Trip report with a few questions

This is my first post after my intro posted in the New members section.

First off thanks to Mavrick491 for his Towing Bible I've refered to it alot.

I ended up with some questions after this trip, hopefully someone can add a little to my current knowledge.

Here I thought I'd give a report on how a recent trip went towing my trailer which I estimate at around 4700# as towed (was 3700 as built). The truck is a 2007 double cab V6, auto with factory tow package, and the only after market addition being a 2K pound Air Lift kit on the back, this truck came with the Lt duty suspension (3 leafs total). My hitch is a 750# version of a weight distribution hitch, with no sway control (never been an issue).

Basically the truck performed flawlessly even though I was a bit leary heading out with the grades coming up. But I still have some questions buried dow in the text below.

We left the SF bayarea and headed south thru Bakersfield,and Las Vegas headed for Canyon Country, we hit Zion, Bryce, Moab, Canyonlands, and Lake Powell (for the slot canyons), next stop was the Grand Canyon but a family issue brought us home a couple days early without that stop. All was well by the time we got home but those are the breaks when you have parents in their 80s and 90s.

During the trip there were several really long steep grades, the trip topped out around 8300ft, along with the uphill there is always the downhill, (only mentioned for the braking).

Observations, I found that my truck was happiest in 4th gear on flat ground and gentle grades, maybe that's old news to most but until this trip I usually let the truck pick it's gear, for most of this trip I picked the gear.

On the significant grades I spent long periods in 3rd at around 60+mph which put the tach at 3400 to 3900 as I kept up with the flow of traffic and kept my momentum up. Had to use second a few times but just minimally, mostly when I'd lost momentum due to traffic and semi's and occasionally when the steepness of the grade required it. The others in the group had a Tundra and a Titan, with 6000+ trailers but I didn't want to be last in line with my Tacoma so I drove it pretty hard. Gas mileage towing with a Tacoma isn't anything to brag about, on fillups I was using only about 10% less gas than the others.

Here's my first question, My truck just has a standard temp gauge with C and H the only markings, on normal completely unloaded no trailer driving the needle sits exactly half way up between C and H. During this trip no matter how hard the truck was working the needle never moved up from that same spot, it showed no increase in coolant temp, but the outside air was only about 75-80 degrees, Is that normal, should I check the gauge?

Second question, And because I can't see engine oil and trans fluid temps am I kidding myself that all temps are OK and not going to cause a longterm problem, especially with the trans.

The brakes are still original (78K), before the trip I had 5mm up front and 4mm on the rear, looking at whatever specs I could seemed they would be fine for the trip. The brakes performed flawlessly, that combined with proper gear selection resulted in zero brake issues even on the longest steepest grades. I have a Tekonsha P2 brake controller and properly setup and adjusted trailer brakes.

Third Question. The trip was about 2800 miles and the truck used about a 1/2 pint of oil. At 78K it basically doesn't use any oil between changes at 5K. Even so I was suprised at how little it consumed with so much pulling on those grades. Is that normal? or am I just lucky.

Bottom line is that I'm more impressed with the truck now.

 

I just did my first trip with our TT as well. Ours was from Phoenix (1100') up to the Mogollon Rim which gets up to 8000'. Our travel trailer is pretty light at 3800 dry, 4700 GVWR. Its 24' long and has a pretty big frontal area (8'x10').

My Taco complained a bit going up some of the grades. We were in 2nd a few times doing 50 at about 3800 rpms. Not bad but according to Torque the trans temps were eeking up there (230 pan, 245 TC). Engine temp only got over 200 once. I would highly suggest getting a OBD dongle and app like Torque so you can monitor trans temps. That seems to be the biggest issue with towing with our trucks. I was right on the edge of pulling over and letting the trans cool down.

I have not run everything over scales but I know we have to be pushing it on our rear axle weight and combined vehicle weight. I have an Equalizer weight-distribution hitch and Prodigy brake controller on the Taco now. On the flats and even downhill, everything is fine. No bob or sway and the trailer brakes work great. When we get to a hill is when things aren't so great. I think the Taco will probably be ok as long as I keep an eye on the trans temp and change the fluid more regularly, but its the whole riding vs. driving thing. With a full-size I could enjoy the scenery without stressing out looking at Torque every few seconds to see if we need to pull over. We have another trip Aug 1, so if I haven't done anything by then I'm sure that trip will be the decision maker as to what I want to do as I may go to a full-size.

Good looking rig BTW

 

I wouldn't rely on the OEM temp gauge. Seems to be more of a "go" or "no go" type thing. Warning light doesn't come on untill you're already in trouble. Yes - worry about your transmission temps. I use a scan gauge II for my first gen and saw extremely high tranny temps when climbing passes. Have now installed a trans cooler (but haven't climbed any passes yet). I'll know for sure when I hit the Rockies next month.

 

I think I read where the light comes on at 302*

 

Thanks for the responses, the dongle and app thing sound great, I do have a smart phone and am going forward on that. Years ago when Carbs were the thing, I used to be a real car guy, but as tech went forward and life changed I let that stuff go. Sounds like I gotta look a little deeper on the tech side. Looks like a dongle and app are gonna come in at less that 25 bucks, or am I missing something.

 

Yep Torque pro is $5 and dongles are about $20 on Amazon. There are a couple threads on how to add in the trans temp on Torque. You have to enter in a formula based on your year truck. Not too complicated but it took me a couple tries to get it working right.