Cross country tow

[Walter]

Greetings Telluride owners! I recently got my EX - love it. I have a trip planned and will be towing a 3,000 lb trailer for about 2000 miles. Anyone done this yet? I'm curious how well it performed, gas mileage, any other learned advice you can share?

-Walter

 

[Mickey]

Both the Telluride and Palisade show a 5000 pound towing capacity, but the Palisade spec sheet says that is with brakes on the trailer. Does the Telluride have a similar limitation?

 

[Walter]

Both the Telluride and Palisade show a 5000 pound towing capacity, but the Palisade spec sheet says that is with brakes on the trailer. Does the Telluride have a similar limitation?

Not that I'm aware of. In fact the Telluride tow package does not include a trailer-brake interface, so this would arguably be a conflicting limitation.

 

[wazslow]

Trailer brake requirements depend on state laws and the type and weight of the trailer you are towing.

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[KIAconvert]

Greetings Telluride owners! I recently got my EX - love it. I have a trip planned and will be towing a 3,000 lb trailer for about 2000 miles. Anyone done this yet? I'm curious how well it performed, gas mileage, any other learned advice you can share?

-Walter

Congrats on your EX!! There is a very helpful posting that talks about this at length here:Max towing safely is only 3500 lbs - prove me wrong

It seems that the owners manual is being adjusted and the 5000lb rating / 500lb tongue rating is correct but requires trailer brakes to meet that limit. Otherwise it is only a 1650lb rating. Which is frustrating since they didn’t include a 7-pin adapter! This is from the Manufacturer regardless of State laws. Check out the posts linked above and the manual addendum attached.

 

[KIAconvert]

Both the Telluride and Palisade show a 5000 pound towing capacity, but the Palisade spec sheet says that is with brakes on the trailer. Does the Telluride have a similar limitation?

Yes, although they messed up an added a 4 pin it does have the same required of brakes. See previous post... very frustrating

 

[Walter]

Max weight of 1650 without breaks? That seems silly light, am I missing something? The Kia site, other googling around, and the Kia dealership all had me believing I could tow 5k with the tow package. Looks like to be within spec I'd have to install a 7 pin connector and buy a new trailer. (My little single axle cargo trailer doesn't have brakes...in fact not sure I've ever seen such a light trailer with breaks). Hope I haven't made a big mistake here...I make this trip twice a year.

 

[KIAconvert]

On top of that... the manual on pg 1-4 states “Don't tow a trailer during the first 1,200 miles (2,000 km) of operation.”

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[Walter]

On top of that... the manual on pg 1-4 states “Don't tow a trailer during the first 1,200 miles (2,000 km) of operation.”

This, at least, is a very reasonable constraint.

 

[NCBill]

Max weight of 1650 without breaks? That seems silly light, am I missing something? The Kia site, other googling around, and the Kia dealership all had me believing I could tow 5k with the tow package. Looks like to be within spec I'd have to install a 7 pin connector and buy a new trailer. (My little single axle cargo trailer doesn't have brakes...in fact not sure I've ever seen such a light trailer with breaks). Hope I haven't made a big mistake here...I make this trip twice a year.

FWIW: Where I live (North Carolina) trailer brakes are required for any trailer weighing 1,000 pounds or more. Every state is different. IMHO, how you set up the trailer, and particularly tongue weight, is as important to stability as brakes. At 3,000 pounds I would want trailer brakes for sure. One of the worse feelings out there is having a trailer pushing you as you go downhill, and sway can lead to jackknifing. Having trailer brakes really helps. And check your trailer axle, you may be able to add brakes to it.

In my many years towing, its not about "going" its all about "stopping". Trailer brakes play a big role in stopping.

 

[G-726311]

Bill, I appreciate the response. I've never seen a 2-ton trailer with brakes...maybe cause it's so flat around here (Dallas)?

My beef with Kia was for being so unclear. Even with the "Tow package", you are not getting a truck that meets their advertised specs. But, I escalated with Kia and they are making it right for me at least.

 

[Schifers]

Bill, I appreciate the response. I've never seen a 2-ton trailer with brakes...maybe cause it's so flat around here (Dallas)?

My beef with Kia was for being so unclear. Even with the "Tow package", you are not getting a truck that meets their advertised specs. But, I escalated with Kia and they are making it right for me at least.

How are they making it right with you.....Im curious

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[NCBill]

"
Bill, I appreciate the response. I've never seen a 2-ton trailer with brakes...maybe cause it's so flat around here (Dallas)?

My beef with Kia was for being so unclear. Even with the "Tow package", you are not getting a truck that meets their advertised specs. But, I escalated with Kia and they are making it right for me at least."

Most new camping trailers of around 1500 pounds or higher come stock with brakes. Much lower than 2 ton mark for sure.

Agree, most manufacturer tow packages (not limited to Kia) are incomplete. If I were "king for the day" I would require any vehicle advertising a "trailer package" would have to include 7 pin connector, a good transmission cooler, and a trailer brake controller. Even on the F150, they have three different towing packages. The first two do not include a brake controller. All do have the seven pin wiring.

Most of the other 5,000 pound tow rated SUVs out there do not come with trailer brakes, and do not come with 7 pin wiring. Its a problem throughout the industry. The Highlander tow package consists of a receiver hitch.... To make it even worse, right now, you cannot get a hitch on the 2020 Highlander Limited or Platinum. If you want to hear some really angry people out there, check out the discussions on towing with the new Highlander!

 

[SorentoSXL]

Correct if I'm wrong, but if tow a trailer that has surge brakes, you can get away with the 4 pin harness instead of 7 pin and still tow the full 5k lbs. I think the 7 pin is needed for electronic trailer brakes but not needed for the hydraulic surge brake systems.

 

[PaulD]

Max weight of 1650 without breaks? That seems silly light, am I missing something? The Kia site, other googling around, and the Kia dealership all had me believing I could tow 5k with the tow package. Looks like to be within spec I'd have to install a 7 pin connector and buy a new trailer. (My little single axle cargo trailer doesn't have brakes...in fact not sure I've ever seen such a light trailer with breaks). Hope I haven't made a big mistake here...I make this trip twice a year.

If the Telluride itself weighed an additional 1650lbs, it would have been designed with much larger brakes. It's not silly at all to require trailer brakes beyond that.

 

[PaulD]

Correct if I'm wrong, but if tow a trailer that has surge brakes, you can get away with the 4 pin harness instead of 7 pin and still tow the full 5k lbs. I think the 7 pin is needed for electronic trailer brakes but not needed for the hydraulic surge brake systems.

That's correct, though surge brakes have their own set of problems, like backing up. Some surge brake systems can employ a 5th pin that connect to the back up lights and trips a solenoid in the surge brake system to disable them.

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[Walter]

How are they making it right with you.....Im curious

After my polite but persistent complaint that their best factory installed "tow package" does not include trailer brakes, yet a trailer brake system is required to meet their advertised capacity, they sent me a check to cover cost of installing trailer brake system on my Telluride.

 

[pbinde]

After my polite but persistent complaint that their best factory installed "tow package" does not include trailer brakes, yet a trailer brake system is required to meet their advertised capacity, they sent me a check to cover cost of installing trailer brake system on my Telluride.

wow For how much?

 

[pbinde]

After my polite but persistent complaint that their best factory installed "tow package" does not include trailer brakes, yet a trailer brake system is required to meet their advertised capacity, they sent me a check to cover cost of installing trailer brake system on my Telluride.

You still with us? Curious how much the installation costs and how much Kia gave you. Happy towing

 

[Walter]

Kia gave me an amount we negotiated based on my specific circumstance, probably not fair to Kia to share the specific amount.