3,500 vs 3,800

2011 v6 Off Road

I don't tow very often. In fact I have only towed once in the 11 years I have owned my Truck. I am looking to rent a small backhoe from Home Depot. They list the weight including trailer at 3,800 pounds. The truck is listed for 3,500 max towing. The tow will only be about 10 miles each way. I can take a hi way, or smaller roads, whichever is better

Any issue with the over weight tow?

 

I believe anything over 3500lbs should come with trailer brakes, and you'll need a brake controller to operate the brakes (and be legal?) No idea what your regulations are there. If you don't have hills to travel, you should be okay, assuming the hitch size and rating are correct. Truck will be fine, as DCLB Sport is rated to 6000lbs with tow package

 

Are you sure your truck doesn’t have the tow package?
95% of all the TRD optioned trucks I’ve seen had the tow package.

See here for where to look
You will NOT have trans cooler if truck is a Manual.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/passenger-side-blinker-problems.735173/#post-26176678

 

Ummmm…. it's over the weight limit for your truck, and you know that, so if there is an accident, it could get real expensive real quick.

Do you have a trailer brake controller on the truck?

I would never condone doing this, but if you can travel on 'B' roads all the way, and it's perfectly flat, it probably won't be too hard on the truck, but I would just pay up for delivery, or see if you can't borrow a buddy's truck to help out.

 

Send it

 

If his HomeDepot is anything like mine. They won’t ask about trailer brakes.
They didn’t even check the trailer lights when I rented their ditchwitch.
The only question they asked it what size ball I had.

BTW, it’s 100% worth buying the insurance. Nothing is cheap to repair on that type of equipment.

 

You have a class 2 or 3 hitch or aftermarket set up or bumper ball?

3500 is not the set weight to require trailer brakes but they can't hurt. I think the only issue will be properly distributing weight with the backhoe, 3500 pound backhoe that is weighing down the tongue of your trailer will be a serious problem on a single axle.

Easiest and safest would be to rent the backhoe and their F150 and tow it home, drop truck off and then rent it again to return. its modern, tows more much easier and you don't need to worry about mechanicals or suspension being damaged.

 

According to the owners manual. 3,500 is the max weight for the Tacoma. After that you need trailer brakes. The reason is, the Tacoma is too light to stop the trailer in some instances. Of you’ve ever had a trailer push you through a stop, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

What I won’t say is, how much you “could” tow without brakes. Because, I’d rather just keep my mouth closed there. But if I were to “guess”, I’d say there had been at least one guy that’s towed 4k lbs or so with no brakes.

 

I have towed 6k around town no problem quite a bit. Use your own discretion on how fast to go and how much room to give yourself for braking.
Just send it, you’ll be fine

 

Spend the extra twenty.

 

The truck can pull it, its stopping that gets sketchy.

Go slow, the weight issue has more to do with the payload being able steer the vehicle vs what the engine and frame can handle.

 

Those HD trailers have surge brakes. So you’re good.
Like others have said I think your tow rating is more like 6,000lbs or whatever. The 2.7l had the 3,500 towing capacity

 

Pretty sure you're rated for 5000 minimum and probably 6500 lbs. At any rate the true limiting factor is your payload rating. It is printed on a sticker on the driver's door jamb. Depending on the individual truck it will vary between 1000-1300 lbs. As long as the trailer is loaded properly that will put 500-600 lbs on your trucks hitch. Leaving you 500-700 lbs usable payload. Accounting for your weight, and the weight of any passengers that doesn't leave much for other cargo in the trucks bed.

In other words, you can pull the trailer. Even if you have a 5000 or 3500 lb tow rating you'll be fine as long as you don't exceed the payload rating. Exceeding payload is where it gets dangerous. Just don't try to pull the trailer with 1000 lbs of tools or other gear in the truck. If you're a big boy don't even take a passenger along with you.

 

It’s all about you. Would you want to take that chance?

I’ll say I’ve done way more. Had a tandem axle dump trailer with 7tons of rock(loaded as far back as possible) and drove ~4miles. Drove extremely slow and kept lots of room to brake.

Also drove 30mins each way with the same trailer loaded with a small skid steer(~6000lbs)

For reference:
06 v6 DCLB with sumo spring and allpro expedition leaf pack. No brake controller.

 

actually it says you need trailer brakes when pulling over 1000 lbs.

 

Trailer nazi's will tell you NO not safe! I've towed 9,000lbs across town in mine.. You could tow 6,000lbs forever and be totally fine. Send it!

 

I just looked, and you are correct.
Yet I can load 1,205 lbs inside the truck and that’s ok?

I wouldn’t try to stop a 6,000 lbs trailer with no brakes down a wet grassy hill.
Actually I wouldn’t want to do that with a 4,000 lbs trailer.

The thing here is, the limitations vary greatly depending on driving conditions.
You might not even get a 6,000 lbs trailer moving in a 2WD truck depending on the terrain.

 

Thanks for all the info. I have to admit that I simply forgot that my truck came with factory tow package as I have only towed once about 5 years ago. In addition, I believed what I saw on the internet regarding tow weight limits. I should have checked sticker on truck, or in owners manual, but just got lazy.

In any event, I am going to use the truck to pull the back hoe as it is only a few miles on easy roads and without any major hills. I plan on taking a few pics when I do the rental

 

God damn dude. That’s around 16,000-17,000lbs with the trailer. I can’t believe you didn’t break the rear axle.

I thought I won the irresponsible award with about 7,000lbs brick plus ~3,000lbs trailer. Went about 10miles with that. And that was with a brake controller.

 

It was defiantly heavy, but only ~2k on the tong it was a slow long ride for the 3 of us in the truck.