Toyota Sienna Towing

I have a 2006 Toyota Sienna CE and we are very pleased with it at this point. We have 37,000 miles on it and is doing good. I sent my wife today to have a tow hitch installed to pull our new 2,000 pound camper trailer with. I would like to know if anyone has towed with their Sienna so that I can prepared. I would also like to know if I need to take it out of 5th gear.

I have a 2006 Toyota Sienna too and just started towing a 2003 Coleman Mesa Pop Up. The trailer has a max weight of 3450, but we only towed it with about 2700 lbs so far. We us a Valley Class III hitch with weight distribution.
The whole family (two kids, two parents, and one aunt), gear, and the tongue weight was below the gross vehicle rating by about 300 lbs. The combined vehicle weight was about 8000 lbs and the manual says we have 8700 lbs. Small note on the weight distribution hitch; it actually worked too well and put an unequal amount of weight on the front axle of the car. I dropped it a link and the rear axle supported more of the weight.
We had an electric break control and a sway bar installed. I don't know if you need either, but I use the Prodigy control in the van and it seems to work well.
Owner's manual does say to take it out of overdrive when towing. We have gone a few hundred miles and everything seems to being going well.
Congrats on the trailer!

SCS wrote:

I have a 2006 Toyota Sienna too and just started towing a 2003 Coleman Mesa Pop Up. The trailer has a max weight of 3450, but we only towed it with about 2700 lbs so far. We us a Valley Class III hitch with weight distribution.
The whole family (two kids, two parents, and one aunt), gear, and the tongue weight was below the gross vehicle rating by about 300 lbs. The combined vehicle weight was about 8000 lbs and the manual says we have 8700 lbs. Small note on the weight distribution hitch; it actually worked too well and put an unequal amount of weight on the front axle of the car. I dropped it a link and the rear axle supported more of the weight.
We had an electric break control and a sway bar installed. I don't know if you need either, but I use the Prodigy control in the van and it seems to work well.
Owner's manual does say to take it out of overdrive when towing. We have gone a few hundred miles and everything seems to being going well.
Congrats on the trailer!

I am thankful for you're response. I would like to know if your hitch makes noise in the wind. I think that the noise that I'm hearing is from the hitch. It sounds like there is a vent window open. I have a rear spoiler and it already makes wind drag noise.

towed one trip with the Sienna and the bank 2 oxygen sensor went. Recently threw a bearing in the engine and the engine is toast in my 2003 Sienna. Don't tow with it! Keep in mind that this vehicle is only a Camry. Maybe tow a coleman taos with it, only 8 footer. Buy a used pick up, they are designed for towing.

I used to tow a 3000lb travel trailer with the 2003 Sienna but the trans fluid twice turned dark and tech told me that this was not a good idea if I planned to keep the Toyota. That was 5 years ago. I bought a pick up for towing and the Toyota still runs great at 110K miles.