So my wife had some key issues with her Sienna while she was at work. You gotta love it when the programmed key stops working to start the van. Tow was gonna cost $100 so after work I hooked up the trailer and headed out.
Got to the parking lot and pushed the Sienna into place.


I broke out the come along and a tow strap. Took 3 cycles of shortening the tow strap etc to get it on the trailer. Pretty tight fit.




Got it all loaded up and dropped it at the Dealer. Pulled without issue and seemed happy doing it. Figured it out. Trailer and Sienna is about 6000lbs, total weigh of 12500lbs.

 

Love the DIY attitude!

 

Thanks. Always fun to put the old van to work. Always seems to be up to the task.

 

That's awesome! Love the photos.

How did it tow?

 

It had no issue getting the job done. As far as handling the load, stability, braking etc it had no issues at all. Felt 100% up to the task.

I figured up the weight. Trailer and load was 6000-6500lbs. My van weighs 6500. So gross was about in the 12000-13000lbs range.

My combo is a NA IDI Diesel, c6+DNE2 O/D and 3.54 gears. Around town there were no issues power-wise. I could tell there was a load hooked up, but definitely not slow. Getting on the highway was uphill accelerating from 20-60mph. It got up to speed decently, just had to be a little more aggressive with the throttle. No WOT....probably about 75%. Enough to hold shifts to a higher RPM and blow a little black smoke.

The NA IDI (and IDI's in general) is a workhorse, but isn't fast. C6 is pretty bulletproof, but is inefficient and saps power. 3.54's are what is recommended if you tow alot of weight. In my non-mountainous area There is no issue with this combo at the 12-13k lbs gross. If I was going to go through the mountains or tow heavier I would make some changes to the setup. Adding a turbo kit and/or swapping to an e4od/4r100 and/or installing 4.10/4.56's. Adding the turbo alone would make a huge difference, but a kit is $2000 new and are extremely rare used. If I swapped the trans and kept my DNE2 aux O/D I could install all the way up to 4.56s and still have a lower hwy cruising rpm than I have now..........but this is just me dreaming.

 

I Love the simplicity of the IDI....Forget the E4OD ...I have one it is EXPENSIVE to fix and it loves to EAT Solenoid Packs....Mine just Blew again at the tune of $3500....I guess towing 12-14k Dump trailers maybe helped it die ..But I never lifted the pedal ....basically beat it like a dog and my PSD is not stock...It actually grenaded.... 4:10 would be my choice....3:73 might work fine to with a tease on the Pump...

 

Was your e4od built at all? I was looking at some HD built ones if I did swap one in. Also, because the swap would use a stand alone controller the 4r100 could be used as well.

If I was to do a gear swap it would be to 4.10's. I wouldn't want to go through the hassle or spend the $$ on it and then redo it because I didn't go all in to begin with. I learned that when I rebuilt the motor in my SHO. I cheaped out and used the stock pistons instead of buying HC ones. With the big cam I lost a bit of cranking compression and torque. Oh well.....lesson learned.

 

I supplied a NEW Solenoid Pack and they "Upgraded " the convertor ....Shift Kit with aftermarket valvebody assembly......the gear switch harness was also baked ( $ 200 )
18 litres of Mercon V ....It adds up ...I thought I got a good deal.....It works great so far...
Has the same quirks ...but the tranny shifts solid....all day .....
Torque will buck up alot of chit...If it lasts as long as the last one .....I will be happy....

 

Seems like a Gear Vendors on the C6 would be a better solution and maybe cost less than an E4OD/4R100 conversion?

 

I currently have a DNE2 Auxillary OD bolted to the back of the c6. It works great and makes hwy cruising a lot better.

If i did a trans swap i would add the DNE2 to the e4od/4r100. The DNE2 is like a 2 speed rear end that bolts to the back of the trans. It would give me 8 gears out of the e4od. Basically i could switch from having a 4.10 rear gear to having a 3.28 rear gear with yhe push of a button.

 

Totally missed that. Sounds like an awesome van as-is.

 

Thanks. First step would be to add a turbo. Im hoping that makes the whole gear swap/trans swap thing a non-issue.