Towing long distance

There's more to towing than just the tow rating. That said, 5,000 is doable with a WDH w/ anti-sway control and a brake controller.

 

I have been seeing towing capacity numbers all over the place lately.

 

Exactly, that 12 hour trip would probably turn into an 18 hour white knuckle trip.

 

I towed my GTO with my Denali pick up (6700lb truck) with roughly 10,000lb tow capacity...the GTO weighs about as much as our Taco. The car carrier weighs about 2500lb IIRC. That's 6000lbs. I towed it in LA traffic on the I-10. I did it OK but it was a little hairy at times. Like I said earlier I laugh out loud that people want to do that with this rinky dink little tacoma.

 

Just did a 30+ hour drive over the course of 6 days. 1300 pounds hauled in the tacoma, pulling 4500 pounds (trailer plus 04 miata). The tacoma did it, but I going through the rockies was extremely rough. Only making it 45mph up steep grades, and keeping it in Low in the downgrades. I made it but I did overheat the brakes going downhill a 6.5% grade for several miles. The trailer brakes needed to be tightened and I kept in in 3rd gear (mistake). I'm driving an '11 DCSB. The truck made it, but the drive was not fun.

 

I will tow a rig to safety out of the desert or mountains but I ain't towing shit in the city.

 

But the 3rd gen would tow it much BETTER than the 2nd gen because TFL Ikes Gauntlet proved such.

 

Safety margin should already be included in rating.

 

Exactly. We tow trailers at work loaded to capacity with timbers, with a truck at max payload full of tools and gear, over several hundred miles on a pretty regular basis. If you aren't comfortable towing near max that's fine, but to say you shouldn't or that the truck can't handle it just isn't based in fact.

 

Yes really

 

Why was downshifting to 3rd a mistake? Unless you mean that in lieu of readjusting the trailer brakes or if the trailer was pushing too much and you think there was risk of jack knifing it.

 

Here's a good article showing how truck towing capacity is measured and rated per the ASE J2807 standard:

http://www.trucktrend.com/how-to/towing/1502-sae-j2807-tow-tests-the-standard/

Toyota certified that their 2016-2017 Tacomas meet the J2807 standard described here. It shows what types of minimum towing performance standards you should expect with your Tacoma under several parameters including climbing, accelerating and braking, etc.

 

Lol.

 

Funniest thing I've read all day. Get real.

This. A million times this. You're out of your mind if you think Toyota would rate a truck for more than was truly safe in our litigious society.

OP you'll be fine. Just keep it out of OD. A small car like the Camaro doesn't punch a big hole in the wind going down the road at all so it's not going to pull that hard.

 

A million plus one.

For a trailer with properly distributed weight and brakes, towing at legal towing speed limits, using all recommended equipment, no axle/tire/gvwr/gcwr over weight, all the "safety margin" is baked in when you're towing at 100% of rating.

Would you actually want to do that, probably not. Your truck isn't going to magically fall apart or go crashing into a ditch when you approach the limit.

As far as I know, in no state is the towing speed limit higher than 65mph. It's the idiots that think they can tow at 75mph in gusting side winds that end up on the news.

 

We tow our travel trailer to Idaho every year. 900 miles each way and we do it with the Cummins. When towing long distance, climbing mountains, descending mountains, merging into traffic, passing, etc. it's always better to (1) have the horsepower and torque to do the job (2) have a transmission engine combo that can produce that power without breaking a sweat and (3) have a vehicle that weighs enough to control the weight of the trailer. You do not want the tail wagging the dog per se.

We had a Colorado Diesel. It technically was rated to tow our TT and was nominally higher rated than the Tacoma. Last summer in prep for our trip and while I was swapping the fuel and oil filters out on the Cummins I ran over to the RV storage lot to pick up out trailer and bring it to the house. I was not comfortable towing with baby max and I tow quite a bit. You can actually forget that the trailer is behind the Cummins. With the Colorado, I was always aware that sucker was back there. If it makes sense, I could feel it too much.

I know what the Tacoma is rated at. No way I'd tow anything over 4000 pound for any distance with one of these trucks. Obviously you can go higher, I just wouldn't.

 

Drive the Camaro and tow the Taco!

 

So I took it out there and got the car pulled fine toggled from 5 to 6 more than i'd like but overall no problems rode smooth braking power plenty good enough.

 

if it keeps shifting set it in 5th and leave it there. It'll help out a lot more than you think. Beautiful car