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What is the heaviest thing you towed with your Sorento?

42K views 56 replies 28 participants last post by  arrampico 
#1 ·
And what equipment did you use?
- Tow Hitch
- Additional Transmission Cooler?
- Trailer Brakes?

I'm trying to help one of my friend decide on getting a Sorento ;)
 
#14 ·
I would add that this also means you include ALL the stuff you got inside the vech too to lower the towing weight number.

A I4 with 1000# of people and stuff inside will ONLY tow 650# (trailer and cargo #) more outback safely no trailer brakes. Trans cooler is a really good idea if doing it alot. Not once a year. And keep up on trans services too.

A V6 with 1000# of people and stuff inside will ONLY tow 2500# (trailer and cargo) more outback safely. Same as the I4 for all other stuff I said too.


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#8 ·
All cars and trucks with a auto trans have a trans cooler....in the radiator. What he is asking, is there a aux trans cooler? The sorento does not have one and there is not a option for it.
 
#9 ·
I haven't towed anything yet (have to get my hitch mounted and wiring done 1st) but will be towing a motorcycle and trailer with a total weight of about 2,000 lbs. I don't envision any problems with the V-6 engine or brakes. Prior to owning this Sorento I had a 07 V-6 Sportage. The bike and trailer I had then weighed about 1200 lbs. While the Sportage pulled it OK you knew that the trailer was there and the engine was working hard at anything approaching 70 mph and climbing any hills. I generally ran at around 65 and at that speed it was a happy camper though it would be downshifting at times.
At most I only tow the bike 2 maybe 3 times a year. Other times I may use the trailer for lumber yard materials, nothing of any real weight there.
Anyhow I think the bigger V-6 of the Sorento will be more than sufficant even with the extra weight I'll be towing.
Larry
 
#10 ·
To directly answer question, we have pulled a 1,200 pound boat with no problem. This includes two trips up the Sierra Nevada passes (7,500 feet).

There is also the issue of state laws about trailers, in California any trailer over 1,500 pounds must have brakes. It does not matter what the towing vehicle is capable of handling.
 
#13 ·
Thanks for the info Pat. I can understand the rules there and am familar with trailer braking systems as I have in the past pulled various size campers from pop ups to 28 footers.
I do feel that Kia does (as well as all vechical manufacturers do) use a lower tow rating for "covering your a**" for those folks who have no common sense when it comes to safety.
I do know that once I get the hitch mounted on my Sorento and have a chance to do a test run I'll have a better idea as whether I should or not add electric brakes to my landscaper type trailer.
Larry
 
#20 ·
Here in Australia, anything over 750KG MUST have brakes. Anything over about 1.7t MUST have brakes on every wheel. (for those with more than one axle)

The manual transmission 2.2ltr turbo-diesel Sorento can handle 2,500KG towing with the Kia tow bar/ball. The auto, 2,000KG. (2t)

Have you ever seen a great dane or other large dog pulling around a small child via its leash?
Thats what our Sorento reminds me of, when it tows our 1.6t caravan. (Or trailer, for the U.S. folk)
 
#22 ·
Hey Mysticality I liked that picture you painted of the Great Dane and the little kid. That is how it should be when you tow. But here in this forum and many others we have problems with that idea. Too many use that pic you paint but get it wrong, and paint it slightly different then you and I do. That Great Dane (in a wagon/child lorry now) IS the Caravan/Trailer and being pulled by that small child the Sorento. And then they find a down hill incline and the real fun starts. Or they find a uphill incline. The world is not flat even thou Queen Isabella thought so. Gravity is fun if you do not watch what your doing nor what your useing to do it with. ;)


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#23 ·
3500lb 20ft boat on a single axle with surge disc brakes tows great. Tows easier than the 2007 V6 Explorer SportTrac. Haven't towed it more than an hour away yet, but was great all summer. I do always wonder why the 3500lb rating? Body or transmission? It has the power and braking. If the diesel can tow more with the manual trans, then makes me think its the transmission.
 
#27 ·
Many factors play a part really. And yes teh 10/100K is at the top of the list if you do not use your head for the ones lower in the list. Sorta like putting plug covers on elect outlets in your home if you have TODDLERS that do not think and or know better. Children come in all ages it is a sad truth. SO they have to have ARTIFICAL limits for thier own good and not leave it upto them to think they know better and cry later over bad judgements they have made then. MY TOY IS BROKE WAAAAAAAAAAA. And plan on having mommy and daddy bail them out.

