Quote:
Originally Posted by desertdiva
I am in the midst of purchasing a minivan. I am also in the process of purchasing a Trailmanor. I had my heart set on the 3124kb, for versatility and storage capacity. Now I am looking at minivan tow ratings, and can't find one rated over 3500lbs.
So, I am now thinking that somethings gotta give... or does it?
Does anyone know of a minivan that can be upgraded to tow more?
How disappointed will I be to give up the 3124 in lieu of the 2720 in order to scrape in under the tow capacity?
Now for my 'dumb girl that doesn't know much about cars' question... how real are those tow ratings? Can they be pushed, or will you really be entering a danger zone?
Would I be better off to give up on the minivan and move to a SUV (much less useful to me in the day to day) in order to retain the ability to pull a bigger cargo?
Any help will be appreciated.
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Some help..
It sounds as if you don't have a tow vehicle (TV) or a Trailmanor (TM) yet, so you can plan your moves.
If you haven't already purchased the minivan, and have your heart set on a TM, then don't buy the minivan. If you MUST have the minivan I would suggest a conventional canvas popup trailer.
If you can buy an SUV, then you can get the tow capacity (TC) you need, but beware of wheelbase lengths, especially if you're going to tow a longer TM such as the 3124. SUVs tend to have short wheelbases so keep the size of the TM reasonable.
You normally can't "upgrade" the TC of a TV once you've bought it. The TC of any given vehicle is fixed when it comes off the assembly line. Rarely can any item be added after the sale to increase TC.
You can get higher capacities of certain models (ie: F150, F250, F350), but unfortunately, this is not the case with minivans.
It's important to understand that today's minivans are nothing more than a car chassis with a van body on it. You really want something more in the "truck" family to safely tow many safe miles, especially in diverse terrain.
Another important note is to ignore the posted weights of the TMs on TM's website. These weights are empty base model and can be off from the real thing by 1000 lbs or more.
There are many posts here about your questions. If you read them, think about them, plan based on them, you will be ok. If you go out this weekend and buy a TV and a TM without doing this homework, you may not be ok.