The Tacoma Towing Bible

Thank you.

 

I'm new to the forum and have read a lot of excellent material but so far this write up from 2007 is how all technical manuals should be written (with personality and attitude). The OP should be writing technical manuals that won't bore me. You might be a towing guru but tech writing is a gift.

 

Boy I hear that, Mike!!
I feel the same way!

 

I've been snooping TW for a couple of years now, but this is my first post.
I have an '06 PreRunner V6. My wife and I are looking at towing a camper trailer and trying to determine capacities. I read here in the Towing Bible (Granted not all 51 pages) thread that with a class IV hitch and other additions, the capacity would be 6500 lbs. However, everywhere I look online, I can only find a class 3 hitch. Even when I call my dealer. Their claim is that they only supply a class 3 hitch which will get me to the "max" capacity of 5000 lbs.
As a noob to towing, the more I read, the further down a rabbit hole I go. Is there a class IV hitch for the 06 Tacoma?

OK, with more searching, found another thread that discussed there is no aftermarket class IV hitch available. If one is lucky, they may find someone trying to sell one in the BST section.

So, with a class 3 hitch, upgraded battery/alternator, W/D, engine oil cooler and brake control, would I then be limited to 5500 lb max for towing?

 

so do I still use the trailer brake pigtail under the dash? My truck didn't come with a tow pack and I'm integrating every item required like the oil cooler (engine only as mines a stick), alternator, wiring and controller, and the hitch. Sorry if it was mentioned and I didn't catch it. I'm just curious if that's where you still connect the controller when everything is wired up.

 

I have read the fist 34 pages of this thread, got some really good info, still have a question. I have a 2015 Access cab, V6 4x4 auto with tow package. Per the door sticker and the table in the owners manual my max GCWR 11,100# , my TWR is 6500#. The max gross vehicle weight (GVWR) on the door sticker is 5500#.

So starting with 4400 (ish) pounds of truck, with 650# of tongue weight, 200# of me, I can only put another 200# in the truck to stay inside the GVWR, know that thanks to you guys.

What I really want to know about is the weight of flat bed trailers. I handle a fair amount of cord wood annually (burn 8-10 cords a year at my house), but I handle enough of it that I often sell 3-5 cords per year. The good stuff around here is birch at 4312# per cord green, 2992# per cord seasoned.

Am I going to have to shop really hard to find a flat bed trailer around 6.5x14 feet that weighs 2188# or less? It needs to be able to carry 4312# of cargo. Would that be really heavy for a 14' tandem axle trailer, thus easy to find, middle of the roadish or really really light and I am going to have to find a NASA engineer to build one that light out of un-obtanuim? I hit the top 8 trailer mfrs that came up on google and none of them list weights or even weight ranges for any of their trailers that I can see.

It seems like on a 6.5x14 footer I could fill the floor tight with 16" rounds standing on end and have an honest cord loaded up. 6.5x14' is 13,944 sqin, 8x12', three face cords, is 13,824 sqin. I find that rounds under 6" diameter "swell" about 10% when split and stacked tight, rounds 10" to 14" in diameter take up about the same volume stacked tight after splitting.

Obviously if someone custom ordered 18" or 24" rounds I would have to do some math about how much floor space to use up in the trailer, but with the standard 16" length rounds I would be delivering a strong cord in one trip with just one layer standing on end filling the floor.

Thanks. Still not sure where I am going to put my trailer brake controller, but appreciate the pictures.


EDIT: 2 items:
1. My truck came fromt he factory with three leafs and an overload on each side. Vertical stripe of white paint on the spring leaves passenger side, ahead of the rear tire but behind the fender opening.
2. I can't find my 7-4 pin connector, my boat and trailer combo comes in at maybe 600#. When I went in to pick up my plates today I asked my salesman where in the truck the 7 to 4 was hiding. She is going to check around and call me back...

EDIT2: Now I have read all 51 pages. I see couple folks running 6.5x14' tandem axle flatbeds, but no mention of trailer weight or cargo weight in those posts, so I am more or less vindicated.''

How much ~~about~~ does a 6.5x14 foot trailer weigh, once it is built strong enough to carry 4312#?

 

You should be able to find a trailer under that weight. Example:

http://bigtextrailers.com/70pi-x-tandem-axle-pipe-utility/

Model# Weight Description
70PI-14X 1,780# 83” x 14’ Tandem Axle Trailer

You have to dig around to find the brake controller connector. It's in there, well hidden.

 

Actually I screwed up my math.

