I'm surprised to not see more yotas doing tow duty. When kiddo #1 came along I decided it was time to get something more family oriented than my square body 7.3L. The GM dealer let me bring my 24' enclosed over and we tried the Tahoe and then the suburban and the salesman agreed they both got a little hairy above ~60mph. I thought I was stuck having to step to a 2500 suburban. As a Hail Mary I rolled down to the Toyota dealer and we tried towing the trailer with a Sequoia.

NIGHT AND DAY difference. Set the gear selector in 5th gear (locking out 6th) and relax. Even with the IRS it tows stable. The 4.30 axle ratio makes for a LOW first gear unloaded, but is awesome with the trailer hooked up. I tell people the sequoia is a wolf in sheeps clothing. Wife hauls the kids around with it no problem. It has an actual 3rd row adults can comfortably sit in. And mine is an early model 2008 that's rated for 10k lb towing. Air leveling rear with manual adjustment makes it nice for adjusting trailer tilt for loading low cars.

gas mileage is not the best. Wife averages about 12-13 around town. Mileage with the 24' enclosed varies greatly depending on speed. You can run 75-80 but you pay for it at 6-7mpg. You can get closer to 10mpg running 60-65 mph

 

I didn't realize they have IRS. Does that mean the newer Tundra has IRS or is it still live axle?

 

 

2017 Tacoma, crew cab, long bed, v6 auto. This was my first time towing with it and it got 15mpg@65 (fairly flat towing).

 

I'm still loving my 7.3 Excursion

 

2016 GMC Canyon All Terrain Longbed 4x4 gasser.

 

I got this classic Merc truck to haul crap around and maybe go to trackdays.
It's slow af and not really suited for low cars, but that'll be fixed some time :P.

 

Some of those little rigs you have in Europe are really cool. That would be a fun setup for local track stuff.

 

It really is a very handy thing to have, they're cheap and once this one turns 40 next year it will be almost free to drive apart from 5 bucks of insurance every month :P.

 

Slowly getting my new-to-me rig dialed in. In the old truck I used to sit and bake in the sun on the way back from pretty much every Socal event, so I splurged a bit and had a local 3M shop do the front 3 windows in 3M Crystalline. CR90 on the windshield, CR40 on the side windows. Crystalline's party piece is that it blocks far more solar energy for a given darkness so you don't feel the heat from direct sunlight. The CR90 on the windshield is totally invisible, but it blocks 35% of the total solar energy, and the CR40 on the side windows kicks that up to 60%. Both block a huge amount of IR and UV as well, but the heat rejection was what I was going for. Left the rear 3 alone for now, I believe the factory rear glass is 20%. If the rear windows feel hotter than the fronts next weekend on the way back from BW, it will go back for a layer of CR70 back there.





Swapping in some Bilstein HDs and adding a camper shell this week as well.

 

Not only that, but at least this side of the ocean, also would mean that you could go faster than 55mph since you are not towing...

 

2017 Ford Raptor

 

You'd be allowed to yes, but with the standard engine you'd be lucky to make it to 55mph :P.
I want to swap a 2.9 turbodiesel in it at some point, but I've got too much projects going on already.

 

That's only a California thing, anyway.

--Ian

 

Awesome! I want to pick up something like this so much.

 

I completely agree about the tint. I put 3M Crystalline on all my cars. It is totally worth it.

 

I ran a similar setup (a VW transporter with airbags and long ramps, total weight loaded 2.8 ton) for some years.
It's fine for hauling the Miata for shorter trips but it was a hassle to bring all the gear for a race weekend.
So it might look nice initially, but it's a special vehicle that needs it's maintenance.

I still run the miniature van (Berlingo) with a covered trailer I changed to.
P,lan is to go a little bigger to be able to fit a bed (Jumpy) but still small enough to be a DD.

 

Bilstein HDs installed today. Old shocks were trashed, probably original to the truck. The ride quality thus far has been atrocious, way worse than my old '05, but the new truck is longer and has airbags so I couldn't pin it down to one thing. I have high hopes now.

Shock changes were pretty easy on my 05, but with the 2011+ frames came a front mounting redesign so you don't even have to jack the truck up to change them. All 4 shocks took me under an hour to swap, on the ground, without removing any other components (not even the wheels). Bravo, GM.

 

This reminds me that I drastically need to change the shocks on my 04. 127k miles and still on the OE shocks...

 

+1 on the Bilsteins. Huge difference when I put them on both my 02 and the new 07.

--Ian