While we've been through all this before... I just find it interesting that there are three of us that are fairly vocal, and quite comfortable, with our 3500# rated TVs (yoda911 and Mr. Adventure). We've all done a lot of research on the subject, and all had positive experiences... and all three of these vehicles are Toyotas (Lexus counts!).
It has been well established on other forums that Toyota is very conservative with their tow ratings, and I think our combined experiences reflect this. I, personally, have been towing in bad weather and was able to make a sudden stop in a noticeably shorter length of road than just about all of the passenger vehicles I could see in front and around/behind me. I am quite confident in my set up, and that experience not only confirmed it, but was a good lesson for me. There are some 5000#+ rated vehicles on the road with me that did worse than I did, even though they weren't towing anything. So, the brand makes just as much difference as the rating... and the driver probably makes more difference than anything else!
The bottom line is what has been mentioned in passing before: there currently is no standard for giving a vehicle a tow rating. These numbers are guidelines, not absolutes, and I have yet to hear from anyone who truly "knows" what they mean, how they are derived, what are the limits or margins built in. Some rules of thumb are just that, dependent on the observer's thumb. So, do your research, think the whole process through, start to finish, be safe in whatever you choose, do NOT do anything that makes you feel uncomfortable, and enjoy the vacation!
Isn't that really why we're all here?
