2009 3.3 Sante Fe and 1967 16' Golden Falcon

MW: 

If 50 km. is really your limit and it's mostly flat, your TV can probably do it… but it won't like it one bit… not the frame, not the transmission, not the engine, not the brakes (don't even think of doing this without electric brakes).  Even for only 50 km., it will be a 'no room for error' situation, not only regarding the handling, but the stresses it will put on your TV.  If like most of them, your SUV is really a car… with a car frame.  My main concern is not the manufacturer's towing capacity rating, but the tongue weight you'll be putting down on the back of the car.  Without a weight distribution hitch (which I bet your manufacture prohibits… and if they don't, they should), your front end will not be stable, heaven forbid the road is wet.  All this, without knowing anything about the weight or balance of weight, your trailer offers.  I'd guess your 16 footer weighs 2,200 to 3,000 lbs. and depending how and where it's main loads reside, could have a tongue weight as much as 300 lbs.  Please don't convince yourself that you'll load everything in the back behind the axle and that will lighten the TW…. it will only make your trailer wag like a puppy dog's tail and potentially jerk your Santa Fe off the road.

Please borrow dad's F150 and have a drama free towing experience!  Trucks like this have the frame, the wheelbase stance and the power to do this job for you well.  But if you choose to use your Santa Fe, make sure you have working brakes on the trailer and don't go over 50 mph with this kind of set up.  Pull over if the highway washes out in a downpour.  Don't tow if it's the middle of heatwave.  Defeat the overdrive feature of the transmission to minimize over shifting and heat build up (your transmission will probably overheat long before your engine will).  If you experience trailer sway, just slow it down or manually apply the trailer brakes until things straighten out.  And say a prayer for your Santa Fe .  Also, weigh your Falcon and know what you are dealing with and balance it for travel as best you can.  A lot of argument about tongue weight… but commonly 10% of total loaded trailer weight is what I hear.  There are threads on this forum and elsewhere that shows how to measure tongue weight at home with bathroom scales.  The dynamics of any towing scenario are influenced by many factors.  Pulling with the Santa Fe, requires that you be mostly right about your set up choices and how and under what conditions you tow.  If you prepare in this way, you can probably make this 100 km. round trip regularly and successfully, but not without accelerated wear/tear on your Santa Fe and increased risk.  Good luck. 

One thing that you can do is to look at other 16 foot trailers of the same vintage. Do three or four that you can get weights on and just average them. You should be relatively close. Remember that you will be adding a couple hundred pounds of stuff (food, clothing, dishes, pots and pans, etc. If the manufacturer rates it at 3500 pounds, you're probably safe at that, but do NOT tow this trailer without brakes. Also, what you put in the tow vehicle counts as weight. You can't pull a full 16 footer with the Santa Fe with 4-200 pound adults on board. Your fuel economy may not be as good as with a larger tow vehicle (a little counter-intuitive, but they are designed to haul bigger loads as efficiently as possible), but don't let that stop you.

Go ahead and get the Santa Fe set up to tow, then use your dad's F-150 whenever you can. You'll have the best of both worlds.