Brand new Hi-Lo owners!
 

My wife and I just bought a 2009 17T in mint condition. Looking forward to practicing at home before taking it to the resorts we belong to. We will be towing it with a 2008 Toyota RAV4 V-6. We live in Eastern Washington north of Spokane. Any other Hi-Lo folks in our area? Anything that we should be aware of? Thanks in advance!

Welcome to the forum. If you haven't done so, just make sure your Rav4 is rated to handle the weight of the 17T, which should be a fairly light camper.:)

Check your tow rating I believe your tow rating is 1500 the trailer wieghts 2500
I would tow the 17T with a truck tow rating of 4000 you might be able to tow this with a Toyota Highlander

If the rav 4 is a v6 then it's 3500 but make sure you use a WDH with sway control install a larger trans cooler and larger charging line to the trailer or your run down your house batteries

Let me know I'll help you answer any questions I'm towing a 22T with a tacoma v6

The brake controller is important also

Welcome to the forum.
 

You have joined a great group of friendly helpful people. Our members just want to make sure you are correctly matched up with your tow vehicle. Some very good videos are posted on how the HiLo operates. Spend some time reading back posts for maintenance items. Safe travels and great adventures.

The output of the toyota charge line is about 5amps with a 18gauge wire
When towing and the refrigerator on 12 volt it uses 12 amps
Use a seperate 30 amp circuit breaker and 10 gauge wire to the trailer batteries for enough power to run the refrigerator and charge the batteries
Keeping the transmission oil cool is important for the life of the transmission In my opinion if the factory included a transmission cooler its to small for the load your going to put on the rav 4
I installed a 9" x 11" trans cooler on my tacoma and had no problems taking my truck and trailer over the Rockies with a 12,000 pass

Hi and welcome!

I'm going to be a real "downer" here and tell you the RAV4 is not enough vehicle to tow that trailer properly. I had a Nissan Frontier 6-cyl with a 5000# tow rating and it was not really strong enough to tow our 1707T. It had to be in first gear to go up any reasonably serious (5-6%) grade and it began to overheat in the Arizona summers on uphill climbs.

You may get away with it on short trips that don't have a lot of hills, but you ABSOLUTELY need a Weight Distributing Hitch with sway control and you DO need a brake controller too. You'll find, if you take that trailer to a scale, that it will weigh over 3000# "empty". The tongue weight will probably overload your RAV4 axles too.

- Jack

Thanks for all the good tips.

We do have the V6, and I have the WDH with sway control that the owner sold to us also.

Hooked it up, leveled it, and it towed like a dream behind the RAV4. We took the back road home to see how it would do on hills and turns and it pulled them flawlessly. I kept an eye on my gauges and everything looked good.

Getting a trans cooler is next on the horizon. We probably won't go anywhere in it until this fall as we've already burned up our vacation balances from work for this year.

I'm certainly not opposed to getting a bigger rig to tow it with. I have a 1993 Chevrolet K1500 but it doesn't quite get the mileage I like when towing.

The previous owner said that he runs his fridge for a few days before a trip at home, loads it with the frozen goods and then drives to his campsite with the fridge turned off, and then turns it back on when he hooks up to power there. I'm thinking we will probably do the same. We seldom dry camp, and the resorts we belong to all have full hookups.

I'm thinking that we will try to go to Mount Rushmore next year with it as I haven't been there since I was a kid.

I also have concerns with the RAV4 as a tow vehicle. I think I would give up a little gas mileage and use the pickup instead. When the loaded trailer weighs almost as much as the tow vehicle, and with the short wheelbase of the RAV4, I think you may get in a situation of the "tail wagging the dog." The real test is when semi trucks are passing you, you are towing in the mountains, or when there is a strong crosswind. Also, make sure you have that brake controller installed with all that weight pushing you going down a mountain road. Pulling it is one thing, stopping it, another!

Keep us updated!

Ref. Tips
 

You only need to run your ref. one day before towing. Keep items frozen or prechilled. We have driven two hrs. to a campsite and been fine. Run the ref. on electric at the campsite.

I agree with JackandJanet. I don't normally post but just had to because I am concerned. I have a Hi-Lo 19 foot and am towing it with a Honda Ridgeline (2007/V6). I use to put 87 octane in and it did terribly going up mountains. So, I now use 91 octane and it does okay to good. Goes up mountains to 7000 ft elevation okay but not superbly. I stay in the slow lane most of the time when going up. My thought whenever pulling the trailer is always to pray before going out and to stay on the side of caution. I have seen videos of awful crashes and have even passed by a trailer (not Hi-Lo) that tipped over. I am concerned that the CRV is not heavy enough. I have also owned a CRV but that was a 2004. However, I don't think that they have changed that much.
The Hi-Lo is a wonderful trailer! It does really well with strong winds.

my 2 cents worth...I have a 2008 hi lo 15T, and I tow it with a 2006 6cylinder ford escape and I have never had a problem but then again the15T, GVWR is 2990lbs...