Rav4 and towing

[Colin Hughes]

Since my daughter bought a 2004 Rav4 earlier this summer, I've been looking at them (2006-2009 V6 - 3500 lbs towing) as a replacement for my wife's car next spring. With 16" wheels, I can add a nice set of Cooper Discoverer AT3's, air bags in the rear springs to keep the height level but I haven't seen any more than a 4 pin towing harness. Has someone installed a 7 pin and a trailer brake controller to one of these. We're getting a teardrop trailer in the spring and if I could find a way to add a 7 pin and controller, this would make a nice little tow vehicle for the not so rugged trips.

 

[Martinjmpr]

Since my daughter bought a 2004 Rav4 earlier this summer, I've been looking at them (2006-2009 V6 - 3500 lbs towing) as a replacement for my wife's car next spring. With 16" wheels, I can add a nice set of Cooper Discoverer AT3's, air bags in the rear springs to keep the height level but I haven't seen any more than a 4 pin towing harness. Has someone installed a 7 pin and a trailer brake controller to one of these. We're getting a teardrop trailer in the spring and if I could find a way to add a 7 pin and controller, this would make a nice little tow vehicle for the not so rugged trips.

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What is the weight of the teardrop you're looking at? We pulled a 1,000lb teardrop with no brakes and had no issues at all on my 4runner.
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Might want to make sure the TD you're looking at actually has brakes - most of the smaller ones don't.
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I'm thinking any competent trailer shop ought to be able to hook you up with a 7 pin connector and a brake controller. Another possible alternative might be surge brakes?

 

[Colin Hughes]

The trailer is a TCTeardops 5x9 (cross between their extra clearance and offroad models) and around 1000 lbs. It will have 10" electric trailer brakes install on the 3500lb axle. I'm going to talk to a trailer shop as well.

 

[tanglefoot]

The small CUVs can make very nice tow rigs. This summer, we wanted to take the family open bow runabout (2200 lbs, no trailer brakes) that's stored here to the lake, but the only thing here was my sister's Mazda CX-5 with the 2.0. We decided to give it a shot. I was impressed how level the car stayed when hitched up, and its road-holding manners when towing were much better than I imagined. Braking and handling felt secure. I actually greatly prefer it now to the 3rd-gen 4runner we normally use, even though the latter has a much higher towing capacity. It also did very nicely at the boat ramp.

The RAV4 V6 has loads of power, so there shouldn't be any trouble whatsoever there. A 4-cyl RAV4 should also handle a teardrop nicely, with or without trailer brakes.

I imagine a brake controller can be installed but I don't have any experience with that--none of the trailers here have brakes.

 

[surlydiesel]

Any good auto shop should be able to wire you up a brake controller in any vehicle. You can get kits from different sites as well. My wife is also in line to get a RAV4 when her Focus is no more.

-jorge