Towing with a minivan

I am considering the purchase of 2002 HILO 17RK Travel Trailer at 2900lbs.... I am trying to learn how to figure out if and if so, how to tow this with my 2003 Chrysler Town & Country Limited. I would be so grateful for any help as I am more a sewing machine person then a car person lol.

MM:

Welcome to the forum, you'll find a lot of helpful folks here willing to lend a hand.

Thanks for indicating your interest in learning how to figure out what your vehicle can tow, and I think it's implied that what you really want to learn is about safely towing your trailer. Too many times someone simply asks, "Can I tow my ??? trailer with our ?????" It's not that easy. Each situation is individual. In order to really know the answer, and be confident that you're operating in a safe manner, the right questions have to be asked and answered.

I'm attaching 4 pages from this year's July-August edition of the Escapees magazine. This is an article entitled, "My Truck Pulls it Just Fine". A real pearl of wisdom from the article is this statement, "The ability to tow something is never the problem." As a friend of mine said, "Give me a ball hitch bolted to a little red wagon, and just a half degree of incline, and I can tow a 40 ft trailer. But, stopping it could be another matter."

This article includes links to two online calculators to allow you to calculate your vehicle's towing capacity.

Please read through these pages (assuming I've attached them correctly) and you'll learn a lot. Ask more questions if you need to, this is a friendly group!

Travel safe!

I have not read the above articles yet. So this may be redundant. Please know that "listed" weights are just a starting point. Im sure that "2900 lbs" is more of a starting point and with added accessories and stuff in it it is going to be heavier. Hi-Los run heavy even though at first glance people think they will weigh what pop-up tent campers weigh. They don't . Most of us tow with full size 1/2 ton pickup trucks or larger, and we do so with good reason. My guess is your mini-van is not up to the task.

Rick

MobileMomma said:

I am considering the purchase of 2002 HILO 17RK Travel Trailer at 2900lbs.... I am trying to learn how to figure out if and if so, how to tow this with my 2003 Chrysler Town & Country Limited. I would be so grateful for any help as I am more a sewing machine person then a car person lol.

Click to expand...

Welcome to the forum. See page 5 of the attached towing guide.

http://www.trailerlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Trailer-Life-Towing-Guide-2003.pdf

Agree with others

Hi,

I'm not familiar with the 17RK but we have a 17T and had a Nissan Frontier V6 as our tow vehicle for a while. It was acceptable but it sure worked hard on the hills. I'm not too sure a mini-van would be that great of a fit, as others have said hilo's are heavier than they seem. Stopping always was a little sketchy, pretty sure a van would be even worse.

s205designs said:

Hi,

I'm not familiar with the 17RK but we have a 17T and had a Nissan Frontier V6 as our tow vehicle for a while. It was acceptable but it sure worked hard on the hills. I'm not too sure a mini-van would be that great of a fit, as others have said hilo's are heavier than they seem. Stopping always was a little sketchy, pretty sure a van would be even worse.

Click to expand...

That's exactly the combination I had when I bought my 1707T! The Frontier pulled it, but had to do it in 1st gear up any kind of significant hill and, it began to overheat if the hill was a long one during the summer.

I was much happier with my first F150 and now with the Ecoboost, I hardly know I'm towing.

One thing though, you need to set up the electric brakes on the trailer so they almost, but don't quite lock up if you apply them fully on level pavement when cruising at 25 mph. You test the brakes this way by activating the hand operated lever on the controller in the cab of your tow vehicle (you don't apply the tow vehicle's brakes this way when you do this). If they're adjusted right, braking while towing will seem almost "normal".

- Jack

Hi everyone, I am new too. A bit of googling gave me the information that the towing capacity of the newer T&C is 3600lbs which is pretty good for a minivan, but you also need to know the tow rating of your hitch and the class. Here's another useful article that helped me to figure out if I use the right hitch https://www.carid.com/articles/everything-you-want-to-know-about-trailer-hitches.html