Tab 400 Tow Vehicle

shane1

My wife and I are looking at smaller travel trailers and like the idea of a separate bed and dinette.  The Tab 400 looks great. My current vehicle is a 2020 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk V6 with e 4500 max tow capacity and a 450 hitch weight. Is this enough to tow the 400 comfortable?  If not any suggestions for a mid sized truck that would tow it easily? It will be my daily driver but my wife will drive it when we are at our destination. She does not feel comfortable driving anything larger than mid size truck.  While researching I see that the real world hitch weight of the 400 can vary.  We are currently looking at 2021-2023 model year trailers and have a strong preference to keep the Jeep if possible. Thanks for your input.

AnOldUR

We sometimes tow our 320S with our Cherokee Trailhawk w/ tow package and 3.2L engine. Gas mileage drops to around 16mpg and you can feel the trailer back there on hills. It could work, but I'm curious what a 400 owner will say. I don't think it would be the best towing experience.

Jilong

For what it's worth, we tow our 2018 Tab 400 with a 2013 Toyota Highlander Limited with a tow capacity of 5000 lbs. We get roughly 10-13 mpg while towing.

marleecamps

Personally, the 4500 tow capacity would give me pause, as you are pretty close to the 3900 Tab fully loaded weight.  Others may be less concerned.  I feel very comfortable towing my 2021 400 with my Jeep Grand Cherokee which has a towing capacity of 7200, V6 and factory tow package.  Average 14 mpg.

Syd

As my signature states, we have a 2016 Kia Sorento V6 (3.3L). It has a towing capacity of 5000lbs and hitch of 500lbs. I have no issue towing our 2019 400, but as with towing most trailers, the gas mileage sucks. We normally get about 7.3 -7.6 l/100km, but towing is more like 15 -17 l/100km. Not sure what that works out to in mpg. Of course we live in hilly/mountain country (Calgary) and there is usually a wind.

RTWCTS

Dig down in to the tow ratings for a vehicle. Our 2019 Chevy Colorado (V6 w/ tow package) lists a 7000LB max tow rating with 700LB tongue wt. The caveat is that it is with a weight distributing hitch. Without the WDH it is 5000 LB towing and 500LB on the tongue. Many manufacturers do the same thing with advertised max tow ratings.

That being said, we use a WDH towing our 2023 T@B 400 and have been happy with the performance.  Towing over 5K miles since March we've averaged 13.7MPG. With 38 nights on the road so far, we still love our 400!

Syd

@RTWCTS - I didn't even think about our WDH. Good point! The Andersen we have is fantastic. Keeps everything nice and stable, even in cross winds or when semis pass.

RTWCTS

We're using an Andersen WDH too @Syd .

Binghi

Check out the 2023 GMC Canyon midsize truck line. All the trims use the high-output turbocharged four-cylinder engine with 390 hp and 430 foot-pounds of torque (at 3000 RPM I believe). I think the towing limit is 7000 pounds, and the max hitch weight is 500 or 700 pounds. If you want to keep your engine in a decent RPM range and you don’t want to go up hills and overpasses at 35 or 40 miles an hour, there’s no substitute for torque and horsepower.

Jay_and_Kat

On one of our recent outings, we weighed the tongue once we were loaded up with a Sherline scale, and came in at just about bang-on 500lbs tongue weight.  So it'd be really easy to get over your Cherokees' max.

If you want to stay in the Jeep community for a tow vehicle, we're using a '22 Gladiator Sport S with the tow package (gas engine and automatic transmission) to tow our 400BD and it does a decent job.  Averages about 13MPG highway here in Michigan, so no BIG hills to go over, no WDH.

For most of our trips, I'd say the transmission sits in 5th, going down a hill or bridge will get it to 6th, usually until the next uphill.

shane1

Anyone know what the frontal area is for the Tab 320S and Tab 400 are. My Jeep owners manual recommends a frontal area of 39.44 square feet of frontal area. I assume this mean to reduce drag.

rh5555

We towed a 2020 TAB400 with a 2L turbo Cherokee Trailhawk with tow package for several years.  We certainly felt the trailer back there, but never, ever had any stability issues.  Watch out for TAB model years though: 2019 was very heavy on the tongue, 2020 was lighter but had a questionable A/C unit, 2021 and later got the recipe right by moving the axle forward (to lower the tongue weight) while keeping the CoolCat A/C unit up near the front.

We didn't carry a spare tire for the TAB, but instead had the ability to use the (full size) spare from the Jeep.   That helped keep us under the 400lb tongue weight limit.  With the bigger engine, you would have more leeway and (unless you're in a real hurry to get places) I think you'd be fine.  Only drawback that we couldn't overcome was that the trailer weight on the tongue made our headlight shine too high, semi-blinding oncoming traffic.  Our solution:  Don't drive after dusk. 

bigsnout7

We bought a 2022 TAB 400 Boondock this spring that we tow with our 2015 Audi Q5 TDI (diesel) which is rated to tow 4400 lbs. with a 440 lb. maximum tongue weight. We live in Denver and frequently tow the Tab into the mountains. The torque and power of the diesel make climbing a breeze. Just back from a trip to camp at 10,000 ft. Average mileage there and back was 20 mpg. If you can find one of these for a tow car I would highly recommend it.

Horigan

Yeah.  Too bad they are no longer available given the Volkswagon/Audi diesel emissions scandal.  Their current 3.0 liter turbo though makes 369 ft-lbs of torque!  

dlb

We use an SQ5, 6cylinder turbocharged Audi with about 350 HP and Torque.  Not the same mileage but all the climbing ability.  It is also a very nice ride when not towing on our out and about journeys.

JamesC

I have a 2018 tab 400 that I have been towing since it was purchased in 2019 with a 2012 Tacoma with the 4L v6. I never had any problems towing the trailer and never felt unsafe but it always seemed to be working very hard and my towing range was only about 200 miles. It was also evident that I could easily exceed the cargo capacity if I took kids or more equipment on a trip. 

I recently switched to a 2015 F150 with the 5L v8 and the heavy duty towing package and there is a world of difference in the towing experience. It’s much more relaxing to tow with all the excess capacity this truck offers. It also more than doubles my range when towing. You’ll never be sorry with more capacity but you may regret having too little. 

Cheryl13

We have been towing a tab 400 2020 with a 2019 Subaru Ascent with no problem.  Not great gas mileage, but towing never is.

Ironmikey72

I tow a 2022 T@B400 Boondock with one of two vehicles.  A 2021 Toyota 4Runner rated for 5000lbs and a 2008 GMC Sierra 1500 4.8L V8 rated at 5900 lbs max towing.  It tows poorly with both vehicles, although the 5 speed transmission in the 4Runner is quieter towing and gets better gas mileage.  I think the problem is the height of the trailer and the frontal area.  It catches a lot of wind!  It moves a lot behind the tow vehicle, so much that I had to install a sway prevention device on the hitch.  In one trip on I-75 South last spring, high winds caused the Sierra to drop to 6 mpg and it was impossible to hold 55 mph.  I am not happy with the way this trailer tows.  Our last trailer was an Airstream and it was a dream to tow!  I am going to remove the off road tires and lower the suspension, if possible, to see if this trailer can be made to tow more easily.  Not a tow friendly trailer in my opinion.