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Experience Towing With Your Rx400h


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Hello I am new to the forum and this is my first post. I have been reading a lot of posted threads and I'm very impressed with the information I have gained from just a week of visiting the site.

I am very interested in purchasing a RX400H, mainly because in a SUV you can not beat the gas mileage that the RX400H provides.

My question is I tow a 7 foot by 14 foot enclosed trailer that weighs about 3,000 LBS.

1. How is the towing ability of the RX400H. I would love to hear some input from RX400H owners who currently use theirs to tow.

2. What can I expect my gas mileage to be when I tow?

3. Is this the wrong Lexus vehicle if this is what I plan to do with it?

Any informations regarding towing with this vehicle would be greatly apprieciated. I thank you in advance

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Hello I am new to the forum and this is my first post. I have been reading a lot of posted threads and I'm very impressed with the information I have gained from just a week of visiting the site.

I am very interested in purchasing a RX400H, mainly because in a SUV you can not beat the gas mileage that the RX400H provides.

My question is I tow a 7 foot by 14 foot enclosed trailer that weighs about 3,000 LBS.

1. How is the towing ability of the RX400H. I would love to hear some input from RX400H owners who currently use theirs to tow.

2. What can I expect my gas mileage to be when I tow?

3. Is this the wrong Lexus vehicle if this is what I plan to do with it?

Any informations regarding towing with this vehicle would be greatly apprieciated. I thank you in advance

I've done some interstate towing with my '06 rx400h. Two times where near the 3500# limit pulling a 6x12' U-haul van trailer. In both cases, the ride was good. The gas mileage on the level was around 20-22. In mountains - if suffered and ran as bad as 16.

Keep in mind that this vehicle (even the AWD version) engine brakes with only the front wheels. So care must be taken going down hill if you where to use the engine brake setting on the tranny in wet conditions. Personally, I didn't use the engine brake, but instead lightly rode the brakes and used the regenerative breaking to provide constant slowing drag downhill.

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Keep in mind that this vehicle (even the AWD version) engine brakes with only the front wheels. So care must be taken going down hill if you where to use the engine brake setting on the tranny in wet conditions. Personally, I didn't use the engine brake, but instead lightly rode the brakes and used the regenerative breaking to provide constant slowing drag downhill.

Interesting. So using your method while in D, what happened to the regnerative braking once the batteries were full and could not accept any more charge.

Did you feel the friction brakes kick in at any point?

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Interesting. So using your method while in D, what happened to the regnerative braking once the batteries were full and could not accept any more charge.

Did you feel the friction brakes kick in at any point?

In the over 27,000 miles I put on my car - I have yet to get all of the charge bars in green... Maybe someday I'll see it if someone ever come out with a plug-in conversion kit for this car.

When towing at highway speed, at least for me, I have more power draw going up hill then reclaimed going downhill to maintain a safe speed, plus with the power draw from AC, air drag from the trailer, etc. So I haven't gotten to that point.

Also with the braking downhill (or anytime for that matter) - if you lightly hold pressure on the brake petal - you get (perceived) about 2-3x the drag over just coasting without the brake lights coming on and you will notice the energy meter drop to the bottom of the white bar without entering the blue bar. This is usually enough to make up for the additional momentum going downhill from the towing weight.

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Interesting. So using your method while in D, what happened to the regnerative braking once the batteries were full and could not accept any more charge.

Did you feel the friction brakes kick in at any point?

In the over 27,000 miles I put on my car - I have yet to get all of the charge bars in green... Maybe someday I'll see it if someone ever come out with a plug-in conversion kit for this car.

When towing at highway speed, at least for me, I have more power draw going up hill then reclaimed going downhill to maintain a safe speed, plus with the power draw from AC, air drag from the trailer, etc. So I haven't gotten to that point.

Also with the braking downhill (or anytime for that matter) - if you lightly hold pressure on the brake petal - you get (perceived) about 2-3x the drag over just coasting without the brake lights coming on and you will notice the energy meter drop to the bottom of the white bar without entering the blue bar. This is usually enough to make up for the additional momentum going downhill from the towing weight.

I see. I had in mind a steeper / longer decent that could eventually drive the system to using the friction brakes. In that event the engine braking (B position) would be needed to keep the pads & disks from overheating.

The control issue on wet pavement due to the FWD bias on the engine braking would then become important.

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  • 6 years later...

Good day to you all. I'm based in the UK and am on my 3rd RX, first was RX400h, then the RX450h and from this Feb the RX450h Luxury 2013 version, which I must say is my best yet. However, I have recently purchased a caravan (Trailer?) for touring. I have done two trips so far BT I have various concerns and maybe I could get some comments. Whilst the car will tow 2 tons and my trailer is 1.5 tons, there is no problem there. However, the tow ball downward weight limit is 80Kg (176lbs) and this is quite hard to achieve without putting weight behind the axle of the trailer to counterbalance the nose weight. Does anyone have experience of towing the Bailey Unicorn Valencia 2011 with an RX450h? Also, I inflate my tyres to 33 psi, is this correct? The other question I have, is it better to tow using the sport mode that increases torque but does it stiffen the suspension?

I would really appreciate any advice or suggestions. Thanks

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