Picked up our 2016 270BH

[n9740b]

Personal update.

Picked up our 2016 270BH from Manteca and towed it back to Reno using our 2014 Toyota Sequoia Platinum with 113t P rated Michelin LTX Defenders aired up to 42psi (max 44) and an Equalizer 4 point hitch.

Sticker weight was 5685. I stopped at the scales on the way home and had 50 lb Yamaha Generator in the back, full propane (+50 lbs), a single 27 series battery mounted (60? lbs), and about 100 lbs of "stuff"...tools etc, and a bit of water from the walk through.

Came out to 6020 lbs on the trailer with a 820lb tongue weight.
Truck was about 250 lbs under max weight with me inside. Leaving me 250 lbs for wife and 2 small kids, right below the limit.

The ride over Donner Pass (about 7200 ft) on I80 was no sweat. Never dropped below 3rd, 4th most of the time until high elevations, never had an issue holding 55mph. Never got above 62mph by own choice, and don't plan to. Never got any sway, and the trailer was set up "okay". The dealer added an inch to the ball height for squat, but our truck has air suspension and it aired it up back to level putting the trailer just a bit high....not high enough anyone would notice, it looked good, but actually measuring and using a level it was a bit nose high. I have since adjusted the hitch height.

The dealer also "guessed" and the about of weight distribution, and was about one washer short. They never measured the front fender, and as set up it returned the fender to within about 1/4 of an inch. I'm going to continue to tinker a bit with that setup.

Once I got home I loaded our supplies into the bins and weighed each bin before putting it into the trailer. Also set up a tongue weight station and experimented with different water loads. Fresh tank definitely adds TW and the black must be mounted in the rear as it removes it.

As loaded I have the TW down to 730 lbs with 10 gallons (80 lbs) left in the black, and one propane tank stored under the rear bunks. Total trailer weight should be about 6150 lbs with blankets, some food, drinks, couple pots, full generator, tools etc. This give us an 11.8% tongue weight. Towing home I was at 13.6%

That TW gives our family of 4 (I'm 190 lbs, 130lb wife, two 50lb kids) about 530 total, and 110lbs for "stuff" in the truck....as weighed at the scale.

Loaded with fresh water we will be right at or slightly over if we all go, so no full fresh water unless I can find some weight to add to the back.

Camped in our driveway last night, and plan on dry camping tonight at a state park close to home. Will only load about half water, but wife and kids are driving separately anyway so max cargo capacity isn't an issue on this trip. I just want to keep the TW light to see if there is a difference in towing.

Overall the Toyota Sequoia is awesome. I've done lots of other towing with it, but nothing of this length. The tow/haul mode works awesome by increasing the amount of throttle for a given distance of gas pedal travel, so you're not flooring and coming off the gas very much. Never floored it once, not even uphill in the mountains, maybe 1.5 inches of pedal travel max, most of the time it felt like I was inputting maybe 1/2-3/4 of an inch.

Coming down the hill the bad aerodynamics of the trailer behind me kept braking minimal. Started at the top of the grades at 50 mph (lots of 50mph curves coming down), downshifted a couple times, couple brake applications but MUCH better than coming down with my 5000lb boat.

9.8 MPG average starting at sea level, over the 7000ft pass and back to 5000ft in Reno. I was at 11.2 for the 90 min drive before I started heading uphill.

It never felt "squishy" to me, actually the opposite. A couple times I saw a bump or feature in the road that I thought would start it porpoising to the point I would wince, but hardly anything...in other vehicles I would be worried about the hitch bouncing down and scraping, but not even close. Just nice and firm, but not harsh. Was it the wide axles on the trailer? The air suspension? The hitch? All three?

[TakesScenicRoute]

We're picking up ours tomorrow! How is yours so far? Any problems? Anything I should watch for tomorrow?

[n9740b]

Not really anything big. I noticed on a couple units the rubber gasket on the bottom of the exterior bathroom door was cut too short....you could see lots of daylight around the bottom of the door. About 1/4 inch gaps that would let in bugs.

Pay attention during the brief on the water heater and fridge. Make sure you have your grill. We really didn't have any big issues X just a couple little things. We camped in it a couple nights and everything's working great.

Watch their hitch installation if they are putting it on.....it's worth a couple hundred extra bucks for a good hitch. We got a decent deal by comparing to Amazon, we didn't pay Amazon prices but got them to come down $150 on the Yamaha Gen and also $150 down on the hitch.

[TakesScenicRoute]

Originally Posted by n9740b

Not really anything big. I noticed on a couple units the rubber gasket on the bottom of the exterior bathroom door was cut too short....you could see lots of daylight around the bottom of the door. About 1/4 inch gaps that would let in bugs.

Pay attention during the brief on the water heater and fridge. Make sure you have your grill. We really didn't have any big issues X just a couple little things. We camped in it a couple nights and everything's working great.

