Towing 6000 pounds...It may be rated for it but jeez

highest powered 4 cylinder N/A..... my buddy has one..... actually here is a pic....



Not a fan of them.... they are nice and all but i'm a truck kind of guy... plus an xrunner and s2000 stock for stock are just about as fast and I actually out handled a stock one when I was stock...

 

I pull 5500lbs pretty often. You have to have a trailer brakes and a brake controller. I use my sway contol, but I don't use my weight distribution hitch. Sure a full size would pull it better, but I love my Taco!! Got 10mpg on a 2 hour trip to Lake Gaston North Carolina.

 

I pulled my Caravelle 232 intercepter about 3700lb loaded, from Cincinnati to Lake Cumberland (Grider Hill Marina) about 235 miles. Tounge weight just at 390 lbs. Truck did great not really much sag in the rear, got 14 mpg on the trip down and 22.5 on the trip back without boat. I'd have to say i'm very happy with the way the Tacoma tows(within it's limits) Sure beats the Dodge gassers i've had to do this job with! <9mpg tow/15mpg empty

 

Strong engine?..it's ok...but I wouldn't call it strong.
Strong frame? Seriously? This frame is a fail and just because they don't break doesn't mean they're not whippy.
Pickup bed?...by that rationale an el camino or Ridgeline is a truck?...yer killin me.
Let's not forget those leaf springs that are really the underpinnings of a truck...hmmm, that's right, I ride on the bumpstops.
The brakes on these Taco's are marginal at best.
Try backing your 6k lb boat and trailer with surge brakes down a launch ramp like we have on Puget Sound, where there are 10' tides some days....hint, wear a life jacket.
These are barely trucks.

 

How about those crosswinds in kansas? We were only getting 12 mpg in the xterra fully loaded (no trailer) going through kansas.

 

You got that right Brad, i got 135 miles on one tank. winds + blizzard + trailer + truck + rolling hills and no cruise control = never moving myself agian.

 

Upgrade the brakes and you will see a massive difference.

You are trying to compare apples to oranges..... Tacoma by all means is a truck.... You are trying to compare it to vehicles that are made for towing... even then it still wouldn't do much better unless you get into the diesel category...... good lucking rock crawling with those things too (scary)..... Tacoma is a lot more versatile than a standard full size pick up.... Just because it can't tow 10k doesn't mean it's not a truck... I hate people that complain about this trucks towing capacity..... If you max out a trucks towing capacity you are going to get shitty gas mileage. End of story. I think they do really well for what they have.

 

To the OP...next time consider getting a lighter trailer.

My buddy has one of these


I have towed vehicles with it on many occasions and it does great. It only weighs about 1,200 lbs by itself so its pretty light for a 17'6" trailer.

Next time make sure you get the tongue weight right on the trailer. You will need to move the car to distribute most of the weight over the axles and get enough weight on the tongue so you don't get sway.

 

Strong engine?? Are you serious..... You should probably read up on it.... they handle more than twice there stock power..... Xrunners run close to 500 hp stock motor daily driver.....

 

We actually almost ran out of gas. I filled up in Salina and the fuel light came on about 26 miles outside of Hays. Hays was the closest gas station. Only got 190 Miles on that tank.

 

yeah man, you got to be carefull out in the middle of no where. I filled up a few times at half tank just to be sure i could get to the next fill up

 

Here's one with the car hauler empty.

 

x2 my truck just flat out sucks when i tow! b4 the aal i was riding the bump stops! thats just with one quad in the bed!..but now i tow a trailer with the new aal and havnt rode onn the bump stops since the aal

 

My wife drives a lowly 4 banger and tows a 1800-2000lb pop camper, the truck does well at 18-20mpg driving 65mph. Granted it's not anywhere near the limits you'all are towing, but there are no boats in our immediate future.

As far as the stock rear springs, they were weak to begin with, see the TSB. I just had the dealer put the "stock" Canadian springs (4 leaf vs 3 leaf) on the wife's base 2wd 4 banger.

However, these are pickup trucks and not some lame crossover unit body, the problem is Toyota is building these trucks for the average consumer, sure they'll theortically tow 6000lb, marginally. The folks on this forum for the most part represent the 2% of consumers who actually use their equipment and we as a whole expect more.

 

heres mine, towing approx 3600lbs with the TSB leafs, got about 12mpg...which im sure was 80% wind resistance, damn toaster shaped trailer

 

For a MID-SIZED TRUCK, these Tacoma's do their job very well. What are you comparing this against, you seemed to have avoided that question. What's your definition of a 'truck'. Maybe you should have bought one of those instead since you obviously deem the Tacoma incompetent...

Try loading your Tacoma correctly and within it's load limits and you won't ride on the bump stops if you've had the TSB completed. If you do, your springs are shot man.

Your example of backing a 6,000 lb boat with surge brakes down a boat ramp is just idiotic, it's a prime example of not being properly equipped for the job. You need a trailer with brakes for a stunt like that it you'd be fine.

 

LOW end Torque and HP, these mini trucks are OK for hauling some light firewood, or a washer and dryer, not much more than that, my Dodge that had the Cummins in it, that truck was a stump puller, my 29 ft 10K RV barely felt it was behind the truck. $0.02

 

I dont know how much this weighs, but it makes me appreciate my dakar leafs!

 

Why did u get rid of your dodge? It sounds like a great truck?

 

just as everyone has been saying here already, you are comparing apples to oranges when you try to compare our tacos to a cummins diesel...

saying that these trucks suck at towing because it cant do the same that a cummins can is just plain stupid

or lets do this, hey, the dodge cummins sucks because it cant tow the same a big rig can with 16 gears...