New member 1st thread

[MARLS]

Hi - just bought my dream - a 65 Overlander in decent shape and looking forward to working on it and playing with it. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. We have a 4runner with 5000 lbs towing rating. With the OL coming in at 3950 lbs I am feeling it might be too tight. I Put on a Blue Ox equalizer and towed it 3 hours with no problems. Thoughts?

[moosetags]

Welcome t the Forums. We're glad to have you with us. Congratulations on your new baby.

[mwells4654]

Congratulation on your new baby and welcome to the forum. My thoughts are that your tow vehicle might be overloaded once you load the trailer with supplies. 1000 lbs seems like a lot until you start adding things up.

[Kevin245]

Welcome MARLS and congratulations on the O-Lander. You'll find numerous opinions on the TV. You may want to take the time to read through some archival material on the subject.

Here are the search results when "4runner" was listed in the thread title.

http://www.airforums.com/forums/sear...archid=2025434

Good luck,

Kevin

[MARLS]

Thanks for the warm welcome! I'm looking at either the new F350 diesel but fear that this may be overkill - especially since it looks like Mount Everest! Great truck though - anybody have any experience with the 5.7L Tundra?

[Minno]

Welcome, MARLS!
When you're figuring up weight on trailers, remember the dry weight does NOT include propane, water, batteries, or gear. Water and propane add up quickly. 1000 lb is not much to play with unless you're not going out any longer than weekends at a time. Good luck in your search and have fun!

Kay

[76sovereign]

Welcome to the forum! Anything you need to know and some you don't can be found here.......

[62bam]

Your 4runner should work ok for short weekend trips, but for the long haul, bigger is better!

[cclarkego]

I was in that gray area tow wise with my Tradewind and an Explorer, made one long trip and that was the end of the transmission... Always go for bigger with a TV, makes mountain climbing a lot more fun too. Just looking at an Airstream makes it gain weight

[sempi2]

We had a 4runner when we bought our 2005 safari and thought we would be OK. We took a couple of rather short trips, then a longer one and hit some winds. On that trip we had lots of sway. Not fun driving. We now have a 2009 toyota tundra and a hensley hitch. No more sway, no problems in the mountains. We feel that it maybe a little overkill, but we now feel much safer.
Congrats on your new purchase, Happy Camping, Susan

[aftermath]

MARLS,

I have an '08 Tundra with the 5.7 L engine and it pulls my 25 footer very easily. On the flats I run in 5th gear at about 2100 RPM and get about 13 MPG. On the slight hills it goes down into 4th and I can pull all day at 60 mph at 3K RPM. On a trip earlier this year in northern California I did go down into 3rd and pulled a long hill at 60 without issue.

I had a 4 Runner with the V8 and pulled a box trailer. It did OK but I feel much happier now. Get a good hitch with built in sway control and you won't have any trouble. I am a fan of the Equalizer but there are lots of other hitches that will do the job.

Good luck.

[rptradewind]

MARLS, Welcome to the Forums. I would be as much concerned with the sort wheel base as with the power and transmission on the 4 Runner. Short local trips would probably be OK, but you probably wouldn't feel to comfortable driving in the mountains. I towed with a Tahoo on one trip to Arizona and Utah and traded it in on a F250 diesel as soon as we got home.

Good Luck

[willski33]

MARLS,

I tow my 25', ~4800# Tradewind with an '07 5.7 Tundra. It does just fine...I hardly notice it back there going 65 with pretty strong winds. I got 11 MPG on a recent haul. You can't go wrong with a big Ford diesel either though...not much that truck can't do.

-Will

[MARLS]

Thanks all! Agreed on the hitch and truck. Got the 4runner in the trader now and eyeing a 6.7L F350 D - WOW! will keep you posted - This is a great community!