The Tacoma Towing Bible

I would guess they would be for safety chains as well, where else would you hook them, if there wasn't a hitch there. Dont know if you can even get a chain to hook in them though, that's why it's a guess.

 

Round or square covers?
The squares pop off & there's a panel dart clip that keeps that darn plastic cover on. When those break you'll know for that center piece becomes loose.

 

As a 2009 Tacoma owner. I had a Class III hitch installed. I have the 2.7L engine, 5 speed manual, Reg cab.

Am I still restricted to the 3500 lbs limit?

The trailer I was going to first use was a 6 X 12 Uhaul enclosed unit.

No need for a tranny cooler. Oil cooler for the smaller engine?

The trailer has hydraulic style surge brakes. I will eventually get an electric controller but was wanting to be able to haul around 4000 lbs from eastern Washington to western Washington (not much in the hills arena).

Thoughts?

 

- Class III hitch can tow up to 8,000 pounds, so you can tow that.

- Dont need tranny cooler; overrated.

- brake controller; overrated.

 

Uhhhh, I STRONGLY disagree with Adrians broad statements. Although in Colofan's particular case with a manual transmission a transmission cooler is not an issue, transmission coolers themselves are NOT overrated, but a neccessity for any significant towing with an automatic transmission. Without it you put your transmission at serious risk of catastrophic failure.

The towing capacity of a truck is not determined solely by the hitch itself. I could weld a horseshoe coupling rated for 50,000 lbs in the bed of my Tacoma, but guess what? I still can't safely tow a fifthwheel trailer that exceeds the towing limits of my truck. The hitch doesn't change the suspension or the powertrain of the truck, which are two huge factors.

With this particular style trailer you can get by without the electric brake controller. But trust me, electric brake controllers are REQUIRED to stop MOST decent sized trailers. Nearly ALL travel trailers with the exception of the smallest of pop-up campers and most boats will need the brake controller too. In essence, if the trailer is equipped with electric brakes you absolutely NEED the brake controller on your truck. Your truck brakes will stop your truck. NOT your truck plus several thousand pounds. Without the "overrated" brake controller you truly risk your life and the lives of others on the highway. Your brakes WILL fail you sooner than later if you try to stop any significant towed weight with just truck brakes.

The response is irresponsible and misguided.

 

"Tundra" is the key word. Yes, I agree that he should be ok with the uHaul set up,if he is cautious, but the the "hitch is rated 'x'....SO you can 'y'...is a VERY dangerous statement.

 

Most Semi truck accidents happen from not being able to stop or stop quick enough. Not because they can't pull a load. If you have never towed anything you will learn quick enough to keep an 8 second or better following distance when rolling. It will all make sence the first time you have to make a sudden stop and the trailer weight almost pushes you into the back end of the guy in front of you.
Keep it safe Rollin and keep it between the lines.

 

Put a class III hitch on a Scion or a Prius and you can tow the space shuttle. That is some good advice right there. ��

 

You can pick up the entire Tacoma by the hitch that alone does not make it capable of towing 8000#
No cooler needed if you own a transmission shop.
Brakes required in most states for any trailer over 3000# some require brakes on trailers 1000# and up.
Tacoma manual says 1000# up
Even states with lax weight laws require a stopping distance of 40' at 20 MPH so you do the math easy to stop an empty trailer.
You must comply with the state law even if you are just passing through that state.

 

Perhaps they changed it in the 2001-04 generation. Either way, I'd never pull #6k with my 1st gen... That's just asking to die.

 

I was joking guys. Sounded like a troll or just someone that is slow.

 

They are for the factory hitch the hitch is bolted to the bumper along with the frame.

 

Yeah guys...after reconsidering your comments, the "I was just kidding, that guy is a troll" is probably the best exit strategy.

 

Sorry you're too slow to figure that out.

 

All joking aside some people already think that their Tacoma can tow 8,000 lbs. with no problem. If you scroll back through the previous 47 pages of the Towing Bible you'll see guys that are towing 5th wheels and other heavy trailers that exceed the tow limits of their truck. A 4 liter V6 Tacoma could probably pull 8,000 lbs. but hopefully you don't run into any hills or have to stop quickly. When giving advice on towing we should err on the side of caution because we know that someone out there is just waiting for encouragement to do something crazy. I've towed 4,000 lbs. with my truck through hills and flat lands and it has done a great job. My truck is rated to tow 6,500 lbs. but with my experience I wouldn't feel very good about maxing it out. Other factors to consider when you surpass tow limits are 1) will your insurance cover you in an accident? 2) will you automatically be blamed for an accident if you over gross? 3) you can get a ticket & 4) you can ruin your engine & trans. Most importantly you can kill someone by being negligent and you can be charged with vehicular manslaughter if the police deem that you were ignoring safety.

 

Report back everything went smoothly. I towed 3800 lbs. The surged brakes were funky as others have noted. Electric brake control is in my future but since the Uhaul doesn't brake that way kind of a waste for this first tow with my Tacoma.

The question I was asking mostly was about the addition of the oil cooler on the 2.7L 4 cylinder engine? I did not have temperature issues at all but we are talking about 50 degrees right now.

This is not my first time towing I have used everything from 3/4 GMC truck, Suburbans, Jeep, Toyota land cruiser.

 

New to this thread. I was going to start a thread to ask this question but I think it may be better to ask here.

I have a 2007 4.0L DCSB SR5 PreRunner that did not come with tow package. We had a towing package (Hitch and trailer harness) added aftermarket but I am fairly certain there is no other towing equipment.

We bought the truck in '10 with 58K miles and I used it to tow a BadBoy ZTR, other light lawn equipment, and a small utility trailer just big enough to hold it all. I assume 2000lbs max. I towed occasionally (once a week or so) during the school year and frequently (2-3 times per week) in the summer each year until late 2012 or early 2013. The problem is I never used 4th gear to tow, but OD. I now know that was a mistake. It now has 105K miles and I plan to run it until the wheels fall off.

What are the detriments of what I towed? Did I shorten the life of my engine? Do I need to trade this truck for another Tacoma ASAP/down the road? Thanks for replies in advance

 

I should add that I changed the atf at 100k and it looked a hair darker than the new stuff I put in.

What will adding the cooler do now that I don't tow? Secondly, what does the torque converter do?

 

Thanks Ding. I'll be adding one, but I just wanted to know if it had any benefits while not towing. Should I go ahead and add the rest of the towing components as well? I.e. upgraded radiator/alternator?