Towing with 2018 Toyota Sienna

[JMJNet]

I am not sure if there is stiffer shock for Sienna?

 

[edyvw]

I am not sure if there is stiffer shock for Sienna?

I spent countless hours trying to figure that out. SO far KYB Excel G seems like a bit of an upgrade, but nothing like Bilstein Heavy Duty would be, except Bilstein does not make it for Sienna.
But it is OK. This minivan will serve until kids are out of strollers, bike trailers and similar garbage. Than I will probably get something with bit more serious 4WD, maybe new Sequoia with turbo engine.

 

[Captsunshine32724]

Has the OP said what he’ll be towing? a pop-up is much easier than a hard shell due to frontal area.... totally different beasts. I pulled a pop up with the infamous Chrysler 41TE and the long wheelbase minivan was a great tow vehicle. The popup was 2500 lbs, plus gear, and in the van there were 4 of us. I had no auxiliary cooler on the transmission and we pulled in northern Virginia and some West Virginia, so it saw hills. It simply didn’t give us any trouble. I’d work the engine some but also stayed within reason. At 60,000 miles I changed the atf+4 and it was clean, cherry red. i towed in D3, not OD.

the only solid advice I would offer is to NOT tow in an overdriven gear. The driven gear in OD is a smaller gear and will create a lot of heat. In a smaller transmission, letting the engine rev without forcing smaller OD gears to handle that kind of pressure helps keep the temps down significantly. I experienced this with our tundra as well - installed a mechanical temp gauge and the trans generated more heat in OD. the sienna is such a quiet machine, the higher revs shouldn’t be a nuisance with drone, and keeping a lower gear will reduce the shifting under load.

pay attention to your weights and consider a weight distributing hitch, especially if the front end gets light under firm braking. I try to avoid airbags with a properly adjusted WDH. Take your time setting it up, and don’t out-drive the chassis, especially if the trailer doesn’t have brakes.

happy camping!!

m

Hey everyone, have been away from here for a few days. The towed load would be a hard shell travel type trailer. All of you have been great with information and sharing your experiences! The lady has declared that she would like to get a larger trailer than what we are going to be able to pull with the sienna so it looks like I will be instead shopping for and transitioning back to a real truck. Your thoughts and advice have been very much appreciated! Anyone interested in a nice 2018 Sienna thats never seen the salt?

 

[HangFire]

I've always heard around 240F or more is the sudden death zone for ATF. I don't know, my truck is a stickshift.

You could always get that transmission temp sensing going and try out some short and medium trips, see how transmission temps do. If it gets scary too fast, consider upgrading the tow vehicle.

 

[SoNic67]

Over 200F is danger zone with OE WS fluid. Synthetic might be more temperature resistant, but internal rubber seals will not be happy.
Extra cooling is the only was to keep everybody inside transmission happy.