Ed H

My "headlight levelling sensor failure" trouble light popped up intermittently over a several day period and then went off for good. The dealer said it could just be a faulty connection and might "go away", but that if the sensor truly fails the repair is "expensive" (and if a dealer thinks it is expensive, I cannot imagine what a mere mortal would think of the cost). I now notice that the headlights seem to have set permanently at the lowest possible level, resulting in insufficient light to drive safely. If anyone is familiar with this problem I would appreciate any guidance you might have to offer. Mine is a 2005 with about 81K miles. Thanks. Edh53

Before opting for fog lights, if your RAV4 is engineered as they are on my prius, they automatically turn on the headlights at the same time and cannot be run on their own. As a result you still get all the bounceback from your headlights in heavy fog/snow, resulting in continued poor visibility and making the fog lights relatively useless. Unless they can be run w/o the headlights off, I'm not sure they will do you much good. On the other hand, if you are simply one of those goofy people who want to run with all possible lighting even in the daytime bec you think it looks cool or wahtever, go for them, I guess, as this problem wont matter to you. If you wire in your own aftermarket lights, you'll have to take care not to run them w/o running your parking lighs concurrently (so you have taillights).

You should be rated for a tow weight of 3000lbs if I recall correctly, so as long as you stay under that when your trailer is fully loaded (camping junk, all fluids such as drinking water, propane), in theory you should be OK. However, you also need to look at the ratings of your hitch. Last, if this is your first time at towing, to be sure you follow all pertinent recommendations as to how to load your trailer. As always, proceed cautiously until you can experience the towing dynamics of your rig, esp. on hills, curves, highway speeds, etc. You should have plenty of engine power on normal roads; mountain driving could well bog you down, however (you may think you're dragging an anchor on steep/long inclines). Watch your guages as well, esp. your temp. Tire pressure on your rig is also very important. For info re: your sepcifc rig you might try searching camping forum sites (e.g. popupportal.com). Good luck!