Towing 250 miles to syracuse

[foose]

My family is thinking about purchasing a '09 sienna either CE or LE. I'll be moving out to upstate ny for med school. I did some reading on this forum and it seems like the towing package is not available in NY. I'm going to make a bunch of phone calls to ny dealers to confirm this. Will the extra oil cooler that the option adds really increase capacity from 1200 to 3400lbs?

My question is if its safe(without the oil cooler) to tow a 5X8 uhaul trailer filled with a bed, couch, and other furniture. The van itself will probably be filled up to. It would be about 250miles one way.




Thanks for the help!

[brian_bp]

The towing capacity increase due to the engine oil cooler (for 2007-2009 model years) affects only engine durability. I believe that it would be reasonable to follow the same limits (including the 3500 lb trailer weight limit) with or without the towing package as far as anything other than engine durability is concerned.

For the engine, all I can suggest is to avoid extended durations of heavy engine load - the sort of situation which could not be created without a trailer in tow - to avoid overheating the engine oil. I'm guessing that in New York State this would not be a big problem as long as the cruising speed is kept reasonable; it is more of a concern to those of us towing up extended mountain grades.

[brian_bp]

This is not related to the towing package, but I would like to add a caution about the selection of a rental trailer. In the U-Haul trailer line, only the tandem-axle trailers have brakes; the single-axle trailers do not. A 5x8 (single axle) weighs 900 lb empty, and the Sienna (like most light vehicles) requires brakes on trailers over 1000 lb, so the 5x8 has effectively no safe carrying capacity: as soon as you load it, you need the brakes it doesn't have. The smallest tandem-axle closed cargo trailer is the 5x10, which weighs 1250 lb empty, so it will clearly far exceed the non-towing-package rating for the engine; if you're okay with that, then the 5x10 fits the Sienna's capabilities well.

I rented a U-Haul and towed it with my 2004 towing-package-equipped Sienna once. The 5x10 was not available so I took a 6x12, which is much heavier, but fortunately provided more cargo volume which I needed anyway; it is also 10" taller inside which makes going into it much more comfortable. I loaded it to about the maximum capacity of the Sienna for towing, which is still far short of the trailer's own weight capacity. Too large a trailer means using up the Sienna's capacity on trailer instead of cargo, but with furniture I think the 5x10 - and perhaps even the 6x12 - will run out of room before the total of trailer and cargo exceeds 3500 lb. These box trailers up to the 6x12 size roughly tuck in behind the Sienna and so don't add a huge amount of air drag; the taller 6x12 might be a drag (literally) behind a sedan.

Find a tall ball mount before trying this towing configuration: tandem-axle trailers must be kept very nearly level to distribute loads between the axles and the hitch properly, and the standard U-Haul height is at least 16" (might be 18"), so a Sienna hitch will typically need a lot of rise to place the top of the ball there, especially without a weight-distributing hitch or some sort of suspension assistance (I have air bags). A single-axle would not have as much problem with the hitch height (since the trailer can be pulled nose-down), but there is that problem with a lack of brakes.