Escape 19 - Toyota Highlander - Washington Pass

[Russell 2]

Need some wisdom. Newbies to towing a trailer. Thanks in advance for your input.
We are driving to Sumas to pick up our new Escape 19. Will be towing with a new 2022 Toyota Highlander with trailer weight of about 4300 lb. We have a brake controller installed. We would love to drive east through the northern Cascades, Washington pass, etc. We would drive about 200 miles a day and take it slow up and down the mountains. Is this too ambitious? too hard on vehicle?

[Mike G]

Are they still using the 3.5L V6? I had a 2008 HL with that engine and it did okay on the long grades at altitude towing about 2,800 lbs, with the caveat that I only ran 35-45 mph in 3rd gear (about 4000 rpm). I never wanted to push hard and fast, because I didn't want to stress the drive train needlessly. How much an extra 1500 lbs will affect that, I can't say personally. The frontal area profile will be similar to what I had, though.


BTW, I grew up north of Bay City (near Standish).

[Russell 2]

Originally Posted by Mike G

Are they still using the 3.5L V6? I had a 2008 HL with that engine and it did okay on the long grades at altitude towing about 2,800 lbs, with the caveat that I only ran 35-45 mph in 3rd gear (about 4000 rpm). I never wanted to push hard and fast, because I didn't want to stress the drive train needlessly. How much an extra 1500 lbs will affect that, I can't say personally. The frontal area profile will be similar to what I had, though.


BTW, I grew up north of Bay City (near Standish).

Thanks Mike for your reply. The 2022 Highlander has a 295 HP V6 3.5L.
We would plan on taking things slow.

Bay City is a beautiful area.

[Fender]

I have yet to receive our trailer so I'm certainly no expert but is 4300 lbs heavy for an E19?

[Russell 2]

Originally Posted by Fender

I have yet to receive our trailer so I'm certainly no expert but is 4300 lbs heavy for an E19?

Hi. I should have clarified. The dry weight is 3,200 before options. The shipping weight on our E19 is 3,659. The rest will be our stuff added! We won't travel in the mountains with full tanks. The Highlander is rated at 5,000 towing capacity.

[Iowa Dave]

We had a 2010 Eacape 19. It weighed 3640 with 10 gallons of fresh water and 6 gallons hot water, loaded for a three week trip. Our Highlander was a 2012 With 269 horsepower 6 speed. I drove the North Cascades in 2017 when we took the new to us 2013 21 foot Escape to Chilliwack to get solar installed. Had no problems at all. The 2012 Highlander by then had 165.000 miles on it. That Highlander pulled the 21 weighting 4360lbs just fine on that trip through many passes. We now have the 2018 Highlander with 25 more horsepower than the 2012 had and the 8 speed transmission. I tow in 6th gear, most of the time.I use the paddle shift to hold things back on the steep descents. Let that engine sing, that’s what they are built for.

Plan on some time at the Visitors Center in the North Cascades National Park and for stopping to take some photos. 200 miles a day is extremely doable even in mountainous country. Currently we have 97,000 miles on the 2018. No problems whatsoever. Mobil 1 synthetic oil. Enjoy yourself, the Highlander can do the job and will.
Iowa Dave

[Russell 2]

Originally Posted by Iowa Dave

We had a 2010 Eacape 19. It weighed 3640 with 10 gallons of fresh water and 6 gallons hot water, loaded for a three week trip. Our Highlander was a 2012 With 269 horsepower 6 speed. I drove the North Cascades in 2017 when we took the new to us 2013 21 foot Escape to Chilliwack to get solar installed. Had no problems at all. The 2012 Highlander by then had 165.000 miles on it. That Highlander pulled the 21 weighting 4360lbs just fine on that trip through many passes. We now have the 2018 Highlander with 25 more horsepower than the 2012 had and the 8 speed transmission. I tow in 6th gear, most of the time.I use the paddle shift to hold things back on the steep descents. Let that engine sing, that’s what they are built for.

Plan on some time at the Visitors Center in the North Cascades National Park and for stopping to take some photos. 200 miles a day is extremely doable even in mountainous country. Currently we have 97,000 miles on the 2018. No problems whatsoever. Mobil 1 synthetic oil. Enjoy yourself, the Highlander can do the job and will.
Iowa Dave

Iowa Dave - We can always count on your wisdom in these Highlander matters. I've enjoyed reading your posts over the last couple of years. Thanks so much for your reply - including the tips! Very reassuring!

