Towing with 3rd Gen TRD OFF Road DCLB

Just bought a 2017 TRD Off Road, Tow Package and curious how towing will be with it. I will have all my camping gear in the bed of the truck and towing a 5 x 8 trailer with a Polaris Sportsman 450 H.O. The dear lease road does have some hilly terrain. What can I expect towing with this vehicle, downsized from an F250 to the Taco, love the truck so far!

 

I towed the same setup except on a short bed last week. First time towing, initial impression was a little loss in braking and some power lag. I left it on cruise control so I didn't have to continuously look for that sweetspot or when I wanted control, I left the ECT on. Sway control must have been working correctly as I did not experience any.

 

Lot of towing threads out there on the forum if you run a Search and select "This Forum Only" under the Third Gen Forum. Basically the engine will run at very high RPMs, you want to use the ETC button and use the shift limiter (S-Mode) to keep the truck in 4th gear and out of the overdrive gears (5th and 6th gear) so the truck will be running at pretty high RPMs to keep speed on some of those hills. I wouldn't plan to tow more than 4,000 - 4500lbs regularly with this truck. It's OK for towing small stuff but it really does not handle anything near its max towing capacity very well (or safely) if you do plan to go closer to max capacity you're going to want to look into possibly Sumo Springs for the rear to mitigate squat, and also weight distributing hitch... trailer brake controller wouldn't be a bad idea either for a heavier load. Again I just wouldn't go there with this little truck. You're going to miss the power in the F-250 that's for sure.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/gen-3-towing-thread.413026/

 

Great advice here. I have a 4000 pound trailer and I would never tow anything heavier than that. ECT and Sport mode are a must.

 

DCLB has the least Payload and tow capacity, especially if 4x4 and big tires plus lift are equipped.

 

Did you put the truck in to S mode and leave it in 4th gear or just put it in drive. Been searching the forum and trying to figure it out. The roads to the deer lease are pretty flat until I get on to the county road. My plan is to drive it with the ECT mode on until I get to that point. Once I do, switch it over in to S mode and leave it set at 4th until we get to the camp site? Or should I just leave it in 4th gear from the time I leave the house until I get to my final destination?

 

Always use ECT when towing, S4 most of the time and when you are on flat ground you can put it back to S5

You will hate the 3rd gen when towing if you don't use ECT and you will love it if you use it

 

Sorry first time with a truck that has S mode, so just set it to 4th or 5th gear and leave it or do I have to shift it like a manual transmission and just stop at 4th or 5th gear?

 

I just put it in drive. Our highways up here have some gnarly hills and bends but I did not feel like I had to separately control the gears in S mode while having ECT on...but that's just me.

 

The initial shift range in S mode is set automatically to 5 or 4 according to vehicle speed, the transmission will continue to shift gear in auto but will not go over the gear you have chosen :

exemple : if you put it in S4, the transmission will limit the highest gear to the 4th gear but will continue to downshift and shift on the lower gear depending on your speed.

It's more like a gear limiter than a manual mode

 

It depends on the weight you are towing

 

Very true, I can see how useful the "S mode" can be when towing much more weight. The weight I towed was probably around the same as the OP except mine was the Polaris Rzr 900, about twice the weight still no problem. Again just my opinion...