Toyota 4Runner Towing

[victactoe]

Hello! I’m wondering if anyone knows if there is an Escape trailer model small enough to be safely towed by a Toyota 4Runner V6 engine?

Thanks in advance!

 

[TJ&LadyDi]

Welcome to RVF, @victactoe; glad to have you here.

Without knowing the Forerunner year/model, we have to base our answer on the 2021 specs (available online) and the current Escape models. First, the 2021 Forerunner has a rated towing capacity of 5,000 pounds. A good safety rule of thumb is to stay at or below 80% of the rated capacity. That would be 4,000 pounds.

The smallest Escape model is the 17B and it has a Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR) of 4,000 pounds fully loaded. This is right at the weight that I think the Forerunner could safely tow. No room for error, but probably doable with this combination, though far from ideal IMHO. Remember, trailer towing is more than just being able to pull a certain amount of weight; it also has to stop that weight and corner properly with that weight. The Forerunner is a fairly short-wheelbase vehicle, so that could result in a bit of a choppy ride.

As an aside, a friend of mine bought an Escape 5th wheel trailer a couple of years ago and he is very happy with it. Since I live not-too-far from where they are made in Chilliwack, BC, I accompanied him on a tour of the production facilities and must say that I was impressed with the products and how they are made. And, my friend has a very high level of attention to detail, so if something passes muster with him, it is likely pretty good.

Good luck.

TJ

 

[victactoe]

Awesome, that’s all good to know... thank you for the detailed info, TJ! We don’t actually have a 4Runner yet but that’s the vehicle we were interested in, and wasn’t sure if it would be capable of towing an escape. We’re going to keep doing our research to make sure we have a good escape/towing combo

 

[Germanrazor]

Look at year you are interested in but do not forget to pay close attention to the payload capacity as well. It is probably the most overlooked aspect and quite often the most critical.

 

[Calsun]

You will also need to add a trailer brake controller to the towing vehicle to control the trailers electric brakes. Be conscious that if planning on traveling in the mountains the lighter the vehicle the less your vehicle will struggle on steep uphill grades and the less harrowing it will be to control on steep downgrades.

Air drag is also a factor with travel trailers and Ford with its trailering guide even adds warnings about towing a trailer with a frontal area too great for the vehicle to tow. Overcoming air drag takes more horsepower than moving a load along the ground and the air drag increases wtih the square of the speed which includes both the speed of the vehicle and any head or cross winds encountered. There are hard side pop-up campers that are much easier to tow as there is half the frontal area when towed on the highway.

 

[Germanrazor]

When I hear of folks wanting to tow with small SUV’s I gravitate toward pop-up systems and ultra-lites in the tune of 17 feet length and around 2500 lbs dry weight.

Your tongue weight on mid-size to large TT’s will eat most of your payload. A WDH which you really need will be 100 lbs from the get go almost. Factor your LP tank weight then your loaded trailer weight that adds to the tongue weight......then your small SUV becomes the tail waggin the dog almost.

I realize having large trucks for towing things like this are not for most. But when you want a large enough TT or venture into a 5’er then you have to have them. Expensive? Yippers. But safety is paramount.

Have you looked at pop-ups or small ultra-lites that would be a great fit for a 4 Runner?

 

[Gronk]

Something to check and then double check is the Cargo Carrying Capacity of the truck you want to get. Once you have that subtract the weight of EVERY person, the hitch, and the weight of everything else you want to carry in the truck. That gives you the maximum tongue weight you can have. Also, DO NOT go by the dry weight (or salesman for that matter) go by the GVW of the trailer and figure about 12% of that will be your tongue weight.