My First long haul towing experience with my Tacoma - CA to KY

Just thought I'd share my recent experience with towing our 16' travel trailer from California to Kentucky across Highway 40 two weeks ago.

My truck is bone stock except for Bilstein 5100 shocks all around, OME 885 front coils, and Helwig "helper" rear springs. It's a 6 speed manual. We just bought our Coleman Rubicon 16', single axle travel trailer in April 2022. I also bought a weight distribution hitch with the trailer. Manufacturer lists the dry weight as 3880#'s. We probably had at most 200 #'s of pots, pand, clothes, etc. in the trailer, and maybe 300#'s of other items in the bed of my truck, that didn't fit in the U-Haul we rented for the cross country move.

Total distance traveled from our home near Placerville, CA to Laurel County, KY was right at 2500 miles. We took it easy, and kept to around 400 - 450 miles per day, we stayed at KOA campgrounds each night - Barstow, CA / Holbrook, AZ / Tucumcari, NM / Checotah, OK / Hurricane Mille, TN. Full facility camp sites, so fully drained all water tanks each morning before setting out, always used "city water" (never filled the internal fresh water tank).

If you have ever been on Highway 40, you know it has some serious grades, passing >7,000' in a few places (Flagstaff, AZ / Albuquerque, NM / maybe others), and a lot of hills in the 1,000 - 3,000' range across Arkansas and Tennessee. Texas and Oklahoma are the only relatively flat states on #40.

I didn't try to time anything to get extremely accurate statistics, but I would be confident in saying my time spent in gears 2 - 5 was the following:
2nd - 2%
3rd - 13%
4th - 55%
5th - 30%
I probably got into 6th gear for about the same total distance as 1st gear - essentially never.
The very top speed I was ever able to achieve in the entire trip was 65 MPH, and that was rare, only on flat or downhill portions. I would never have gone above that anyway, when towing something that weighs almost as much as the truck itself, for safety reasons. But I did try to see if I could get above 65, just to see if it was going to be possible on this trip.

I pretty much always kept the engine RPMs at 3,000 or higher, to minimize the torque stress on the drive line if I were to try to force any speed at say 2,000 - 2,500 RPM. When it was steep enough for long enough that I had to drop to 3rd, or once in a greta while 2nd gear, I kept the RPMs at 4,000 so I would not risk having to downshift any further.

My fuel economy really shocked me. I was expecting something close to 12 MPG. Prior to this move, my wife and I had only taken the trailer on one trip, about 200 miles round trip, for a weekend "try it out" camping trip. Truck got 12.5 MPG on that trip. I use the Fuelly app on my smartphone to track every mile and every gallon of fuel. From beginning to end of this 2,500 mile move, we got between 8.8 - 9.5 MPG. That's it. We were stopping every 150 miles to fill up. The second day, we filled up in Barstow, CA and when we were getting close to Kingman, AZ (~200 miles), the low fuel light came on, then the needle went to 'E', then the "I'M NOT KIDDING, FUEL UP NOW OR WALK!" warning came on before we got to the first fuel stop on the western end of Kingman. It took 19.4 gallons. That was a little scary, had never gotten that low before.

So, bottom line, the truck did it's job, we had no issues, but I was a little disappointed in the overall performance. Of course I don't expect to be taking the trailer on any other trips anywhere near this long ever again....... and now I do know that this trailer is the max my Tacoma can safely tow, so if we ever decided we'd like a larger trailer, it will also require a full sized truck.

 

Towing my XOC at 3500# with OME 2in Heavy Lift and 275/70/17 KO2s (stock gears stock tune) I get that sort of mileage through the Colorado mountains. If I hit 10 or 11 MPG towing I am happy. I have 5.29s and a tune in my future so hopefully the gears will give me enough mechanical advantage to cruise in 5th and 6th - if I can get to 14-15 MPG towing I'll be pleased.

 

Sounds about right. The Tacoma can tow safely at that weight rating but it has no extra power to spare and definitely doesn't have the gas tank size to get far.

 

Very clear degradation in fuel economy with weight. I tow 2300-2400lb camp trailer.
All over the west with my '16 TRDOR AT:
16-17mpg.
Prior towed same trailer with my '02 SR5 4cyl MT, Got about the same mileage. Just that the MT. even with the 4banger was more fun to operate.

 

Two thoughts:

a)Get off the interstate.

Plan your trip using as many back-roads as possible, state highways/biways, maybe even an occasional county road. Why? Because your ideal mileage when towing happens to be somewhere around 50 mph, and it starts to logarithmically decrease after about 60mph. I happily cruise at 60-65 and get pretty decent mileage for a trailer (16.5mpg at 60mph, about 14.5 at 65. The same trailer will get 11 at 70, and 9 at 75.) I am surprised to see you under 10mpg at the same speeds. I know 40 has some grades but they aren't that bad.
Anyways, when I'm towing long-haul I use the opportunity to discover some scenery that I otherwise wouldn't have. Driving there eats up a big chunk of your vacation, so you might as well treat it like a vacation. Leave the interstate to the truck drivers.
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b)Step up your camping game, get out of those KOA's and RV parks.

Kidding, but only kind of. You can find full amenities in most state parks, though the real fun happens when you take the plunge into the world of boondocking. The whole point of dragging your bed behind you is to unwind in a little quiet paradise at the end of the day. If you are going to listen to the interstate and suck diesel exhaust all night, save the mileage penalty and stay at a motel 6. Again, kidding, but only kind-of.


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I agree, the side roads often are far superior in many ways. This was a special case scenario, we were moving from CA to KY, and had a fixed amount of time to get from one place to the other, so we didn't have too much time to spend seeing the sights. Once we get into a new house and settle in for a bit, maybe next spring, we can take actual trips for fun, and see the little things.

