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Towing with RAV4 HEV


1928KH
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I've had my Design MY22 HEV for a month now and I'm delighted with the performance and frugality.

I bought the RAV4 because we have a caravan and needed a car (to replace a Yeti Plus 2 litre diesel, 140hp) capable of towing it satisfactorily, and AWD system and petrol/electric power plant looked to be quite suitable for our needs.

We've just got back from our first, somewhat cold caravan trip to Suffolk, the distance being about 180 miles each way.

Thoughts and finding are:

The Toyota factory fitted tow-bar (we chose the detachable (Brink) one) is easily installed and removed and the electric socket rotates out of sight to leave no trace. The ball height, as noted in another thread, is quite high, but for our single axle caravan it doesn't matter.

The car's pulling performance is more than adequate. I started in Eco mode which was OK for general country roads in flat areas, however on speedier roads and in hilly areas, where more performance is required, the heavy push needed on the accelerator pedal in Eco mode is quite wearing. A change to Sport mode in these circumstances allows smaller pedal deflections and a quicker response which makes it easier to maintain speed, however care is needed not to use too much 'boot' at the expense of economy.

Before towing I expected the fuel consumption to double over solo driving and so it proved. I've been able to achieve over 50 mpg quite easily whilst driving at normal road speeds, but the towing mpg dropped to between 22 to 26 mpg with the caravan attached.

Also, when towing the high revving of the engine becomes more of a feature due to the increased power needed for smart acceleration and pulling the additional weight up hills.

All in all we're very pleased with the car, my only criticism is the amount of road noise which seems to be emanating from the rear wheel. This may be a product of the factory fitted tyres, Dunlop, but we won't know until the time comes to change them.

GDB

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Interesting review. What weight caravan are you towing? 

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It's a Swift Corniche 15/2, aka Swift Challenger Sport 2 berth, 2013 vintage.

It's MRO is 1133kg and max weight is 1254kg.

GDB

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4 hours ago, 1928KH said:

I started in Eco mode which was OK for general country roads in flat areas, however on speedier roads and in hilly areas, where more performance is required, the heavy push needed on the accelerator pedal in Eco mode is quite wearing. A change to Sport mode in these circumstances allows smaller pedal deflections and a quicker response which makes it easier to maintain speed, however care is needed not to use too much 'boot' at the expense of economy.

I'm a little surprised that you didn't just leave it in Normal ... 😉

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Philip, I did run in normal mode as well, in fact most of the time!

To be honest there doesn't seem to be a lot to chose between eco and normal when towing on the flat.

The only reason I mention sports mode is that when it gets hilly it's very easy to loose speeds on uphill stretches. Unlike a manual or traditional auto gearbox where the engine revs are directly related to road speed and loss of road speed is immediately apparent, with the e-cvt and the quiet engine, which is mostly drowned out by road noise, it's easy to loose speed which then has to be regained by using an excess of fuel. Sport mode responds  positively to a squeeze of the accelerator as soon as speed falls.

Just my thoughts. Easier to use CC if the road type is suitable!

GDB

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I agree about the road noise, and mine is on Toyo Proxes.

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To 1928KH,

Thanks so much for posting this in the forum.

This is us!! We have a 10-year old Yeti and looking so buy a car to replace. We need to tow a trailer but we were worried but some of the reviews about poor towing of the RAV4 at high speeds. We were thinking we might have to look at a Mazda CX-5 but so disappointed because of the reported superior fuel economy of the Rav 4.

Thanks for your review and for giving us the confidence to go for the Rav 4! 🙏👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
 

 

 

 

 

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Whilst I am aware this is a RAV4 forum and will also be towing a caravan with ours (after 35 years of diesels and 10 years of towing) there is no doubt that in towing conditions petrol (even in hybrid form) will be inferior to diesel for economy. The RAV however equals or wins over diesel when driving solo so you need to consider overall use. 

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Quite right Flatcoat, diesels are great for towing, lots of low-down torque. The Rav needs to rev to produce power. Our Yeti cruised at 60mpg under 2000rpm. I've no way of making a comparison but whereas under 50mpg the Rav's engine is quite relaxed, any faster or when accelerating the engine begins to make itself heard.

However, as you say the mileage towing is usually a very small fraction of overall mileage so it's not really an issue.

GDB

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About that unrelated engine revs to speed thing, look at it this way:

It's the computer that continuously selects the proper gear ratio from an infinite number of "gears".
It always selects the optimum rev/gear ratio for the given load. Higher revs doesn't hurt the engine, (too) low revs in a traditional gearbox situation in combination with a heavy foot, does!

IMHO people who complain about "that irritating Hybrid rev noise" do not understand the hybrid system. I dare say, these people probably have been abusing their cars, causing lots of wear and heat in their engines and gearboxes. In other words, they have always done it wrong, and/or were too lazy to shift down in a manual gear box. You cannot beat a computer, and in a sophysticated Hybrid, you even don't want to!

That said, Toyota could have used more and better sound deadening in the otherwise very comfortable RAV4!

 

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Look at the second of PetrolPed’s YouTube videos on the PHEV. A very good layman’s explanation of how the CVT works with the hybrid system in the PHEV, I guess the HEV is similar. Basically it keeps the engine at its maximum point of efficiency so producing maximum power for minimum fuel. We are conditioned by years of driving cars with gears so need to adjust to the CVT. I have - and turning up the radio volume helps too! 

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Moderation of the use of the right foot can make a massive difference to the engine noise?

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To a degree but if you want to avoid becoming a snail climbing a hill you need to boot the throttle. 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 4/2/2022 at 9:42 PM, Sealiedog said:

I agree about the road noise, and mine is on Toyo Proxes.

Mine too, and road noise is a big issue for us now.

Makes a four hour journey over various road surfaces very tiring and not at all pleasant.

 

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I use parts of the M1 regularly, around 100 miles, and the differing surfaces make a massive difference to tyre surface noise. Sadly they have been extensive road works on the section I use for more than 10 years for one reason or another but resent resurfacing of one section more or less made all surface noise disappear. It’s like a switch had been engaged when leaving the old surface to the new.

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