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Just got back from a two week trip to the southwest and drove just shy of 5,000 miles towing a scamp 13, car performed great, no problems with power at all. Even at altitude and going over 11,000 ft mountain passes with steep inclines car had plenty of power, easily achieved 80mph even going uphill. We averaged 18mpg for the trip with an average speed of 65mph, we got as high as 25mpg at times, at other times with very gusty winds, in Illinois go figure, we got as low as 13mpg. Even got some surprise snow in the mountain passes, FYI, i don't recommend towing up hill with an inch of snow on the ground and no snow tires as that will get scary really fast!
The biggest limitation of the car will be tongue weight, in the future I will investigate if we can swap in the rav4 adventure springs to get some more tongue weight capacity. The scamp weights in at about 180lb tongue weight and about 1800lbs total weight. I only had a stroller in the trunk and the rest of the supplies stayed in the scamp in an effort to minimize tongue weight as much as possible, my wife and the baby sat in the back seat and I feel the nx was at the limit with this setup in terms of tongue weight.
On a side note, the standard led headlights and fsport foglights were great on dark roads without streetlights, i never really even used my highbeams as it was not necessary.
FWIW, the biggest long-term effect on this type of operation is transmission wear.
The addition of a large aftermarket transmission fluid cooler, like from Derale and frequent fluid changes will help to ensure that transmission failure is far into the future.
the tongue weight is at 10% of total trailer weight so its right where it needs to be. Moving the battery would free up 60 lbs of weight, but it causes the trailer to be unstable if you have less than 10% on the tongue. Everything is in spec and correct, the rear just sags a bit more than i would like, especially with pretty much zero cargo in the back. The car is at its limit, i would rather it be at 60-70% capacity.
the tongue weight is at 10% of total trailer weight so its right where it needs to be. Moving the battery would free up 60 lbs of weight, but it causes the trailer to be unstable if you have less than 10% on the tongue. Everything is in spec and correct, the rear just sags a bit more than i would like, especially with pretty much zero cargo in the back. The car is at its limit, i would rather it be at 60-70% capacity.
How was the tongue weight and the total weight measured? Were those measurements made with the as-traveled cargo loaded?
If a tongue weight scale is not on-hand, first measure the gap from rear tire to fender w/ the trailer, then have an adult male stand on the trailer ball and measure that gap.
If they are different, then the tongue weight is not the listed 180 pounds.
That was fully loaded, a regular bathroom scale was used as the weight is low enough for that method to work. Like i said, the listed tongue weight limit of 200 lbs assumes 2 front passengers at 150lbs each and no rear passengers or cargo, so any real trailer back there is going to be maxing out your rear suspension. Lexus was not really serious with towing on this car, that is most likely why the new rav4 adventure can tow so much more, they got serious because at 2000lbs they can't compete with cars like the ford escape. The power is there, just not the suspension, i'm not going to do anything for now because it will work for me as is, however, once there is more info on the rav4 adventure i will try to find out more about the springs/shocks there are using in it, from all that I have read the changes to the rav4 are cosmetic and no structural changes were made.
That looks fun.. I was thinking about trading for a 4Runner or something.. but this changes things..
Your still pretty limited to popups, tent campers, the scamp 13, or something like the happier camper. Fiberglass and aluminum are lighter than the standard stuff out there, but the prices start going up drastically once you get into aluminum.
i did look into airlift, but i don't think it will work in the nx unless you replace the springs with bags. There is a big pointy bolt about 2" long at the top of where the springs stop, this prevents you from using a standard air lift bag, would need one with a hole through the middle.
i did look into airlift, but i don't think it will work in the nx unless you replace the springs with bags. There is a big pointy bolt about 2" long at the top of where the springs stop, this prevents you from using a standard air lift bag, would need one with a hole through the middle.
Oh wow, I'm glad you looked into it b/c I thought about ordering one for the NX in the future.
Also, i used a wifi rear view camera along with torque pro for various information on the car (unfortunately i don't think transmission temperature is accurate in torque) here is a screenshot of the phone, it worked well this way, was nice to see what was behind me.
05-07-18, 01:51 PM
5,000 miles of towing
