We Build The BEST UTV Tow Rig for Less Than $10,000!

UTV Driver

We’ve put over 20,000 miles on our 2006 Toyota Sequoia in just over a year. It has towed everything from a 1,600-pound utility rig to a 22-foot car trailer loaded down with 4,000 pounds of project car. It’s a beast, and with a few choice mods, we think it proves you don’t need a $75,000 truck to tow your UTV!   Check out the full feature at https://www.utvdriver.com/reviews/best-utv-tow-rig-build-for-under-10k-toyota-sequoia-video/  For more stories, reviews, and first-looks check out https://www.utvdriver.com/   Want to see even more shenanigans from the UTV Driver team? Give us a like and follow:   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UTVdriver/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/utvdrivermagazine/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/utvdriver/

Transcript

00:00 Hey everyone, Aaron Richardson here with UTVDriver. Standing behind me is my 2006

00:05 Toyota Sequoia Limited. This is my daily driver, my camping rig, my tow rig, my

00:12 motorcycle hauler, and my general-purpose everyday vehicle. I bought it about a

00:16 year ago and I thought long and hard about why I was going to buy a Toyota

00:20 Sequoia before I did, and I thought I would share that with you now, plus give

00:24 you a one-year update on its towing ability and the modifications I've made

00:28 to make it a better tow rig. Now the first mod this truck needed to really

00:40 make it a good towing rig was a rear suspension upgrade. From the factory, this

00:44 thing's a mall crawler. It's got soft coil springs at the back and that's

00:48 great for comfort, it's great for traveling around a city, but it's not

00:52 really good if you're really putting the rig to work. So I had to fix that, and the

00:57 way I did it was I bought a set of Firestone airbags that go in the rear

01:03 coils. Now they're a really low impact mod. You just pop the rear coil springs

01:07 out, fit the airbags in the middle of the coil spring, run an air hose to the back,

01:13 and then put everything back together. When you want to tow, you just use this

01:17 nipple down here to inflate one of the airbags, and there's the same nipple on

01:20 the other side, and it raises the rear of the truck and that makes everything a

01:25 little bit more stable while you're towing. Before I put the airbags in it,

01:29 the back of the truck would wallow under weight no matter what I did to adjust

01:32 the tongue weight, and that made everything kind of uneasy on the highway.

01:37 It would shimmy and shift, and it would also make it a lot harder for the engine

01:41 and the transmission to keep up with the load you were pulling, even if it was a

01:45 light load. It always felt like the truck was sort of fighting against itself. So

01:49 with two hours and about $130 invested in these airbags, I'm able to completely

01:54 negate all of those negative aspects. It doesn't wallow anymore, the engine and

01:59 the transmission work in harmony with the chassis a little bit better, and

02:03 everything is just that much more comfortable towing, and it's made it a

02:06 much something that I would recommend for you. Even if you have a truck that's

02:09 reasonably capable out of the box, these airbags can't really hurt, and the best

02:14 thing is they're cheap, they're reversible, and they're easy to install.

02:17 So if you end up not liking them, you can pull them out and somebody will probably

02:20 buy them from you. So that was our first mile we made, and probably the

02:24 one that of all the others I couldn't live without. Everything else I've done

02:28 to this truck I could take away and probably be okay. These guys though,

02:32 they're staying, they're permanent, and the next time I buy a tow rig, they're

02:36 going in that too. I got it, and even though it was low miles, the stock tires,

02:41 or the tires it came with I should say, had not been changed in a long while.

02:45 They had been good tires when they were new, but they were old and dry rotted, and

02:50 even though they had pretty good tread on them, they just weren't safe for

02:53 highway use. So we called our friends at BFGoodrich, and they sent me this set of

02:58 Trail Terrain TAs, which are a little bit more aggressive than just your standard

03:06 sort of all seasons, but less aggressive than the famed BFGoodrich KO2. What you

03:13 get out of these that you don't get with the All Terrains is reduced road noise, a

03:18 little bit better fuel economy, and better wear characteristics. They're not

03:21 as soft, so they're a little bit longer-lived. Why these are better than

03:26 just traditional all seasons is, as you can see from the sidewall, and I'll show

03:30 you the tread here, they're just that bit more aggressive than your traditional

03:35 all season, and actually they kind of have a tread pattern that's a little bit

03:40 reminiscent of the KO2, just maybe not as deep. And they, even though they're far

03:47 from aggressive, they've been really nice when we've done some light off-roading

03:50 or on soft surfaces. And the other thing is, they are three peak mountain

03:56 snowflake rated, which means they're good in cold temperatures and in nasty

04:02 weather, which here in Virginia we get a lot. So these, next to the air suspension,

04:07 have been a fantastic mod. I recommend these tires to anyone who's looking.

