100 series Land Cruiser

[Wil]

I'm considering buying an Elite II and was wondering if my 2002 Toyota Land Cruiser with a 6,500 pound towing capacity can handle it. Any thoughts? 

[John E Davies]

Welcome to the form. Your LC100 would be acceptable for the small Elite but in no way is it OK for the LE2. Too little power, too few gears, too little towing capacity. But some of that depends on where and how you plan to tow. If you stuck to the eastern states and flat terrain it would manage, until you got so mad that you traded it in for a new 2023 Sequoia Hybrid.... which would be a wonderful tow vehicle.

John Davies

Spokane WA

 

[topgun2]

13 hours ago, Wil said:

with a 6,500 pound towing capacity can handle it.

If you live in an area of the country that is FLAT and will never tow outside that area and will never load things in the Oliver that cause it to exceed that towing limit, and never have an emergency situation and always keep EVERY SINGLE THING in the tow vehicle up to date and are one of the most careful drivers on the road and ........

All will be fine.  But, you still will not have any fun.

Bill

[John E Davies]

I would like to add that many Land Cruiser owners add lots of heavy accessories like skid plates and racks, and install oversized tires. All these severely affect its towing ability, and wreck the fuel economy. If that term can even be applied to this series of (wonderful) trucks. How many mods have you done to yours, and what is your payload now? I found this, your original payload is actually pretty decent, it is higher than the LC200, but the tongue weight limit is really marginal for the LE2, which has about that much, on average.

I hope this doesn’t sound too negative, I love mine. I just don’t think it tows the big Ollie very well. But when Armageddon arrives I will be glad to have it😬, at least until I can’t find enough gas to keep it going.

John Davies

Spokane WA

[Wil]

Thanks for your very helpful info and advice.  Now the question is do I get the LE2 and buy a new tow vehicle or just settle for a Casita?  I'm leaning towards the LE2.  I know they are vastly different trailers in many, many ways.  

[John E Davies]

44 minutes ago, Wil said:

Thanks for your very helpful info and advice.  Now the question is do I get the LE2 and buy a new tow vehicle or just settle for a Casita?  I'm leaning towards the LE2.  I know they are vastly different trailers in many, many ways.  

If you haven’t crawled around in an Ollie, do so, you can use the See an Oliver link to find one reasonably close by, hopefully. Keep in mind that they are still varey rare, the newest hull numbers have just passed 1000. They truly are amazing to see in person. BTW, when I got mine, I had them delete the side graphics, but they also deleted the name stickers. For two years I had to constantly answer people who asked “Is that some kind of Casita?” After I put on those stickers, now they say, “oooh look, it’s an Oliver.”. Interesting.

John Davies

Spokane WA

[SeaDawg]

As JED said, an Elite might be a solution for you. Our 2008,  loaded for camping is just shy of 4000 lbs, with a tongue weight around 400. Similar floorplan to a Casita, but all the Oliver benefits of fiberglass molded furniture, aluminum frame, etc. 

A 2019 just posted for sale in classifieds.  I've seen just a few sell this year. 

[Trainman]

Even if the Land Cruiser is a nice vehicle and reasonable mileage I would question starting out with a 20 year old vehicle to use it for traveling and pulling a trailer. It would be a good second vehicle and used for that reason locally, have a breakdown on the road and the cost could become high dollar. I realize a Toyota is a top rated vehicle, but 20 years old could open up a bag of worms. 

trainman