It was a nice sunny 70 degree day in Boulder so I decided to see how bad/good the LC would tow my 2000lbs Taxa Cricket with electric brakes. Went from Boulder to Nederland and back. That is about 3000' vertical in 16.5 miles (5300' elev. to 8200' elev.). There are sections at 10% grade with many sharp curves. Lot's of bikes, pedestrians and people pulling on and off the roadway. I did not focus on gas mileage. I don't worry about it going up near the continental divide. I was focused on the driving feel and how the LC managed the towing process. I typically do not like using Cruise control or manually shifting. Many others have done more rigorous analysis.
I configured one of the dash screens to show Tow Brake Controller, Transmission Temp/Oil Temp. It always shows water temp. I recently came from a 2020 BMW X3 and have had issues on this curvy steep road before. My main concern was going down. Since the BMW did not have a built in brake controller, I used a Bluetooth-based Curt Echo. Multiple times the BMW/Curt combo have gone haywire on the the way down and I had the trailer electric brakes doing 90% of the work. Trailer brakes would get very hot. I had to pull over and cool the brakes. Not a happy Camper!
My concern with the LC was transmission temps. Several folks have mentioned overheated transmission. I also have read that there is little to none engine braking on the LC. I did not monitor the Hybrid System and have read that it is still breaking in until 1000 miles on the odometer (??).
Going up: LC was in Tow/Haul mode and drove very well. No matter the grade the engine kept itself at about 2500 RPM and the transmission found a gear to stay in (the X3 would jump around to different gearing at times to find a gear it likes). LC had plenty of power if I needed to accelerate. When I got to the top the Oil, tranny and water temp were all still dead center in their gauges. The old Beemer with a smaller engine typically went up pretty easy too. Totally unscientific but the LC seemed to minimize gear shifting. There were maybe a couple occasions where it lugged a little bit before downshifting.
Going back down: There is a round-about at the top so I turned back down to Boulder. I had the brake controller set at 5. The top 5 miles is probably 5% grade. Again, the LC kept the engine at around 2500RPM so there was definitely some engine braking. The second 5 miles is 10% grade with straight steep sections coming into sharp curves. Interestingly, the engine did more braking and RPM moved up to 3500RPM as soon as the grade steepened. You could feel it slowing the LC down. I still had to tap the brakes coming into sharp curves.
I think the LC did great. I understand I was nowhere near the towing limit. My personal feeling is it's probably not a great idea to max out towing capacity when going up and down the continental divide (95% of our trips involve going up and over). It felt solid and was not pushed or jerked around by the trailer. We'll head to Golden Gate Canyon next week it is even higher. For now, I'm a happy camper!
Things I don't understand - Maybe someone could help:
I configured one of the dash screens to show Tow Brake Controller, Transmission Temp/Oil Temp. It always shows water temp. I recently came from a 2020 BMW X3 and have had issues on this curvy steep road before. My main concern was going down. Since the BMW did not have a built in brake controller, I used a Bluetooth-based Curt Echo. Multiple times the BMW/Curt combo have gone haywire on the the way down and I had the trailer electric brakes doing 90% of the work. Trailer brakes would get very hot. I had to pull over and cool the brakes. Not a happy Camper!
My concern with the LC was transmission temps. Several folks have mentioned overheated transmission. I also have read that there is little to none engine braking on the LC. I did not monitor the Hybrid System and have read that it is still breaking in until 1000 miles on the odometer (??).
Going up: LC was in Tow/Haul mode and drove very well. No matter the grade the engine kept itself at about 2500 RPM and the transmission found a gear to stay in (the X3 would jump around to different gearing at times to find a gear it likes). LC had plenty of power if I needed to accelerate. When I got to the top the Oil, tranny and water temp were all still dead center in their gauges. The old Beemer with a smaller engine typically went up pretty easy too. Totally unscientific but the LC seemed to minimize gear shifting. There were maybe a couple occasions where it lugged a little bit before downshifting.
Going back down: There is a round-about at the top so I turned back down to Boulder. I had the brake controller set at 5. The top 5 miles is probably 5% grade. Again, the LC kept the engine at around 2500RPM so there was definitely some engine braking. The second 5 miles is 10% grade with straight steep sections coming into sharp curves. Interestingly, the engine did more braking and RPM moved up to 3500RPM as soon as the grade steepened. You could feel it slowing the LC down. I still had to tap the brakes coming into sharp curves.
I think the LC did great. I understand I was nowhere near the towing limit. My personal feeling is it's probably not a great idea to max out towing capacity when going up and down the continental divide (95% of our trips involve going up and over). It felt solid and was not pushed or jerked around by the trailer. We'll head to Golden Gate Canyon next week it is even higher. For now, I'm a happy camper!
Things I don't understand - Maybe someone could help:
- On BMW when the 7 pin connector was plugged in it automatically put itself into Tow Mode. LC recognizes the 7 pin is connected but you still have to push tow mode - WHY???
- I installed a Victron 12/12/18 - DC to DC charger and 100ah lithium battery on the Trailer. Normally, these trailers come with lead acid battery and no DC to DC charger. The charger has a mobile app that shows status. The LC consistently puts out 14.2V on the 7 pin. Ironically, a Lion battery likes that high voltage but the DC to DC charger manages that anyway. If you had a Lead Acid battery the 7 pin voltage is pretty high. I think Lead Acid prefer around 13.5V. Not sure why the LC voltage on the 7 pin is so high. They probably should warn you. Maybe someone on here understands Toyota Battery Management System and can explain.
- Rear camera-with all the technology one would think Toyota would make a rear camera view optimized for connecting a trailer (BMW has that). I found a view on the LC that had a green centerline that is tied to the front wheel position. It still was not very good. In another part of the menu you can turn off the yellow boxes. Maybe it's there and I don't know how to activate it.
