Our Excellent Camping Adventures

Main Page                                                                                                     Minivan Towing

Minivans can be good tow vehicles when built well and set up properly...

Our tow vehicle for 2002 and 2003 was a 1999 Pontiac Trans Sport van.  It was the extended model, so the wheelbase was a decent 120".

It didn't have the factory tow package so we added an auxiliary transmission cooler, a Hidden Hitch class III hitch, Reese 350 Mini weight distribution and anti-sway system, a 7-pin Bargman connector/wiring harness and an eight-changer CD player ;-) We also installed a Tekonsha Voyager brake controller since our Sun Valley came standard with electric brakes.  See the bottom of this page for results of weighing the whole rig.

The things that attracted us to the Pontiac - lots of features for the money, the GM vans were at the time the only front-drive minivans that can be configured to carry eight passengers (like ours), there were more flexible seating arrangements than other vans (we could remove just half the back seat), and the seats were comfortable enough for those long haul trips.

Oh, and since I was on record as saying I'd never own a minivan, it was registered in spousette's name!  It was her daily driver anyway.  Phew, dodged a bullet!  We still have a '93 Toyota Camry V6 LE Sport 5-speed for backup, that became spousette's daily driver when the van got ditched for a Toyota Sequoia.  Why?  Well, plain and simple, the van turned out to be very unreliable and was costing us too much in repairs.  So many things went wrong with it, big and small.

This is what it looked like, without the Reese 350 Mini attached:


... and with the Reese 350 Mini attached:


The Weigh In

While outbound on the Canada Day weekend we stopped at an unattended weigh station on Highway 7 just west of Perth, Ontario, which is about an hour west of Ottawa. I called them a few days before our departure and they said if no one was there to just "help myself."  We arrived to find the place deserted so we took the opportunity to play around for awhile, The price? Free!

We weighed the van's front and rear axles and the trailer axle, all while hitched up, then unhitched and weighed the van separately, then weighed the trailer separately and then just the trailer tongue. We were well loaded up for this trip and had a full tank of gas in the van (no water in any of the trailer water tanks). We made sure all four family members were included on the scale.

So here are my numbers. It was about what I was expecting.

Weights - June 2002                                                                                                                           

Van                                                    Spec (lbs)     Actual (lbs)   % of max    remaining           

GVW                                                     3942                                                                                 

CARRYING CAPACITY                             1415                                                                                 

GVWR                                                    5357            4752                  89%                 605                    

GAWR - front                                          2755            2552                 93%                 203                   

GAWR - rear                                           2755            2376                 86%                 379                  

GCVWR (GVW+3800*)                            7742            7502                 97%                 240 

      

* used 3800 because GM ratings provide two "free" 150lb passengers, so to simplify I added 300 to the overall rating and we weighed with ourselves in the van

 

Trailer                                                                                                                                                    

GVWR                                                           3070            2750                90%            320                 

GAWR                                                           2720            2552                94%            168                 

TR                                                                 350              308                  11%                                 

 

    Net Tow Rating                                                                                                                                       

Starting                                                     3800                                                                                  

Cargo                                                        1030                                                                                  

Actual Tow Rating                                       2770                                                                                  

Actual Trailer Weight                                   2596                                                                                  

Remaining Capacity                                     174                                                                                    

Percentage                                                  94%