1)10/100K
2)UNIBODY over BODY ON FRAME. AKA welds that can crack or bend things front to rear. Front wheels go one way rears an other. Ever see a early 70's chevy NOVA? With the FRONT SUBFRAME front end/clip? DUCK walking down the road. That is by far the classic of them all. And a driver that did something wrong to the poor car. Or is ignoreing the rusted frame mounts a known issue with RWD midsize 70-80 NOVA/SKYLARK/OMEGA/PHOENIX models.
3)Trans torque rating. There are many examples of this fact I could site. And NO AUTO and MANUAL are not different to that fact. Both do have inter group levels of it.
4)Trans cooler. Factory in rad, factory stand alone seperate. AUX on top of that all.
5)Cooling system
THERMAL capasity by DESIGN. 1/2/3/4 row core. Many people assume too much here. As well as frontal area air intake to do it. A efficent cooling system is not a totally areodynamic one. HENSE MPG comp.
THERMOSTAT rating. Stock is always a compromise. It can be changed and is by some smart people. But rarely is by people again assuming too much. And are uninformed.
6)Brakes. Overall surface area as well as COOLING efficentcy. DISC/DISC is not a magic pill if you get front vent and rear solids. Or frt/r VENT. Organic/Semi-MET/Ceram material too. You can MELT brake pads. Titanium/iron/CARBON FIBER/Alum all work diff in rotors vented or not.
7) Gas-petrol dislikes HEAT, DIESELS like heat far better. AKA "a diesel with a manual can tow more, so it must be a trans issue" is bogus. A diesel likes heat to start with, a manual trans creates no heat. The cooling system to start with is running cooler. So YES over work towing too much a AUTO GAS/PETROL and it will not tow as much. It did like like heat in first place and it had a auto trans giving it more into teh cooling system. TOWING creates heat period. Not hard to undertand this point is it. ;)


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#24 ·
Whenever I see these seemingly arbitrary ratings for things I always assume the limiting factor is the 10/100 warranty. I bet it could tow more, easily, but would die before that warranty period was up.
 
#25 ·
Wow, towing a 20' 3500 lb. boat with your Sorento! Does the rear end of your vehicle sag with the tongue weight?
I think my Sorento with the V6 has more available power than my 2001 GMC Sierra 5.3 V8! My concern is how the smaller CUV will handle the dynamics of towing. My boat is 18' and less than the 3500 lb. limit. I tow at altitude however, lots of steep mountain grades in the alpine air. No vehicles feel overwhelmingly powerful at 7000 ft. What type of fuel economy are you seeing when you tow the 20' boat? How about a pic?
 
#30 · (Edited)
The rear end does drop some but not dangerous. I havent tried it with cargo, or more than a couple people in the car. I use a 5 inch drop hitch inverted to keep the trailer level. I think i get in the 16s when towing the boat. Low altitude. I was getting in the 14s with the Explorer. Swaying isnt a problem. But managing the small wheelbase when backing is fun.

And yes I do know about the weight limit of the vehicle after putting the boat on. You must subtract the tongue weight from the payload capacity of the vehicle. So you cannot have tons of large friends and heavy cargo. I was paying close attention to this when shopping. I didnt buy the Ford Escape because cargo capacity was even less.

I am using a stock American V6 EX Auto with a Curt hitch. Custom harness to enable 5 wires for brake lockout on reverse. What a pain.

Pic shows the boat after putting the correct drop(inverted) hitch in place. I do not tow with the tarp on, was just moving it.
 

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#26 ·
in a related question.

I'm planning to install the hitch trailer kit to my Sorento, but i've seen pictures of it installed, and all of them dip very low.

So my actual question is.

Have any of you towing heavy items had any problem with the hitch hitting the pavement/speed bumper or anything of that sort when towing big heavy load in the back?
 
#28 ·
Show off what you have towed!

I thought it would be interesting to find out (visually) what people have towed with their Sorentos!
Post up a pic if you got it and any specs to back it up!

I towed my M416 (about 800lbs dry weight) 300 miles with about an additional 300-400lbs of furnature, grill, and concrete thrown in there. So Im assuming the trailer was around 1,200lbs. The SX pulled it like a dream and the only time I felt it was passing or stopping. The engine never got stressed and my digital mpg averaged me at 21 mpg. I was also fully loaded inside with luggage up to the roof in the back seat and two dogs in the very back!





 

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#31 ·
What is the most you have towed?

