Towing with Tacoma

My housemate's setup. 2020 TRD Pro. No snorkel. No brake controller.

 

How much does your camper weigh?

 

I'm renting a similar size trailer for a trip this summer and pulling it with my '17 Sport. Question: did you upgrade your trans cooler or are you running the stock cooler? Thanks in advance.

 

I haven't updated the transmission cooler. Do you think it'll be necessary?

 

Not sure. That's why I'm curious to hear whether @vicali did.

 

I haven't upgraded the cooler... yet.
I found watching the scanguage up and over a 1000m climb the temps went up to 110C (230F) and then stayed steady. This was in 2nd and ~60kmph climbing for a steady 25 minutes.. Overall it runs much cooler than our 2nd Gen did, I was up to 117C (242F) in that previously.



I'm of the mind that better cooling is always good though and from the other posts I've seen there is a huge advantage in adding another extra cooler.
It's in the plans.

 

Great info - thanks so much!

 

I've got a NoBo 16.5 that is 2900lbs empty and probably closer to 3500lbs full and although I haven't done any mountain passes with the Tacoma yet, it pulls it just fine in S4. I can pretty easily pass slower cars on the freeway at 75 mph without much fuss.

I towed this same trailer with my 2019 4Runner and did a few hilly areas around Washington State and I can definitely tell having the advantage of the longer wheelbase on the Tacoma (2020 DCSB TRDOR). It's much more stable and doesn't feel like the trailer is trying to push the vehicle around like it was in the 4Runner.

I've got 17" 4Runner TRDOR wheels with 265/70/17 Falken Wildpeaks p-rated (or whatever their passenger non-E/non-C rated tire is called) and although I get atrocious gas mileage, it moves out just fine.

I've also got a Fastway E2 weight distribution hitch which helps significantly and of course a trailer brake controller. Other than that, pretty smooth sailing. I'm not too worried about an eventual mountain pass.

I'm putting a lot of faith in assuming Toyota did their engineering properly in regards to transmission cooler, etc so I'm not going to worry about upgrading it or anything with the tow capacity of the truck from the factory.

(thought I had a picture of the setup on my phone but apparently not)

 

brtnstrns.

I would interested in seeing your taco paired up. I have '74 15 ft Minnie Winnie I'm restoring and hope to head on maiden voyage come late spring. I am estimating 3000lbs loaded up...

 

Stay in S4. You will reduce the opportunities of torque converter unlocking. You’re engine is making more power, cooling more efficiently, trans will not not need to unlock as much thus better cooling.

 

I towed this from WA to NY.
Total weight for truck and trailer was 11500. I have 285’s and with the brake controller and weight distribution hitch I had no issues. My gas mileage was about 10mpg though.

 

I'm getting the leveling kit, airbags and brake controller installed on Monday. I'll take a picture after that and post it here.

 

So this might be a dumb question, but I've seen S4 mentioned a lot in this thread...does that mean manually shift to 4th gear?

 

When you see s4 it means when you put it in drive move the shifter over into s mode and then to gear 4. What that does is lock out the over drive gears of 5th and 6th. But it will shift 1-4 like normal.

 

Yes. Put the trans in S4. You will be in S4 by default when you move the auto trans shifter to the manual spot.

 

Were those tires LT (C rated)?

 

Yep. Move the shifter to the left and select 4th gear, as outlined in the manual under "Towing."

 

OP, here’s your exact truck towing 5000 lbs in the Adirondack mountains. You’ll be fine with 2700 lbs and will probably forget the trailer is back there after a couple of miles.

https://youtu.be/OgE90X9SnMk

 

E Rated

 

Sorry, but you will NOT forget that the trailer is back there.