[cpaharley2008]

You do not mention when you are picking up. We just got home from our pick up, hit rain, sleety, snow in Wyoming. By now you should be fine until fall./

[Bill_75]

We did a similar trip in 2016, newbies to towing, x-country return with a 2016 Highlander towing a 21 Escape. 200 miles a day was one of our less ambitious days, 300 was ambitious. We went a different route with the trailer, though, from Sumas down the CA coast to I-40 and then East. Not a lot of mountains until we hit the Appalachians, which weren't too bad for us newbies.

Like Mike G., I'm too from Bay City, and our x-country trip was a loop, NC -> MI -> MT -> AB -> Chilliwack to get there. so we could visit Family. So I suspect you'll be paralleling our Northern loop, our trip there. We probably drove by your place - we stopped at some u-pick Blueberry farm off I-94 for a Blueberry picking break.

Not sure of your interests, but our highlights were the Badlands, Mt. Rushmore and the favorite, the Royal Tyrell Museum.

I would not recommend the Chilliwack <-> AB route for newbies towing a trailer, it was frightening, for me, at least, just driving the Highlander before our pickup through the Canadian Rockies.

Great trip, though, I'm envious. Have fun.

[Russell 2]

Originally Posted by Iowa Dave

We had a 2010 Eacape 19. It weighed 3640 with 10 gallons of fresh water and 6 gallons hot water, loaded for a three week trip. Our Highlander was a 2012 With 269 horsepower 6 speed. I drove the North Cascades in 2017 when we took the new to us 2013 21 foot Escape to Chilliwack to get solar installed. Had no problems at all. The 2012 Highlander by then had 165.000 miles on it. That Highlander pulled the 21 weighting 4360lbs just fine on that trip through many passes. We now have the 2018 Highlander with 25 more horsepower than the 2012 had and the 8 speed transmission. I tow in 6th gear, most of the time.I use the paddle shift to hold things back on the steep descents. Let that engine sing, that’s what they are built for.

Plan on some time at the Visitors Center in the North Cascades National Park and for stopping to take some photos. 200 miles a day is extremely doable even in mountainous country. Currently we have 97,000 miles on the 2018. No problems whatsoever. Mobil 1 synthetic oil. Enjoy yourself, the Highlander can do the job and will.
Iowa Dave

By the way, Dave... do you use tow mirrors with your Highlander?

[Russell 2]

Originally Posted by Bill_75

We did a similar trip in 2016, newbies to towing, x-country return with a 2016 Highlander towing a 21 Escape. 200 miles a day was one of our less ambitious days, 300 was ambitious. We went a different route with the trailer, though, from Sumas down the CA coast to I-40 and then East. Not a lot of mountains until we hit the Appalachians, which weren't too bad for us newbies.

Like Mike G., I'm too from Bay City, and our x-country trip was a loop, NC -> MI -> MT -> AB -> Chilliwack to get there. so we could visit Family. So I suspect you'll be paralleling our Northern loop, our trip there. We probably drove by your place - we stopped at some u-pick Blueberry farm off I-94 for a Blueberry picking break.

Not sure of your interests, but our highlights were the Badlands, Mt. Rushmore and the favorite, the Royal Tyrell Museum.

I would not recommend the Chilliwack <-> AB route for newbies towing a trailer, it was frightening, for me, at least, just driving the Highlander before our pickup through the Canadian Rockies.

Great trip, though, I'm envious. Have fun.

Thanks for the feedback, Bill. Sounds like you had a great trip. Will be checking out some of those sites. (And yes the blueberries will be coming along soon here in Michigan.

[Dee08802]

We tow a 2019 back and forth to Colorado for skiing every year with a 2012 Highlander. We use a scan gauge which plugs into the 16 pin diagnostic plug under the drivers side dash to monitor transmission temperature. The display can be mounted above the steering wheel using self stick velcro. When climbing steep mountain passes we keep a close watch slowing down and down shifting to keep the transmission temperature below the 220 range. On occasion we even pull over for a half hour to let the transmission cool down a little. Otherwise all is good traveling cross country maintaining speed at about 60 MPH.