04:12 Alright guys, now excuse the mess in here, but as I said, it's a daily driver, so

04:17 it's a little dirty. Now I just wanted to talk real quick about this

04:20 modification that I made pretty early on in owning the truck. It's not one that I

04:24 would necessarily recommend to everyone, but this pedal commander basically

04:29 talks to the drive-by-wire throttle and makes it respond a little bit more

04:32 quickly than it does normally. The factory tune is pretty sluggish, kind of

04:37 feels like you're stepping in a bowl of pudding, and with the pedal commander

04:42 things respond a little bit snappier. Around town I don't use it. It kind of

04:46 makes the truck a little jerky off the line, but when you're towing a trailer

04:50 and you've got a pretty heavy load back there, the extra throttle response is

04:54 nice, especially when you're up on the highway and you want to pass somebody.

04:57 It takes all the guesswork out of it. Now this thing has a bunch of different

05:01 settings from economy to city to sport to sport plus. I find city 3 is my

05:07 favorite setting. It's plenty snappy, but it's not overly aggressive. But anyway,

05:12 this thing was a couple hundred bucks. I bought it used off someone who had it on

05:16 a Tacoma, and a late model Tacoma pedal just has the same plug as the

05:22 Sequoia. So I've been running it for about eight months. I haven't decided

05:27 whether I'm going to keep it or not, but it has certainly made my life a little

05:30 bit easier when it comes to towing. Now with that out of the way, the other mod

05:35 that any tow rig needs is a trailer brake controller. Now this one is cheap

05:41 and sort of low spec. It came on the truck, which is why it's still here. You

05:46 know, the cheapest mod is one you don't do yourself. And this one doesn't have a

05:51 ton of bells and whistles, but I can say it works very well and it really just

05:54 kind of is extra peace of mind when there's a heavier load behind you. Now I

05:59 probably would have changed this if I towed a trailer that had brakes on it

06:03 more often, but most of the time I'm just towing a yard trailer and it really

06:07 doesn't require the use of this thing. So that's why it is the way it is. You know,

06:13 there are nicer ones. You should probably have a nicer one if you're going to tow a

06:16 big trailer more often. But for so far this has worked for me and it's probably

06:21 staying right where it's at just because it's a...

06:25 Alright y'all, here we are out on Interstate 64 in Flufana County, Virginia.

06:30 Bopping along right about 70 miles an hour and as you can see, everything's quiet in here.

06:35 The rig behind... or the load behind me on the rig is nice and quiet and calm.

06:41 And we can do this pretty much as far as we want to go. The Sequoia is happy. I'm happy.

06:46 I'm comfortable. I got a heated seat going. I got the air conditioner on. What

06:51 more could you want? Aside from Apple CarPlay, 40 more horsepower,

06:57 and maybe more gears in the transmission, and a warranty. Let's see, what else?

07:05 Oh, cool seats would be nice. That'd be a thing. But we don't have any of that.

07:11 And the truck was nine grand. And the truck is paid for. And it will tow my UTV

07:16 anywhere I want it to, any day of the week. And when I get where I'm going, I can

07:21 park at the trailhead and sleep in it. Can't say fairer than that. I'll take

07:26 that every time over a car payment and interest. Alright, that's been my 2006

07:34 Toyota Sequoia. The mods I've done to it, and how it fits into my daily life. I

07:38 would take this as proof that if a truck is getting in the way of you getting a

07:43 UTV and getting out there and doing your thing, there are ways around it. Don't let

07:48 anyone tell you you need a bank loan or a $75,000 truck to go have fun and hit

07:52 the trails. I'm living proof of that. I do this for a living. And this is the

07:57 vehicle I do it in. Thanks guys. And remember, you can catch us on our social

08:02 media channels on Facebook, on Instagram, here on YouTube. Make sure you hit that

08:06 like and subscribe button. And you can find us every day of the week at

08:11 UTVDriver.com

08:13 you

08:16 [BLANK_AUDIO]

Category

Transcript

Recommended