The downside is that the truck is squatting quite a bit, which raises the angle of the headlights and will blind oncoming drivers at night. If you're going to do it on a regular basis you might want to consider adding some helper air springs to the rear axle.

--Ian

 

Mah Tundra has them there fancy dash-adjustable headlights, which is plumb groovy for varying loads. I wish my wife's Ridgeline had them.

 

My 30 year old BMW E36 Touring has adjustable headlights... but then it was a Euro market car. It's crazy that such a simple feature isn't more common on trucks intended for heavy loads and towing.

 

Most of the trucks/suvs have a bit of a rake where the front is slightly lower than back, so the lights should be okay from the factory up to the payload number. I know some of the top trim trucks have real fancy lights. Before I had a HD truck I liked to position my track car so my 4Runner squatted a bit and looked 'leveled', never had a problem blinding anyone. Those uHauls trailers are convenient, but for a small car like a Miata they put too much weight on the hitch in my opinion.

I needed more room so now I have a dizzle 2500 and a 24' enclosed. I position everything so it's about 1000-1200 pounds on the hitch, measured with a weigh safe hitch. It's about 17,000-18,000 pounds total between the truck and trailer. Truck is about 8100 pounds unloaded.

 

Even my 3500 dually has enough rear end compression with our 24' enclosed hitched to move the headlight pattern significantly higher. I have them adjusted for a proper pattern with a trailer hitched... If I'm going anywhere in my truck when it's dark, it's probably to/from a racetrack anyway.

 

While that's true, the truck in the photo appears to have significant squat. Even a 1 degree change in the angle of the truck will move the headlight beam pattern up about 3 feet at 200 feet of distance.

Too many people use modern pickups as commute vehicles, so manufacturers have gone to significantly less stiff rear springs (or at least progressive) so they squat a lot more than they used to. My '07 LBZ Chevy would tow my TPD without significant rear-end squat, but my '21 F-250 drops 2-3 inches. Air springs solve this problem and the Ford is better in every other way (plus way more comfortable when driving to the hotel after dropping off the trailer).

--Ian

 

I guess my sample size of two tow vehicles is pretty small to make such generalizations. It is unfortunate those uHaul trailers only have one spot to tie down a car at the very front, as it is his truck looks overloaded in the rear. Airbags are a cheap and easy solution, but if he had his own trailer he could load it to be better balanced.

Another thing manufacturers have cheapened out on is transmission coolers. My 4Runner did not have a dedicated transmission cooler, and it low gears it would not lock up the torque converter. Going over grades transmission temperatures would get to 250 degrees in the pan, more in the torque converter.

 

Can confirm, U-haul trailer makes miata sit very far forward. I was also using their van to tow, did fine for 8 hours home. Went to unstrap the car and the straps were loose..... Their ratchets on the front held on at least.

 

Gents,

I bought a rust-free '07 Sequoia a few months ago and am trying to get it tow ready.

It came with the factory tow package, but I'm sure a brake controller was never installed. The plug still had a dummy female plug attached, was wrapped in electrical tape to another wire loom, and hidden in the wiring mess behind the kick panel.

I have a Curt 7-pin test plug. The test plug shows it's getting 12v power. All the lights come on as they should except the BK (Electric Brake) test light. The LT (Left Turn/Brake) and RT (Right Turn/Brake) test lights illuminate when I press the brake, as they should, but not the BK light.

Sooooooooooooo, my baseline question is, is that normal if no brake controller is installed?

I have a REDARC Tow Pro Elite controller that was working in our '04 Tundra before my son had a tree run out in front of him. With the REDARC installed, that BK test light is constantly, though very dimly, illuminated, even without the engine running. However, it does not fully light up when the brakes are applied.

I believe I have a short somewhere. I cleaned the grounds under the hood on the driver's side, and checked all the fuses. All the fuses checked good, but I replaced them anyway, since I had them on hand. No change.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,