 

interesting stuff

 

Specs on that trailer look to be 10.5 feet tall, that's shit ton of drag which is very large part of the equation. Not bagging on you, sounds like a nice setup for what it's probably intended,,, a few hundred miles or less and more leisurely travel.

 

@BarcelonaTom67 Dude, you're my newest paragon! You did it! You got OUT!!! I just bought a travel trailer to recreate for the next 2 years, albeit a bit bigger than your rig, then my wife should be done with the school system and we're headed the hell out of here. Tennessee is our target and I envision our trip will be a lot like what you just explained! Congratulations!!

 

That’s surprising, I towed a 4,800lb Travel trailer some 6,000+ miles earlier this year and averaged nearly 11mpg. Getting 200+ miles out of a tank was normal and easy, we planned our travel days around this number so only had to fill up once. Got 240 miles on one tank before.

We climbed some 57,000ft over that trip maxing out at 10,865ft so it certainly wasn’t flat land. Half of the trip was above 5,000ft elevation too.

I imagine you were likely around the same weight as mine (manufacturer listed weights are always under real life), how wide is your TT? Mine is 7.5ft.

Might be worth checking for binding brakes or a heavy right foot?

 

Thanks, it was a chore to get everything done to move out of the People's Paradise.

My in-laws moved first, they looked in TN, KY, NC, and then found their perfect place here in London, KY. My wife and I moved here in mid-August, and just got into contract to buy a place here in this area a couple days ago.

I have family that lived near Monterey (Prunedale) for about 30+ years, they moved inland to the Fresno area about 10 years ago to follow their daughter and her family.

 

I will have to measure the trailer to see how wide it is, but supposedly it is a little narrower than "normal". But as Chew said above, it is quite tall, and that undoubtedly had a significant, negative influence on the miles per gallon. And also, we were driving into a headwind for most of the 2000 miles heading east, although not a hard head wind.

 

Just down the road a piece, I'm in Garrard County. Welcome!

 

Much appreciated

 

Hey @BarcelonaTom67 congrats on the trailer and recent move. I was searching for info on the Helwig Helper springs and came across your post/thread. I def need to get those helper springs to help out about the one half to one inch sag I still have in the back of my truck even with the WDH. I can at least get the the front back to normal/level height with the WDH. I think Chew is prob right on the drag.
My new trailer is about 9'7" in height and about 8'5" wide. So it's tall and wide compared to the Taco. My trailer was also probably just under 4000lb loaded and b/c my water tanks were empty so it might have been under that. I got about 10.5 mpg when towing a mix of highway and back roads (like like @Rock Lobster said) ... I tried to keep it at 60-70mph on highways and got used to the engine revving high. I used ECT power on almost every drive. My first trip was from NJ to NH to ME and back.
Any suggestions on adding the Helwig Helper springs and SumoSprings? Are they both needed or just the springs good enough? I think I'd rather have the helper springs instead of air bags like a local truck mechanic suggested.

 

I don't think there's a wrong answer to leveling to be honest. Before changing to aftermarket shocks I used a roadmaster active suspension (helper). Currently I'm using a 3-leaf Add-a-leaf. Both are fantastic for towing. Sumo owners will chime in about how their purchase is the best thing since sliced bread. Airbag owners will claim the same.

I haven't used sumos or airbags, so I can't contrast and compare and give an unbiased review. I can say this: the roadmasters reinforced without lifting (much), eliminated axle wrap, but did slightly stiffen the unloaded rear. The add-a-leaf is more pliant when unloaded, doesn't sag as much loaded, but it lifts. You need to raise the front an inch or so to match.

Whatever you go with, you'll be happy.

 

Thanks @Rock Lobster ... Is this what I should be looking at then? https://activesuspension.com/products/toyota-tacoma-2005-2021?variant=39608364597456 and you use this along with the 3-leaf add-a-leaf? and so did you also add a lift in the front then? Sorry if you already have your truck mods listed somewhere, definitely just point me there. Thanks again!

 

That's what I used for years. I loved that set. They were adjustable but unlike airbags they didn't need adjusting every time you hitch or drop the trailer when on a road trip. Know what I mean, Vern?

I usually had them lightly assisting for my daily commutes and light weekend trips. And when I was prepping for my big week-long cross country road trip with a fully loaded trailer plus generator, kayak, cooler, and luggage in the bed I could crank up the springs to match.

I gave them up after lifting with my 6112/5160s. The 3-leaf AALs do .. ok. It's definitely nicer unloaded, it does great for weekend trips, but they slightly sag for my heavy cross country trips. As long as they don't hit the bump stops, it's still a win for me.

 

I have no experience with either the Sumosprings or air bags, but form the research I did before adding anything to my rear suspension, I believe the springs were the best choice for the issue of helping handle the trailer weight and working with the WDH to get the best weight distribution on my truck's axles. I didn't have the place or tools to install them myself, so I took them to a local mechanic. But from what I understand, they are much easier to install (or remove later if desired) than an add-a-leaf rear spring, as you don't have to take apart the U-bolt or spring pack to install/remove the helper springs. With the trailer on the hitch ball, and my camper shell filled with moving boxes, the rear end sat a couple, maybe 3-4" low, but still had plenty of travel left on the rear suspension. I am quite happy with the setup.

 

I have sumos with my 5,000lb trailer and I’m not convinced I need them. I bought them in preparation before I got the trailer.

I have about 1.75” space between the sumo and the frame when unloaded and barely touching when the TT is hitched.

In all honesty if the WDH is set up right you don’t need any spring helpers, they are only bandaids.