At 4x8 feet per face cord, one cord of 16" pieces of wood would take up three of those, or an 12x8 foot floor of 96 sqft.

a 6.5x14 foot trailer floor gives me 89.6 sqft of floor, a 6.5x16 would give me 104 sqft. So I guess I am looking at 6.5x16 trailers.

I see the 6.5x16 Big TEx is 1860# on the link above, so there's hope.

Thanks

 

With that amount of weight, you may want to consider a weight distribution hitch:

http://www.etrailer.com/dept-pg-Weight_Distribution.aspx

I have an 18ft car hauler trailer for my John Deere tractor, and I get up near 6k for the trailer + tractor + implements. A weight distro hitch is the only way I'd tow that weight.

Since you likely won't have much vertical surface area on the flatbed trailer like an RV would, you probably don't need sway control on the distro hitch.

Enjoy!

 

With 650lbs of tongue weight, a WDH is a must. Stock receiver is only rated for 500lbs, undistributed.

 

I have a question with towing in drive.
My setup is a 4 cyl auto with 32 inch tires. I went to 488 gears.
On the first page of this thread th OP says dont even think about towing in overdrive.
My auto is 4 speed. Towing in third really eats up the gas milage as the motor is really spinning at 55 mph. On flat ground, I can tow my trailer 55 mph in drive and the converter stays locked.
Am I really doing any damage? My drive is not a overdrive and I have 488 gears. So I should be okay right?

 

You're fine. As long as the trans isn't hunting for gears (constantly up/downshifting), you can keep it in drive. When the trans is constantly shifting is where the heat buildup comes from.

 

I'm new to trucks (very much a car guy myself) and I've decided to swap in my car for a truck, problem is I know with a truck I'll want a camper, something like :

http://www.westernrvcountry.com/inventory/461759/New-2015-CrossRoads-RV-Maple-Country-MC240BH.aspx

Or one of the ones I was looking at personally was 6500GVWT

I also know I don't want a new truck.

Would any recent tacomas fall under the usable banner with a "tow" package?

 

Too much trailer, not enough truck. Dry weights are always on the low side. Once it's camp ready with gear, water, etc you'll be close if not over your tow limit. You'd likely be exceeding payload capacity before that anyway.

 

I agree with the two recent posts that it is too much camper for the Tacoma, even with the tow package. Go with more truck or less camper.

 

So we bought a 2013 4 cyl 4X4 automatic Tacoma. Now my wife wants to get a small travel trailer - 2800# GVWR, so well under the 3500# max for our truck. (Sportsman Classic 16RBT)

I still need to add:

transmission cooler
brake controller for electric trailer brakes
class III hitch
wiring for trailer ligts and brakes

I plan to have the RV store or another local shop do the work. The guy at Toyota dealer said that it is about $1000 there, and even his guys get it done aftermarket.

Given that we are going to try to do this right, and that we are getting a small-ish trailer, is towing with the 4 cylinder truck going to work, or are we doing some wishful thinking here? Almost all references in the thread are for towing with a 6-cylinder truck. Before spending the money to upgrade to a tow package, I am wondering if we should not just trade in the truck for a 6 cylinder.

Jim in NH

UPDATE: we are trading in the 4 cylinder (with low mileage) on a 6-cylinder (with much higher mileage) today - it's a sad trade off but the only way we could afford it, and my wife has her heart set on TT camping this summer. It's her truck, so her decision, ultimately. I could not see putting $$$ into the 4-cylinder only to have to then decide to trade it later, so I guess I'm OK with it.

 

I have a Sportsmen 14RB and my 05 Tacoma pulls it fine. (I would expect it to!) I do have the tow package on my truck and it is a 6 cylinder. Since it is such a small trailer, I felt the truck / trailer were sized about right. I (personally) don't think I would do it with a 4 cylinder.


TB

 

Adam I put in the hoppy litemate today, nice and quick fit just like ya said. Thanks for the guidance. Owe ya beverage when I move to NJ this summer

 

I've got a 4500lb gross, 18' (nominal) camper. The truck mileage drops from 19 to 11mpg w/ it in tow and I'm using a WD hitch. It will not hold high gear locked up unless you have a 20mph tail-wind. I would not be comfortable w/ a bigger trailer unless it were an Airstream or similar.

 

Hello fellows...I'm curious if you think I need to install a scan gauge II ..I have a 2014 tacoma trd sport with tow package and I'm towing a 2015 jayco ultra lite hybrid dry wgt 4200lbs...Installed a prodigy electric brake and Reese WDH...Have already pulled it once this year and it wasn't bad at all just notice that mpg went down but knew that was coming..Just curious what you guys think..Thanks