Hello,

I am planning on towing a pop-up with my SX Sorento. The pop-up is within the towing specifications of the vehicle when fully loaded. My concern is that when we put the pop-up on a Mitsubishi Outlander, the rear of the vehicle sagged significantly. I know that it is not a 1-to-1 comparison and the Sorento has slightly more power than that vehicle. However, they are both rated with the same tow capacity and from my limited knowledge seem to have the same type of rear suspension.

What is the most you guys have towed? Did you notice any issues when you were close to the 3500 lb. tow rating? Has anyone actually towed close to that amount?

Any information you can share would be greatly appreciated. I will not have a lot of time to validate that this will work when I go to pick up the pop-up. So, I'm trying to be as prepared as possible ahead of time.

Thanks very much.
 
#37 ·
This is my first post, so please be gentle! I have searched about towing and followed the link given here, but somehow it ends up at the top of this tread. Maybe my answer is here, but if so I did not understand. I have a pop up camper that is 2660 lbs unloaded with a max allowable weight of 3375. I am considering purchasing the Sorento V6 with a tow package and trailer brakes. Simply put, will this vehicle be adequate to tow my pop up camper without excess wear and tear on the vehicle? Thanks!
 
#39 ·
class 3 hitch
tow bar
2 inch receiver
chains

-no cooler or special equipment.

I pretty much flat towed a car that was 3500+ pounds. granted there was not any vertical tounge weight but it pulled fine. i towed the car doing 70mph for 200 miles with no problems. still got 22mpg as well with some rolling hills. I touched the tranny after i pulled it about 30 miles over some hills to see if it was really hot but it just seemed to be a tad warmer than normal so i was put at ease after that.

i have the 2011 2wd sorento v6. I LOVE the car. its done everything i have wanted it to including carting my 5 month old around as well
 
#40 · (Edited)
Someone should telephone KIA Customer Assistance and see if the poorly trained people there know if there is a Gross Combined Weight Rating for the Sorento. That is the maximum combined weight of the loaded car and loaded trailer. As posted above, if the car is loaded heavy, the trailer max might be reduced.

There are two kinds of trailer brakes....electric brakes which require a controller in the Sorento and surge brakes which are hydraulic brakes that activate when the trailer pushes against the car. If you have electric brakes, do yourself a favor and get only the proportional controllers made by several makers. Do not get the timed controllers (more braking the longer you hold your foot on the brakes) and skip the old fashioned pendulum type. Be safe--don't try for the max without trailer braking. You'll need a 7 pin electrical connector for trailer brakes. four or five pin for surge brakes (five for reverse lock out).

Rear end sag can be eliminated by a weight distributing hitch. The Draw-Tite/Reese (same company) 75648 hitch receiver says they can use a weight distributing hitch. The Reese light duty weight distributing hitches won't add much weight to the tongue (that has to be carried by the car). Weight Distribution - Reese A w/d hitch levers the rear of the towing car upward to eliminate the sag. (Draw-Tite, Reese, Hidden Hitch, Tekonsha are all labels of Cequent Corp, and all good except they don't put any good brake controllers under the Reese label.) Curt says their 13073 hitch receiver cannot be used with a weight distributing hitch.
 
#42 · (Edited)
We have the 2009xm model diesel. That's the first year the xm was released in Australia.

We tow a 1400kg sail boat with ours. The trailer puts 80kgs on the ball and we have 2 adults and 3 kids in the car. Luckily we have the diesel and it pulls up short hills in top gear doing 1600rpm at 80kms. Only time you really notice it is on long hill climbs or some slight wallowing when there are some undulations close together. The 2009 model didn't get the Australian suspension setup AFAIK. I believe that came with our 2010 models and fixes the wallowing issue.

I'll try and get some pics of the rig on the weekend.

Fuel consumption goes up to around 12l/100km when towing the sail boat. Typically doing the same course with no sailboat in tow we get around 7.8l/100km.

The trailer has override brakes so during the initial slowing you can notice the difference until the trailer brakes bite.

We also tow a tinnie weighing less than 600kgs and you really wouldn't believe anything was there.

Compare this to the patrol we had previously and it's fantastic!!
 
#43 ·
I'm pulling pop up camper. With all my gear in it, i'm a little over 3000lbs. Trailer has brakes and I have no problems pulling it. The only complaint, the back end of the Sorento sags. I'll either get a tow bar with a 4 inch lift or a WDH but can't get a 100% confirmation you can use WDH with a 2011 Sorento.
 
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