xxstewart

Another consideration is your insurance (on both the car and trailer). If you have an accident and the investigation turns up that your trailer exceeded the vehicle rating, your insurance company might find cause not to pay your claim. Bad enough if only you suffer the loss, but if another vehicle is involved, you could be confronted with enormous financial and legal consequences. Better to play by the rules. Can't explain why the Explorer has a slightly higher towing capacity, but even with it, you'd be close to its maximum rating. Living in Colorado, I can tell you there's nothing more maddening than being on a 2-lane mountain highway behind a big-!Removed! RV being towed by an under-powered vehicle (even big V8's lose punch at 10,000 feet), and I never want to be in front of one of these rigs on the downhill side.

I am selling a set of 4 factory tires from my '08 GX470. These are Bridgestone Dueller H/T's, size P265/65R17 - D840, with less than 7K miles on them, and in near new condition. Retail price at TireRack is $130 ea. Set of 4 available for $350. Will deliver in Colorado front range (Denver) area.

I need to correct my last post. My '08 GX driving light/turn signal bulb (front) takes an amber 1156 type, which is a single filament bayonet base. Sorry about the error.

Light bulbs are available with "LL" suffixes, which means "long life", and are supposed to last longer than standard bulbs. For example, my '08 GX takes a 4157NA -- the long life version is 4157NALL. Who knows why anyone bothers with 2 grades of bulbs, other than one must be cheaper, and therefore what gets installed at the factory. I can't figure out why there are 50 varieties of indicator bulbs either -- it's like trying to buy toothpaste.

The front bulb in my '08 GX is a 4157, which is a dual filament bulb. I haven't spent much time staring at it while driving, but my guess is that one filament is the driving light, and the other filament is the turn signal.

The owner's manual info is incorrect. My '08 GX says the front turn signal bulb is a "1156A" wedge base. 1156 bulbs are bayonet base. The manual also says the rear turn signal bulb is a 7440, which is not an amber bulb. The '09 bulb list from Sylvania seems to list the correct bulb numbers for my '08.

Trailer towing isn't just about hitch loading, hitch class, and trailer gross weight. Remember, even though the GX470 is rated at 6500 lbs towing, its curb weight is only about 4900 lbs, and it's rated for 1200 lbs cargo + passengers. Pulling 7000 lbs with a vehicle weight of about 5100 lbs (vehicle + driver) seems to put about 60% of the kinetic energy behind you. Stopping (even with a trailer braking system) and control are major factors to consider (I've seen an overweight trailer flip a minivan on its side). Even if you're an experienced trailer tower, you need to use extra caution. Forget about cruising down the interstate at 70 MPH with this 12000 lb rig. I have a 1200 lb cargo trailer rated for 2000 lbs (3200 lbs total). I'm comfortable at 65 MPH when there's no traffic on the highway, but usually drive 50-55 MPH otherwise. If I intended to haul 7000 lbs, I'd be thinking about an F250 diesel dually.

Most vehicle OEM batteries are bottom of the line 36-month warranty types. If you've achieved more than this from the original battery consider yourself fortunate. If you live in an extreme climate area (Phoenix or Minneapolis) getting even 3 years on an original battery is lucky. Batteries don't charge well in extreme heat and cold, and this affects battery life. If you're looking for a replacement battery, I recommend springing some extra $$$ for an Optima. An Optima battery will set you back $150-$200, but is maintenance free, and has incredible longevity. I've had one in my Jeep Wrangler for 10+ years (that I run a snow plow on in the winter). The Optima is still going strong. When my GX470 battery craps out, I'll be replacing it with an Optima.

I purchased front and rear guards manufactured by WAAG. Front Runner (P/N 18368 - about $400) and rear bumper (P/N 16799 - about $275) are quality products, and provide protection without a steroidal appearance. WAAG may not show these P/Ns as fitting GX's later than 2005, but only because they haven't confirmed the fit. Both installed on my 2008 without any problems. One exception is if you have a bumper hitch installed, you will need slightly longer bolts that those provided with the rear bumper. The WAAG rear bumper, towing hitch, and tow hook all share the same 2 mounting bolts on one side, and a 50mm long bolt is required to reach through all 3. Be sure to use a grade 8 bolt, as softer fasteners aren't adequate for towing.

Car dealerships on average generate about 90% of REVENUES from new and used car sales, and about 10% of REVENUES from their service departments. But PROFIT margins are about evenly split. Right now, car sales nationwide are down about 40% from a year ago. So how do you think dealerships are paying their bills? Service departments are keeping most dealerships afloat right now, so getting ripped for over $1000 for 2 tires and brake pads shouldn't come as a surprise. Another scheme most service departments practice is the one you described -- charging an outrageous minimum fee for diagnosing the problem. In defense of service departments, they can't give away their service. Many people would try to get a free diagnosis, and then fix the problem themselves. But it's really aggravating when you take your car in and tell the service manager exactly what is wrong (like a busted tail light lens) and he/she still wants to charge you an hour's shop rate to "check it out". Do yourself a huge favor and invest in a service manual for your car, and learn to do things yourself (like with the fuse replacement). For major repairs (like brake pads, although I do this myself too) find an honest independent mechanic, who has the special tools for Toyota vehicles.

There are other posts, mostly on the GX470 forum, about the CD player not displaying track/title info. I contacted Lexus about this, and was told the CD player used the "Gracenote" track/title system. Apparently some CDs have CD Text data on them, but not in the Gracenote format. But here's what I do. First, I usually make CD copies for my cars and keep the originals in my home player. When I burn a CD, I add the Gracenote data info, so that the CD copy displays the info in the GX470. Not all CD burn software and CD burners are compatible with burning track/title info, but new PCs seem to have this capability. I use a burner software "Easy CD-DA Extractor" from www.poikosoft.com that runs on Windows. You can download it and try it for 30 days free, and it costs only $35 to register. I use this software to load MP3 tracks onto SD cards and into my Sansa player. When you rip a CD, the software connects via internet to the Gracenote database and retrieves the title/track/artist data and adds it to the file. When you burn a CD copy, the Gracenote data gets copied too, and the CD copy will provide all this info on the car's display. I usually make CD copies in MP3 format since this audio quality is adequate for automobile listening, and since I can squeeze about 10 CDs onto a single CD in MP3 format. This gives the 6-disk changer an effective 60 disk capacity.