We have a Böckmann Portax K, a German manufactured horse trailer that is designed for Europe and to be pulled by a mid-sized SUV. It is lightweight and well balanced. It is designed to keep the horses positioned over the axles. We don't plan on frequent or long trips with it, so expect the experience to be good.
Awesome thank you for sharing, this does add some perspective. So that trailer has a loaded tongue weight of 211 which tells me it is designed to not require weight distribution as it probably assumes the horse(s) are standing. And an empty weight of 2,430lbs. So you should be able to pull with two horses averaging 1,200 lbs each? Then about 1,000lbs of passengers and cargo in the Telluride. Does your horse trailer have electric brakes? I’m just trying to figure out the fineprint from Kia that suggests aftermarket equipment was required why they were towing. Since I know nothing about horse trailers this is particularly informative to me.
Nevermind, I see that the trailer has what appears to be something like mechanical surge brakes so you can tow it with a 4-pin flat connection.
That's it. I'm moving to Spearfish and getting a horse or two. Thanks for the info.
At the very least, did not come with the ball; but, really it's CYA...
This may help:
If everything else is what you want and I was in your shoes, I would not hesitate to get the one without the more expensive shocks. (Without the tow package) Then I would buy a hitch after the fact. It doesn’t have to be the aftermarket option. You can buy all the parts for the Kia tow option hitch. (Tow option not tow package). You won’t lose any towing capability. If you feel you need better suspension, in a few months there will be better after market shock options you can buy.
Unless you really need the new vehicle, wait the 90 days. Adding the hitch later will be a pain and cost more money. You also won’t get the self leveling shocks.
If you read this and many other threads you will see that the self leveling shocks are not really a towing benefit. Adding the hitch is a 30 min self install and you can buy all three Kia parts for the Tow Option very easily. For the 2021 you can get the 7-pin harness (S9F61-AU000 + S9F67-AC500 + S9F61-AU060)*. If you bought the parts online or from Kia any trailer dealer would probably install it for a small fee or you could negotiate it with the Kia dealer. A bird in the hand is worth waiting 90 days IMO. All in you will be looking at $500-600 for the Kia Tow Option as an add on and you won’t be stuck with the self leveling shocks in the future that are more costly to replace and may not last as long. If you can negotiate the tow option at vehicle purchase for $475 with install that’s a good deal.
It is going to come down to if they want the shocks then.
I agree. I just wanted to make sure the OP was informed. Adding just the hitch later will actually be less money than waiting 90 days and waiting for the more expensive tow "package". And over the long run the self-leveling shocks will cost more to maintain. Back to the original post that started this thread, Kia advertising this only on the Telluride in the US as a towing package is really misleading because it provides no additional towing value (capacity nor safety). In fact, in some cases when towing it creates additional complication to setup. To a casual tower (the audience this original thread was meant for) if you are pull 3,500-5,000 pounds it may be even more important to understand the complexity in setup for safety reasons. Sway, fishtailing, poor steering or inadequate braking that result in an accident only need to happen once to have catastrophic results.
Thank everyone for responding. I only need to tow a small sailboat (Laser) and will opt for the one without the package and do an aftermarket or dealer install. I’m also super anxious to get it in and cannot wait!
Confirmed: I asked Kia Parts/Service about eventually 9-10 years down the road replacing the rear self-leveling Mando shock absorbers and it's way more $$$ than for the standard shocks.
This is great feedback and reassurance that the WDH makes sense with this unibody frame for safe towing. I'm a very early Telluride owner and I am pleased to hear this because my manual still has the 351 pound tongue weight number that was fixed with a sticker that Kia sent me to change the number to 500. I'm really pleased to hear that the Telluride met the 500 spec and that the WDH on the unibody was not a problem. Hopefully this will encourage other folks to consider a WDH if they are getting in that 400+ range to level their load AND distribute the weight back to the other axles before before they snap their rear axle.