Watch their hitch installation if they are putting it on.....it's worth a couple hundred extra bucks for a good hitch. We got a decent deal by comparing to Amazon, we didn't pay Amazon prices but got them to come down $150 on the Yamaha Gen and also $150 down on the hitch.

Thank you!

[BMVillines]

We purchased our TT from Manteca too. We are lucky we only live about 15-20 minutes away from the dealer. Our salesman and PDI was great. Like every dealer, service department is the difficult part. I would suggest if you ever have to bring it in for warranty, request Jason Roth as your service writer. He was very good about calling me with updates and actually checked to make sure the work was done. Our first time in for warranty was the complete opposite with a different service writer.

Do yourself a favor and spend a day with a shop vac and open all the access panels you can find. You will suck up a few gallons of junk. Look behind/under: shower, stereo, inverter/fuse panel, water heater, CO2 sensor, under fridge, etc.

I'm glad your sequoia towed it well. My 08' GMC has to max rating of 8500, and we are probably just over that. In 08' GMC didn't have the 6 speed out yet, so 97% of our towing is in 3rd, and most hill climbs are in 2nd. Did you notice a big difference with/without air bags? I've been kicking around the idea of getting some. I've got a little squat and with a decent cross-wind, get a little whip. We went from a small 5th wheel to a big TT, so it's been a little different learning curve.

Thanks

[n9740b]

Our Toyota came with the air suspension standard, so I can't compare. We had an 09 Yukon XL, which also had factory air suspension.

But you're right, the 6 speeds make a huge difference. So much so that it think it quiets down the "rear end" ration debate quite a bit.

Something else to consider is the J2807? SAE towing certification. The Toyotas started with the ratings in 2010, and it dropped the Sequoia rating down from 10,000 to 7,000-7,400 lbs. a HUGE drop, which tells you how inflated the stand alone manufacturers ratings were. Based on my experience, I feel like I could tow right up to the 7000 and still have a vehicle that could climb hills and handle respectively. I couldn't imagine trying to tow 10,000 with a Sequoia, but it would be "legal" if you could get the payload numbers to pencil out.

The Big 3 didn't feather in the SAE certification until the last couple years, Ford waited for its new F150. GM doesn't certify its new SUV line. If the numbers were close why wouldn't they just certify them? That tells you all you need to know.

As far as Manteca Trailer, we live in Reno, so probably won't be using them for service. There is a couple stand alone RV repair shops here in town that do warranty work on Crossroads. There isn't a Crossroads dealer in the area. Sacramento was our closest followed by Manteca.

[JJC]

I owned a 2004 Chevy Tahoe when I bought my TT back in Dec. of 2014. I was worried that it would not be up to the task but it actually did better than I thought. I added air bags in the back and they worked great. A lot has to do with the WD hitch and the set-up. I completely re adjusted the set-up of the hitch when i got home and i never had a problem. The Tahoe had about 150,000 miles on it so i was a little worried about cross country trips that we are planning in the near future so I just traded up to a new GMC Sierra 1500. I think the biggest difference is the transmission, the GMC has the new 8 speed and it works great, there's a gear for every speed, and it's not 12 years old Lol!

[BMVillines]

Hopefully in a couple years we can upgrade. Unfortunately, my wife is due for a new vehicle first. Her Tahoe has 225K on it. Best car we have ever owned, zero issues. A new GMC with 6.2 and an 8 speed would be awesome. I drove one a few weeks back and couldn't believe it. I'd bet money that truck could blow the doors off the fastest stock muscle car from the 60's.


On a side note, you should see the price of used diesel pickups here in CA. My buddy has an 07 D-max with 110K miles. Truck is in good shape, not perfect. He's had multiple offers of $35K. Other buddy sold his 02' F-250 with the 7.3L and 225K miles for $17K. (the f-250 was immaculate). It's crazy out here everyone trying to buy the trucks before all the particulate filters and DEF. Drives me crazy because 60% of the diesel pickups out here are lifted and never tow anything!

[JJC]

We also had great success with our Tahoe, bought it new in 04' and had it for 12 years with no problems. I hated to part with it but did not know how long I could push it with 150,000 miles and it being maxed out towing our TT. As far as the price of trucks RIDICULOUS! it took me a while to except how much a new truck was going to cost. I bought mine in December when GM had a lot of incentives, it helped but it was still a big pill to swallow. The 6.2 is a very nice engine, I have the 5.3 in mine, I figured it had 60 more horsepower than my Tahoe so it was perfect for us.

[RoadDog66]

Yep my 6.4 Hemi stickered at $53K and a Cummins diesel would have pushed it to $62K. I managed to get them down $10K, otherwise I'd have still be towing at the limits of my previous half ton. We just needed extra payload, so the diesel wasn't necessary...thankfully. I really don't know how people afford the new HD diesels just for towing. If I was gonna drop $60K it would be on a restored classic muscle car I'd keep for my kids .