[Iowa Dave]

Originally Posted by Russell 2

By the way, Dave... do you use tow mirrors with your Highlander?

I have a set of Milenco Grand Aero mirrors. They will fit and clamp down well on the 2018 Highlander rear view mirrors . We’ve had them as soon as we got the first Escape. Here’s a couple pictures as they are mounted and work for me.
Iowa Dave

[brroberts]

Can’t comment on the Highlander, but your initial guess on a loaded E19 is in the ballpark. My E19 was not built light, nor do we travel light, and we are at 4620lbs loaded for months at a time with dual 6v batteries, and full water. I’m a heavy E19, and it’s easy to stay a few hundred pounds under me.

[h2owmn]

Whoa, Dave, you win the mileage race! I have 70,000 on my '18 Highlander...it's low mostly because of the pandemic.

Russell 2, I have the rear camera on my 17A, so do not use any mirrors. If you're not having that, Dave is the one to rely on for advice.

Have fun with your new home.

[ColoradoSwany]

We’ve towed our 2017 Escape 19 for almost 40,000 miles with our 2015 Highlander, much of it in Colorado. Right now, we are at Amphitheater CG above Ouray, CO. Went over Monarch Pass to get here. We too use a scan gauge which read a max 208 at the top of Monarch, but it was only 37 degrees Fahrenheit at the top. I did get a transmission cooler installed late last year, but no hot weather test for it yet. My trigger transmission temp to stop is 230. We have 104k on the Highlander. Had the transmission fluid changed at 90k. Oil changed at dealer and always synthetic. If I were still changing oil myself, it would be Mobil One, just like Iowa Dave. I started using Mobil One in 1976. Good stuff.

Like Iowa Dave, I feel these engines were designed to handle high RPMs so I seldom slow down on passes unless I start getting close to 230 degrees on the Scan Gauge.

We don’t use towing mirrors. I just adjust mirrors to give me a wide view on both sides, plus we have the little orange warning lights in the mirrors to tell us if someone is on either side of the Highlander. That feature does not take the trailer into account, so I cannot totally rely on the mirror warning lights.

The Highlander has been a decent tow vehicle for us and it’s my wife’s daily driver. I really enjoy my zoom zoom Mazda3 and she won’t drive a pickup truck, so I guess I’m stuck with the Highlander for a TV. 🙁

[gbaglo]

FYI. If you are in the market for a Highlander, my son-in-law's Lexus was one of seven Lexus stolen in his neighbourhood, in one night a week ago. It has the proximity fob to open the doors and start the car. The Highlander has the same system and they also are popular with car thieves, using the same technique and equipment to steal cars.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottaw...efts-1.5919112

[snowmtn]

Originally Posted by Russell 2

Hi. I should have clarified. The dry weight is 3,200 before options. The shipping weight on our E19 is 3,659. The rest will be our stuff added! We won't travel in the mountains with full tanks. The Highlander is rated at 5,000 towing capacity.

It has been a few years since we have done the North Cascades Highway. It is absolutely beautiful!! At that time we were travelling with a Casita. I would suggest having some water in your fresh water tank. The camping was at Forest Service camps with minimal services--certainly no hookups. I don't remember if there was a water spigot in the campgrounds. Make sure you bring your camera!!

[Roger C H]

A hint when backing a trailer is to place your hand on the bottom of the steering wheel and move the wheel in the direction, right or left, that you want the trailer to move. Good luck. Check your owner's manual on stressing your Toyota especially early in it's life.

[Doug2000]

I weighed my 2020 19 at the CAT scales at the Flying J. The trailer was 3900lbs and 420 on the hitch. IIRC.

It was loaded with all equipment I would leave in for storage like pots, pans, dishes, cords, 2 chairs, some linens, some canned goods, a full tank of fresh water, full propane empty black and grey and 2 bikes on the back.

The trailer was a slim build, really the only heavy items was AC. It has a small fridge and the one 12V battery.

Tuesday I towed the trailer partially loaded up to the beach (Pinery Provincial Park) for my brother to use. It was really windy. My Tundra 5.7L worked pretty hard. Fuel economy was 22L/100 (I think like 11 MPG). Would I suggest a Highlander, they are great vehicles, but I wouldn't not tow with.