Towing with a minivan

I am looking to purchase a trailmanor 2619. I have a Toyota Sienna to tow it. From the other posts it looks like it would be cutting it close on the weight. Has anyone tried towing one with a minivan? Thank you in advance for any responses.

You likely will be overweight if you choose the common options. I purchased a 2720 and was towing it with my Sienna. When I finally got around to weighing the trailer, it was pushing nearly 4000 pounds. I eventually removed "options" like cabinets from the TrailManor and 2 of the 3 middle row seats of my Sienna. After a year of that, I bought a full size truck to tow it. Your mileage may vary. Good luck. That said, I don't regret things at all. I love my TrailManor and I love my new truck.

[Wavery]

Originally Posted by trailmanor123

I am looking to purchase a trailmanor 2619. I have a Toyota Sienna to tow it. From the other posts it looks like it would be cutting it close on the weight. Has anyone tried towing one with a minivan? Thank you in advance for any responses.

Just be careful to make your towing decisions from "ACTUAL" weights and not published weights. If you use published weights, it is far safer to go by the GVWR. The GVWR on a 2619 is over 4000#. You must also consider the weight of passengers and cargo.
-------------from TrailManor website------------------
Tow ratings for vehicles should be described as “general guidelines”. Actual towing limits depend on towing speed, highway grades, elevation, desired acceleration, miles towed per year, tow vehicle loading, frontal area of trailer, sway resistance of trailer, etc.

TrailManor provides uniquely easy towing per pound due to the very low wind drag and the very stable ride resulting from axle placement.

Light duty towing of a well-balanced trailer a few hundred pounds above the rating is much safer than towing a lighter, poorly balanced unit with a tendency to sway. Also, towing an upright trailer with large frontal area at highway speeds can damage a transmission even if the trailer weight is below the tow rating.

Adding options, batteries, gear, fluids can increase loaded weights as much as 1000 pounds above the base weight of a specific trailer. You should add 500- 1000 pounds to the base weights to estimate the actual towed weight.

Based on feedback from our owners, we provide the following model guidance
http://www.trailmanor.com/WebDocs/Ca...-vehicles.html

[ThePair]

I tow a 2720SL with a 2006 Sienna. I know that I'm not the only one to do it; there used to be a SiennaChat forum, and there was a member there who did the same, for many, many years, without issue.

That being said, I do have two huge caveat/YMMVs: #1, I have not yet weighed the set-up to see if or how far out of spec I am. That's on the to-do list this year. #2, I live in the Midwest, where the terrain is low and flat. I can get away with a lot more than those who live/travel to the mountains, for example.

Towing a TM which is low and minimizes sway will obviously be a better situation than towing an upright of the same or less weight. And yet, the weight ratings don't take any of that into account. For that reason, I do feel safe towing a TM at the "limit", as it were. This is a matter of some discussion and debate, and obviously each person must make up their own mind as to what is safe and what isn't. I personally refuse to believe that 3500# is some magic number above which everything goes splat. There is overengineering, legal considerations, marketing, etc. that goes into these decisions as much as the actual capacities of the vehicles.

One person's opinion...

[Wavery]

Originally Posted by ThePair

I tow a 2720SL with a 2006 Sienna. I know that I'm not the only one to do it; there used to be a SiennaChat forum, and there was a member there who did the same, for many, many years, without issue.

That being said, I do have two huge caveat/YMMVs: #1, I have not yet weighed the set-up to see if or how far out of spec I am. That's on the to-do list this year. #2, I live in the Midwest, where the terrain is low and flat. I can get away with a lot more than those who live/travel to the mountains, for example.

Towing a TM which is low and minimizes sway will obviously be a better situation than towing an upright of the same or less weight. And yet, the weight ratings don't take any of that into account. For that reason, I do feel safe towing a TM at the "limit", as it were. This is a matter of some discussion and debate, and obviously each person must make up their own mind as to what is safe and what isn't. I personally refuse to believe that 3500# is some magic number above which everything goes splat. There is overengineering, legal considerations, marketing, etc. that goes into these decisions as much as the actual capacities of the vehicles.

One person's opinion...

A good opinion at that. There are a lot of things to be considered. One person's experience may be different from another's. We each have to just understand our limits. In some cases, that may be more important than if we exceed those limits or not.

Thank you for those who responded. I would really like to get a Trailmanor but I also don't want to ruin my van. Is one thousand pounds a safe number to add to the dry weight? I do live in upstate NY so I do have a few hills, will that be a real problem? Thanks again.

We, also, lamented, over the decision to try to pull with our present vehicle, Jeep Grand Cherokee. It was after reading the comment of one member saying the concern is" not the amount of weight the TV is capable of pulling but the amount it is able to STOP " when coming down that mountain. That's when we made our decision and bought a Chevy Silverado, used. God luck.

I tow a 2001 trailmanor 2619 with my 05 sienna xle. I took my family with 2 kids and a small dog across country in the sienna with no problem. We went from orlando fl to san diego CA, then we went to yellowstone national park, we had no problem climbing the mountains or coming down them. We had it fully packed for a month of traveling bringing ton of clothes microwave, coffee pot, tv all pots and pans fully stocked refrig. We went a total of 7,000 miles in the month climbed mountains in colorado, wyoming, utah, tennessee, the sienna performed great i had a weight distribution hitch and sway bars and original tires on the trailmanor which after the fact i found out were 9 yrs old, never had a blow out. The sienna had very little clearance on the back but we did not have any issues I drove about 70-75 mph the whole way. I would avg 15-16 mpg on the trip. It was amazing. At the time i had about 55k miles on the sienna. after returning from the trip i had to replace the rear shocks and brakes on the sienna, but we still love camping and went on a 1000 mile trip this yr, however i did replace the old tires on the 2619. I would recommend anyone a sienna as a tow vehicle for the 2619, even fully packed with a family on board!! Enjoy your journey we sure have!!

You drove 7,000 miles at 70-75 mph on 9 year old tires with a probably over-loaded rig without issue? Next time you are in town I'd like you to buy some lottery tickets for me!

i know it is unbelievable, i think the whole key was I thought the tires were new so they did not fail me, and god had a little to do with it. Then i went without my family and just a friend we went on a 3 hr trip and then i had a blow out and when i went to get the tires replaced the mechanic told me they were 10 yrs old, i would have never took my family across the country with old tires! At least when I had the blow out when i did not have any kids with me! I am just thankful that it happened after our long trip. I think the siennas can tow more weight than they say. It was easy towing even at 70-75, it was my first time towing the trailmanor and i never looked at the website so I was just being dumb. Now after reading all the tire stories i dont drive over 65. I guess somethings are better off if you dont know any better! for what it is worth the original tires were the goodyear marathons.