCityRich

The Ruckus

and for turning off O/D, do it every time you restart the vehicle. It turns itself back on when you turn the car off/on. I didn't learn this until AFTER I towed a smaller uhaul from Nashville to Michigan, but it was small enough that it didn't seem to damage it. I had planned on and booked a 2-axle, but didn't end up needing it. Gladly, with the O/D experience lacking.

Spence1016

I pulled the same trailer, about 2 hours, it did alright,I wasn't towing as much weight as you however, just take it slow and easy, make sure all the turn signals work.

What is your cargo, have you considered throwing anything away? Maybe you have got a heavy dresser in there that you could sell on craigslist and then buy a new one of craigslist when you get there. You would save a little bit of money on gas while being safer

UKrunner

This is because the US is a pansy when it comes to tow ratings.
Case in point. The new Buick Regal is a Vauxhall Insignia. In Britain its rated to tow 3960lbs. In the US?? ZERO.