Toyota Sienna for towing?

Rfitz69

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Anyone tow their boat with a Toyota Sienna? Rated for 3500 pounds so it should be ok for a 20ft Tritoon I think?
 
What does your boat and trailer weigh, and how far and how often are you towing ? Safety being in the forefront, I wouldn't even dare try it, but...........
 
Anyone tow their boat with a Toyota Sienna? Rated for 3500 pounds so it should be ok for a 20ft Tritoon I think?
A complicated questions that requires a bit of homework.
Need the dry weight of your boat +
Add 6lbs x size of gas tank +
Add 500 pounds for extras = approximate boat weight.
Then add trailer - 1,000 lbs +/-

Now, the tow capacity of the truck can take hours to figure out and learn,
But a quick calculation = to your boat/trailer weight above add people weight, plus truck gas, plus weight of extra's or equipment.
If under the 3,500 - you are probably golden. If not, then you need to dive into the details of calculating actual tow capacity of the truck.

I also suggest that any Boat have proper disc brakes on the trailer on all axels. The Truck is not supposed to stop the trailer.

Hope that provides some help.
 
Boat model is the Bennington 2074 GLI with a 150 Yamaha on it. From what I could find the weight is 2553lbs but I am not sure if that includes the motor.... and then I need to add the trailer weight.
 
Boat model is the Bennington 2074 GLI with a 150 Yamaha on it. From what I could find the weight is 2553lbs but I am not sure if that includes the motor.... and then I need to add the trailer weight.
Welcome to the forum Fitz...... Boat weighs 2500 lbs. Trailer weighs about 1000 lbs. Then add your family, gear, gas, dog, etc and you are way over that 3500 lb. limit.
 
Anyone tow their boat with a Toyota Sienna? Rated for 3500 pounds so it should be ok for a 20ft Tritoon I think?
Not advisable. Although the towing capacity says its 3500 lbs, you need to subtract about 10% for safe towing capacity. And along with towing capacity you also have to figure in the vehicle's payload capacity, which in my opinion is equally important. Tongue weight is about 400-600 lbs, I believe, and you would need to subtract that from your vehicle's payload capacity. Lots of calculations involved.
 
More seriously, here's the most common things I've read on any forum related to towing boats or RVs (we've had a 30 foot trailer for 16 years and those forums get into really heated discussions about tow vehicles).
  • To maintain a safety margin, you should keep total trailer weight at 80% or less of your tow vehicle's rated capacity
  • Size your tow vehicle for emergency handling or stopping, not the other 99.99% of your driving.
  • The corollary is "You can probably tow your boat or trailer with a VW Beetle, but stopping it is the problem"
  • My mindset is always long-distance towing of boat or trailer. But I've realized that on this forum there are a lot of people who tow 2 miles twice a year to and from the marina. That would definitely change the above rules!
  • As noted elsewhere on this forum, weight is only part of the issue for pontoon boats - cross-winds also have a huge impact.
  • If your vehicle doesn't come with a 2" tow hitch, either built in or easily available in the after-market, maybe your vehicle wasn't really intended to tow
My favorite forum discussion on tow vehicles was one in the Airstream forum. There was a guy who insisted that it was perfectly safe to tow his medium-sized Airstream (probably 5000 to 6000 lbs) with his Porsche Cayenne. Some company fabricated a special tow hitch that was welded to his unibody frame. He would absolutely flame anybody who suggested this might be unsafe - insisted the low center-of-gravity of his Porsche made it much more stable. I wish I could calculate the impact of the torque developed by the step-up hitch connection to the trailer A-frame.
 
More seriously, here's the most common things I've read on any forum related to towing boats or RVs (we've had a 30 foot trailer for 16 years and those forums get into really heated discussions about tow vehicles).
  • To maintain a safety margin, you should keep total trailer weight at 80% or less of your tow vehicle's rated capacity
  • Size your tow vehicle for emergency handling or stopping, not the other 99.99% of your driving.
  • The corollary is "You can probably tow your boat or trailer with a VW Beetle, but stopping it is the problem"
  • My mindset is always long-distance towing of boat or trailer. But I've realized that on this forum there are a lot of people who tow 2 miles twice a year to and from the marina. That would definitely change the above rules!
  • As noted elsewhere on this forum, weight is only part of the issue for pontoon boats - cross-winds also have a huge impact.
  • If your vehicle doesn't come with a 2" tow hitch, either built in or easily available in the after-market, maybe your vehicle wasn't really intended to tow
My favorite forum discussion on tow vehicles was one in the Airstream forum. There was a guy who insisted that it was perfectly safe to tow his medium-sized Airstream (probably 5000 to 6000 lbs) with his Porsche Cayenne. Some company fabricated a special tow hitch that was welded to his unibody frame. He would absolutely flame anybody who suggested this might be unsafe - insisted the low center-of-gravity of his Porsche made it much more stable. I wish I could calculate the impact of the torque developed by the step-up hitch connection to the trailer A-frame.

Great comment Diesel -

I would also add to this, tow capacity doesn't take into account the potential steep grade and conditions at the ramp such as wet concrete, slick vegetation (hydrilla, milfoil etc) or influence of water levels on the ramp. There are probably dozens of these "x" factors that aren't accounted for in a simple weight rating.
 
Sandbags in the front of the Sienna might help balance out a heavier load on the trailer
That will definitely take care of any tow vehicle problem. o_O
 
Sandbags in the front of the Sienna might help balance out a heavier load on the trailer
Oh no he didn't bring up the sand bags again!!! Ha!
 
I think you will be surprised by the weight. Take it to a truck stop and use their scale. It will cost $10-15. Our boat trailer motor batteries gas anchor etc was 5100 lbs if I remember correctly.

I've not been around here much lately... Still talkin sandbags, I see...
 
I was shocked by the weight of our pontoon compared to our previous fiberglass boats. I thought for sure it would weigh less than a 21' jet boat and boy was I wrong! It is comical how many folks we see at the marina towing big boats with something like a toyota corolla.
 
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I was shocked by the weight of our pontoon compared to our previous fiberglass boats. I thought for sure it would weigh less than a 21' jet boat and boy was I wrong! It is comical how many folks we see at the marina towing big boats with something like a toyota corolla.
I know what you mean. I towed our 20-ft BR for the past 9 years and we just took delivery of our new 23-ft tritoon a couple weeks ago and I couldn't get over how much weight difference there was behind the truck. It was like night and day difference in weight. I tow with a F150 and it felt like it was underpowered to tow it, even though it's not. I need to tow it to a scale so I can get an accurate weight.
 
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