Towing review...pulled fine...mileage bleh

How much does a landscape rig and a couple of large mowers weigh? 4000 pounds? My 8x12 trailer and both ATVs are about 2400 pounds.

 

Sweet man excited to see pics

 

It would be nice if those assholes at Nissan can update the Frontier and Ford hurry up with the ranger. That will get Toyota moving a bit.

 

Totally agree I loved my ranger in high school.

 

I was hauling lumber that weighed around 4k. I used the example of landscape trailer and a couple of mowers since it is a common thing that people do for regular (daily) hauling and the kind of person that would be interested in this kind of a review.

Considering it pulled the empty trailer (gotta be less than 1000 lbs) with a 5 mpg hit, I would not recommend it for regular hauling of moderate loads if you have to pay for your own gas. I would be surprised if you got more than 13 with your ATVs, but most people don't do that multiple times a week, so mpgs isn't a priority.

 

People forget that another part of towing is wind resistance. My brother bought a new Nissan and new camper to explore the Nation with his misses. Camper was under tow rating of the truck but the truck could barely tow it so he talked to the dealer and they pointed out that he needed to calculate the front surface area of his trailer and use some formula to reduce his towing capacity. Very pissed off... traded the "new" camper for a pop up at a huge loss.

 

Built a trailer for a friend several years ago.6.5×12foot.5' mesh tailgate (ramp).His ranger couldn't pull it empty in 5th.Dropped it back to 4th,lost a lot per gallon,traded the truck for full size.There is a reason that OTR trucks have a condo sleeper that's tall.Believe me,it's not because carriers care about drivers standing up

 

"You tow, you pay".

 

+1. I pull my dirtbike and some gear on my landscape trailer. Those mesh ramps are like throwing a parchute out behind you. I cut my ramp off and made it removable (I only need a plank to get my bike on) - this made about 5-7 mpg gain for my WRX. Time will tell how it affects the Taco.

 

Good point. This one had a mesh ramp.

 

Just trader my 2008 F250 for a 2017 taco. F250 got better MPG...

 

Wow

 

Yep, this person actually knows what they are talking about. Wind resistance is a major factor.

I had a 22' 4000 lb travel trailer (i.e. wind sail) and I got 11 MPG towing with 2nd Gen, 11 MPG towing with 3rd Gen, and 9 MPG towing with a 5.3L v8 Silverado. My 3rd Gen tows better than my 2nd Gen did, but not as well as the Silverado obviously.

I feel like this is just a comment venting steam, but if you f250 gas and your 3rd Gen get the same MPG, there's something bad wrong or crazy good with one of those vehicles.

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I custom built a trailer with no lift gate to improve aerodynamics for wind resistance, and I've towed it on a 1650 mile road trip with my wife's 4Runner averaging 19 MPG. I towed the same trailer with my truck for a 300 mile trip and averaged 17.5 MPG. I never let it go into 5th on the Runner and 6th on the Tacoma. If you have a headwind, uphill, or a boxy trailer / liftgate / tall trailer, you're going to suffer.

But anyone who bought this thing to tow might as well get rid of it now. Mine does great, but I'm just not going to ask it to regularly do it.

I find it rather ironic this 3rd Gen gets the exact same MPG as my 2nd Gens (2006 and 2011), yet people claim the 2nd Gen is so much better. I loved my 2nd Gens, but they simply were no worse or better.