How would you tow this truck?

Okay, so first - I got a new RAM ecodiesel yesterday. No, I didn't abandon Toyotas as I still have my 1999 4Runner, but I needed out of a regular cab manual for the purpose of future family stuff. AKA, don't hate me for my decision!

Anyway, new buyer (girlfriend's dad) is about 1,000 miles away and we'd like to be able to tow the Tacoma to him and then continue on some sort of road trip.

2012 Toyota Tacoma, 4wd, Manual transmission

We'd love to continue our road trip without an empty trailer attached after the drop off, so Uhaul seems to be the only player in the game. Options:

Tow dolly
I've read mixed things, hard to find definitive answers for 2nd gen trucks. I would plan on disconnecting the rear drive shaft, but I'm put off by the maximum tire sizes listed on Uhaul's website (I have 265/75/16 on stock steelies), exceeding Uhaul's supported tire sizes.

Auto Transport Trailer
Gets all four wheels off the ground, costs over double the amount as the tow dolly ($200 vs $460), but still claims to not support tires over 29" or so, so that also is an issue.

Flat Tow
This also has mixed comments from even the RV forums, and I'm not sure I want to invest in the hardware required to tow this truck since it seems proprietary to the make/model, and I'll never be doing it again - unlike RV owners.

So, which would you choose? Driving it out there would cost the same as towing it out there with my new truck, and leave us stranded in Yuma, AZ having to either fly back to CO and sacrifice the following road trip, or rent a car and drive it back to CO for $$$. Any experience is greatly appreciated, kind of regretting telling gf's father that we'd gladly drive it out!

 

Can't answer your question but you have any pics of the ram ?

 

Take the tacoma on the road trip, then end the trip in Yuma. Fly back to Co.

 

Ehh, looks like it's about $160 from Phoenix to Denver, meaning we'd also have to bum rides almost 3 hrs to PHX... Flying out of Yuma Intl is like $500 for the two of us And in all honesty, road tripping in a regular cab bench seat 4cyl Tacoma is terrible from personal experience. Was really hoping to drive the 15 hrs there straight, drop off, stay the night, and continue onward.

Yeah-

 

How do you like the Ecodiesel?


I'd get the tow dolly and disconnect the rear drive shaft (just make sure you mark from the drive shaft to the flange so you re-attach it in the same orientation).

 

Any familiarity with handling tires larger than the peewee 26" or whatever that these tow dollies typically claim to be limited to?

I've had the ecodiesel for about 24 hours and 115 or so miles so I can only comment on initial impressions. Assuming the drive train is solid and reliable, I will continue to smile ear to ear for the rest of the time I own it (the most I'll ever tow is a trailer with 4runner and some dirt bikes, or a relatively small boat, or a travel trailer well under 5,000 lbs)

Motor itself is great, it can put you back in your seat pretty hard and is smooth throughout the rpms (while with diesel, that's not very high). Sounds beautiful, just a little hint that it's a diesel without the overly loud lug-lug-lug-lug noise. No issues merging in to 80mph traffic or accelerating away from the pack.

The turbo lag is weird - I don't even know if that's what it is (I've owned turbo cars before)... but it's hard to tell with the diesel. It's like you step on it, you accelerate an additional 1-2 mph but you don't hear or feel the revs increasing. Then suddenly it's like you're shot out of a cannon. Kind of scary - definitely takes some getting used to.

Transmission is good, smooth, works for me as long as it lasts. The rest of the truck? Well, it's a land yacht basically. Insane creature comforts, solid feeling materials, cool gadgetry that I hope doesn't fizzle out, and it rides like a car (a nice car, on stock suspension ). Lots of charging ports, cup holders, every cupholder/pocket/etc is illuminated very slightly with lights on. Again, if this thing lasts and electronics don't start flaking out, motor doesn't self destruct, tranny doesn't grenade - it'll easily be the best vehicle I've ever owned and most satisfying in terms of necessary and unnecessary features.

If you were just asking about the engine, see paragraph 4/6 lol.

 

check out some transport companies and get competitive bids. Let them deal with the size issue

 

While the price is similar, I'm going to need to meet up with him in person and finalize the payment and title transfer. I might just end up telling him that it's a no go - I'm already giving him the truck for over $1500 under blue book, and transferring my extended warranty to him... can't really stomach spending $460 and then buying some extended tire straps for a total exceeding $500 when I'm already giving him a hell of a deal. Thanks for the suggestion though

 

Get a tow dolly. The Tacoma isn't a big truck and should fit in the dolly easily then undo the drive shaft.

 

Get the auto transport from uhaul. I tow my jeep with it and it has 31's on it and looks to be able to handle bigger. Then you can just drop the trailer off at any uhaul. They tow nice also.

 

i pulled a reg cab colorado 4x4 auto w/ 32s on a dolly.
just pulled the rear driveshaft once loaded. straps didn't have much in the ratchet, but it worked for the 326mi trip.
so you should be just fine like others have said w/ the dolly and pulling the driveshaft.

 

Nice, thanks for the input guys. That's two more votes for dolly and one for the auto transport from uHaul, but all suggesting that the tires shouldn't be an issue with the included straps.

There's been some trailer sitting in my work's parking lot since we moved offices over 4 months ago, and I always wondered what it was (full size, bigger than the uhaul auto transport trailers). Apparently belongs to a coworker who got the company owner's blessing to leave it here, he hauls a rock crawler to Moab and stuff with it. Would have asked to borrow that but the idea of taking that thing around the country during the remainder of my road trip seemed awful. Also thought of leaving it where I dropped the Tacoma for a couple days but that would mean we'd have to back track to Yuma and take the same boring route home. Would prefer see something new through all routes.

Anyway, will post pics and impressions when the time comes.