What is the towing capacity for 1998 Plymouth grand voyager?

Answer 1

Most mini-vans are rated around 3500 to 3900 lbs

The towing capacity changes (increases) when "sway bars" are used with the trailer. I have seen where the towing capacity is 1,000 pounds without the bars, but 3,500 pounds with the bars. The bars distribute the weight of the trailer which makes braking better.

Also, the towing capacity is reduced if the trailer does not have its own set of brakes. Without trailer brakes, the vehicle can pull a heavy trailer (get it moving), but, may not be able to stop well. The vehicle brakes will over heat quickly and quickly fade when braking at hiway speeds if all of the braking is done by the van and none by the trailer.

A Plymouth Grand Caravan weighs about 4000 pounds empty. If you pull a trailer that weighs 3,500 pounds (almost 2 tons) you are almost doubling (7,500 pounds) the mass that the van has to stop thus severely taxing the braking ability of the van. In short, if you are going to tow a 3,500 pound trailer (total weight) you must have brakes on the trailer, electric brakes or surge brakes or otherwise.

Heat kills automatic transmissions. If the van is an automatic have a transmission cooler installed. Heat will cook the transmission, and a lot more heat is generated when it is pulling an extra 3,500 pounds. Add a hot summer to that and you stand a good chance of cooking your transmission if you don't have a cooler installed. If you are in a very cold winter type climate, you will have to remember to disconnect the cooler during cold weather. If you don't disconnect\by-pass the cooler, the transmission will never properly warm up to operating temperatures during cold winter days. To make it easy to by-pass the installed cooler, you can have some manually operated valves installed so in the fall all you have to do is turn one or two valves to by-pass the installed cooler.