Towing a Jayco Finch with a Toyota Camry.

Hi there Jessie, your vehicle manual should provide you with what towing capacity (weight ) your camry can legally tow.
The compliance plate on the Jayco Finch should provide you with its tare weight. Keep in mind the tare weight is the weight of the Finch when completely empty, no water in the tanks, no gas in the cylinders & no food, clothing etc.
So you will need to calculate the weight of all these bits & pieces & add it to your tare weight & then compare the Gross weight (fully loaded) with the towing capacity of your vehicle.
Best bet is to load it up & put it over a weigh bridge for accuracy & safety. If your Finch is capable of being towed by your Camry you will need to fit a transmission oil cooler. There is a good chance it already has one, if not, they are not expensive to have one fitted. Regardless, it is essential that the vehicle be fitted with one.
Being a front wheel drive vehicle, you should, in my opinion, also fit a weight distribution hitch. They are not cheap at about $600, but are well worth the expenditure, as they re-establish your steering geometry & braking capacity once the weight of your Finch ( ball weight) is a applied when you hook it up to your vehicle.
Good luck & happy travelling.

Hi,
Towed a Finch with a 1993 Camry wagon (4 cyl manual) for a few years incuding Birs to Melb return and Bris to Daintree in summer return. From a motor transmissiion side it towed brilliantly- better than my 2010 Forester that I use niow but I did change cars as was towing about 10000ks per year and front wheel drive did not inspire confidence on gravel or in the wet.
I would do it, especially if plan to keep the Finch long term as when yiou next upgrade your car can get something more appropriate. Would first ensure that it meets all the specs and also would use a one bar WDH.
Cheers
MattD

Thank you to Barry, Graham and Matt for their helpful replies.

As the tare weight of the camper trailer is given as 855kg and we are at present using a tent for camping, I don't believe the basic things we will add will exceed the 1200kg limit. The heaviest item will be the 82 litres of water.
We will check about the transmission oil cooler and we also plan to add a weight distribution hitch to our tow bar once we purchase the camper trailer.

Thanks, again, for the information provided.

Jessie

My father in law tows a jayco finch with his 4cy camry. Its a 2000 model with auto. He has done a half lap of australia with no problems. It does struggle a little on hills though. He does use a wdh as well which I think is a definate neccesity.

wizzer

Don't forget that if it weighs over 750kgs you will require an Electric Brake Controler on the Towing Vehicle.

Cheers

Hi Nanny24 I am towing a 650Kg 12ft van with a ford Courier Maxi,4 Cyl ,,, tows the van up hills with no problem ,,,, legally no brakes are required but I will soon be fitting elec. brakes to be on the safe side , Peter