Gen 3 Towing Thread

Thanks but I really shouldn’t, I can’t budget spending money on a tune right now. Have been on the road without an income for a year
Yes we’re at liberty lake, snagged a nice spot with a Smokey view…

 

Jeesh, another vagabond.
I’m so jealous, so don’t mind me. I’m slaved to 60hrs a week.

 

We didn’t get to do that, but I was part of a VIP tent that had great chow and accommodations.

 

finally got around to scales. My adjustments were perfect. You can’t make it better. Lesson learned, do it yourself and double check it. Front is back to exact weight as uncoupled. Everything is in line. It did tow much better and I found 60-65 is smoother for some reason or I got into a pass that was perfect. The pulling seems softer now. This is going through decent rolling hill country of Texas of 500 -/+ foot changes. Ride was much more enjoyable but not by much haha. I also had trans and differential fluids changed and alignment. Im thinking what I experience is the wind movement from the trailer passing into the truck. I have a scangauge 3 but havent installed. MPG was around 11.5 most of the way, got into quite a bit of traffic so that didnt help crawling speeds.


WDH bars engaged




WDH with bars removed



Curb weight, no trailer

 

That’s great!

How much gear do you have in your truck?
The last time I took mine across the scales with wife and an 80lb dog. I was 2980 front and 2160 rear, 5140 total. That’s with full tank of gas, roll up tonneau cover, bed mat and WDH.

I’m heading over the scales with the trailer on the next leg of our journey. The last 6,000 towing miles the wife had been in a separate car with the dog and some heavy stuff. So this will be the first time going over the scales fully loaded with the trailer.

Talking about this I need to sign up and get an account for the CAT scales.

 

There is a CAT scale in Post Falls about 4 miles from Liberty Lake.

 

I probably had 40 lbs in the bed with the cover, full tank of gas, myself, 45 lb dog, 110 lb dog and whatever was in truck. The axle rating was cutting close on trailer so I moved things in the truck bed since I had much more room to spare. Your wife drives a mini suv right? I’ve seen pics and I like your setup. A second car with these setups is a must.

the cat scale app works great. No messing with idiot attendants. I did two of mine through it but somehow the cell signal dropped so I had to hit the button. You can’t hear them and they can’t hear you. Took me longer to do a solo with attendant than the other two including unhitching lol

 

Thanks, but going to be heading west on I90. There’s a Loves 215 miles away in Boardman, OR on the way to Bend. It’s a good half way point to gas up and let the dog pee.

 

I’ve dropped about 130lb of weight from the truck (back seats, bed mat and some tools) so I’m hoping my truck will be right around 5,600 with the tongue weight added. Time will tell…

The app sounds easy, it’s always a bad intercom, then having to go in and pay is a pia.

 

Yeah that’s in storage now and it’s the 3 of us in the truck.

I went back to the UK this summer and the “mini suv” (rav 4) is considered a pretty big suv and looked it compared to all the other small cars. No 4 runners or tundras!!

 

Removing seats is so easy on weight. Easy nearly 100 lbs from what I’ve heard. Some remove spare and run ‘fix a flat’ to save spare weight. Some trim levels are easier than others

 

Their biggest truck is a ford ranger raptor lol

 

I did see a couple of full size Nissans.

I moved away in 2010 and I was surprised on my return this time how big a thing trucks are now. Trucks don’t compare to how popular VW California vans are though.

This was my seat delete with ramp for the grumpy old man…

 

Wow that’s awesome! What is it the material/build? I removed mine and put a piece of plywood with a anti fatigue mat for my bigger dogs. Works great and they have tons of room.

 

1/2” ply with 2” memory foam and cheap carpet on top. Rubber flooring underlay on the bottom.
I originally built it 60/40 to sit on top of the folded seats. Worked great for our dog and still had functionality with the seats. For this big journey I decided to remove the seats, the boards just sit on top of the cubbies and I have supports under and closest to the front seats.
We lost our lab in 2020 and the same week my father in law passed and we inherited his lab. These 2 dogs are so different but ding dong Dusty had big shoes to fill.
This dog has never had it so good, he even has a super plush bed for the journeys…

 

sorry to hear of the losses and unfortunate circumstances. Cute dog for sure. I did similar and I’ll grab a pic for those though there are many about removing backseats to put a platform. I chose anti fatigue because it was cheap and nearly plug n play on top of 1/2” plywood.

 

I haven’t towed much but seeing these pics let me know I can do something if needed

 

Ever measure your tongue weight? I hear the tongue max supported by hitch is around 640. Curious if people measure theirs on the heavier loads.

 

Yes, I have used a hitch scale in the past and I have things dialled in around 13% 615lb+\-
I’m probably a bit lighter in general now as I’ve reduced the amount of crap we’re carrying.

When I was back in the UK this summer I was talking to my dad about everything towing and we talked about tongue weight, in the uk the standard recommended tongue weight is 5-7%. On top of that the the trailer is not allowed to be heavier than 75% of the tow vehicle weight.
Interestingly they don’t use wdh’s, they do have parking brakes by the hitch and the majority of “caravans” have the compression collar braking system and don’t use brake controllers with electric drums.
Also the trailer sits much lower to the ground than the majority of US tt’s.

 

The Tacomas are definitely capable at towing. Just need to keep within limits and have appropriate gear such as brake controller and a good WDH.