Gen 3 Towing Thread

Ill give my 2c on this. I pulled a 12ft with 3 quads about a 2 hour drive to pismo. Once reaching SLOs uphill I felt I was battling the weight. As I was driving I could feel the truck was heavy as hell. Personally its not built to haul but I dont do it weekly so it does for now

 

Nice Opel! You know Duane from Doylestown PA area?

Good review of a heavy tow as well. Thanks for sharing!

 

Hauled a 19’ aluminum boat that weighs aprox 3200#’s including trailer. Surge brakes, and a single axle trailer. I have a 17 OR with bed rack, RTT, sliders, winch and after market front bumper. 100 miles on interstate doing 75 mph no problems. Plenty of power to pass semi trucks and road slugs. My only complaint was the noise from the MT tires. Seems like the boat amplified the already loud MT’s.

 

Did you inflate your rear tires over your normal pressures to compensate for the extra weight? Weight on MTs will affect the noise quite a bit, just as much as under-inflating them with an empty bed and running them at low pressures.

 

I did not, will that help with the noise ? My past experiences I’ve hauled with trucks meant to haul things. class a cdl, and driven quite a few 3/4 tons at work. Never adjusted air psi on them so I assumed the same on the taco. But I’ll give it a try next week.

 

Thanks! Probably Duane Foley (mantascona on the opel gt forum.) I don't think he made it to the carlisle meet this year. I do know him from the opel forum though.

 

Yeah it should affect it. I see visible "squish" in my sidewall when the bed is heavily loaded or towing on the recommended pressures on the inside of my door. That pressure is perfectly fine for an unloaded truck, but the correct amount of pressure is a function of weight on the tire vs weight rating (roughly).

Not exact math, but if you're running a load-range E tire, you probably don't want more than 35lbs on a stock tacoma, but if you're towing, the amount of weight on that axle will be higher, and you probably should run them closer to 50 psi.... but probably never 80 psi like a typical load-range E will recommend. A Tacoma, even fully loaded, doesn't have any way to put that much load on a tire rated for 3,500 lbs of load capacity.

My guess is that if you inflate the rear tires to compensate, you should see near normal noise. There's no direct answer, but the equivalent of doing a "chalk test" would let you know if you're under or over-inflated for your weight

 

So I don't end up buying these things twice, everyone is recommending the 3017-P cable to go with the Tekonsha P3 controller, correct?

 

Not sure about everyone....*.I went with this. Allows me to pull the trailer with different vehicles. Unplug the controller from the DC (cig-lighter) and move it from the Tacoma to whatever else. Several people in my family have had them for 3 or so years. So far not a single issue and you don't have to use the cubby hole to permanently mount the controller or mount it elsewhere.

Expensive and probably NOT for everyone; the P3 is a great box.

* Added link previously omitted

 

Just for another option: I used this https://www.etrailer.com/multi-prod...oma&hhyear=2018&vehicleid=201860015&hunter=bc. For $60 it wires right in and works flawlessly. Saved my arse and brakes a lot on my 3000-mile road trip! I mounted mine under the dash far to the left. It was easy to reach to use manual input or turn off the unit when I didn't want the extra help. When I don't have a trailer on I simply unplug it and throw it in the console. The wires tuck nicely behind the kick panel in silent slumber crying for the day voltage will bless their strands again.

 

That’s what I’ve been running. I used the mounting plate from ESP to mount it in the cubby to the left of the steering wheel.

 

I went from this...


To this...


New trailer and new truck.

 

You want the

$25 3031-p Tekonsha Trailer Brake Controller Harness, Compatible with Select Toyota Tacoma, Tundra

3031-p adapter. The 3017 has an inadequate sized ground wire, which has caused at least one truck fire (when a controller shorted out, which is rare) we know about on TW. The newer adapter has a beefier separate ground wire.

Edit: here's one of the posts about it: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/who-has-the-tekonsha-p3-brake-control-installed.521035/

 

I’m a newbie, so please forgive me if this is general knowledge, but what is an SSPRO v-2? When I googled it, I found an Astro camera, surveillance software, etc, but nothing that fit the context of your comment. Sounds intriguing, so I’d like to know more. Thanks.

 

Part of the problem is that trailer. If you had a low profile open trailer, it would pull those toys easier.

 

This is a good spot for my first post. I just got a 2016 TRD OR DCLB and towed a Datsun 620 on a uhaul car dolly and it did great. You could tell the weight was back there when stopping and getting up to speed but still had plenty of power on the freeway. I’m loving this truck so far.

 

Search TW for Shift Sense Pro. I'm sure thats propably it.

 

The Tacoma handles the 6x10 dump trailer full of firewood with ease (only about 1/2 a cord of wood). Better than the Ranger I upgraded from
Now to find a way to engage lo range without 4x4 for backing up in tight spaces.... hard on clutch and wind-up on hard surfaces!

 

At least one member has tackled the 2lo mod, good info in here:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/lock-stock-and-2wheel-low-3rd-gen-diy-mod.536677

 

So first time towing anything. We have had the truck for a month and I picked up a freebie little riding lawn mower and the guy had some tires he was looking to get rid of so I took those of his hand as well.