Can anyone advise whether a Toyota Rav4 2.4L is suitable for towing a Jayco swan

Wanna, I think you have answered your own question!!!! Towing capacity 1500kg, unladen weight of trailer 1000kg. Do you have trhe RAV4 now and is its performance OK? I drove Melbourne to PortMacquarie and return in one and found it quite good. In my opinion it would pull it OK.

I have a new model suzuki grand vitara that I was towing my off road camper trailer with, the trailer is 750kg unladen and the Suzuki has a similiar towing capacity to your vehicle.

It towed fine on open roads but didnt like hills too much and the fuel economy was crap.

The other issues for me was the levelling and despite looking at numerous options we were unable to solve that problem.

In the end we ended up keeping the suzuki and buying a TD5 Disco.

So for what you want it for it will probably tow ok.

Don't see why not , I towed a camper with 1975 Suburu 1600 4x4 Wagon , it was gutless to begin with but it done the job ,

Hi,

If the camper weighs in at 1000kg unladen then loaded it will probably be in the range of 1300kg as most places tell you to budget 300kg for extras, so that should be within your range.

Just check the towbar setup you have and check the load it can carry and the maximum ball weight it can sustain. Ball weight ideally should be around ten percent of overall weight but this is a ball park figure and does vary a bit.

If those items all check out then you should be fine. The RAV might grunt and groan a bit at times but so do a lot of towing vehicles. Keep an eye on your dash instruments and do regular checks of tyres, water, oil etc and have a good time. The Swan is a nice camper and it is very roomy inside.

One other thing is that if you buy the offroad pack in most campers then it will increase the load a bit. Ours went up by 140kg.

Hi Wanna,

You haven't mentioned whether you are looking at a onroad or outback camper, ( I am guessing onroad, as this is the one that weighs 1000k) IMHO I disagree with most of the other replys you have had. I own a Jayco Eagle which is slightly lighter and tow it with a 3ltr Mitsi approx 160KW and with it loaded this vehicle knows its there on hills etc.

I believe ure laden weight may be more than you think, without anything else, if you fill the water tank and put a 20ltr (fuel or water) on the front, you already have an extra 110kg's. Fill the gas bottle, fit a battery, another 30k's.

Now you have to load the thing with cutlery, plates etc, fill the fridge and all the reast of the stuff you will stuff into it along with clothing etc, I believe you will be borderline with weight.. Also check one other thing, our jayco was 100k's over the brochure weight when we recieved it, compliance plate also showed 100 more than the brochure.

Trying not to be to negative but its better to know and weigh up these things before parting with your money.

I tow an Eagle with a 4 cylinder x-trail.

I found plenty of information about towing on actual x-trail forums - not this forum.

Maybe searchup some Rav4 Forums.

good luck