Absolute Towing Noob

Hi!

Long time admirer and finally joined TacoNation with 2020 Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro. Then this month I received orders (military) to move from Virginia out to California. I figured, I don't have much and can just tow my way out there in July. Unfortunately, I have never towed anything in my life and have absolutely no experience. I was looking through the Tacoma Towing Bible, and it seems to be geared toward 1st and 2nd Gens.

I was looking at getting a 6 ft x 12 ft closed UHaul. And I am not trying to make the trip in big push, I will be going slow, taking my time and stopping in TN, TX, and AZ along the way.

Do I need any sort of sway control or stabilization? Should I be in S4 with ECT on the entire time? How do I set up the Tacoma with the trailer brakes?

Any advice would be greatly appreciate!

 

Thanks for your service. No brake setup necessary - Uhaul's have surge brakes. No sway control needed. My experience is with 2nd gens and a 3,500#camper so will defer to 3rd gen owners for transmission advice. These things are reasonably inexpensive to rent - get one for a day ASAP and drive around locally with it empty to get a feel for the handling and to determine if you're comfortable with towing. If you've never towed, backing will likely be your most serious problem. Not hard - just different. try not to get into situations that might require this.

 

It’s all about weight. You need to determine the weight of the trailer and estimate the weight of what you are hauling. Also need to know if you have a tow package. Also before we get into the whole towing thing have you looked into using moving pods to move your stuff out here? You get the size pod you need, load it up, they will store it for you and then when ready tell them where you want it delivered and they truck it out to you. So much easier than getting a trailer and towing it out here. Keep in mind that when towing a trailer cross country there’s always the chance of being ripped off while you sleep at night. Towing it is a real hassle that distance and your gas mileage will be shit, maybe 10 mpg or less. Won’t be fun hauling that over the Rockys or Sierras or hauling it through the desert in July in 120 degree heat. Anyway look into moving pods and if not for you let us know.

 

As other commenter said, surge brakes on u-haul trailers so no worries there. Your Tacoma should have some amount of built in sway control.

Keep it in S4 for the trip and if the transmission is struggling to decide what gear to be in, I typically manually shift it down to S3 for the climbs that confuse the transmission.

Load the heaviest items over the axle of the trailer and try to balance what you can on either side of that. Don't overload the trailer behind the axle, then you'll get some sketchy dynamics going on with sway, etc.

Hardest part of towing is backing up. Put your hand at the bottom of the steering wheel when you're reversing. If you turn the wheel and your hand goes left, the trailer goes left. If your hand goes right, the trailer goes right. Felt like that was the easiest way for my brain to learn how to deal with backing up.

EDIT: also yeah, PODS is great if you can get reimbursed for the expense. Only issue I had is I moved into a house on a steep hill so they had to drop it off at the bottom of the hill since they can't lay them down on un-level streets and I had to run everything up the hill lol

 

Sage advice!

 

That is a great idea!! I didn't even consider that. Thanks so much!