Firewood in a Tacoma

When I bought the gen 2 Tacoma last year I was hoping it would be adequate for hauling wood, partly due to being the 2.7L engine. I did 2 loads similar to the one below, and while it wasn't loaded to capacity it was unseasoned maple, so a decent amount of weight. I could hardly tell the difference, if at all with the engine. Of course it handled a bit differently, but surprised that it didn't even really appear to be carrying the weight. I also have an older full size truck, but wanted to see how the Tacoma would do. It definitely seemed to be up to the task.

I may consider one of those bed extenders. But, in consideration of not overloading. I've seen how they flip into the bed when not in use, but I like those that can also be completely removed with a couple pins.

 

The 1st thing I did after buying my Tacoma was add a flip out bed extender. It is used more to keep gear from sliding toward the front of the cab more than anything else. But will also help with larger loads. I have one in my F150 too.

I burn a lot of firewood and also have a utility trailer. I can carry more weight or volume in the trailer than I could put in the 8' bed of a 3/4 ton truck. And my Tacoma hauls it with ease. With the lower sides and a ramp it is a lot easier to load/unload and I don't beat up my truck. You're not going to put much in the bed of a Tacoma. Even the 6' beds aren't wide or deep enough to carry much and I've never found that 1 extra foot of bed was enough to help anything.

 

That's a good sized trailer! Is is 10'? Did you add wood on the sides? Absolutely a trailer is easier to load/unload I think my Tacoma's bed is about 33" or so high. I assume you have the V6. Yes, there certainly is less capacity in the Tacoma bed. My older Silverado is an 8' bed. I usually use that for firewood. The plan was so just have the Tacoma at some point, keeping the Chevy as a back up vehicle while I'm still working. But - given the cost of trucks and standard cabs with 8' beds being kind of hard to come by. I may keep it.

When driving the trailer loaded as shown, the wood stays in place ok? On a different note, I just bought a 16" battery operated chain saw. Did a pretty good job, but I'd always bring the gas saw along with it when cutting rounds like I had yesterday. The 16" wasn't quite big enough for the stump shown.

 

My 4 banger Taco w/ an automatic. The trailer is a 5x10 with 16" sides, so it's a half of cord stacked even to the tops of the sides. This truck did ok on level ground, as soon as there was a hill it was pretty pathetic. I would not do this again, I used the 3rd gen 4runner to do wood pulling duties.

 

1st and 2nd gear are pretty good (low) on the 5MT trucks with the 4.10 gears.
Until you get into 4th and 5th gears. That’s when you’ll notice the “weight”.

 

Mine is a 5MT, and yes 1st and 2nd are low - seems like kind of a long way from 2nd to 3rd. I assume my SR5 was 4.10 gears? Maybe that's why mine felt pretty good for a 4 cylinder. Now that you mention 4th and 5th up hills (and there were some) I kept it in 3rd. I like how it's geared kind of tall for a 4 cylinder 4WD truck, if the gear is too high I just downshift.

Another nice trailer - too bad the Tacoma had some trouble with it. I once had a 4x6 trailer I used with a Subaru Forester. I wasn't very good at backing that thing up. If empty, I'd sometimes say screw it. get out and lift it up to move it over. It was light enough to do that.
I've heard that longer trailers with a longer tongue are actually easier to back up than a shorter one.